'BrewDog aims to launch pub chain by end of 2010'

The Scottish brewery behind the world's strongest beer is planning to open a chain of pubs by the end of 2010, its owners said. BrewDog partners James Watt and Martin Dickie, both aged 27, want to build on rapid growth at their Aberdeenshire business and continue to 'tackle' a culture of mass-produced cheap drinks. The firm recently unveiled its 32 per cent beer, Tactical Nuclear Penguin, drawing criticism from industry watchdog the Portman Group. - Press Association​

Until March and for the price of just £1, customers at the Old Broken Cross in Northwich, Cheshire can tuck into a home-made pie with chips and peas. Landlord Colin McPherson has been offering the menu throughout December as a credit crunch busting move and the meals are so cheap that workers come in for their lunch daily, as many as 80 people a day. McPherson says the pub just about breaks even on the £1 meals, but drink sales from the extra diners mean takings are up overall. - Mail On Sunday​

In its Eighties heyday it was the coolest club in town. Now the 'Wag' on Wardour Street in London's Soho district is to suffer a fate even worse than going out of fashion - it is to become an Irish theme pub. High rents and rates are forcing the club's operators to close the venue. In their place Mitchells & Butlers is due to splash out more than £4m on converting it into the managed pub group's largest O'Neills bar. - Evening Standard​

Opera lovers will soon be able to indulge their passion for Puccini in an upstairs room of a North London pub. The Cock Tavern, on Kilburn High Road, is playing host to the UpCloseOpera company's take on the Italian masterpiece 'La Boheme'. Limited space means the 20-strong chorus members will be planted among the regular drinkers at the bar, and organisers hope over the course of the production's 11-week run it could turn into a pub sing-along. - The Times​

It was meant to be a showcase for the British pub industry, but the organisers of the first outdoor pub extravaganza failed to get their party off the ground and have been left with a £1m hangover. The Pub in the Park festival was scheduled for three days in Greenwich Park, south-east London, in September. But the event was cancelled at the last minute, with organisers blaming poor ticket sales and the credit crunch. Now liquidators at insolvency practitioner Wilson Field have been called in to Custom Made Events, the company behind Pub in the Park, and documents show that the company is in the red to the tune of £936,765.37. - Daily Mail​