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| By Nathan Chantrell, on October 20th, 2009 BrewDog is one of my favourite brewers, I love their extra hoppy IPAs and the whisky cask aged Paradox stouts are some of my all time favourite beers. BrewDog’s James Watt has been teasing us for weeks now about what he described as “the single most exciting, influential and ground-breaking thing to happen in the British brewing industry for decades”. Speculation abounded. Interests were piqued. Beer was drunk. Today was the day and I have to say that after all the build up BrewDog has slightly disappointed me for the first time… I was hoping for something amazing beer wise but it turns out that it’s just a share offer and shares don’t excite me at all. The deal is £230 for a share which includes a lifetime 20% discount for orders from brewdog.com and “a say in how the business is run”. The money will go toward expansion and a new green brewery, see equityforpunks.com for a PDF with the full details and financials. Now I’m no financial wizz but looking at the PDF the valuation seems very high. £230 is for 1 of 10,000 shares so the total share issue is £2.3 million worth and the 10,000 shares are 9% of their total shares so they are valuing themselves at… £25.6 million! Turnover to year end 2008 was £789k with a net profit of £84K and they estimate a 2 million turnover for 09. In the 7 months to 31/7/09 turnover was £851K and given their growth 2 million isn’t out of the question but they have a lot of work yet to do. The rapid expansion has seen the cost of sales in that period has increase a lot though, resulting in a net profit of only £1337 for those 7 months. They appear to have £645K in assets at the end of July, plus the brand and IP I guess but I’m struggling to see where the £25.6 million valuation comes from. I don’t “do” shares though and I’m not a gambler so maybe this is too simplistic a view. Sure, the 20% online order discount for shareholders is worth something, and is the most tempting aspect for me but you would need to spend £1150 just to break even. As much as I love BrewDog, that’s a lot of beer! So as far as this offer is concerned, just let me say… I’m Out! Update: James has blogged on their rationale for the £25m valuation. It’s all in the brand and its potential. By Nathan Chantrell, on August 3rd, 2009 So I thought it was time to get some more BrewDog beers in considering how well they went down last time. Kicking off was the very limited edition Rake Raspberry Imperial Stout which is very unusual indeed, smokey, whisky to the taste and not too overpowering with the fruit as some fruit beers can be but quite tart. Something I would try again but don’t think I could drink two on the run. I also got some of the Paradox Smokehead Imperial Stout (10%) which, incredibly, was even better than the Paradox Speyside I had last time. Very peaty, smokey whisky taste & aroma as you would expect from the 6 months it has spent in the Smokehead whisky casks. This is a strong contender for my favourite beer ever! The biggest surprise though was the “How To Disappear Completely”, at only 3.5% I wasn’t expecting much from this IPA; How wrong was I? Incredibly hoppy and bitter, I dare say most people will find this too hoppy but for me it was heaven. I could drink this all day. Also tried the Zeitgeist black lager (4.9%), completely unlike any lager I have ever tasted, chocolatey and malty to the taste and very easy to drink. Finally, I tried Dogma, a heather honey infused ale (7.8%), taste is very strong on the honey with hints of cola but too sweet for me, slightly sickly towards the end of the glass. They’ve also just released the 2009 version of Tokyo at 18.2% which has already caused a bit of a fuss but at £9.99 for a 330ml bottle it’s too rich for me! By Nathan Chantrell, on March 24th, 2009  Scottish brewery BrewDog is producing some exceptional beers including some incredibly hoppy IPAs and a variety of unusual stouts. In particular the Paradox Speyside stout (aged in Speyside whisky casks) is spectacular.
BrewDog produced its first brew in April 2007 and its bottled beers can now be found in many shops and supermarkets. The unusual and sometimes contoversial labelling makes BrewDog stand out as something different from the traditional real ale fare, open the bottle and things carry on in the same vein. These are not your dad’s beers! Pictured right is a selection I ordered recently from BeerVentures. I can recommend every single one. By Nathan Chantrell, on February 8th, 2003 | |
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