Out and About: In the Community

Since the first issue of What’s Brewing, we have been out and about, looking for good beers, local restaurants and bars carrying the micro breweries of their time, giving rise to new employment and business opportunities in the local community. Here we are now into the third month of 2017 and the beer communities in our province continue to grow stronger by the day.

This current winter weather was, and is, a pain for breweries as it can be a detriment to store sales and brewers must find as many innovative ways they can to keep brewing and selling.  Sales slow down so added-value events, such as  tastings, pairings with meals, music nights, cask events, tap takeovers, are all ways to keep the brewery name out in the community.  For the retail stores, almost all give as much space as they can to breweries who can offer them what they’re looking for in products.  As we know, new beers come onto the shelves continually in our communities.  Selection is fabulous for us in most places.

As craft breweries continue to open province-wide we encourage everyone to shop local, buy local, and support your local craft breweries, providing locals jobs and excellent choice for all communities involved.

If breweries plan to do sales at the retail level throughout all the province’s communities, a continued presence is required to build brand loyalty and of course the ever-necessary media buzz.  Not to be confused with a craft beer buzz.

A new festival named the Christmas Craft Beer Show joined the scenes December 2^nd & 3^rd, 2016 in Victoria at the Save on Foods Arena.  There were 44 exhibitors in the large arena and, because of the Christmas spirit, guests were in a happy and upbeat mood.  The band was upbeat as well. Patrons were keen and enthusiastic, eagerly sampling the many great beers on the menu.  A few craft ciders were here as well. It is now a must-do for new craft brewers to get to these events to showcase their beers and create recognition via social media. To get a foothold in the industry is no easy task today. Thanks to organizers for putting on this event; it’s always great to see everyone in the beer community.

Housekeeping items from last issue: I did have a wonderful 2 days in Muskoka ON at the end of the summer, and want to say here that we visited Sawdust Brewing in Gravenhurst; Muskoka Brewing in Bracebridge and did wonderful samplings at both.  We were treated very respectfully by both breweries’ staff.   We also tried a cross section of craft beers on offer at the LDBO store in Bracebridge and the selection is excellent.

We now know that many people now recognize the yellow What’s Brewing t- shirt when we attend events, and many folks love to talk beer.  Good to see you all. We keep a lifeline for the beer aficionados so they never miss a thing in our movement.  See Monica’s What’s Brewing Hopline for everything going on everywhere in our grand craft beer community overall.

If you’re in any business our advertising rates are exceptional.When you see us in the field at events lets us know you’ve seen our publication.