"Vanguard of postcapitalism" because they publish a recipe?<p>I'd say it was a publicity stunt from very effective brand marketers; they might as well have treated "No Logo" as an instruction manual. The Brewdog logo on the bottle matters more than the recipes to its target market, and the counterculture stance is all part of that. Brewdog's advantage over other craft brewers is branding rather than brewing.<p>And yes, it's also good for publicity when trying to crowdfund from "the misfits, the independents, the libertines”, perhaps because "the financial institutions of the City [which] gave rise to the bastardisation and commoditisation of beer" weren't too keen on their 115x revenue valuation. Nice of the Guardian to take those claims at face value (linked article) too.<p>But seriously, I'm struggling to think of anyone in the beer industry that tries to "make money out of keeping beer recipes secret", especially with most of the best-selling beers relying rather less on taste than Brewdog. Coca-cola, of course, famously emphasises their closely guarded recipe, but as with Brewdog's "open source", that's more about the corporate mythology behind the brand than any serious fear that someone might even slightly dent their brand and distribution network by making something that tastes the same rather than merely similar.
I'm surprised there's no discussion of "Gypsy brewing" in this article. The pioneer of Gpysy brewing, Mikkeller, has brewed beers in collaboration with BrewDog before and Gpysy brewing is counterpart to this "open IP" style of doing business.<p>I think it represents a much more interesting vision of "postcapitalism" than just opening up IP. Renting out excess capacity (in a brewery or other production facility) allows IP-only companies to get into the business. Not only has it allowed Mikkeller (and others, including his estranged twin brother) to get into beer with litte or no capex, it's allowed him to operate on different continents, solving another host of problems for working in a global marketplace.<p>Apply that model to other industries and there could be a Cambrian explosion in innovation and creativity.
I'm confused by 'postcapitalism' as a term, probably because I've never considered facts, including recipes, to be capital that someone should own. Can you have a contract with someone that knows lots of facts and can put them to use? Sure. Can you own facts? Not without a government-granted monopoly. And government-granted monopolies are not capitalism as I understand it.<p>I feel that IP monopolies are better described as 'corporatism' since those rights are directly proportional to your ability to enforce them with a legal team.
> “Oh, and if you are from one of the global beer mega corporations and you are reading this, your computer will spontaneously combust, James Bond style, any second now.”<p>Wouldn't that be Mission Impossible style?
BrewDog are one of my favourite breweries! Their collab, Black Tokyo Horizon is the single most interesting (and best, in my opinion) stouts in the world. Amazing to see that the recipes are open-source too, I guess it really is free-as-in-beer!
I do like Brewdog's "Dead Pony" light IPA. Hoppy with a good bite, and light enough (3.6% abv) for an easy session with some movies. Excellent 3 to 4 % abv ales are a hallmark of English brewing.<p>A superior light IPA though is Tuatara's "Iti". 3.3% with a good hop bloom, plenty of bite, and not a hint of an off flavour. I suspect they increase the mineral content of the water to give it more bite. I'm drinking one right now. :)<p>Now a good sub 4% pilsner - that I may never find.
I like picking beer company as a fun way to introduce a general audience to the notion of open source and segue into a broader econ discussion. I think a better example though is Tesla freeing up use of their patents for free. Yes there's a cynical reason decipherable (more EVs -> more market) but the way they've done it is pretty open, there's nothing to stop a clever company from competing with them better for being able to use the patented tech. Not having to deal with the lawyers' billables and tying up corporate leaders in legal meetings might be the biggest benefit for them.
When capitalism is discussed, it <i>should</i> be according to the following kind of definition:<p>1) economic exchange of resources is achieved through market transactions
2) means of production is privately owned and its availability is discretionary
3) labor is organized in a fashion where economic decisions governing the organization are made by a board of directors
> ...the Linux version of Unix for free ...<p>I don't usually nitpick about this, but I felt that this was really poor phrasing. If they want to discuss the evolution of "open source", it's just not ok to be so hand-wavy, and before getting to Linux, they should mention GNU and the GPL.
Home brewing is something I'd really like to get into.<p>I imagine I'll have a lot of failures though, before I start producing anything decent - can the quantities given be lessened, e.g. quartered, and still get the same taste result?
since the new labels came out, I like the punk and especially the 5am less. I still like the libertine. I was wondering if they were being prepared differently or in a new brewery or something that coincided with the new labels. I'm drinking them far away from the UK, so not sure if there are other issues at work. Cool brewery though. I've loved a couple of their collaborations.
An article about postcapitalism that doesn't promote violence-backed top-down compulsory programs like tax-funded basic income? What a breath of fresh air.
Uber, Tesla and Chipotle are often cited as examples of "post-capitalistic" companies. Just out of interest, what would be other such companies?<p>And how would one define "Capitalism 2.0"/"post-capitalism" as a better version of traditional capitalism, which often has worse connotations?