Capitalism refreshes those parts that other beers cannot reach

BrewDog, the Aberdeenshire-based craft brewer, is now worth more than £1bn after selling a stake to a US private equity firm. BrewDog was founded on crowdfunded cash and has 55,000 small investors but now the brewer has raised £213m from TSG Consumer Partners, for a 22.3% stake. The deal will see about £100m paid out to the brewer's co-founders, a further £100m go into the business and the rest used to buy shares from early investors. BrewDog grew rapidly from its founding in Fraserburgh in 2007, with a £20,000 bank loan, and opened its first pub in Aberdeen in 2010. It had revenues of £71m last year and returned a pre-tax profit of more than £7m. The private equity cash comes at a time of further expansion for the firm, which is building a new brewery in Columbus, Ohio, and hopes to launch in Australia and Asia after that.

Founders James Watt and Martin Dickie had previously said they would never sell to a multinational beer maker,