Getting Ready to Say Goodbye
09.10.2012
After 2017 days, 25.6 million bottles, 3 world records, 29 new fermentation tanks, 3 new brewhouses, 2 world beer cup golds, 7 taxidermed stoats, 95 tons of hops and a lot of load music on a crackly stereo, we get ready to say goodbye to our Fraserburgh brewery.
How it all started in 2007.
Kessock workshops in Fraserburgh was where it all started for BrewDog. Back in 2007 and armed only with a £20,000 bank loan James and Martin set out to revolutionise the UK craft beer scene and embarked on a mission to make other people as passionate about great craft beer as they are.
From brewing tiny batches and filling bottles by hand we have grown to be the largest independent brewery in Scotland and have sent our beers to 31 countries in the process.
Our first ever sales.
Our Brewery in Fraserburgh is a ramshackle DIY brewery that we put together ourselves. It is from this base that we have been able to grow our business, work with great people and strive to put the flavour and diversity back into the glasses of beer drinkers.
We are privileged to have brewed beer in Fraserburgh with many of our brewing heroes: From Stone to Three Floyds and from Lost Abbey to Mikkeller. Since 2009 our team have worked round the clock at the brewery to try and meet the global demand for our craft beers as we constantly added more tanks and more space to the brewery, and more space outside of it too (sorry local authorities).
All of the team and most of the equipment will be moving 25 miles down the road to Ellon to their home in our new brewery. The sadness at leaving the building where the BrewDog journey started is only offset with the excitement about just how awesome our new brewing home in Ellon will be.
In Numbers:
- Beer Brewed: 87,500 HL
- Malt Used: 2180 tons
- Hops Used: 95 tons
- Countries Exported to: 31
- Staff: 58
- Floor Space: 520 m2
- Fermentation tanks: 28
- Brew-House: 50HL 2 Vessel System
- Bottling Capacity: 2,000 bottles per hour
- Shark Sightings: 3
- Average Annual Growth: 118%
- Happy Visitors: Loads
In Photos:
So long Fraserburgh brewery. It has been a blast and we would not swap a single second of it for the world.
Comments
- This is not the beginning of the end! It's just the end of the beginning! Onward and upward,:-)
Just don't lose sight of that beginning!
Brew on Punks;-)Brewpunk:-)11.10.2012 - No words express my admiration. john.rolph10.10.2012
- 'Onwards, Brewdog Soldiers' erick10.10.2012
- Glad the new brewery is nearly there! So much more capacity.
I did love the old one, visited 3 times and every time there were more FVs! First inside, then outside. Sure, it felt a big ramshackle and "Heath Robinson" - but that's all part of the charm.
It's going to be really weird with BrewDog not being in Fraserburgh though... going to have to get used to this "Ellon".Yvan10.10.2012 - Can't wait for Bristol to open its doors - I can see it from my desk! Sarah b10.10.2012
- Good luck with the new brewery! I never got the chance to visit the old one, but I hope to see the new place sometime. Dan M10.10.2012
- Great read! Congratz on the growth!!! Cheers to another chapter in the Holy Book of BrewDog. Keep doing what you do and you'll always have this loyal consumer across the pond in Texas. Hood10.10.2012
- That was a very cool littel write-up. Thanks for the photos. always nice to get a behind-the-scenes look at where the beers are born. Val B10.10.2012
- I still pine for Punk IPA and Trashy Blonde in cask :-( Wheaty10.10.2012
- Will you be selling any of your old equipment? canyoureadthesigns09.10.2012
- My wife would like to know what kind of sharks were sighted? lol Christopsy09.10.2012
- Barrel aged red wheat, aaaaaye? Spill the beans BenH09.10.2012
- onwards and UP
Great work guys24hawkins09.10.2012 - Me and my friends Bresc, Cardy, Marco and Francesca had the pleasure honour and privilege to visit it last June. I just wanna thank you again and say: "keep up the good work!!!"
Claude.Claudio09.10.2012 - Good luck in ellon lad's keep ian & brian busy with the delivery's @calum_kidd09.10.2012
- Congrats, guys! I look forward to seeing more of your brews in more US locales, and enjoying even more of it in my mouth/belly/liver (it's so sweet when it touches the lips). somenerd09.10.2012
- this makes me weepy BrewDod09.10.2012
- I'm glad I had the opportunity to see for myself where it all started. And then to see where it's all starting again when I was at the AGM. Brewdogs never die, they just keep brewing. Brian09.10.2012