Tag: Beer Bloggers Conference

Now that some time has passed since the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference finished it is time to post a full review of the event itself.  Some items you may gleaned from the daily recaps but I would be remiss if I didn’t both explain further and add my two cents on how to improve next year’s version in Asheville, North Carolina.

(To break the tedium, I will add some photos in between points.)

Above is a real Stone brewer and his photo. Which is which?

On to the conference review, Stone brought their game as did Lagunitas (to an even larger extent). I expected that. But for a conference placed in San Diego, I wonder why Lagunitas was featured. AleSmith. Ballast Point. Pick a brewery. And that is my largest complaint. Why have an event in a city if you don’t show off that city to the max? And this is no slight to the generosity of Lagunitas. It was the highlight of my trip. And it is no slight to Yard House which, in my mind, occupies an important part of the craft beer food chain. But, in my opinion, if the Asheville planning doesn’t include more North Carolina specific locales then I would hesitate to attend.

The only Vaping, I would ever do.

Also on the needs work tab is the scheduling. Too many events could have been improved by being in better time slots. The 8 blogger 5 minute presentations would have made a bigger impact earlier in the conference and not on Sunday morning when the majority of attendees were either hung or tired or both. Same for a couple of blogging technical seminars that were placed between big names like and dinner. I would seriously consider just having a breakfast with coffee beers on Sunday morning and nothing else. Also the Bottle Share HAS to be earlier in the evening. It would have drawn more people and been more appreciated if people weren’t (take a guess) hung or dead tired.

A new and soon to come beer with licorice from Goose Island

That being said. I enjoyed the conference tremendously. It is great to see old faces and meet new ones. The quality and amount of beer is beyond the pale and the hotel and pace of the conference is well done. And to have David Walker, Ken Grossman, Peter Zien, Tomme Arthur and Chuck Silva (who sat at our table for a bit) around is awesome. The generosity abounds and not enough thank you’s will suffice.  I wouldn’t go three out of five times if it was a poor.  I learned about the history of San Diego brewing.  I learned some new tricks and had old ones validated.  Most of all I saw the passion of other bloggers and that always energizes me.  I think that part of the reason why I needed a month off from beer blogging last year was due to not being at the conference for two years running.  That speaks volumes to the quality.

Day 2 in Mission Valley in San Diego, our host for the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference.

Learning day! Multiple break-out sessions either tangentially or directly targeted at bloggers. With the key and most important talk coming from Ken Grossman, the keynote speaker. The man behind Sierra Nevada. He spoke about Beer Camp and the tour that wound it’s way from Chico to Mills River in North Carolina. I think it was better to hear about the bus and the AC breaking down than to experience it.

Before that, we had choices for topics. I went to photography first followed by Beer Blogging Ethics. Both held nuggets of good information but starting with the photo session which seemed targeted at a more PR/Art photography rather than the “in the trenches” photography from a bar or festival. The main take-away was learning your camera and your editing software so that creating better photos becomes second nature.

The ethics session was good in concept but not executed well despite the combined wisdom of Jay Brooks and Brandon Hernandez who have held numerous positions in beer writing. The free flowing Q&A should have been ditched for more questions from the moderator who has a legal and blogging background and could have led the discussion instead of letting go the reins.

Lunch was at Yard House. I was not there. Too sponsor-y to me and I don’t need to come to San Diego for their food and taps. I came for San Diego beer. So fellow blogger Richard and I headed to the FlavorDome. That will be a separate post.

After Ken Grossman concluded his well done speech and announced that BBC15 will be Asheville, North Carolina we went into technical blogging and social media techniques. Me being contrary to all things SEO, I wrote this post instead. Also because I knew that major beer drinking was ahead. That too will be covered later……

Lovely Mission Valley in San Diego played host to the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference.

We arrived near Charger/Qualcomm stadium to meet bloggers and taste beer and learn about San Diego. After a stop Pizza Port in Bressi Ranch of course. Had to fuel up with pizza and beer.

The conference was already started with beers already flowing. Many Ballast Point beers were available like Grapefruit Sculpin and the latest Homework Series beer, a rye hop bomb. Also Belching Beaver and New English ( which was new to me) bottles were being passed around.

We had barely sat down and hadn’t even seen our room when cool event # 1 started. Hop Vaping with Lagunitas. I probably didn’t do it right but it was still cool. Amarillo hops piped into a bag then pushed into your waiting nasal passages. I went back again later that night and just soaked in the aroma from the “Vaping” table.

Cool event # 2 was hearing the true San Diego craft beer history with the titans of SD brewing. Peter Zien from AleSmith, Tomme Arthur from Port and Lost Abbey and Chuck Silva of Green Flash. This panel could have gone on for hours. The blog marketing info presented afterwards was good but really paled in comparison. A poor time slot can make or break a presentation. The beer history was so informative that I will post separately when I talk about the documentary, Suds, County.

A trip to the Karl Strauss tasting room was anti-climactic as well. Solid beers and a lovely landscaped and decorated space but safe, not adventurous.

That adventure came at the Lagunitas nightcap. Aged Olde Gnarleywine from ’09 and ’11. Sucks on tap. And the standout for the night was Mandaraison. Pepper and fruit swirled with Belgian influences. Fantastic. Plus news of their new fresh hop Born a Yesterday Pale.

More to come later…..