Beer Wankers 2021

Yes.

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Thought this might be his response - double down on the “we don’t play by the rules” rhetoric and the entrepreneurial/disruptor mindset where the ends justify the means.

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I mean, this was pretty much word for word the language used when concerns were raised about the huge and sudden turnover of staff that started back in about 2015/16 and has continued to the present day. We were effectively told that if you were one of the quitters then you clearly just didn’t have what it takes to work at Brewdog. So that statement is 100% what I’d expected from him.

That huge turnover coincided with the bringing in an entire new senior management team from the G1 Group, who worked on James’ orders but brought in their own absolutely fucking horrible house style of “people management”, fwiw. The company is rotten at the top level: JW is the root cause, but he’s put in place an entire level of people willing to fully buy into his absolute worst tendencies who are as big an issue.

The whole lot need to go for Brewdog to change and improve, and that absolutely won’t happen.

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In a weird way I almost find Watt’s twatish response admirable. It’s no nakedly “I came here to make money not friends, fuck you”, it’s almost better than couching it in bullshit corpo speak about listening and learning.

Not to make this all about CW again, but I see PJ is giving it more chat on Twitter this morning about how BD can change. Neatly overshadows the fuss yesterday over the fact that the Tesco “exclusive” CW beers are being sold in BD bars at ridiculous mark ups.

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That kind of chat is just so unexpected to me in an industry like brewing. Have heard it countless times from mates in the City, or in law, but they suck it up because they’re getting paid 6 figures and know they can bin it off in a few years before they have a nervous breakdown.

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The other kind of place where you hear that attitude is the creative industries - TV, fashion, etc. I think “craft” brewing, despite the fact it is at its base an industrial production process, has built that kind of self-image, so people are willing to earn shit and be treated like shit for the cachet of being around the creative excitement.

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That is very, very true. Hadn’t really thought about it like that, despite having worked in some of those places.

“If you don’t want to do it, there are people queuing up to take your place”. etc.

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100% this. People are willing to take a lot more shit in this industry than they have to, because it’s seen as a cool and interesting place to work (and it is, in a lot of ways), and the bad practices inherent have been completely normalised.

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shudders

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Yep. Brewdog literally employed the guy who was overseeing their bars during the Shimmy Club one-way mirror incident to head up their own bar division. And a bunch of his cronies.

It’s such a shock to see all of the stories coming out about working under them, it really is…

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Yeah I saw him getting overly defensive about that yesterday and it’s just like, mate, let it go. He’s incredibly naive to think Brewdog (or Tesco) are going to change anything and at the end of the day, other good intentions or no, CW are now part of that structure. It’s only small for now, but it will grow. And that’s fine in a way, that’s just business, but I can’t understand how he can justify to himself to work with such a toxic company, one that everyone in the industry knows is toxic, when his own (public) beliefs seem very much at odds with this culture. Other than that they’re mates, of course.

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I liked the free beer above everything else

but that’s also the reason I moved on. I think it’s becoming less sexy in real time as people realise sticking to home-brewing is a lot easier

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A few years back I applied for a marketing job at a mid-level London craft brewery. It didn’t display the salary on application, and I didn’t hear it in the interview - I just mentioned what I made in my current marketing job and he pulled a face. The job would’ve also required being front and centre at festivals / events on evenings and weekends, and when I mentioned I had a kid they also indicated that wouldn’t work. But I got a load of cans when I left that had misprinted labels or whatever, so it all worked out.

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I feel this reads hugely sarcastic which you’re not being I hope :sweat_smile: because it’s quite accurate

I’m sure his “imploring” of the owners will be just as successful as his trying to get Tesco to cold chain his beers

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Still laughing at that comment

this has been my whole career working in music tbh,
someone literally told me ‘1000 people want your job’ once. Brewdog also sounds a lot like one of the companies i used to work for but I’ll leave it at that

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Reckon @Severed799 is yr man here

it’s called Pivo

Yeah! Come see me for some lovely Czech pilsners

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Two weeks on, no more contact. Struggle to think anyone is going to come looking for it at this point…

  • Crack it open
  • Hang on to it
  • Contact Beer Hawk again
0 voters

(Poll is anon)