Although nothing could ever justify that eye-watering £7.69 price tag, I’ll admit to quite liking this pint - a hoppy IPA with tropical tasting notes of pineapple, lychee and grapefruit.

It was poured by a young, chatty barman, and my booth seat looking out towards the streets of Merchant City is comfortable enough that I could easily spend the remainder of the afternoon in this one spot.

Yet, no matter how surprisingly not-terrible the experience has been so far, there’s an inherent sense of ickiness preventing me from fully relaxing.

This is a BrewDog pub, and for that reason alone, I don’t want to be here.

Pictured: BrewDog last month announced plans to shut 10 pubs across the UK (Image: Newsquest)

My first introduction to these PR stunt-loving, controversy-prone ‘punks’ dates back to somewhere around 2014, a full seven years after founders James Watt and Martin Dickie burst onto the scene punting ‘tiny batch brews in hand-filled bottles’ at markets around Aberdeenshire.

Not long over the legal drinking age threshold, I had yet to develop a taste for any form of alcohol outside of vodka and Diet Coke served in plastic cups at The Garage, let alone craft IPA, which seemed reserved for hardcore beer geeks.

My older brother, however, was a fan, requesting a pack of BrewDog’s Dead Pony Club when I asked what I could get in for him to drink during his next visit.

These guys seemed interesting, he told me while cracking open a can, giving people the chance to invest in their ‘anti-business business model’ and sticking it to the man with edgy advertising campaigns and shock tactics.

To top it off, they were Scottish, so we could proudly claim them as our own. Pretty cool.

Pictured: A promotional image for James Watt's upcoming reality TV show - 'House of Unicorns' (Image: BrewDog)

How I wish I could travel back in time to that moment and show us both just a couple of Watts’ recent social media posts, so far from any form of ‘punk’ that it’s genuinely comical.

Of course, not quite as easy to laugh off are the many........

© Herald Scotland