BrewDog’s Ellon brewery has been forced to throw out millions of pounds worth of beer after a “major quality incident”.
It is also reported that employees at the Aberdeenshire site were sent a furious email regarding “infected beer” which was shipped to customers.
It has now reportedly resulted in “millions of pounds worth” of product being discarded from the site and customer complaints over the product “at the highest level” the company has seen.
The ongoing “major quality incident” caused chief supply chain officer for the company, Chris Fielden, to fire off a scathing email to staff.
The internal email blasted employees for repeatedly failing to adhere to basic hygiene rules which resulted in “sour” beer being shipped to customers.
The bombshell message also accuses workers at the site of “a lack of accountability” over cleanliness standards at the brewers.
Scathing email sent to BrewDog staff
The email, as revealed by The Daily Record, reads: “The reality is that it was an incredibly tough month in which we significantly missed our productivity target and have been working through a major quality incident.
“Throughout August and even now we’ve had millions of pounds of beer that has been impacted by basic hygiene issues that have resulted in infected beer.
“Not only have we had to throw beer away, we’ve also shipped sour beer to customers and have Punk running at the highest rate of customer complaints it’s ever seen.
The bombshell email adds: “Through the investigation we’ve ruled out many things and keep coming back to the same basic causes. Poor hygiene standards, particularly around the brewing operation.
“What’s most disappointing is that when I chat to people about this I’ve seen very little personal accountability with people blaming other teams or other parts of the process.
“As such, I wanted to be really clear that shop floor hygiene is the responsibility of every single one of us.”
Customers given refunds over ‘infected beer’
A BrewDog spokesperson said that, despite the heavy duty wording of the email, the beer lost was a relatively small volume in the context of overall output.
He added that any customer who complained about the sour tasting beer was given a refund.
They said: “Beer quality is our absolute number one priority. Unfortunately, earlier this year, we discovered that some batches of beer did not meet our high standards due to a minor, irregular process issue.
“While most of the affected beer did not leave the brewery, a small quantity reached some of our customers.
“The affected beer, which represents a minuscule proportion of our annual production (approx. 0.02%), did not meet our high standards and did not taste as good as it should, but we would like to reassure customers that it did not pose a health risk.
“The cause of the issue was quickly identified and resolved, and any customer who raised concerns with us were recompensed appropriately.
“We apologise to anyone who has had a less than perfect beer.”
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