BrewDog trials Honest to Dog scheme

Craft beer giant BrewDog will temporarily turn its venues into 'honesty bars', where fans can pay whatever they want for beer.

BrewDog claims that Honest to Dog is an experiment that lets the community dictate the which products are offered to them and how.

Running between 3 – 9 June, Honest to Dog will only be available to BrewDog’s community of over 106,000 'Equity Punks'. With every bill that is paid for under full value, a feedback card will have to be filled out explaining why less money was given. This new open-door policy ensures that BrewDog’s community is being heard, with all feedback being published online by the Scottish brewers once the initiative has wrapped. 

Furthermore, any overpayments received will be split 50/50 between the BrewDog Foundation and the team in the specific BrewDog bar. The BrewDog Foundation is a programme whereby BrewDog donates up to £1million a year to charities voted for by its Crew and Equity Punks.

Shares in BrewDog cost £25 each and can be purchased through BrewDog’s website or via a paper application form.

BrewDog's James Watt comments: “With BrewDog being a community owned business, it’s important for us to know what customers think of our products. With the Honest to Dog initiative we want to show our commitment to our Equity Punks by putting them in the driver’s seat, so they can tell us what they think our products are worth and most importantly, why.”

“This is a ground-breaking social and business experiment that has never been done before. We want to take the risk no matter the financial profit, as we think that the results will be invaluable. To that end, we also want to share these results with the world in order to create a better business model and relationship with our fans.”

30 May 2019 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, editor