Behind Enemy Lines?

As we settled in amongst the tablet toting paparazzi of craft beer at the Boulder Marriott for the recent Beer Bloggers Conference, I am sure many (including ourselves) asked, “do they really belong here?” Truth is, we really weren’t sure what to expect. This was the first conference of its kind. To be fair, we do have a blog (you’re likely reading it now). It’s part of our recent overhaul of our website and all our digital strategies. And we do aspire to have this blog go beyond the typical “upcoming events and news from the pub” format to bring interesting perspectives from the underbelly of a small brewing operation. So we saw this as an opportunity to learn a great deal about identifying with an audience and creating a blog that adds value to the industry.

Now, we would be just plain embarrassing marketers if we didn’t also see this as an opportunity to take advantage of the nation’s most influential beer bloggers convening in our own back yard. You see, we have bloggers and beer writers contacting us daily to send them our brews to review, which of course we would love to do. The rub? We don’t bottle. We’ve won World Beer Cup awards and GABF medals, but we’re a thousand barrel a year operation. The only way for beer fans to get their hands on our beers is if they are lucky enough to attend the Craft Brewer’s Conference, GABF or one of the festivals where we make an appearance… or if they find themselves at our own pub in Denver or a local joint that carries one of our beers on tap. We had to jump at the chance to share our excitement for what we are doing.

So we held our own private tasting in our suite on our Saturday afternoon lunch break during the weekend of #bbc10. We made sure we weren’t interfering with any of the official activities at the conference and invited everyone to our room for pizza and the chance to try some of our special brews… plus a few of our favorites we had in our own cellar collection. We even brought along beer mustard made from our Legend of the Liquid Brain Imperial Stout, Ice Cream made from our Ghoul Fuel pumpkin ale and Legend of the Liquid Brain beer schnapps, now affectionately referred to as “beershine.”

We weren’t overrun by a mass of beer slugging hungry bloggers. We had a nice small gathering of folks that appreciated our effort to bring them something new for their curious palates. We watched football. We tried some home brews brought along by some of the guests. We talked beer. We talked life. It was fun. We had some great coverage of our own beer we shared from Bitchin’ Brews, From This Pint On, NovaBeerFly, Ferment Nation and The Fledgling Brewer, but that wasn’t the (only) end state we were focused on. We just wanted to be part of the cause.

The result? We had a blast. We learned so much from the conference sessions and from talking with our new friends. We came to the conclusion that there is no enemy. There is no us and them. There is a community of people, home brewers, independent brewers, large production houses, beer bloggers, beer writers and people who just like to drink the goodness and we all want to see the craft brewing industry continue to gain the respect and admiration that has been building around this widely versatile beverage.

On top of the informative discussions and sessions that were relevant to anyone wanting to be a part of the beer blogging community, from serious daily posting career bloggers to casual writers who just want to share their love of the malt and of the hops, there were activities planned that were perfect for the audience. We had dinners at local breweries sponsored by Oskar Blues and Boulder Beer Company. We had a “bring your own bottles” night where everyone brought a few bottles of their favorite brews. That night blew minds and a lucky few even got to try the End of History beer from BrewDog, packaged in a taxidermied squirrel. A live beer blogging event had attendees tasting 12 beers from sponsoring breweries, speed dating style. Will we go next year? Portland isn’t quite the quick hop from Denver that Boulder was, but hell yes, we’ll find a way to be there.

Being a small brewery on the edge of greatness, we also learned that we have some decisions to make. Where do we want to take this? How much should we grow? What is just big enough? Or do we even want to expand beyond the happy place where we are right now? We just don’t know quite yet, but you can read about the life of a small independent brewery and our journey here as we seek out the answers to all these questions.