My Twitter handle gives away my interest: I enjoy drinking things. And as your eyes are on this page, I have to assume we share that interest. I spend a *screaming internally* amount of time on social media, and the chatter and banter about beer is one of the best parts of my day, so I thought I would bring forward the weekly (or bi-weekly) highlights of conversations and pieces of writing for you, the reader, who may or may not have an interest (or the time) in firing up the ol’ Twitter machine to join in. These are conversations all beer fans should see between beer thought-leaders, the hyperlogical thinkfluencers of the craft beer generation. I guarantee this will be the worst one of these I’ll write because I intend to get better and better at writing them each week.
Also, if you believe you’re a thinkfluencer or thought-leader and see anything here worth sounding off on, don’t @ me.
If you want to chat beer though and don't use words like thinkfluencer, go ahead and @ me on Twitter (@drinksthethings) with comments. Sorry. I get a little defensive sometimes and forget that life is actually a rich tapestry. Ha ha, just kidding, nothing matters.
I originally meant to publish this last week but life got in the way of beer. It's not like anything big happened in beer last week that was worth talking about, right?
Stone Brewing's Greg Koch announces True Craft brewery funding venture.
Oh.
This announcement touched off a long discussion about what it intended to solve: the problem of craft, how to define it, how to fund it.
Because beer is a serious business, even attempts at levity were met with CRUSHING GRAVITY.
@beermonkey Should folks who are unable to effectively raise funds open a business?
— Jeremy Danner (@Jeremy_Danner) April 30, 2016
Truthfully, I’m with Bobby here on this and any issue:
@DCBeerBill i think the future is mood pairings – everyone gets a mood ring and a beer that pairs with the color that shows up on the ring.
— Bobby Bump (@BobbyBump) April 26, 2016
The children of the 60s had it right, really.
From there, we moved on to The Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia.
You know, hungover people listening to lobbyists was sort of how the American revolution started, right?
This year’s CBC comes in the midst of craft’s accelerating shakeups. Every week it seems another new acquisition or partnership emerges. And yet the more things change, the more they stay the same, so let’s talk about beer labels, bad brewery communication and ennui!
Submitted without comment.
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Oh, who am I kidding you know I need to comment. pic.twitter.com/P0JNdn6LYb— Carla Jean Lauter (@beerbabe) May 4, 2016
Humor aside, this did touch off a useful conversation in which many people offered support and the brewery eventually softened their stance and Lauter gave a good-faith answer to people questioning the origins of her twitter handle. But, as others pointed out, where will these discussions lead and will they ever end? Is anyone listening?
Find out next week. Or not. If only we could have some sort of beverage and discuss this more impactfully. If you think of one such beverage, be sure to give me a tweet @drinksthethings. Maybe you’ll be featured one of these here roundups. Wouldn’t that be grand!
