BrewDog opens Florence bar

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 25 June, 2014

Scotland's most infamous brewers' BrewDog are set to open their latest craft beer bar - this time in Florence - later this month.

The bar is the 19^th worldwide and the first in Italy - so far this year the group has opened outlets in São Paulo, Tokyo and Gothenburg. Rome and Bologna bars are in the pipeline for later this year.

BrewDog's Florence bar BrewDog's Florence barControversial Scottish brewery BrewDog's Florence bar its 19th worldwide.

The bar has capacity for 70 people over two floors and will have 12 beers on tap, as well as BrewDog's Hopinator, a device that infuses extra hops and flavours to beers at the point of serve.

Guest craft beers include: Brewfist, Menaresta, Toccalmatto, Rogue, Mikkeller, and The Kernel so far, and the pub will offer American diner food.

BrewDog co-founder James Watt said: "Italy is currently through a craft beer renaissance. Although generally more famed for its winemaking than its brewing, there are now over 500 microbreweries in the country. We have seen a huge surge in demand for our beers from Italian drinkers via our online store, so we felt it was only right to shorten the distance between Italian craft beer fans and the beer they so crave by opening a bar there. What better city than the birthplace of the Italian renaissance itself- Florence."

In the last five years, BrewDog has experienced an average of 285% annual growth. It opened BottleDog, its first off-licence, in London's Kings Cross in April, and is planning to open a series of shops over the next 12 months.

Earlier this month the group's annual results showed profits skyrocketing by 383% to £2.3 million for 2013, with turnover up 70% to £18 million.

It also opened a new brewery in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, in January 2013 which boosted brewing capacity 10-fold to 250,000 hl per year. It is in the process of further increasing production with a £4 million expansion to the brewery which is set to be completed in August 2014.

BrewDog's growth is partly funded by its crowdfunding scheme Equity for Punks which completed its third round in 2013 raising £4.25 million in less than six months.

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