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| Ilkley Siberia & Speyside Siberia side-by-side |
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| Not bottle conditioned |
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| Not bottle conditioned |
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| Nicely branded but wary of the clear glass |
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| Not bottle conditioned |
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| Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation |
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| this box had a rough life |
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| Stunning looking bottle |
WEST St Mungo
Badger The Roaming Roy Dog
Traquair Jacobite Ale
Presented by Sarah Warman @BrewDogSarah
Established in 2007 by James Watt & Martin Dickie. Built a £7m Eco-brewery, opened 11 UK bars and one in Stockholm, exporting to 32 countries worldwide, and has raised £4m vie Equity for Punks. Planning on opening a visitor centre, bottle shop and brewing academy.
They are very active on many social media platforms but the two key ones for them are Facebook & Twitter. She then ran through the main platforms talking about the number of users, etc.
Visual content is huge, they post at least one photo a day taken from the brewery. They also do quite a bit of crowd sourcing to get their customers viewpoints.
She then moved on to talk about the Fake Lager campaign, they did an April Fools gag about producing a lager and ditching the craft beer scene, on April 2nd they said tht they would still be producing the lager which caused lots of conversation about BrewDog on social media platforms.
#mashtag was a twitter crowded sourced beer recipe, name & label. People were voting for how they wanted the beer to end up. They also brewed Sunk Punk - the first beer to be brewed under the sea, she showed a video of the making of the beer, the sinking of the vessels and the raising of them too - gave the complete picture.
Content is king but people read the web differently then print media. You need an angle to capture people's attention as they briefly scan your site. people do read but selectively.
Who is your audience and how do you engage them? You need to have a clear view of how they are so that you can tailor your tone and the way you write to them. Find something novel and new, create a story.
Assume the reader doesn't know the history of an event, offer context and build bridges. Either encompass the story in the first sentence or use an intro sentence or paragraph. Embrace visuals and liven up the captions.
Don't defame or breach copyright, be fair & balanced, get your facts right, correct mistakes after publishing.
See her work over at DrinkBritain
Decided to use Old Emgine Oil as the beer to barrel age in whisky casks. Originally called Old Engine Oil Special Reserve. Highland Park distillery won distiller of the year and so was selected as the casks to use to continue the process. All of it was exported to the states. Most of the Ola Dubh is pre-sold, they are playing catchup.
Ola Dubh is a throw back to Ken Brucker (founder of Harveistoun) meaning "black oil". They do a 12, 15 & 18 year old version as well as very limited 30 & 40 year versions.
We then got a chance to try number of the different barrel aged beers: Old Engine Oil, Old Engine Oil Engineers Reserve, Ola Dubh 12 years - all stunning but different.
The history of the cask makes a big difference on the end result, they now get more information from Highland Park about the previous life of the cask. Issues with customs regarding ABV has taken a long time to figure out, liquoring back helps as it reduces the ABV.
Started with Beer Geek video:
He admits that he's used two or three of those lines himself. Took them a while to feel comfortable about using social media, feeling like the old guys in the brewing scene. Bread that can stay fresh for two weeks in a bag - over forty ingredients to keep it fresh, it's not even been baked but steamed and then sprayed to look baked! Same has happened to beer - its had so much stuff added thats it's not really beer at all!
Moved to London and tried cask ale - brown, flat, warm - but enjoyed the variety of tastes that ales that Europe had to offer. Moved back to the USA in 1984 and found there was just US lager. Started brewing professionally since 1989 learning from Sam Smiths brewery.
First to do colaboration brewing with Brakspear back in the 90s, more famously with Schnieder Weisse. Brewing is a very friendly industry, fellow competitors helping each other out.
Was talking about beer ratings - they don't look at the beer ratings, they don't want to listen to the audience as they are the artist (as a brewer) who is trying to make something beautiful rather than for the audience. Are you going to change your beer based on the ratings or are you just after flattery? Did Bob Dylan 'focus grouped' his albums?
Is talking about IBUs and original gravities making beer appealing? It might work for kindred spirits but does it work for the general public?
Wine people still own the media. You don't see an acidity number on a bottle, or the tanning number - why? Because it's not delicious! We need to start talking about the flavours and tastes rather than the technical details of the beer. Never talk down to anyone about beer and beer styles, let them try anything and everything as you never know what they will like.
What is craft beer? If there is a personal vision in what is going on (used Sierra Nevada as an example). Brooklyn Brewery are trying to be the brewery that they have always wanted to be. It's taken him twenty years to start to be the brewer that he's always wanted to be.
They make over twenty different beers a year, some are 'ghost beers' - limited edition beers of very limited release. Ended with a toast with Sorachi Ace saison - lemon peel and dill, nice spiciness, balanced, herbal funkiness at the end.
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| Not bottle conditioned |
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| Not bottle conditioned |
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| Not bottle conditioned |
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| Not bottle conditioned |
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| Ever seen a beer board that big? |
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| Cask or keg - the choice was yours |
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| The varied palette of craft |
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| Beavertown were live brewing on Saturday afternoon |
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| Chris (Left), Bone's mate & @VillaBone (right) |
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| Beavertown Gamma Ray APA was my beer of the festival |
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| What a cool venue, indoors but you felt outdoors |
