The UK's BrewDog pubs want to offer you a vaccine - and a commemorative beer

Want a pint with your vaccine? BrewDog, a Scottish craft beer brewer and pub chain, is offering its closed outlets across the United Kingdom to the government to use as COVID-19 vaccination centres, and those vaccinated could walk away with a ‘special commemorative beer’. James Watt, BrewDog’s CEO and co-founder, put a call out on social media asking for followers to help name the beer.

In addition to outposts across Europe and in the US, South Korea, Australia, China and Japan, BrewDog has more than 50 locations in the UK, which is currently under coronavirus lockdown rules that have closed non-essential businesses. The ongoing lockdown is expected to last until at least March as the country reels from a more contagious strain of the coronavirus that was detected in December and has seen case rates soar.

Talks with the government are still ‘ongoing’, and after seeing BrewDog’s offer, other bars and pubs across the country have said they would also be willing to open up their spaces for vaccinations. Like many breweries and distilleries in the early days of the pandemic, BrewDog switched up its production lines to create 500,000 bottles of hand sanitiser and said that they’ve been making it ‘round the clock’ ever since.

BrewDog has a history of pushing the envelope with its marketing campaigns and crowdsourcing. In 2019, the company launched ‘the world’s first craft beer airline’, which flew from London to Columbus, Ohio, where BrewDog had opened a craft beer hotel, which features in-room beer taps and a built-in shower beer fridge in each of the 32 rooms. BrewDog has launched more accommodation options above its bars in Scotland and had pre-pandemic plans to expand its hotel footprint into London.