Since its establishment in Fraserburgh in 2007, BrewDog has become the UK's largest independent brewery, founded by former schoolmates James Watt and Martin Dickie. In 2010, they moved the company to Ellon near Aberdeen. Their products are now sold worldwide, and besides brewing beer, the company also owns a chain of bars. In 2014, the company decided to build a craft distillery near their Ellon brewery and recruited Steven Kersley from Diageo to supervise. From the start, the team planned to produce a series of spirits distilled from scratch under one roof – unlike many gin distilleries that purchase neutral spirit for further processing. To maintain consistency with BrewDog's rebellious image, Lone Wolf is highly innovative, emphasizes craftsmanship, and aims to "push spirits to a new height... a perfect combination of art and science." In addition to malt whiskey, the distillery can also produce American corn whiskey and rye whiskey, gin, rum, vodka, and fruit brandy. It is highly experimental, made possible by its unique still configuration: a 3,000-liter lantern-shaped primary still with 8 baffles, another 3,000-liter spirit still with 60 baffles ("the world's only triple bubble still, which allows the liquid to have full copper contact, enabling alcohol concentration to reach 91.5% vol."), a 600-liter pot still for gin distillation and brandy distillation, and a 50-liter pot still for experimentation and research. Research and innovation will go beyond distillation itself. For example, Lone Wolf is researching using cherry and apple trees to dry malt, and the effect of aging non-whiskey spirits in wood other than oak. The first bottled spirits released in 2017 were gin and vodka. Whiskey has been produced, but at the time of writing was still in trial stages, for example, research includes the saccharification effects of wheat and rye, and of course, 100% pure malt distillation.

"BrewDog" – the name itself perfectly captures the company's fiercely independent, outsider spirit. In 2010, this boundary-pushing Scottish craft brewery unleashed "Sink the Bismarck!" at 41% ABV, wresting back the "world's strongest beer" crown from Germany's Schorschbräu and their 40% ABV Schorschbock. Later that year, they obliterated all limits with "The End of History" at 55% ABV, an audacious bottling presented inside taxidermied roadkill (7 stoats and 4 squirrels) priced at £500 and £700 – only 11 bottles ever existed. While animal rights activists howled in protest, BrewDog claimed dual records for both alcohol content and price. This punk-rock ethos, mirroring the rebellious innovation seen in modern craft distilling, transformed BrewDog from provocateurs into a craft beer phenomenon, earning countless international awards. In April 2017, TSG Consumer Partners acquired a 22% equity stake for £213 million, valuing the company at nearly £1 billion.