James Watt plans new beer brand, offers BrewDog backers free shares

James Watt is trying to rebuild trust with the investors who powered BrewDog’s rise, and his answer is a new beer company that hands them shares for free. The brand, called Second Best, would give former Equity for Punks backers the exact stake they once held in BrewDog, with reporting indicating that could amount to as much as 19.3% of the new company.

The offer matters because it comes after one of the most famous crowdfunding stories in UK drinks ended badly for the small investors who bought into the BrewDog dream. Equity for Punks ran from 2009 to 2021, raised about £75 million across seven rounds and drew more than 200,000 individual investors. BrewDog itself once said the scheme let beer lovers become stakeholders in a “ground-breaking” crowdfunding initiative, and the company was later valued at roughly £2 billion to £2.7 billion.

That paper wealth vanished when BrewDog’s UK operations were sold in March 2026 for £33 million to Tilray Brands, the US cannabis and drinks group. The sale left the Equity for Punks investors with nothing from the deal, while reports said 38 UK bars closed and 484 staff were made redundant. Watt has said he was heartbroken for workers and investors and admitted the company had expanded too quickly and diversified too broadly.

Second Best is being positioned as a smaller, cleaner reset. Watt said the business would launch with canned beer, starting with two pale ales and a lager, rather than trying to recreate BrewDog’s pubs-and-bars empire. He has also said former BrewDog investors will be able to claim the free stake they once held, and that their equity in Second Best will sit alongside his own. The offer is also expected to extend to former BrewDog bar staff who held shares.

But the repair job is still incomplete. No launch date has been set, and the company still needs licences and approvals before it can begin trading. Watt has said he feels an obligation to the original backers and wants to make good, but the real test is whether this is restitution or branding: a new share offer for people already burned by a business that once promised collective ownership, then ended in a rescue sale that wiped them out.