“Poor hygiene standards” in BrewDog’s production process have led to the UK brewer pouring away “millions of pounds” worth of beer, a senior executive has said.
Chris Fielden, BrewDog’s chief supply-chain officer, said a “major quality incident” at the brewery in north-east Scotland had led to beer being poured away, although some did reach drinkers.
In an email to staff first disclosed by The Daily Record on Friday (11 October), Fielden said “sour beer” had been sent to customers.
“Throughout August and even now we’ve had millions of pounds of beer that has been impacted by basic hygiene issues that have resulted in infected beer. Not only have we had to throw beer away, we’ve also shipped sour beer to customers and have Punk running at the highest rate of customer complaints it’s ever seen,” Fielden wrote. Just Drinks has confirmed the veracity of the email.
He added: “Through the investigation, we’ve ruled out many things and keep coming back to the same basic causes. Poor hygiene standards, particularly around the brewing operation.
"What’s most disappointing is that when I chat to people about this I’ve seen very little personal accountability with people blaming other teams or other parts of the process. As such, I wanted to be really clear that shop floor hygiene is the responsibility of every single one of us.”
A spokesperson for BrewDog said “a minor, irregular process issue” had hit batches of beer.
“While most of the affected beer did not leave the brewery, a small quantity reached some of our customers,” the spokesperson said.
They added the affected beer represented “a minuscule proportion of our annual production”, or around 0.02% of BrewDog’s output.
“We would like to reassure customers that it did not pose a health risk. The cause of the issue was quickly identified and resolved and any customer who raised concerns with us were recompensed appropriately.”
In May, BrewDog co-founder James Watt stepped down as CEO after 17 years leading the privately-owned brewer.
Remaining as a board member, director and “part-time strategic advisor”, Watt was succeeded as CEO by James Arrow, who joined BrewDog in September last year as COO.
According to the most recent available figures at Companies House, BrewDog, which has grown to become a mainstream UK beer brand and a pub operator, generated revenue of £321.2m ($419.9m) in 2022, up from £285.6m a year earlier. It booked a loss of £24.8m, compared to £10.6m in 2021.
In July, BrewDog said it had withdrawn its carbon-negative claim, admitting the achievement was unsustainable without offsetting its emissions.
The brewer said it will instead focus on reducing its emissions and investing in its controversial Lost Forest project.
