The Beginning

We first found BrewDog by way of it’s TV show on the Esquire network in the fall of 2013 (they have since started a TV network, Drink TV, and are making new shows). We fell in love with James Watt and Martin Dickie, the hosts and owners of BrewDog. These guys love beer the way we do. They don’t take themselves seriously and have fun in everything they do. They brewed beer underwater, on a dogsled, on a parade float…. Almost everything was a go, it was about creativity and wackiness. In each episode, they would travel to a different city, visit and tour local breweries, talk with the brewers and other local business people, then craft a beer that in some way represented the city they were in, and share it with local beer enthusiasts.

The Hotel

Before even trying the beer, I backed the DogHouse hotel in Canal Winchester, Ohio, on Indigogo. The hotel opened in August of 2017 and is a magical place. Growler tapper, curated (very well curated) guest beer fridge and a shower beer fridge full of BrewDog beers in every room. Amazing breakfasts, comfy beds, cool rooms and it is inside a brewery! If you love beer, this needs to be a destination for you. If you know someone that loves beer, get them a night there as a gift.

Becoming an Equity Punk

One of the unique things James and Martin have done with BrewDog is creating the Equity Punk. They sell equity shares in the company from time to time. This lets you own an actual piece of BrewDog. I currently own a tiny amount of shares and never expect to make any money on them, but that is not why I bought them. Buying different numbers of equity shares brings different perks, from discounts at every BrewDog location to a chance to brew a small batch specialty beer at the BrewDog brewery. The perks cover all price entry points. There are over 100,000 Equity Punks worldwide at this point. Think of it as a global mug club, but instead of a mug, you get discounts and a tiny bit of ownership. I bought 4 shares in the first US round, before even trying any of their beer, and more in the second after having a change to actually taste it. The sense of ownership among equity punks increases commitment to the brand, creating a loyal and invested (literally) fan base. I often talk about BrewDog being a cult. I am good with that.

The Beer

In July of 2017 I finally made to it Canal Winchester to try the beer at the DogTap, the bar at the brewery. I was nervous because I had already invested in the hotel and owned four shares in BrewDog. I was so very happy that every beer I tried that first day was above average. To date I have tried over 70 different BrewDog beers, by far the most from any brewery I like. Most are above average, some are spectacular, a few are so so. These guys do amazing things with hops!

The People

That first time I visited BrewDog in Ohio, I took a tour. Kayla, our tour guide was great – fun, friendly and full of facts. After the tour, we chatted for a while about BrewDog and beer. She has since moved onto a different position at BrewDog and is Cicerone trained, like most of the BrewDog staff. After the tour, some of the staff invited me to hang out in the outdoor beer garden area. I learned that James and Martin are good people, and that the company does good things. Like 20% of the profits go to charity. And they pay their serving staff a living wage. Since then, we have met and chatted with James and Martin on several occasions, I can’t think of another company the size of BrewDog where the owners are so involved in what the customers have to say and so approachable and personable. This goes for all of the staff we have met. Involved, committed, and friendly.

The Community

The biggest part of BrewDog (other than the beer) is the community of Equity Punks from around the world. We have met some of the most amazing people every time we go to a BrewDog bar. We have made life long friends because we share a love of beer. There is a definite family feel to being an Equity Punk. We have now visited 14 different locations and have been joined at each by other Punks, many of which we did not know until we got there, but can now count them as friends. We just let people know on the forum or Facebook page that we were going to be in the area, and they came to meet us. We had my partner’s birthday party at BrewDog Tower Hill in London, joined by fifteen Punks from around the United Kingdom that went out of their way to join us there to celebrate. The staff pulled out all of the stops, providing free apps for the table and a full cake!!! They also supplied the birthday girl with some very special beers that weren’t available to the public.

Conclusion

• Get thee to a BrewDog!!!
• Is it a cult? Most likely.
• Is it a MLM scheme? Not really.
• Is it a company that pays a living wage, donates a huge amount to charity? Yes
• Do they make fantastic beers? Absolutely
• Want to buy shares the next time they go on sale in the US? Use my referral code: A116938
• They have Pawternity leave for a week if you get a pet.
• James Watt and Martin Dickie have amazing Scottish accents.
• No really, it is my favorite brewery, hotel and group of people.

P.S.

And, yes, BrewDog has made some pretty good size mistakes, mostly with regard to advertising and marketing. They are not perfect. They are growing and moving so fast they sometimes lose site of how much impact these mistakes can have. Pink IPA? Scofflaw? BeerPorn? While I can see what they were aiming at with these, they clearly missed the mark. But they learn lessons, regroup, and move on from there.

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The beer

The have an impressive selection of house made beers. Lots of styles and flavors. Most of which were to be found on a self serve beer wall. This lets you pick what you want and how much. It also lets you go back for your favorites again and again.

While every beer I had was above average in my book, there are a few of the stand outs.

Larkness Monster – Dark and silky, packed with rich complexity. – Stout

Paper Stacks – Hoppy and drinkable. Great juiciness. – NEIPA

Oatis Redding – Super hop & malt balance. – Red Ale

The Food

I had a bowl of the house made portabella mushroom soup. It was so good I almost ordered a second bowl. I followed this up with deep fried German meatloaf chunks covered in a brown mushroom gravy. I wish I were hungrier when I was there.

Etc….

I spent some time talking to the bartender and the brewmaster. Both friendly and knowledgeable. Sean makes great beer because he loves beer. this is a place I will pin on my map as a must stop when in the area.

You can find Lark Brewing on Facebook.

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Located in a remodeled funeral home, it has been turned into a welcoming and wonderful place to eat and drink. Long communal benches, seats at the bar and an outdoor area make this a great space for everyone.

Food

They have a food menu that is Belgian/French in style. I had frites (of course) and escargot. They offer roasted bone marrow, cheese plates and duck confit nachos. I would go back here again just for the food. But that is not what I want to talk about here, or why I have been telling everyone to go to Brewery Vivant.

Beer (Bier)

They have a tap list that also includes many barrel-aged beers. Stouts, sours, farmhouse and IPAs. They also have a chalk board with some additional beers.

I had 2 different flights (don’t worry, I took Uber) and every one was above average.

Farm Hand – Saison / Farmhouse Ale

A 5.5% ABV Saison that has very nice light flavors and might be a little too easy to drink.

House Sour – Foeder-Aged Sour Ale

This 4.5% ABV sour would be a great starter sour for those who have not spent the time to develop the taste for or don’t have the desire for the more aggressive sours out there.

Love Shadow – Port Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout

This one they aged in different barrels, the one I had was port barrel-aged, the current one is bourbon barrel-aged. Good stout with a strong coffee finish. Oh, and a 11.7% ABV.

Escoffier – Mixed Culture Farmhouse Ale (American Wild Ale)

This is a collaboration with New Belgium brewing. This is a mild sour with great funk. 10% ABV.

Port Love – Stout

This strong 9.5% ABV port barrel-aged stout has a nice complex flavor profile.

Tree Bucket – Double IPA

This was the only IPA I had here. A strong one at 9% ABV. This a a great hoppy and fruity beer.

Zaison – Imperial Saison / Farmhouse Ale

This was the most dangerous beer I had. A light and tasty beer at 9.3% ABV. This one will sneak up on you.

Angelina – Barrel-Aged Sour (2017)

This was my favorite beer of the night.  An oak barrel-aged sour coming in at around 10% ABV. Packed full of flavor and pucker.

If you ever find yourself near Grand Rapids, this is a must stop for anyone who loves beer in the Belgian style.

Oh, the staff. The ones I spoke to knew about beer in general and the house brews, and were friendly and chock full of knowledge.

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I was recently in Tulsa, OK and was alerted that Burn Co. Barbecue was the best in the state.  I think that is setting the mark a little low.

I’ll start with the beer I drank to accompany the meat.

The Beer

The F5 IPA. A high test IPA at 7.1% ABV and 85 IBU. I would have preferred a Rauchbier to complement the smokiness of the barbecued meat. But I had the IPA to help cool the heat of the rub.  Very easy to drink and not as bitter as you would think. Great aroma.

The Amarillo Pale Ale. This is a just a good all purpose IPA. Low 4% ABV and could easily be a session beer.

The Meat

You order your food at the counter near the back. The carry all of the standard meat choices. I went with Brisket and ribs. I was disappointed that the brisket was chopped and not sliced. The flavor was great but it seems like cheating. But the ribs, the ribs were fantastic! Meaty, moist, loaded with flavor. The smoke on them was just right, the rub was spectacular. Good heat to it with a great sweet note at the end. I bought four bottles of the rub to bring home. 

After I finished the ribs and brisket, I went back and got 4 more ribs. Yes, I had ribs for dessert. 

When I was done eating, I did not wash my hands. I usually do to clean off the BBQ sauce. I could not bear to part with the heavenly aroma on my hands. When I went to sleep many hours later, I could still smell heaven on my hands.

I talked with one of the chefs for a bit and he told me a little about what and how they cook. I told him I would only use the knowledge for good, so I am keeping my mouth shut.

Can’t wait to try the rub at home.

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Now they have a huge and expanding brewery in Scotland. They just opened a brewery, tap room and restaurant in Columbus, OH and are going to build another in Australia.

The Columbus location will also have a beer themed hotel.  On my recent visit I was impressed by everything. The staff is very friendly and really knows the beers they brew.
I started off with a flight of beers.

I had this four beer flight and two more after.

The Beers

The Punk IPA is their flagship beer and I understand why. It has a 45 IBU, 5.6% ABV and a wonderful funky flavor and great hops.

The Jet Black Heart is a lush milk stout that is crying out to be made into a float or baked into brownies. 4.7% ABV and 30 IBU

The Cocoa Psycho is a heavy weight at 10% ABV and 85 IBU. With the added coffee beans, vanilla pods cacao nibs and malts, this is a must if you like dark things. Like the Jet Black, I will make this into an ice cream float at some point or maybe just make into ice cream…. (and I don’t like coffee beers)

The Dead Pony Club is a mild APA with a sneaky and yummy hop hit at the end for only 25 IBU. At 3.8% ABV, this is a great session beer.

The Elvis Juice has a completely unexpected flavor, not that I know what to expect from Brew Dog. The malt and grapefruit in flavor are exciting. Much fruitier than I am used to in an IPA. High 6.5% ABV and 40 IBU.

The Hop Fiction Pale Ale is a brew tasty enough to be a session ale but at 5.2% ABV, I advise against it.  Smells like a slice of hop heaven with a 40 IBU and goes down easy. Too easy.

Creative flavors abound and they are just starting to tap the beers they have brewed in the US instead of those shipped over from the HQ in Scotland.

The Brewery, Bar and everything else

This is a large place with ample seating and an inviting bar. Who ever did the decorating had fun. There are great murals and art all over the place.

I had the Meat and Cheese Stack for dinner and it went well with my flight. They have a full kitchen on site and everyone I asked was happy with their food. It all smelled great.

After the flight and dinner I went on the tour. Our guide was the awesome Kayla. I have been on A LOT of brewery tours all over the US. This is an impressive place. There have cut no corners in order to make stellar beers in huge quantities. They have some equipment I had not seen before, like the “hopinators”. The brewery is also built for expansion. They can double their output without adding on to the building.

The staff made me feel like I was visiting a friend’s house. I was invited to hang out with some of them after the tour and learned some great things about James and Martin. Like the fact they pay a living wage to the employees and are actually as nice as they seem. A company with happy employees speaks volumes.

This is a destination for any beer lover. Great beer made my people that not only love making tasty beer, but sharing it.

In full disclosure, I am an Equity Punk.  This means I own “shares” in Brew Dog ( I own 4) I also helped them on the IndieGoGo campaign for the craft brewing hotel. But I get nothing for writing this post other than sharing the love of good beer.

“WE HAVE SWORN OUR ALLEGIANCE. THERE IS NO TURNING BACK. WE ARE THE CHANGE. AND SO ARE YOU. WE ARE BREWDOG AND THIS IS THE CRAFT BEER REVOLUTION. SO HELP ME DOG.”

For the record, I use ride sharing all of the time if I am going to be drinking. Life is too good and too short to take the risk.

Be good to yourself and drink good beer.

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Located near the heart of downtown Decatur, GA, in an area full of bars and restaurants, about 20 minutes from Atlanta. I was surprised to have not heard of this gem since it opened June 27 1997. It was started by three friends who love beer, and it shows in the carefully selected beer cellar they have on site. This cellar contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 beers. The “oldest” beer I have had there was a 2007  Samichlaus Hell from Schloss Eggenberg. The Samichlaus Classic is my #1 beer (but that’s another post).

When Georgia changed their beer laws allowing up to 14% ABV beers to be served, they opened an upstairs Belgian Beer bar (“upstairs to the left”) with 8 beers on draft and over 120 bottled Belgian beers.  In the main bar, they always have a great list of beers on tap. Another really cool thing is the “cellar flight,” where they pick four beers from the massive selection they have on hand and present them as a flight. This feature alone makes it worth a visit. You will get some very rare and unique beers.

To complement the beer, they also serve well-crafted food.

These guys do such a good job with Belgian beers, they have been knighted!!!

Check out their website here. You can also find them on various social media platforms.

Go there and drink more beer.

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Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100…

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7..

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do..

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20″. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, ”but he got $10!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!”

“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

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