I’ve got a question for “heartbroken” James Watt after his BrewDog creation crashed and burned… when do I get my money back for my Equity For Punks share?

Never, is the answer, of course, and I’m not the only one asking. There’s 200,000 of us Equity Punks sitting with no more to show for putting our money in than an empty beer glass.

And all of us – beer lovers every one – coughed up our cash because this was a project we passionately believed in.

At least for me it was a token investment, a buy-in to help a then underdog while scoring bar discounts and an invite to the mayhem of the BrewDog AGM.

But for others, there’s thousands of pounds of their money vanished faster than a pint of lager in a chugging competition.

And on top of all that there are almost 500 poor BrewDog employees who found themselves sacked in a 15-minute conference, putting them out the door with the brutality of a heavy-handed pub bouncer.

Many of them are familiar faces to me. BrewDog in both Union Square and at the Castlegate were my favoured haunts – places I ended my working week with a wee cheeky on the way home.

Cheerful, dedicated and friendly

Everyone who worked in these bars was cheerful, dedicated, friendly and a credit to the Good Ship BrewDog. Just a pity it was being captained by someone who, by his own admission, “made mistakes” in much the same way as the captain of the Titanic made the mistake of going full steam ahead into a sea littered with icebergs.

The real shame here is that BrewDog will be remembered as a catastrophic failure, one that squandered real promise and innovation, where the owners trousered millions off the backs of ordinary folk then left them hanging out to dry.

But it could have been so much more – glorious, even.

I was in at the birth of BrewDog, as a beer fan. I remember buying my first bottle of this hyped new brew called Punk. I put it down the sink because it was ganting. Even the aroma was redolent of cat pee.

But Punk got better and BrewDog got bigger. It started carving out some really exciting and unique beers. Its ethos of move fast, be daring and to hell with convention was the spark that lit the whole craft beer revolution in the UK.

We enjoy the rich landscape of fine brews in this country today, because BrewDog led us there.

But being edgy, shouldn’t mean being reckless, of growing for the sake of growing and making decisions always with an eye on ego-boosting headlines.

Hubris like that leads to the fall we witnessed last week.

James Watt wrote a “mea culpa” letter speaking of his sorrow.  So he should. But if the multi-millionaire wanted anyone to feel sorry for him, then that’s too bad.

My sympathy lies with the people without jobs and the investors without money – a taste as bitter as a pint of Punk.

Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired.

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