Tag Archives: granville island

The Best and Worst of Beer PR

We’ve been getting a lot of beer PR stuff sent to us recently.  Some of it is so bad it makes me want to post horrible things about whatever is being promoted.  I’m not going to do that, because nobody likes a debbie-downer, but I do want to post about some of the generally awesome and terrible things we regularly receive.  I should also note that, as Erik stated, the only thing that’s really going to work is a truly great product and a brand that resonates with people.  It helps if you have international distribution networks and multi-million dollar marketing budgets (see Molson, Budweiser et al.), but yeah, great product is where it’s at.

Steamworks sent me a beer present, I liked that

Steamworks sent me a beer present, I liked that

First I’ll start with the good:

  • Can I send you a sample? Why yes, yes you can.  If you’re launching a new beer, there’s no better way to get me to try it than by sending me a sample.  Chances are, unless I’m already into your beer, I’m not going to go buy it just because you emailed me about it.  A lot of companies (breweries/agencies) are hesitant to send out samples because they think us bloggers are just trying to scam free beer.  Well I’ve got some news for you, we’re totally trying to scam free beer off you.  That’s the single greatest thing about being a beer blogger, free beer.  By sending us samples, and we’re just talking one or two bottles here, you’re making us very happy (unless it’s bad) and enormously increasing the chances we’ll talk about it (if it’s good).
  • Please come to our launch party – Hey thanks, I’ll see if I can make it.  Launch parties are also very much appreciated and I usually go if I’ve got nothing else going on.  They are mostly pretty fun and they encourage active discussion of the new beer, since everyone there is drinking it.  I enjoy talking to the brewery staff in person and hobnobbing with my fellow bloggers.  The best launch parties have tasty food, minimal presentation time, free rides home, are at convenient times, and are conveniently located.  If you want people to show, make it really easy for them.
  • Do you want to talk to the brewer? - Yes, yes I do.  Brewers are rad, down to earth, hardworking people.  They also care way more about the beer than the marketing and communications people. I freaking love talking to brewers.
  • Can I add you to our maillist? – Maybe, thanks for asking first.

You might think I sound like an entitled, spoiled brat right now.  And while I am an entitled, spoiled brat, the crux of the situation is that PR people are trying to get me to do something I probably don’t want to do.  If it’s not fun or interesting or easy for me, chances are I’m not doing it.  Now for some specific real examples of awesome PR.

Granville Island Brockton IPA party

Erik at the Granville Island Brockton IPA party

Granville Island, even before they were bought by Molson, have always been great.  They email to tell us about seasonals in a very non-douchey way.  They throw launch parties and invite us, plus our wives (we’re both married, not Mormons).  They let us talk to the brewer, Vern Lambourne, who is a rad dude.  Granville Island use Jive Communications and I really like dealing with them a lot. A post about the Brockton IPA launch we attended.

Rickards send us samples without demanding posts in return.  They also invited us to the launch of their new seasonal last month, but we were too lazy to go.  We once received a kinky sample box, complete with blindfold.  A knock on them, I thought their Movember campaign was shameless.

Rickards Dark sample

Free samples? I’ll take it

Steamworks sent a six pack of their new bottled product attached to a giant balloon to my office.  They invited us to their launch party too, but we couldn’t make it.

Phillips run their own mailing list, periodically sending out funny emails about their new beers.  None of this FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE garbage, just the straight up info.  Sign up for it here if your interested.

Not to mention the scores of breweries who don’t do any PR because their beer is so good, I’m looking right at you Driftwood.

Now for the bad:

  • Free guest post for you! - We’ve been getting a lot of this lately.  I always ask to see the content, despite never intending to post about it, and it’s usually a bs story with a few links to some major brand.  The highest profile brewery to pull this stunt on us was Fosters UK.  Recently somebody representing flask.com offered me $40 to post their spam.  There’s your links, jerks.
  • Why didn’t you blog about the sample I sent you? – Really, are you really asking me this?  I’m not a corporate shill and I’m not going to blog about something just because you sent me $3 worth of beer.  The real reason I didn’t blog about it is because I hated it.
  • I subscribed you to our maillist without asking – Did you now?  Thanks for that.  And, oh, no unsubscribe link, thanks again.  Guess what?  You’re going straight to spam.
  • Can I please send you irrelevant information? – How did you know I wanted to hear about things I’m not the least bit interested in?  Your new wine, whiskey, far away event, and/or hot sauce would look nice up on this here blog.
  • Broadcasting my private contact details - Oh, you meant to use bcc and not cc, cool.  I can’t wait for the reply-alls to start.  Breweries, ask yourself this, how much are you spending on your PR firm to have a technopeasant intern disgrace the internet?
  • We’re hipsters, so we made art – In this day and age, you need to be creative to stand out, right?  So why not hire a bunch of hipsters to make something they think is cool, but that’s also completely unrelated to a decent beer?  This guy, who’s way cooler and richer than you, drinks Delirium Tremens, so you should too.

Oh man, writing that part about bad PR has me all worked up.  I mean really, it’s simple.  Make good beer, tell a good story (try starting with the truth), and do your own PR.  Start a maillist, get on twitter, get on Facebook, go to local events, and spread the word.  You’ll do better than most PR companies out there and you’ll probably have a lot of fun too.

And beer PR companies who might get offended by this (one guy I called out for sucking got my phone number and threatened to get me fired, a logical and feasible reaction, no?), just do better.  I gave you plenty of good examples above.

Cheers,

Chris

Winter Beer Season in BC

As the seasons change, so does the availability of craft beer.  I, for one, am thankful for this, especially as I regard the changing of the current season as going from bad to worse.  What better way to cheer yourself up in this dreary weather than to sip a winter warmer from one of BC’s great breweries? I can think of a few things, but none so simple and effective as grabbing a winter ale (or a few) and watching the healing Canucks thrash Colorado.

Many BC breweries have already released their winter beers and a few still have barley wines on the way.  Joy to the world! Here are a few BC winter brews you might consider trying:Vancouver Island Hermannator Ice Bock

Also, some other fine non BC breweries have produced tasty winter ales:

If the rain, darkness, and cold displease you as much as they do me, I suggest one of the above as a temporary and enjoyable remedy.

Cheers,

Chris

Homebrewing for the first time

This past Saturday, Erik invited me over to brew a batch of porter with his good friend Brad.  I had never homebrewed before, so this was completely new to me.  I arrived at Erik’s house a while before Erik, who was running late, returned from Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies with the malt and hop ingredients.  Luckily, I was really on time because Holly had just finished making lunch.  I was already liking brewing by this point.

When Erik got home with the goods, the first thing we had to do was heat up some water for the first phase, mashing.  Mashing involves mixing the malted barley (the recipe of which Erik can fill you in on) into hot water.  Our malt mixture contained very little roasted chocolate malt (you could see the odd black fleck), which you might be surprised to find out is all that’s needed to give a beer that dark porter colour.  The water had to be heated up to approximately 170F on the stove to get a temperature of 152F in the mashing vessel.  How Erik knows this, I cannot tell.  We used Erik’s fancy beer making software to figure out the ideal temperature of 152F.  Apparently, anything three degrees above would lead to too many unfermentable sugers in the mash (leftover sugar means sweeter beer) and anything three degrees less would lead to too many fermentable sugars (not much leftover sugar means dry beer).  After Erik had mashed in his barley malt and was ready to let it sit in the lautering process, we were dead on at 152F.  Erik’s giant beer cosy system only loses 1F per hour, which I was pretty impressed with.  Lautering is the process of letting the mash steep, to extract the fermentable sugars that yeast turns into alcholol.

Erik Mashing in the barley malt

Erik Mashing in the barley malt

Action Shot of Mashing in the Barley Malt

Action Shot of Mashing in the Barley Malt

Lautering in the giant Beer Cosy

Lautering in the giant Beer Cosy

Now Erik would tell you that home brewing is easy, and it is fairly straight forward, but it is really only easy when you are me.  It is true that while homebrewing, you do a lot of work in bursts and then wait around for an hour or so.  Homebrewing is also fairly precise and requires a fair amount of careful sanitization, as well as a good chunk of knowledge (that Erik has and I don’t).  For me, brewing consisted of playing a lot of frisbee with Luca, Erik’s dog, and drinking a lot of beer.  Whereas Erik spent a lot of time tearing around, cleaning stuff, carefully measuring/mixing, and took part in a good deal of attentiveness.  I had a great time though, because frisbee and beer drinking are pretty fun.  We drank a lot of fantastic beers, including Mission Springs Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout, Swans Coconut Porter, Swans Berry Ale, and Anderson Valley Tripel.  We also had Paddock Wood IPA, which I thought was more of a decent pale ale than a respectable IPA, and Granville Island Brockton IPA, finally a westcoast IPA.

Luca, good frisbee player

Luca, good frisbee player

After an hour of waiting (drinking beer and playing frisbee), it was time to sparge.  After draining the wort (unfermented beer) from the mashtun (Erik’s has a filter in the bottom), we poured hot water (hotter than the first go because we need no more extraction) through the mash to get more of the sugar out.  We did this three times, stirring each time before draining more wort.

Erik draining the wort into the kettle

Erik draining the wort into the kettle

Wort going from the mashtun to the brew kettle

Wort going from the mashtun to the brew kettle

Chris stirring during sparging (one of my few tasks)

Chris stirring during sparging (one of my few tasks)

Bad, a good man

Bad, a good man

After we’d recovered the wort, it was time to fire up the brew kettle.  Erik’s kettle is a turkey fryer that he heats with a potent propane burner.  Bringing the wort to a boil was fairly challenging (mostly for Erik) because the wort wants to quickly extricate itself from the kettle.  After achieving a boil, Erik immediately added the bittering hops for the hour long boil.  After fifty minutes, the aroma hops were added.  I do not recall the types of hops we use, but I seem to recall willamette being used for aroma.  I’ll be honest, by the time the aroma hops were added I was out of beer making mode and into beer drinking mode.  After the hour long boil, Erik cooled the wort using cold water running through a coper hose.  Once cool, the wort was put into a carboy, to which yeast was added, and left to ferment for a week or so.  After further ageing in the bottle for a few more weeks, we’ll have a tasty porter.  Although, I fear my involvement may have somehow ruined this beer, but we’ll see.  Erik, thanks for letting me make beer with you and I apologize if I somehow ruined it.

The Brew Kettle

The Brew Kettle

Erik preventing extrication

Erik preventing extrication

We had a good time

We had a good time

Stirring in the bittering hops

Stirring in the bittering hops

Cooling down after the boil (cold water runs through)

Cooling down after the boil (cold water runs through)

Cheers,

Chris

Pregame at the Kingston

I went to the Canucks vs Lightning game on Friday.  It was not a good game, but at least the Canucks won 2-1.  Before the game, in need of a post work meal and a pregame libation, we decided to go to the Kingston Taphouse and Grille.  I’d often heard about the Kingston when listening to the TEAM 1040.  The 1040 guys regularly do their Canucks pregame shows at the Kingston, so I thought it would be a cool place to hang out.  It wasn’t bad, but I can’t say there is much to taking in a live radio show.  The place was packed out and we couldn’t even hear what Rick Ball and Don Taylor were saying.  I guess I expected some fan interaction.  Is a hug from local sports legend Don Taylor too much to ask for?

The crowded bar at the Kingston, Rick Ball of 1040 in the background

The crowded bar at the Kingston, Rick Ball of 1040 in the background

As for the Kingston itself, I can’t say I was overly impressed with their beer selection.  They had some local microbrew on tap from Granville Island, Russell, and Red Truck.  They also had the typical Canadian macro lagers, plus Guinness and Cafrey’s, but nothing that got me excited.  I also found the bar to be too crowded, but the burger I ordered was suitably tasty.  We had a decent time at the Kingston, but I much prefer the freshly brewed beer and atmosphere of Dix for my pregame warmup, which is where you’ll find me next time.

The taps and the big screen

The taps and the big screen

Cheers,

Chris