Hamish Champ: A Tale of Two Brewers

Last week I probably put away more units of alcohol than I did in the whole of the previous month.

I'm neither proud nor indeed ashamed of this fact, which was the result of a leaving do; a get-together with some mates, and a couple of lunch appointments. I just mention it. I didn't get drunk. I just drank a fair old amount in a relatively short period of time.

The timing of what would technically have been labelled my 'binge drinking session' couldn't have been worse for my conscience. The health lobby was in full flow again, warning of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption and that 'x' thousands of us wouldn't make it to our dotage because we were putting away far too much for our bodies to handle.

The government is likely to ramp up the fight against anti-social - aka drink-fuelled - behaviour in the coming months as it seeks re-election and doubtless has the industry in its sights in some form or another.

And the Tories have been telling us they're likely to impose higher taxation on the wackier end of the drinks market - RTDs, speciality spirits, etc - versus the 'quality' end, namely expensive fine wines and top notch scotches, etc.

So the poor will not only remain poor, they'll also be unable to afford to drink themselves into oblivion to get away from it all. Nice.

As I battled with my own consumption problems - actually I have no problems consuming alcohol - I was also afforded the opportunity last week to meet the heads of two brewers at completely different ends of the production scale.

I met the team from BrewDog as they unveiled their 'Equity for Punks' share issue, inviting fans of their unique bottled and cask beers to invest in the company at £230 a share.

The Aberdeen-headquartered outfit, which hopes to raise £2.3m via the issue, has come in for hefty criticism over its 18.2 per cent strength 'Tokyo' bottled ale and its nose-thumbing attitude to organisations like the Portman Group.

But as well as not being completely averse to a bit of headline grabbing I found BrewDog co-founder Jamie Watt as concerned about all the things that go into his beer as would any traditional brewer of note: flavour, taste, quality of materials and production passion.

The company's share issue was part of enabling fans of its beer to 'share the journey', as Watt, still in his twenties, put it. At £230 a share some might regard the 'fare' as somewhat excessive, but in terms of creating a community of like-minded investors it seems as good as any other cash-raising effort.

At the other end of the brewing spectrum I met Carlsberg UK's main man, Isaac Sheps.

A year into the job and he's been rather busy. Radically restructuring functions within his company has not been easy, nor has it been painless. He's also eyeing supply deals with the pubcos that, to put it diplomatically, he regarded as having not been especially profitable for his company.

Sheps appears to be a man determined to do what it takes to get Carlsberg UK to where he wants it to be for the benefit of those working for it and for those to whom it supplies its products.

Similar to the BrewDog lot Sheps wants to take people on a journey. They might differ enormously in terms of products, size and ambition, but in some areas the similarities between the two brewers is still striking…