Jeremy Clarkson giving away 1,000 free kegs of Hawkstone to pubs

Jeremy Clarkson is giving away 1,000 free kegs of his Hawkstone lager and cider to pubs after claiming it has helped him avoid “financial ruin” in his own venue.

The presenter launched his first pub, the Farmer’s Dog in the Cotswolds, last August after losing a battle with West Oxfordshire District Council to open a restaurant on his nearby Diddly Squat Farm.

Clarkson said he bought the pub for “less than £1m” but has since admitted to being “naïve” to the challenges of running a hospitality business and expressed doubts about its investors making their money back.

He is now offering to give away 1,000 free kegs from his Hawkstone brewery to other pub owners.

In a post on Instagram, Clarkson said: “Welcome to the Farmer’s Dog, it’s a pub I’ve had for about six months now, and I’ve worked out it is a brilliant way of turning £100 into about £94 using nothing but customers.

“The only thing that is saving me from financial ruin is the fact that we serve Hawkstone lager and Hawkstone cider.

“If you’ve got a pub and if you want to see if this strategy works for you as well, get in touch with us at our website, and if we like the sound of your pub, if it is the kind of place we want to be in, we’ll send you a free keg.

“88 pints of Hawkstone lager or cider for nothing.”

Clarkson took over running Diddly Squat Farm in 2019 and has been praised for bringing attention to the issues faced by farmers in his Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm.

The opening of the Farmer’s Dog is expected to feature in an upcoming series.

Writing in his column in The Times, the presenter said: “It’s galling to see how much effort is required to make so little money on the farm.

“It’s worse at the pub. The customers are coming. There’s no problem there. But turning their visits into a profit is nigh-on impossible.”