BrewDog makes amends with Wolf bar by collaborating on gin

In March, owners of the Lone Wolf, not the Wolf, Constitution Hill, in Snow Hill, Joshua and Sallie McFadyen said they were told to change their pub’s name or face a legal battle​ because it shared the name of BrewDog’s spirits brand, Lone Wolf.

The venue opened in January this year but registered the company as Lone Wolf Pubs on 31 July 2015 while looking at sites.

The Scottish brewer and operator U-turned on the name row​ and BrewDog co-founder James Watt tweeted: “Our lawyers got a bit trigger happy.

“We are happy for the Lone Wolf Bar in Birmingham to keep using the name.”

He also offered to send the bar free cases of Lone Wolf gin and vodka.

Collaboration gin

However, since then, Joshua and Sallie were invited to the spirit distillery to collaborate on a gin named Wolf Pack and the profits from the gin will go to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust.

Wolf Pack, which is 48% ABV and comes in a 700ml bottle, features botanicals including hibiscus flower, grains of paradise, Cassia bark and wolfberry.

BrewDog said: “This union with the Wolf symbolises our commitment to collaborating with our community, and resolving our differences following a trademark issue a few months ago.

“We support those who fiercely defend their independence and what they stand for. Making a unique gin to honour that with the Wolf was the natural thing to do.”

Sallie McFadyen told The Morning Advertiser ​why her and Joshua accepted BrewDog’s invitation to team up and create the spirit.

She said: “Our bar manager James Hudson, Joshua and I were invited to the distillery to make some gin and BrewDog paid for our legal and signage costs.

“[BrewDog] admitted its mistake and it has been corrected.

Making amends

Sallie also explained how she was happy with the way BrewDog has gone about rectifying the debacle and stressed the importance of businesses working together in the trade.

She said: “They offered to pay our costs, invited us to make gin and we thought they were trying to make amends.

“We didn’t want to look petty and spiteful or cut our nose off to spite our face. They were the big person saying they were sorry and were wrong and you can’t really throw it back in people’s face when they apologise.

“You don’t like to make enemies in the industry and we were just excited about opening our own bar. That’s just what we wanted to do without all the hassle.

“We are just glad it all came out good in the end.”