Bottoms Up

As I write this, I’m in Boston, Massachusetts attending the annual Craft Brewers Conference. CBC, as it’s usually referred to, is in a different city every year. Last year it was in San Diego and next year it will be in Chicago. It’s an opportunity for brewers and brewery owners to get together and learn how to be better at their respective jobs. Tomorrow I’ll be part of a panel discussing beer on the web, to help breweries reach their customers using Facebook, Twitter and blogs like this one.

But so far, the highlight of the conference came at the very beginning. Greg Koch, one of the co-founders of Stone Brewing, which is in Escondido, CA (which is near San Diego), gave a stirring and inspiring keynote speech where he talked about how craft brewers bring something special to the table, something big brewers can’t; which is their passion and craft. At the end of his speech, he showed the video below and we each raised a toast at the end, as you’ll see. The video is made up of numerous brewers from around the country, including a number from the Bay Area. The local brewers in the video, in case you don’t recognize them, are Brian Hunt (Moonlight Brewing), Shaun O’Sullivan (21st Amendment), Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River), Rich Norgrove (Bear Republic), Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada), Fritz Maytag (Anchor Brewing) and Brendan Moylan and Denise Jones (both from Moylan’s).

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

If the video doesn’t show in your browser, you can view it directly on Vimeo.