BrewDog hits back at Portman Group ruling as Top Gear star lends support

The micro-brewery’s founders Martin Dickie and James Watt responded to the judgment with a scathing attack on the watchdog, saying that it was “completely misguided” and should be targeting major brewers whose cheaper products are “causing the nation’s alcohol problems”.

Speedball was blacklisted yesterday after the Portman Group ruled that its name, which is also the name of the drug cocktail that killed Hollywood stars River Phoenix and John Belushi, linked it to drug use.

Dickie admitted that the beer’s name had “pretty loose connotations… but no more than Class A strawberries from a supermarket or Hash Browns, which is slang for a cocktail of Cannabis and Heroin, from McDonalds”.

He added: “It’s all about the individuals perception and the Portman group is stripping that from the consumer treating them like fools, all the while doing nothing to treat the root of alcohol troubles in the UK, massively underpriced alcohol that is readily for sale in various forms, lager, cider, wine and spirits.”

Dickie also claimed that just 1,184 bottles of the beer were released, costing £3 a bottle, making the beer a premium product that is targeted at “those who enjoy a quality beer responsibly”.

The ruling came on the same day as BrewDog was featured in the BBC’s Oz and James Drink to Britain.

During the show, Oz Clarke and James May are shown drinking BrewDog beers – covered in brown paper bags – on a park bench with Dickie and Watt and discussing the Portman Group’s concerns over their packaging.

In the show, Oz Clarke says that rather than making him feel aggressive, the beer made him feel “mellow, and charming, and friendly to all and sundry”.

May adds: “The idea that a bottle of this beer, or several of these bottles of beer, could somehow make me an aggressive person is patronising and actually slightly insulting.”

In an exclusive article written today for Packaging News, Portman Group chief executive David Poley describes BrewDog’s marketing as “crass” and says that its code must apply equally to all brewers. Click here to read the full article.

Click here to watch last night’s programme on BBC iPlayer.

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