Mark Craig from Lisburn found his golden can in a case of BrewDog’s flagship Punk IPA – one of 50 given between November 2020 and March 2021, as part of a promotional competition.
The drinks industry worker had hoped to pay for his wedding by selling the gold, but discovered the can was only plated with the precious metal after asking for a certificate from BrewDog.
Craig told the Guardian: “Sales of Punk presumably went through the roof. You saw people claiming that that they’d ordered 20 cases to stock up, all on the basis of it being a ‘solid gold’ can.
“I can’t imagine a similar frenzy for a novelty can, which is what it ended up being.”
Craig said gold traders told him that if the 330ml can really was solid gold, it would be worth up to £10,000 based on its weight, despite being hollow.
However, the certificate provided by BrewDog shows the can is coated with gold plating just three thousandths of a millimetre thick.
Brewdog said it stood by the £15,000 value placed on the cans “based on multiple factors – including the price we paid for its manufacture, the constituent metal and quality of the final product, the standard retail markup and the rarity and uniqueness of the cans”.
But the company said it could not guarantee their value on the open market and declined to answer whether it would buy the can back for £15,000 minus costs.
The disagreement, first reported by the Scottish Sun, is the latest in a string of controversies to hit BrewDog which was left reeling in recent weeks when a group of ex-employees told of a “culture of fear” at the Scottish brewery
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