The co-founders of BrewDog, Scotland’s now renowned craft brewery, have projected an image of themselves naked onto the Houses of Parliament to mark what they call a ‘tipping point in the craft beer revolution’. The tongue-in-cheek image of James Watt and Martin Dickie, a deliberate parody of the infamous image of Gail Porter projected onto the building in 1999, was designed as a ‘statement of intent’ to ‘take the craft beer revolution to the next level’.
James Watt, co-founder at BrewDog commented:
“The craft beer revolution has already changed British drinking culture for the better, so we wanted to make everyone sit up and take notice. Craft beer fans are taking on the establishment, and we’re winning. We’re democratising an industry that has for too long been run behind the multimillion pound cloaks and mirrors of global corporations holding profit and propaganda above passion and integrity.”
Painting the town blue
The 50-foot image, featuring Watt and his business partner Martin Dickie naked except for a single box of BrewDog beers, was displayed on the south-facing side of the Houses of Parliament on the night of Monday 22 October for more than thirty minutes.
A second image incorporating graffiti style text reading ‘BrewDog Takes London’ was also projected. In addition to the Houses of Parliament, BrewDog aimed to ‘paint the town blue’ with revolutionary messaging displayed in similar scale onto iconic London buildings: Battersea Power Station, Tate Modern and Marble Arch.
‘BrewDog Takes London’
James Watt continued:
“Tonight, we open our eighth craft beer bar to open in two years, BrewDog Shoreditch, and there are loads of amazing craft breweries across the country taking on an industry of multi-million pound mega corporations groping for profit and undervaluing its customers.”
BrewDog Shoreditch is the brewer’s second craft beer bar in the capital, following the runaway success of BrewDog Camden launched last year, when Watt and Dickie rolled into London aboard an armoured tank. With a capacity of around 150, BrewDog Shoreditch has 18 draught taps and stocks beers from world-renowned craft breweries such as Stone, Three Floyd’s, Mikkeller, Struise, Nogne, O, Alesmith, The Bruery and De Dolle.
BrewDog plans to open bars in Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds before the end of the year.
What is BrewDog?
Bored of the industrially brewed lagers and stuffy ales that dominated the UK market, the founders decided the best way to fix this undesirable predicament was to brew their own beers. Consequently in April 2007 BrewDog was born. Both only 24 at the time, they leased a building, got some scary bank loans, spent all their money on stainless steel and started making some hardcore beers.
They are dedicated to making cool, contemporary and progressive beers showcasing some of the world’s classic beer styles. All with an innovative twist and customary BrewDog bite.