The rising sun woke me up pretty early Thursday morning, but I had to
be at the Trade Center for an 8:15 seminar by Dean Bromwell on New
Media. Dean seemed to be one of those fast-talking geeky looking whiz
kids with a Phd in studying Generation X, Y and the millenials. He
pointed out that, in 2010, the universe is on Facebook. It is THE
portal to the internet, THE virtual networking sight at this point in
time. I ca 't begin to cover the intense number of ideas that he
proposed for "getting your name out", but keep an eye open for changes
to both my personal, professional photography, and brewing identities.
Looks like I have some tweaking to do... or tweeting for that matter!
I spent more time on the trade show floor, studying bottles, labels
signage, discussing the possibility of getting samples of malted
barley shipped to us… it's a bit of a slog. Keep talking, keep
walking, keep asking. Vendors are pretty funny about start-ups,
there's definitely an interest from many of them, and others will
actually belch in your face!
More seminars… Women & Beer. Very disappointing presentation, I think
they could have presented some hard facts, something for us to chew
on, rather than just giggling about why more women don't "like" beer.
The driest presentation of my life followed, a scientist stood there
READING his PowerPoint presentation to us, a description of the 12
year developmental process that brings new grain varieties to market.
What DID I learn at that seminar? Don't even try to get the farmer
down the road to try and grow something for you. Don't even think
about trying to make a GENUINE historical brew with today's hot new
modified barleys. Just close your eyes and imagine what must have
been!
About 5pm the beer sampling started, and just kept going. The
hospitality suites were jumping, lots of beer industry folks from
Ontario in attendance, got to meet a lot of the insiders, including
the folks from Volo. Very interesting to hear what they had to say
about the quality of Casks they're getting for their festivals.
Sadly, there just wasn't enough food to fill all our bellies. Okay,
well I have to find some excuse for what transpired over the next
twelve hours. You see, Thursday night was Cask night at Harpoon. 60
cask conditioned ales from various Massachusetts breweries. IPA,
barrel conditioned Imperial Stouts, 5 Barrel blended Sour Ales, lots
of high-gravity tasty brews. I tried to taste several…. And enjoyed
them all!
