Posted By: Sara Bryce
Dear Reviewers,
PLEASE REMEMBER: The craft beer drinking community is the life of craft breweries.
My fiancée works as a cellar man for a small brewery. This means he gets to do awesome stuff like get a picture holding “the Golden Keg” or meet unnamed cast members of Cheers at the local Oktoberfest celebration. This also means he gets to do some not-so-awesome stuff, like spending three hours in a crouched position bottling beer, or turning over 40 full kegs on a pinched nerve so that El Hefe can be stored upside down. He comes home most days aching; taking a fistful of ibuprofen and laying on the floor because it’s a flat surface. But, he loves his job.
Did you happen to click on that “El Hefe” link? That’s what I want to talk about today. Pearl Street Brewery has a limited distribution radius, and isn’t even available throughout all of Wisconsin. And the exact thing that this brewery of nine employees pours its heart into has been reduced to a number rating out of 5 and a few short words, many of which are negative.
You may not realize how little information is available about the smallest breweries on the Internet; but when it comes to the small guys, anything you write about a random beer might affect the purchase of that beer by others. Really.
You.
People will be searching for certain craft beers on the Internet, and they’ll come across your blog or review. Do the craft beer community a favor and help it out a bit!
www.metrobrewing.com/main/index. html
I decided to finally write this out after reading a great comment left by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery on a Beer Advocate thread. Yes, even though they may have had a television show, larger craft breweries are still actually small enough to care what you have to say about them on the Internet; and for a good reason. Dogfish Head isn’t sold in Wisconsin anymore, but the most often-heard response to my undying love for them is: “Oh yeah, Dogfish Head. Aren’t they over-rated?” No, they’re just bigger than some other breweries and are actually a recognized name because they put out a wide range of quality brews. I’d call that “hard-working and pretty freaking awesome.” In order for craft beer’s market share to rise, we as a craft beer drinking community need to look past the exclusivity of “we are the 5%” and try being positive and inclusive (some ideas for that can be found in my first post at LadiesOCB). Everyone is going to like something different, and we’ll help our own cause if we concentrate on the beers we like rather than those we don’t. Sam explains: “that doesn’t mean the one you didn’t prefer sucked. And the breweries you don’t prefer but are growing don’t suck either. Respect Beer.”
There are some reviewers who know the power of Internet word-of-mouth, and I surely appreciate them. One of my favorites is Hoptopia. The number ratings are usually high, and so one might argue they’re arbitrary; but where the power lies in these reviews are the written portions. Each sentence provides an objective description that gives a real voice to every beer. I also love the deep connection the blog has with the craft beer community. I was proud of myself when I finally received the “I Believe in IPA” badge presented by Hoptopia on Untappd. Funnily enough, I achieved it after a $75 beer stock-up in Detroit, Michigan when my fiancée and I discovered a Dogfish Head oasis near my parents’ house. Happy Holidays to us!
There are some blogs that are heavily craft-beer friendly yet region-specific, like Cleveland Food & Brews. Even though posts are about Ohio beers, what a great way to spread the word! I’ll be looking for these breweries at future Midwest beer fests. I also have to give a shout-out to the Great Brew Tour. These guys know how to be blog-positive when it comes to breweries. After a short Twitter conversation with me, Pearl Street Brewery became the first brewery on their 2011 tour. Later on, they blogged about the PSB Double IPA, Dankenstein as well as the sample flight they thought was cool. They gave awesome props to other small Wisconsin breweries, such as Capital Brewery and New Glarus Brewing.
When it comes to truly advocating for craft breweries on the Web, you can’t beat these!
Friends, when you crack open a craft beer, you taste the fruit of blue-collar labor. Think about the men and women who spend their hours assembling boxes by hand, cranking archaic but affordable bottling lines, and driving two hours to hand out free samples at grocery stores. People who talk about their work like it’s the greatest thing in the world, even as they’re wincing through the long hours and the pain.
It’s a labor of love for the craft beer community.
Respect beer.
Review responsibly.
And for goodness sake, enjoy it (It’s beer, after all)!
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