A man with glasses wearing an orange fleece holding a blue book "Business for Punks" by Brewdog founder James Watt
Image caption,Richard Fisher, with his home brewing kit and Brewdog founder James Watt’s book of business advice

ByCalum Watson

BBC Scotland

  • Published17 February 2026

Updated 24 minutes ago

Richard Fisher likes beer. He brews his own ale at home and once considered buying a brewery. But he never expected he might lose £12,000 investing in Brewdog.

For the former small business adviser from Suffolk, taking a small stake in the upstart beer company from north east Scotland seemed an opportunity too good to miss.

“Maverick, independent, to a certain extent rebellious – it was all good stuff,” he said.

Richard, 58, is one of more than 200,000 investors who put money into the firm’s “Equity for Punks”, external scheme.

Typically they spent about £500 on shares costing £20-30 each but Richard, seeing the firm’s rapid expansion, invested £12,000 in the hope of a good return.

“I genuinely thought Brewdog would go public, be listed on the stock market with the freedom to buy and sell shares and there was potential to make a bit of profit.”

Now, with the news that Brewdog is preparing itself to be sold, he’s resigned to the risk of losing it all.

Even so, there is no guarantee that you will not lose any of your capital. You would have to be extremely unlucky to lose all of your investment but it’s one reason to have a diversified Snowball.