BrewDog Team Stories [Part 1]

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We pride ourselves on our awesome team at BrewDog. Lots of our senior team members now in place across our all areas of our business started off working in bar division. We love to work with committed passionate people and focus on developing their careers with BrewDog. Whether that progression is within our bar division though promotion to management roles in our bars or in other parts of our company (from logistics, to brewing to overseas operations) our little business is full of people who have grown and developed with us as we have grown BrewDog.

Here are some of the stories from some of our dedicated craft beer recruits who kicked off their career in our bars:
Name: Dan Bloxham
Then: Member of the original bar team at BrewDog Aberdeen (and purveyor of jokes with questionable taste)
Now: Quality Control/EHS Officer and General Lab Monkey
The story: "I started working in BrewDog Aberdeen part time while at university in Aberdeen studying Immunology and Pharmacology.  I worked my way up to the self-appointed title of “Bar Maharaja” where I was a key holder/shift leader.  As my graduation loomed in the near distant future, I decided I didn’t want to go into research or work for the soulless bastards at a major drug company so I mentioned to James that I did science-y things/ black magic and had seen that the brewery was looking for a quality control lab technician.  The day after I had a phone call from Nikola, the brewery manager, and was promptly whisked off to Fraserburgh to work part time.  I had one day off after my final exam and began working full time and I haven’t looked back since.

I now have a variety of responsibilities within the company.  I perform some of our routine analysis on beers in all stages of our production measuring things like IBUs, colour and alcohol by volume.  I also set up and run our sensory analysis panels. Finally I try and keep everyone who works within the brewery safe which mostly involves shouting at people to stop climbing on things."

Name: Matt Corden
Then: Duty Manager at BrewDog Glasgow
Now: HQ-uartermaster
The Story:  "After starting as duty manager at BrewDog Glasgow, I was promoted to Assistant Manager. Martin Keith and I worked together there for about 6 months or so, and I loved it. I was then moved down to London to help open the Shoreditch bar, which was an experience and a half! It was great fun watching Underdog become the bar it is now, and living in London was a cool experience too.
 
I always knew that I wanted to move behind the scenes with this company and get a role up at head office. Essentially I’m now in charge of purchasing and administration for the bars. I’m also charged with sourcing and importing all of our international guest beers. This is my favourite part of the job. It’s great building relationships with some of the best breweries in the world and trying to make sure that we have a constant supply of amazing and interesting beers. It’s a pretty big responsibility, but I love it! I'm off to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival in a few months too which I'm really excited about."

Name: Tony Barron
Then: Part time bar staff at BrewDog Nottingham
Now: UK Operations Manager
The story: "I started off as a regular in BrewDog Nottingham before applying for a couple of roles. Within a couple of weeks of my first job at BrewDog, I was holding beer schools, which were always fun! I loved being on the frontlines educating people about beer. Through helping with bar staff training here at the brewery and sitting exams like Cicerone I have learnt so much. I just want to keep learning more now about every aspect of the business.
 
In my current role as UK Operations Manager, I’m responsible for ensuring the beer reaches as many people in the UK as possible, whether through our Bars, or any other of the multitude of outlets that sell our products. I was lucky enough to go to Madrid for the first ever Feria Internacional "El arte de la cerveza artesana" (International Fair for the Art of Craft Beer) and help out with a tasting for 60 people that finished with Tactical Nuclear Penguin. The look on the participants' faces when they were given that beer was priceless. Some of the beers coming out of Spain are interesting, but this was nothing like they had ever seen before. It was amazing."
Back in the day (sort of): Say Hi to Tony

Name: Martin Keith
Then: General Manager at BrewDog Glasgow
Now: Southern Commander
The Story: "My first year at BrewDog saw me help make our Glasgow bar what it is today. We built a solid team there and a really great bunch of hardcore regulars. Now, I look after our bars in the south (from Nottingham down). It’s hard to put a job description on it but it basically covers everything to do with the smooth running of our bars and providing an amazing customer experience. Working for a craft beer brand wasn't really something I'd ever considered in the past, but I jumped at the chance to come to BrewDog when the opportunity arose and concentrated on trying to do a great job. I had good bar management experience before I came so this really helped. There are loads of prospects within this company as it’s growing so fast, that’s something you don’t get with most bars.
I was actually knocked back for the Glasgow Manager job the first time I applied! I made it to the last interview and lost out. Luckily I’m persistent and managed to convince them. Eventually."
Back in the day: Say Hi to Martin Keith


Name: Neil Scotney
Then: (Trial) Apprentice brewer / Full time staff at BrewDog Aberdeen
Now: International Bar Gypsy
The story: "From full time team member, I was promoted to be the first assistant manager of BrewDog Aberdeen. I worked in this position until the opening of BrewDog Glasgow, where I moved to help open the new bar. After nine months in this role in Glasgow, I was asked if I would like to move to Nottingham to be the general manager. Hell yeah I did! I was GM in Nottingham for a year until another opportunity came along to do what I'm doing now.

My current role is 'International Bar Gypsy', travelling around helping the newer bars when they open. I make sure the bar looks ace, is complete with enough robots drawn on the walls, and the staff and customers get the full BrewDog experience. I have just returned from three months in Stockholm, setting up our really exciting first international bar adventure. Next stop - Who knows?! (I do, but it's a secret)

I am really proud of all my input, and how some of the things I've done have become the blueprint for the newer bars opening. It's great to see that I've made a contribution to the evolution of the company.

I have been live in the studio on STV News when we were robbed of our award by Diageo, interviewed by a Hollywood actor about our royal wedding Viagra laced beer 'Royal Virility Performance',  I'm one of a handful of people to have visited all 13 BrewDog bars, and I've shared a Punk IPA with the Pope. (One of these is a lie)."

Got a question for one of our fine aficianados of craft beer goodness? Fire them over in the comments!

Want to work at the good ship BrewDog, check out our careers section here.