Birmingham’s growing reputation as a food and drink mecca has received another boost.
Notorious Scottish brewers BrewDog are expanding their empire into the city, opening their latest outlet in John Bright Street, which itself is undergoing a multi-million pound transformation after years of neglect.
The bar will also complement real ale pubs in the vicinity such as the Victoria, also on John Bright Street, and the newly-opened Post Office Vaults, whose owner Nigel Barker regularly stocks BrewDog products both here and at his other pub, the award-winning Wellington on Bennett’s Hill.
The brewers, who have courted controversy in the past with their attempts to brew the world’s strongest beers, including the 41% Sink the Bismarck, will be opening premises in what used to be the city’s entertainment quarter during late August. They say their decision to open in Birmingham is down to the increase in outlets selling craft beers in the region.
The brewery’s co-owner James Watt, told us, “Birmingham has always been on our radar as it has a large beer scene with already good sales of BrewDog around the city.”
BrewDog Birmingham will be the eighth bar the company have opened around the country and is the first to be opened on John Bright Street for many years, bringing further life back into a part of the city centre which has recently been the focus of large-scale change as part of the Westside Development Scheme.
Watt, who helped found the Fraserburgh-based brewery in 2007, emphasised the business community’s growing confidence in the area, “With all the work happening around here we are certain that this bar will thrive just as much as our others.”