BrewDog boss pays almost £500k to unhappy ‘solid gold’ beer can winners

James Watt says bungled promotion in which cans were only gold plated looked ‘dishonest and disingenuous’

The chief executive of BrewDog has paid out almost £500,000 from his own pocket to winners of a bungled “solid gold” beer can promotion which he has admitted made the controversial brewer look “dishonest and disingenuous”.

James Watt said he got so personally carried away with the Willy Wonka-inspired promotion, which hid 50 gold cans in cases of beer, that he made some “costly mistakes” that misled treasure hunters.