First I’ll tell you about MUSA. It is a restaurant that James has purchased as a side project for himself. They have changed all the beer to BrewDog with a few Belgian imports to complement certain meals. It is run by 3 full time staff and serves some great modern versions of classic Scottish dishes.
We drank Punk with the meal and it was great food. I had Tempura breaded black pudding for appetizer, a filet of salmon and noodles for dinner and a sponge toffee pudding for dessert. It was amazing and has shown me how good black pudding can taste. I am now a fan.
It first struck me as odd that James would be meeting with a Molson-Coors (now called MC) rep as they kind of make and sell the beers that BrewDog hates. James did ask about beer golf though. Apparently getting your beer smashed with a golf club is funny to just about everyone and not just beer geeks. The rep also told us that Fuller’s is the one brand that would be purchased in the UK if MC were to look at buying one due to its “pub estate.” That made me laugh, I’ve never thought about the number of pubs a beer is in as real estate but it makes perfect sense. He also said that Coors is the global brand that they are pushing and how Molson Canadian wouldn’t make it into the UK market (obviously. What Brits would but “Canadian” urine when they can get tenants? Also, I’d hate for Canada to be represented that way) We chatted about some of the differences about the UK and Canadian beer markets and I told him that sadly Molson was a big seller in Ontario. I might have insulted him but he laughed it off. I did mean it more in a sense that they own 1 of the 2 places to buy beer in Ontario and have a strong influence on what hits the shelves. James also expressed that the LCBO was on top of his list to get into, so if anyone feels like it they can flood their local LCBO manager with questions of carrying BrewDog. He also said that if I started a brewery that him and Martin would be happy to come do sales for me so James can do another beer dinner at beerbistro and Martin can snowboard. Sounds like a good plan to me.
After we missed out bus back we headed to the BrewDog bar and had a bunch of great beer. Left Hand Imperial Stout and Stone Self Righteous were the best by far. They are both American and both not available in Canada. Sometimes this distribution thing makes no sense. Needless to say the next day at work wasn’t the greatest but it was well worth it.
Cheers James, your restaurant rocks and thanks for dinner!
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