And finally…Brewgooders turn beer into water

A new Scottish craft beer brand will be unveiled today on World Water Day with the purpose of providing clean drinking water to millions of people in developing countries by giving away 100 per cent of its profits.

Brewgooder, the world’s first craft beer label to donate all of its profits to clean water projects, is the brainchild of Alan Mahon and Josh Littlejohn, the friends and social entrepreneurs behind the popular Social Bite sandwich shop chain that attracted global attention after a visit from George Clooney last year.

The pair hatched the idea whilst having a beer in their local pub and discussing how they could make a difference in the world.

Brewgooder’s ‘Clean Water Lager’ will be launched with a campaign to fund the production of the first 200,000 cans on crowd funding platform Indiegogo on World Water Day, and available on tap in BrewDog’s UK bars from today.

Founder Alan Mahon said: “We’re offering beer drinkers the chance to help others by doing what they love most – drinking good beer. Using beer to drive such an ambitious social change has never been tried before. Today we are beginning a journey to provide one million people with clean drinking water and with our #DrinkBeerGiveWater crowd fund campaign we are asking the public to help us on our mission.

“We’ve come a long way since thinking this up in the pub and we’re thrilled people will be able to become the first Brewgooder drinkers by backing our crowd fund campaign on Indiegogo. We hope that when our campaign is successful, drinkers all over the world will be able to find Brewgooder in their local bar, restaurant and supermarket and we can start to make a big impact where it’s needed.”

Co-founder Josh Littlejohn said: “We wanted to build on the success of Social Bite and develop other models of using business to tackle social challenges. There is a lovely symmetry of drinking good beer and giving clean water.

“We are excited about teaming up with a business of BrewDog’s scale to make a significant impact – with the ultimate ambition to make a dent in a global water crisis that means 650 million people have no access to clean drinking water and 1,400 children die each day from water borne diseases.”

Brewgooder will donate 100% of its profits to the Brewgooder Foundation, whose trustees are made up of Alan Mahon, Josh Littlejohn, and BrewDog founders James Watt and Martin Dickie, supported by philanthropic partner, The Hunter Foundation.

The Brewgooder Foundation has already formed partnerships with Oxfam, WaterAid and MercyCorps to distribute its funds with the first project being the installation of solar powered water pumps at the Nora Docherty School in a remote village in Dedza, Malawi, where the brand’s powerful crowd funding film was shot last month (view film here).

The latest addition to Scotland’s thriving craft beer sector is the first to donate all profits to good causes, and has been produced in partnership with beer punk pioneers BrewDog using a unique blend of Saaz and Sorachi Ace hops.

Brewgooder will be offering a range of unique perks to ‘founder members’ of the company who support the crowd fund onIndiegogo.com, including six-packs of the very first cans of the new beer, limited edition artwork prints and the opportunity to co-sponsor water projects.

Brewgooder backers can support the start of the business through a range of options from £5 to £50, as well as by contributing directly to the Brewgooder Foundation.

The campaign will also reach out to independent bars by offering them the chance to be the first to sell Brewgooder with wholesale packages of £1,000. The Brewgooder team plan to introduce a number of additional perks throughout the campaign in the UK, US and Australia.