BrewDog Explores Drone Beer Delivery

(Courtesy BrewDoG)

The coronavirus has led breweries around the world to get super-creative about getting beer to its fans. But leave it to global craft brewer, BrewDog, to take to the skies…

Here’s the deal…

Ever since the coronavirus impacted the craft beer industry, breweries have been forced to think out of the box to find safe ways of getting their beers to customers. One Long Island brewery is utilizing its beloved “brew dogs” to deliver beer safely to doorsteps.

And a Milwaukee, Wisconsin brewery has commandeered a former bank drive-thru to safely deliver its beer to fans.

But now BrewDog’s US brewery is exploring another alternative to contactless beer delivery, that if sucessful, the company hopes to use around the world.

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In July, we will start using drones to make socially distanced beer deliveries to various locations on our 42 acre @brewdogusa Columbus campus. And we are exploring using drones as the next stage of our BrewDog Now delivery service here in the UK.

A post shared by BrewDog (@brewdogofficial) on Jun 16, 2020 at 1:00am PDT

Starting in July, the brewery will deploy drones to deliver beer throughout its 42 acre brewery campus outside of Columbus, Ohio.

This experiment in drone beer delivery is part of a pilot program that will possibly expand to the UK, Dublin, Berlin, and Brisbane, Australia, and eventually incorporated into the brewery’s BrewDog Now delivery service.

And it’s not like drone beer delivery is an entirely new concept, although there’s no doubt that this age of social-distancing has helped move things along.

In 2017 an Israeli firm FlyTrex introduced its own line of commercial delivery drones and marketed them as being perfect for beer delivery.

Six years ago, Lakemaid Beer launched Frosty Winter Lager for Ice Fishing Season. The fish-forward beverage brand promoted it with this video of a beer drone delivery to ice fishers in frozen Minnesota. But the FAA stepped in to put an end to actual airborne deliveries that Lakemaid had planned to take place on Super Bowl

So maybe BrewDog is a little late to the game, but regulatory barriers are falling fast due to the worldwide pandemic.

And as we cautiously enter the post-COVID-19 “new normal” drone beer delivery’s time may have finally arrived.