BrewDog CEO James Watt paid out almost £500,000 after a misleading 'solid-gold' beer can promotion was reported to regulators.
The promotion involved customers being given the chance to win 'solid-gold' beer cans in packs of its popular beer.
However, customers began to question the 2021 promotion after finding out the cans were in fact gold plated.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 25 complaints, upholding them in October of 2021.
BrewDog boss James Watt that that he has made "some costly mistakes" in the promotion, adding that he "misunderstood the process of how they were made."
He said that he "falsely thought" the cans were made from solid gold.
In a post published on LinkedIn, he said: "Those were 3 very expensive mistaken tweets that I sent out in my enthusiasm for our new campaign."
Adding: "The Gold Can saga was headline news. We were made to look dishonest and disingenuous and we took a real hammering online and in the press.
Deservedly so. My initial tweets had been misleading and we deserved the flak."
Due to the error, Mr Watt said he contacted all 50 gold can winners to offer them the "full cash amount" as an alternative to the prize if they were unhappy.
He said: "All in all, it ended up costing me around £470,000 - well over 2 and a half years' salary."
In his post, he revealed that he now owns 40 gold-plated beer cans.
After its investigation into the promotion, the ASA said that while there were complaints over the advert's authenticity, some questioned the claimed value of the cans at £15,000.
The ASA said that a single 330ml can made from pure gold would be valued at around £363,000.
Despite this, the watchdog said that most customers would be unlikely to know this and still think the cans were pure gold.
BrewDog has received criticism for its marketing practices in the past with one advert last year being banned after claiming its fruit-flavoured beverages constituted "one of your five a day."
