At the beginning of this year, we decided to start a brewery blog as a way to share info, talk about industry happenings and also have a little fun. The response has been amazing and we really appreciate all of you reading our stuff every week and commenting and continuing the conversations beyond the blog. As a way to say good-bye to 2016, we thought it would be fun to take a look at the five most popular blog posts that we put out over this last year.
It’s hard to know which topics are going to resonate with readers, but from this list we can tell a few things; people are interested in both local and national beer news, they want to hear about what’s going on behind the scenes and they want to keep updated on Big Beer’s slow and steady march into craft beer territory. So in descending order, here are the top five Thorn Street Brewery beer blog posts of 2016:
5. The Real Issue with 10 Barrel Brewing in the East Village
Back in February, San Diego learned that 10 Barrel Brewing (owned by AB InBev) would be moving into East Village and opening a brand new brew pub. Industry insiders were not worried so much about the competition as they were the lack of transparency of ownership and how 10 Barrel would be able to masquerade as a local SD craft brewery (since they will be brewing on site) and consumers would be non-the-wiser that they were actually lining the pockets of a company who has actively worked against the craft beer industry.
This post led to two more (links to Part 1 and Part 2) on this topic after attending the San Diego Beer Forum that was put together by Cosimo Sorrentino in March. 200+ SD craft beer industry insiders (including TSB director of Sales and Logistics, Tom Kiely) got together to discuss 10 Barrel, what it means to be “craft” and what it means to “sell out.” A highlight of the meeting was a rep from a brewery that had recently sold to big beer insisting they were still “craft as fuck” because they hand-grind coriander.
Quotable Quote:
“It’s not that we don’t want another brewpub in San Diego, it’s that we don’t want a brewpub owned by a company which reportedly plays dirty and actively engages in actions that hurt the craft beer industry as a whole.”
4. Behind the Beer: Beer Festivals
This post was centered around our frustration with for-profit beer festivals (not local fests put on by charities or community boards) and their propensity to require beer donations from breweries while raking in thousands in profits for themselves and little to no information on how much money is actually being donated to the cause. Most beer fest attendees have no idea about how festivals are run or what is required to participate, so this was a good way to get some info out to you guys so you can make an informed choice.
Quotable Quote:
“Beer festivals are a good time and we enjoy working them, but why can’t breweries get paid for the product they provide if the company running the festival is making a profit beyond what they donate to the charity?”
3. Big Beer Just Got Bigger
We have definitely put out our fair share of blog posts related to Big Beer and AB InBev. We believe it’s important to call attention to their questionable business practices and their propensity to buy up both craft breweries AND beer distributors. They will have a lock-down on the beer industry at some point if they keep moving this direction and the merger with SAB Miller that happened in October is another step in that direction. Don’t worry, we will continue to be a mouthpiece for independent craft beer and not let this beer behemoth continue unchecked.
Quotable Quote:
“That’s why it’s important to inform people about who owns and ultimately benefits from the money they spend. Do you want your dollars going to AB InBev, a company that has a serious issue with playing fair and an impressive ability to merge into bigger and bigger entities? Or do you want your money going to support diverse, independent craft brewers? People who drive innovation, interact with communities on a local level, and truly care about the product they are putting out.”
2. Craft Beer Bars vs. Sell-Out Bars
This post sparked a lot of lively conversation on our Facebook page. Although we didn’t call out any restaurants or bars by name, most readers seemed to know just the type of bar we were talking about when we described what we were seeing around San Diego. These are bars that masquerade as “craft beer bars” while the majority of the craft beer offered is from breweries owned by Big Beer. Armed with a list of 24 craft breweries that have been bought by the big guys, we hope that consumers have a better idea which bars are beholden to big beer and which ones are remaining true to the indie spirit of craft beer.
Quotable Quote:
“We realize that there are all types of bars in the world and many don’t care at all what kind of craft beer lineup they have. But if a bar boasts that they carry microbrews and local beers, they should actually do so. You know who the sell-out breweries are…now you can spot the sell-out bars.”
1. Thorn Street Brewery Bought for $10 million
This is far and away our most, read, shared and talked about blog post. Little did we know that a satire piece about “selling out” would catch fire in such a way or that people wouldn’t actually read beyond that one headline. Anyone who read about one paragraph in would have known that we were joking but there were a good number of people too who read the headline then reacted and shared without venturing into the source at all. In fact, we still have people ask us about Disney or comment about us selling out on our FB page.
We have, however, gotten unending enjoyment out of the reactions, from people who read the blog and got the joke to people who didn’t read it and propagated the ridiculous rumor. Just so we can be completely clear, we have not sold to Disney, we have not sold out to big beer and we would never make our beer-tenders dress up in costumes and break out in song whenever asked.
Quotable Quote:
“Our first theme is going to be Disney Princesses, so get ready for the magic! For starters, we’ll have a life-size Rapunzel tower built through the open roof in the back room which you get to climb up holding real, human hair. We also will feature a trio of trained Cinderella mice who will mend and/or hem your clothes for an eighth of “the good cheese.”
Thanks again for reading our blog for the last year, we can’t wait to see what 2017 brings!