Dr Thomas Bower sued for ‘direct discrimination and breach of the Equality Act 2010’ (Picture: Media Wales)

A man has successfully sued beer company Brewdog after a barman at one of its chains refused him a drink because it was marketed at ‘girls’.

Thomas Bower, 27, sued for sex discrimination after he was told he could not buy a Pink IPA at a bar in Cardiff, Wales, because he was a man.

The beer, sold for £4, was launched in 2018 to highlight the gender pay gap and gave people who identified as female the chance to buy the drink at a discounted cost.

It was satirically dubbed Beer for Girls, with BrewDog saying it had created Pink IPA as a way of ‘exposing the sexist marketing techniques used to target women, particularly within the beer industry’.

Dr Bower, from Cardiff, said he was told that as he was male, he could not order the drink and he was instead offered the company’s Punk IPA for £5.

The software engineer said: ‘After a bit of a back and forth with me protesting this, I felt forced to identify as female and was then able to get the drink for £4 – I complained to the company about this and they said it wasn’t discrimination because the price difference was part of a national campaign to raise awareness about the gender pay gap.

‘Not satisfied with this, I complained again to Brewdog stating that I was intending to take them to court over this but would rather resolve the problem outside court. They ignored this.’

Mr Bower, 27, said he felt forced to lie about his sex in order to buy the drink (Picture: Thomas Bower/Media Wales)

He took Brewdog to the small claims court and said he would drop his claim if they apologised publicly.

Court documents dated May 23, 2019, stated his claim for damages and an apology for ‘direct discrimination and breach of the Equality Act 2010’.

In the document Dr Bower said: ‘[I] felt forced to lie about my sex in order to receive the product at the lower price and told the bartender that I identified as female.

‘The bartender then served me the drink at a price of £4.’

District Judge Phillips said: ‘In my judgment, it is clear that in this case the claimant has been directly discriminated against by the defendant because of his sex.

‘The fact that by identifying as female he was still able to purchase a Pink IPA makes no difference.

‘I accept what Dr Bower says, namely that identifying as female was the only way he could purchase a Pink IPA at a cost of £4.’

Judge Phillips awarded Dr Bower £1,000 in damages after saying he would have felt ‘humiliated’.

The engineer, who represented himself in court, donated his damages to the Young Women’s Trust, which aims to help women negotiate for better pay and male mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

Pink IPA was created as part of a satirical campaign to highlight the gender pay gap and was released on International Women’s Day (Picture: Brewdog)

Dr Bower said he ‘does not deny the existence’ of the gender pay gap, but said there should be equal opportunities over equal outcome.

According to court documents, Brewdog stated the Pink IPA was created as part of a ‘satirical campaign’ to highlight gender inequality.

The documents, seen by WalesOnline, state: ‘As part of this campaign, the defendant says it rebranded its product, Punk IPA and sold this as Pink IPA.

‘They say the campaign was undertaken for four weeks and commenced on March 8, 2018, International Women’s Day.

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‘They say Pink IPA was sold to those identifying as women and was offered at a reduced price of 20 per cent, on the basis of this being the gender pay gap in the United Kingdom.’

Brewdog argued that as Dr Bower claimed he identified as female, he received no different treatment and was able to purchase the Pink IPA.