James Watt bets BrewDog’s future lies with the community that funded its rise

BrewDog was built on a proposition that distinguished it from every other brewery in British craft beer: the people who drank the beer could own part of it. That proposition shattered when the company entered administration and Tilray Brands, the Nasdaq-listed cannabis and craft-beer group, acquired its global brand and UK brewing operations for £33 million. James Watt, who co-founded BrewDog with Martin Dickie in 2007, has now submitted a formal offer to buy it back.

The bid directly addresses the fate of BrewDog’s 43,000 “equity punk” investors — fans who bought into the company through successive crowdfunding campaigns and received nothing when the administration sale closed. Watt’s offer comes with a specific pledge: if Second Best, the vehicle he created for the purpose, completes the acquisition, every registered equity punk gets their stake restored at no cost.

The community-investment model Watt is reviving has already failed once, at BrewDog itself. The Equity for Punks campaigns raised tens of millions from fans who believed they were buying into a craft-beer revolution. The company’s subsequent trajectory (a US private-equity stake, a sustained workplace-culture controversy, and ultimately administration) suggests the collapse was not incidental to BrewDog’s growth path. Watt’s counter-argument is that it was incidental to the ownership structure: that the community model was sound, but corporate investment overrode it.

Second Best was established specifically for the acquisition and equity restoration. Up to 19.3% of the entity will be allocated to former BrewDog investors without charge. A co-funder is backing the bid alongside Watt, though Watt has not named them. If the buyback fails, Second Best will continue as an independent beer brand.

Tilray has not responded publicly to the bid. The company completed its BrewDog acquisition in early 2026 with stated plans to build the brand toward a $1bn valuation across the UK, US, and Australia. Watt has also pledged to reinstate the Real Living Wage for BrewDog employees if the deal closes, addressing a criticism that dogged the company’s earlier management.

The bid’s outcome now rests with a company that paid £33 million for a brewery in administration and arrived with a billion-dollar ambition. Those two figures do not obviously leave room for a community-first counter-offer.

Tags: BrewDog, equity punks, James Watt, Second Best, Tilray Brands