Every year people around the world struggle to find gifts for friends and family come the holiday season. In the past, my trick was to figure out their hobby and then research useful items that pertain to that passion. However, this is a dangerous way to go as you could end up buying them something completely useless despite its relation to their hobby. I know I have my share of gifts I grinned and thanked someone for, then thought to myself ‘what the heck am I going to do with this?’ With that in mind, I have set out to provide the loved ones of us craft beer fans a holiday gift guide. Each item was researched with care, taking the input of many craft beer fans to help make this as universal as possible. Without any further delay, the beer drinker’s holiday gift guide 2009 part 1:
This week is the start of the holiday season for British Columbia craft beer fans. Unlike most craft fans south of the border, there is no late November Thanksgiving up here to set the festive atmosphere. No, we rely on something much different. This coming week marks two of the best beer events of 2009 with the 100th tap rotation at the Alibi Room and DIX BBQ & Brewery Winter Xtreme Caskival!
Many people are unaware of BC when it comes to being a beer region. Despite this fact, its staggering just how much good product is coming out of BC breweries. That is why when I sat down to pick the best brewery in BC for 2009 it was no small task. I will state that this opinion comes from a number of factors, and the conclusion was not came to lightly. Considerations include not only quality of beers, but how the participate in the local craft industry, their accessibility, presentation, and marketing. With this in mind I present truecask.com’s best BC brewery of 2009:
All too often, lovers of craft beer are looked at in a negative way. The opinions vary; however, most commonly we are looked at as geeks, snobs, or neanderthals depending on who you ask. If we are going to go forward as a community, we need to do our best to dispel these myths and showcase our passion appropriately. I know many of you may take the approach that image doesn’t matter and that passion is all that counts; although there is some merit to that, one can never discount the effect of presentation.
Take for example, a recent business meeting I attended. One of the presenters is an utter genius and had a fantastic product, yet due to his unpolished presentation he came off as confused and rambling. Until he gets this end of his business dealt with, I feel he is going to have a lot more difficulty getting people to buy into him than he should get based on his merits.
Another week, another Cask Cast. Despite the fact I have been quiet this week, rest assured, I am out there hustling. This week saw many positives for the craft beer industry. Most notably, Rock Art Brewery was able to escape the clutches of corporate america. Many many people are to thank for this moral victory. However, without the steadfast convictions of Rock Art we may have never been able to test our mettle as a community. With the help of Rock Art’s fellow brewers, an army of hardcore beer bloggers, and the most important – craft beer lovers, they were able to fight off the ‘Monster.’ With that in mind, let us celebrate with yet another week of Cask Cast. Cheers to Two Guys On Beer, Two Beer Queers, Abs Of Beer TV, Beer Tap TV, and everyones favorite – Hop Cast, for letting the world know about the virtues of craft beer. Keep up the good work gentleman.
Nano-Brewing is not exactly a new concept. That said, I don’t think that enough of us hop-heads are aware of the latest revolution in brewing. When trying to start a business, there is nothing wrong with starting small and growing organically. I think a lot of people out there look at starting their own brewery or brew pub and go “wow, there is no way I can afford to get into this.” Although by no means cheap, starting a nano-brewery could be the way to go if you are looking to make and sell beer.
Better late than never, I suppose. No matter what happens you can’t keep a good Cask Cast down. Luckily for me, all my good friends at Two Guys On Beer, Two Beer Queers, Beer Tap TV, Hop Cast, and Abs Of Beer TV have been working harder than I have. In fact, if you check out Two Beer Queers and Abs Of Beer TV’s sites, you’ll notice both have recently done awesome redesigns. I hope you enjoy this weeks Cask Cast; as long as you keep checking them out, I’ll keep posting them.
Recently, the Russell Brewing Company signed a five year sponsorship deal with the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre, home of the Abbotsford Heat. You can read the full release here. This is not a particularly unusual occurrence but it got me thinking about how many breweries miss opportunities like this. If you’ve read the truecask.com About page, then you know my background is marketing, and although I have designs to do some consulting work for the industry, I also know that withholding information is not going to help me achieve the mission objective I state on that exact same About page. As a result I have decided to post my marketing musings for those in the industry to digest, refute, and possibly execute.
Earlier today I got this email from Erik Boles, one of the masterminds behind Beer Tap TV and good friend of truecask.com. The gist of his letter was this: Monster Energy Drink, a Coca-Cola distributed beverage brand is suing a small Vermont brewery over a trademark issue. Despite the fact that the lawsuit is complete baseless, there is little the brewer can do simply because of financial limitations. We, the craft beer community, must do whatever we can in order to stop this from going any further. I don’t even have access to the beer this brewery makes, as I’m sure many of you don’t. However, if we allow this to happen what is to say another major company won’t come after another tiny brewery and slowly but surely destroy everything we love so dearly. I implore you, take Erik’s lead, stand up, let your voice be heard, and fight this as best as you can.
Another week down, another Cask Cast ready to rock. I can’t stress enough how much I love being able to work with all these passionate video bloggers on a regular basis. As promised, this week Cask Cast has a new addition to its roster. The guys over at Abs Of Beer TV contacted me the other week and asked if they could get on Cask Cast. After reviewing their show, I thought I’d let them marinade for a bit and see how things progressed. Needless to say I wasn’t expecting them to deliver such an awesome product as early as their fourth episode. With that in mind, I’m happy to say they are now part of a roster that includes Two Guys On Beer, Two Beer Queers, Hop Cast, and Beer Tap TV. Good company to keep if you ask me…
Every year people around the world struggle to find gifts for friends and family come the holiday season. In the past, my trick was to figure out their hobby and then research useful items that pertain to that passion. However, this is a dangerous way to go as you could end up buying them something completely useless despite its relation to their hobby. I know I have my share of gifts I grinned and thanked someone for, then thought to myself ‘what the heck am I going to do with this?’ With that in mind, I have set out to provide the loved ones of us craft beer fans a holiday gift guide. Each item was researched with care, taking the input of many craft beer fans to help make this as universal as possible. Without any further delay, the beer drinker’s holiday gift guide 2009 part 1:
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