The Sunday Times Rich List 2020-2025. The fortunes of Brewdog founders Dickie & Watt
The media is very bad at history so while the Sunday Times 2025 rich list looks back to 2024 further historical comparison is absent.
I’ve had a look at 2020, just as the pandemic hit
Brewdog’s Martin Dickie was worth £228m and was 537th and James Watt by contrast had £262m and was at 495th on the list.
The Times list in 2020 was more extensive and is now capped at the top 350. Neither Dickie or Watt would have made the 2025 list based on their 2020 performance.
In 2025 James Watt with partner Georgina Toffolo has re-entered the list at 304 with an estimated wealth of £425m
Martin Dickie is a re-entry at 317 with an estimated wealth of £398m
The last 5 years have clearly been very good financially for both Dickie and Watt although perhaps less so for Brewdog itself. As neither is now directly associated with the brewery & pub co, it’s worth remembering that both have done well financially in the past but not since 2020.
Donald Trump’s poll ratings continue to slump, primarily around the cost of living issue, which he campaigned to address with little impact so far it seems.
However help is at hand. Liz Truss posted a picture of the Dream Team on her Twitter account on 15th February 2026.
I assumed this was an AI construct but on checking (essential in times like these) it appears Truss has paid a visit to Mar a Lago. I’m still not sure however that like Trump and Truss themselves that it is absolutely genuine
Zoe Williams in the Guardian argues that while the picture, for as yet unknown reasons, is genuine, its not clear Trump knew who Truss is
Brewdog both the breweries and bars is likely up for sale. The financials have pointed that way for a bit but that’s for another post.
Here I want to address social media commentary that not only are Brewdog beers shit, they have always been shit.
Not in my experience.
I don’t linger on Twitter in 2026 but I retain my historic archive. I had a look back to the times when Brewdog started to make an impact in London and environs. The impact was considerable. I found that I had enjoyed a Punk IPA (cask, keg had yet to happen) at CAMRA’s Cambridge Beer Festival in May 2010. On January 23rd 2011 I was drinking a Punk IPA at 6% and a Hardcore IPA at 9.2%. Looking at January 2012 I was drinking a Brewdog Winter Porter 6%, a Brewdog Scotch Ale 7.5% and a bottle of Brewdog Paradox Jura Imperial Stout 15%
Those were indeed the days.
In more recent times certainly in the last 5 years I rarely venture into a Brewdog due its numerous reputational issues and also because the beer is not very interesting. Not shit, just run of the mill. A world away from the 2010/11 period.
In the interests of a more balanced perspective I thought I’d see what their flagship beer Punk IPA tastes like these days. I bought a can in Sainsburys for £2.20 (September 2025).
After a suitable rest in the fridge, I duly drank the can of Punk. It would be stretching matters to suggest that it was hop forward, although in the balance between malt and hops it was the latter that won out. It was relatively easy drinking, if unremarkable.
Clearly Brewdog as with other ex-craft brewers who are looking for mass market appeal, is producing a beer that those who don’t like hop bombs but still like their beer to taste of something beer like will buy.
Perhaps they are succeeding on that but there are two issues. Firstly its arguably the Punk name and ‘rebel’ image that is the selling point as much as the beer itself. That Punk image has taken quite a PR battering in recent times, rightly so in my view.
The second issue is one of price. Punk IPA is currently on sale on 794 Wetherspoons pubs mostly at under a fiver a pint. In Brewdog’s own pubs its considerably more. Beyond the image, if you want an easy drinking beer, there are others at least as good out there at more cost of living friendly prices.
To underline the point a few days before Christmas I was in central Cardiff for a family meal. Being a little early I went for a pint. Of course the bars were very busy, but the issue was what was on the bar was not worth the effort. Eventually I wandered into Brewdog which is opposite the Principality Stadium (very central indeed for those unfamiliar with Cardiff). It was not busy. I had a pint of a murky NEIPA and had an entire table to myself. The beer was perfectly OK but it could have been brewed by N number of brewers. It did not, as Punk did in 2010/11, suggest this is a standout Brewdog beer.
It happens, but kudos to those brewers from the same period, I’m thinking of Kernel, Pressure Drop, Redemption who have managed to avoid it happening…
It is has been brewing for a while but this week open class warfare has broken out between the Archers and the Grundys.
After six weeks of teasers and guesswork via BBC reports from Ambridge George has confronted Brian Aldridge and he has ‘confessed’ that he was the person who bottled him at New Year. Well, not exactly. Brian, who is 80ish and has health problems was in attendance & called the ambulance. He was covering for another member of the Archers Dynasty with Ruairi being in the frame. Ruairi it may be recalled has a virulent dislike of George based without question on naked class hatred.
It’s a which side are you on question, and the Ambridge Socialist notes that there are some on the Academic Archers site who have been dissing George. He has however served time in jail, got himself a job with Esme, who does not buy into the Archers class war feud, and is receiving counselling for his anger issues.
Valentines
Meanwhile Rooth and Daveed had a Valentine’s weekend dinner at The Bull and reminisced about the good old days. It is indeed 75 years of the Archers and the current edition of the Radio Times has special features…
Inheritance
Rooth and David have also returned to the issue of inheritance. The Ambridge Socialist has long held the position that Brookfield should be expropriated and run as a workers co-op
The High Court found that while Palestine Action activists had engaged in a few acts that could be classified as terrorism they had not in fact passed the threshold which would mean they should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. The then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper who took the decision has faced calls for resignation.
However on the contrary and is unfortunately too common in modern political life she has ignored the First Law of Holes is still digging. She told Sky News on 15th February 2026
Well, I followed the clear advice and recommendations, going through a serious process that the Home Office goes through, involving different agencies and police advice as well, which was very clear about the recommendation for proscription of this group.
And the court has also concluded that this is not a normal protest group, that it has found that this group has committed acts of terrorism, that this group is not simply in line with democratic values, and has promoted violence.
Cooper was pressed to reveal the advice she was given that informed her decision to pursue the ban, but did not, instead saying: “So I was given significant evidence and advice around risks of violence and risks from public safety, and that is what you take seriously.” The foreign secretary added:
“If you ignore advice that you are given about risks to public safety then you’re really not taking seriously the responsibilities of home secretary.”
Those interested in indy beer (or craft as it was known) can hardly have missed a story that has been all over the media today.
Consultants AlixPartners have been engaged to look at future investment in Brewdog. Of course that might mean finding someone to put more capital into the existing structure of brewery and bars.
More likely it means a sale of all or part of Brewdog. AlixPartners have appeared after some weeks of stories that James Watt was looking to buy back Brewdog. It might be suggested that so far he hasn’t raised the money. Hence AlixPartners are reportedly looking for a quick resolution the likely alternative being administration.
The first thought in all this must be for Brewdog employees, reportedly 1400. Some at least are members of Unite the Union and job protection or better than statutory severance is important here.
The second thought is that while Brewdog beers have long since ceased to be standout (which 15 years ago they certainly were) for many beyond a niche indy beer market, Brewdog is ‘craft’ beer. Its disappearance, which is possible, would hit the entire sector. If you check the beer aisle of leading supermarkets Brewdog still features significantly, Without ir the market shrinks. The equivalent is the S*n newspaper. Were it to stop print sales (in one sense on the 40th anniversary of Wapping a reason for celebration) it would hit availability of other print papers.
Its hard not to see the current situation as the inevitable result of James Watt but there is more at stake here than him.
The Times is no friend of Palestine, Palestine Action or protest in general.
However its Editorial on 14th February concludes that the High Court decision that a ban on Palestine Action was unlawful should not be appealed by the Government.
It notes that the Government has laws enough already to at least attempt to prosecute Palestine Action out of existence. It may not of course succeed in the face of a sustained movement in support of Palestine. But it does underline that the Government’s position is not a Statal one but rather that of narrow ideological obsession by at least some of its senior figures
The Guardian has an interesting piece on a line from Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks.
Noting Gramsci’s words about the old is dying but the new cannot be born, morbid symptoms appear, it argues that ‘monsters’ is sometimes used instead.
Gramsci wrote his Notebooks in a fascist prison and the words are for that reason less than straightforward. He couldn’t write for example that capitalism is in its death throes and Mussolini’s regime is just a symptom.
The Prison Notebooks have spawned an academic industry and are now spreading into political culture wars.
The Gramsci who wrote about the Occupation of the Factories in 1920 is a better starting place for the great revolutionaries theory and practice
I was at Beavertown’s 4th birthday event at Tottenham Hale on Saturday (14th February 2016)
It has attracted some comment on social media and muttering elsewhere.
In my view the idea of holding a festival of some of the most interesting ‘craft’ beers in the UK was a good one and the principle of making it a free and un-ticketed event was also right on this occasion.
But as any CAMRA remember will remind you (I joined in 1975) organising beer festivals is much harder than might be thought.
I’ve since ‘ascended’ to higher things but I was once a trade union organiser and I know very well that when you organise things, if something goes wrong you get the blame. If it goes OK, it’s taken for granted (see CAMRA fests). That’s fine by me since I’m invariably organising something for a purpose.
Anyway I did get in on Saturday and yes I do live very nearby in the proletarian utopia of Tottenham Hale. However I queued with the rest from just after 1pm (having come from doing some union organising work with the local MP David Lammy).
It was at least not raining and the free can of Gamma Ray while we waited was a nice gesture. That said I am no fan of queues and I am rarely to be found joining one.
Inside it was indeed very busy, sometimes too busy. That said there were lots of interesting beers and provided you picked your bar there was no wait.
The pricing at £2 a third, irrespective of style and strength, was also an important feature. It encouraged an equality of sampling of new beers, not always seen in similar events run on strict commercial lines.
And the weather wasn’t as bad as it often is in the middle of the Six Nations rugby series.
Criticisms I have a few. More toilets are needed. Drinking beer particularly when it’s cold tends to provoke the need to urinate.
I also had a good deal of sympathy for those who travelled from outside London and found the wait to get in just too long. Just last week I was the Celt Firefest in Caerphilly having booked a nearby hotel with my partner Megan for an overnight stay. The event was ticketed but if it hadn’t been and we hadn’t been able to get in I would have felt seriously grumpy. This needs to be looked at (entrance arrangements not how grumpy I am)
Finally I note on social media suggestions that since the event had 4,000 likes on Facebook, the organisers should have known it would be very busy and ramped things up accordingly.
Hmm. Anyone who organises anything that is un-ticketed knows that attendance is quite unpredictable and FB is no guide. Clicking like on FB does not translate into feet on the ground in Tottenham Hale (if only).
So perhaps at least some ticketing is going to be needed for future Beaver events on such a scale to manage numbers and expectations about getting in or not.
That aside it was a great day. It showed an admirable ambition and deserves a ‘well done’
Thornbridge have re-brewed the beer once known as St Petersburg on the Burton Union system at the original 7.7%. They point out that the original name, rightly, is no longer appropriate given Putin’s Russia.
I have little presence on Twitter in 2026 but I as a socialist historian I do retain my timeline archive. Below are some tweets about St Petersburg from a good while back. I seem to have mainly found it in the Jolly Butchers in Stoke Newington.
While 7.7% may seem a little under powered for an imperial stout in 2026 it certainly was not in 2010! The Courage version mentioned in the Thornbridge blog (below) was sold in nips at around 8% from memory. A bottle conditioned beer it didn’t exactly fly off the shelves at those Courage pubs that stocked it (The Queens in Crouch End in the 1970s in my personal experience)so was often Bretted well before I, and I expect others, understood what that meant and why…
As for the 2026 iteration, the can conditioned version tastes like a classic imperial stout without the adjuncts that often find their way into imperial stouts currently.
Glass of Thornbridge Bolvig-one off special cask of St Petersburg imperial stout 7.7% & fabulous
Aug 2 2010
Reviewing day off. About 70% off & 30% work. Better than sometimes. A glass of Thornbridge St Petersburg (oak aged 9%) it is then…
