What began in a garage more than a decade ago has turned into one of Scotland’s biggest success stories.

No, no, we’re not talking about a once obscure rock band like Biffy Clyro or Franz Ferdinand, but rather a brewery.

The journey began back in 2007 when James Watt and Martin Dickie opened a “makeshift brewery in Dickie’s mother’s garage,” reports CNN.

Selling their beer at farmer’s markets and from the back of their car, their big break came after they entered a beer competition run by UK supermarket chain, Tesco.

You see, before that, no one wanted to buy their beer, explained Watt:

They said they were too hoppy, they were too bitter, they were too expensive. But we were determined that if we were going to fail we were going to fail on our own terms and do something that we loved.

The grand prize of the Tesco competition landed them on the shelves of 400 stores nationwide and, after entering four beers into the blind-tasting competition, “walked away with first, second, third and fourth place.” Boom.

When Tesco asked for a weekly order of 1,200 cases of Punk IPA – twice their production – Watt didn’t flinch.

“I just sat there with my best poker face and didn’t mention anything at all about the fact that it was two guys and one dog filling bottles by hand,” he says.

The pair borrowed £20,000 ($26,000) from the bank to buy new equipment, got the beer on Tesco’s shelves, and haven’t looked back.

Now BrewDog has more than 50 bars around the world, and sales of £72 million (R1.2 billion). Even more incredible is the valuation – a cool £1 billion  (R17,5 billion).

But how, in 10 years, did they grow so big? Watt puts it down to their “alternative business model” which goes a little something like this:

Forced by the global financial crisis to find alternative ways of funding the business, BrewDog offered fans the opportunity to buy shares in the company. They called it Equity for Punks, and have since built a community of 55 000 investors.

“We love the fact that our business is owned by people who are as passionate about great beer as we are,” says Watt.

But passion breweries don’t just stem from far away countries like Scotland. Our very own craft beer brewery, which prides itself in sharing the exciting developments that are taking place in the craft beer realm around the world, is making waves both locally and internationally.

Having just released their Rubus Pale Ale with that raspberry undertone, Devil’s Peak Brewery just keeps ’em coming.

Back by popular demand, their award winning Grapefruit Express is launching this Thursday, 11 May, at 12 noon in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town in limited edition 440ml cans.

Apparently extremely limited, if you have yet to taste the winner of the ‘Best in Show’ & ‘Best Hoppy Beer’ at the Cape Town Festival of Beer, then this is your chance.

They will be available at the same places listed here.

Go on, give the lads a hand and maybe you could soon be visiting a Devil’s Peak Taproom on your next overseas adventure for a taste of home.