The crowdfunding boom among breweries in the UK is leaving a sour taste in many investors mouths, according to a new article in Vice.

Lessons learned in the UK can be applied throughout Canada’s, the USA’s, and Australia’s craft brew industry.

While there has been some amazing success stories such as with BrewDog, there has been some costly failures as well.

Rob Murray Brown is a businessman who runs an Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) database – ecf.buzz – where he scrutinises the financial minutiae of campaigns, and calls out those who he believes are questionable.

“The beer industry is probably the most populated sector in the ECF world, and you get lots of people doing it who haven’t got a clue,” he says. “Hobby brewers might know how to brew a nice pint, but a lot of them don’t know how to run a business. And they’re securing free money – no one’s coming after them if it all goes wrong.”

For the full story, go here.