Spinning the Web

Manifest World Tour – Set your alpha acids to isomorized

At Manifest we think that to fully understand a client, you need to walk their walk, talk their talk, and in BrewDog’s case, brew their beer, so this week we’ve been in Aberdeen to visit the office and brewery of our punk new clients BrewDog. Here’s what went down when Manifest did Aberdeen…

Alex : So, what time’s our flight to Aberdeen?

Me: Departs at 7.00am

Alex: Oh my God, what time do we have to leave to catch that?!

Me: I’ll be in the taxi outside your house at 4.30am.

<long pause. Staring.>

Me: Alex? Alex?! Talk to me! It’ll be fine!

So off we went, courtesy of the giant Fanta can in the sky that is Easy Jet, and then this happened:

No, we haven’t turned Alex into a hand puppet, he’s in the mash tun! A steamy pyre of grain and water used in the initial stages of brewing a bottle of Fraserburgh’s finest craft beer. Yeah, we know, he looks a bit red faced, this could be because that’s his shirt to the right of the picture, but it’s probably because the mash tun heats up to an astonishing 80 degrees. Toasty.

Machinery geeks, set faces to small child on Christmas morning. Santa’s been. This little beauty is the BrewDog bottler. Now if you’ve ever met me, you’ll know that I love a good fact, you could call me our resident Manifacto (yeah, I went there), so here’s one that’ll blow your factual socks off. The BrewDog bottling machine can fill and top 20,000 bottles in a day. Thats 6,600,000 ml of pure golden Punk IPA. Just don’t drink them all at once.

Now at Manifest, we like to take the rough with the smooth. We know that not everyday in PR is all about schmoozing with the rich and famous. So when BrewDog co-founder James told us that our next job was to sample the entire BrewDog range, we knew we’d have to struggle through and chalk it up to experience. We also like sarcasm. So, here’s our recommendations:

Alex ‘Oz Clarke‘ Myers favourite tipple is Punk IPA. A pale ale crafted with Chinook, Ahtanum, Simcoe and Nelson Sauvin whole hops, and a Maris Otter grain from Warminister. Light golden in colour with a tropical tang, complimented by creamy notes of light caramel. Fruity!

Me? I like to think I have some fairly exclusive taste (just don’t mention Celine Dion), so my recommendation for the ultimate in Fraserburgh finery is Limited Edition AB:01. A vanilla bean infused belgian style quad, crafted using dry hops. BrewDog only made 3000 bottles of this beauty, so when you hear my bag clinking, you know why.

Keith Floyd, eat your heart out.

Anyway, must fly. Those hops don’t mash ‘em selves you know!