Breakside Joins pFriem and Guinness
I’m delighted to announce that the Beervana Blog has a new sponsor: Portland’s Breakside Brewery.
A few years back, I decided to look for a sponsor to help support this site. Guinness stepped forward and, rather than just asking me to plop a banner ad on the site, instead collaborated with me on what turned out to be an amazing trip to see nitro inventor Michael Ash just before his death. As I was considering adding sponsors later, it made me entirely reconsider the advertiser/media model popular for the past few hundred years. Why not take a page from the brewing industry and do real collaborations? Two years ago I added Reuben’s Brews and pFriem Family Brewers. With Reuben’s I did a series of Sightglass posts—some of which resulted in awards. With pFriem I collaborated on a very cool video series as well as a beer that should have won awards. (I’m obviously biased, but I’d love to see the Dreher Vienna Lager return.)
After two years with me, Reuben’s has decided to put their attention on a different media project. I have nothing but affection and admiration for Reuben’s, and I wish them the best with their many beer and non-beer projects. They objectively improved the content on this blog, and I owe them a debt. However, Reuben’s departure left an opening for a new partner, and I couldn’t be happier to have Breakside join me. I only work with three breweries at a time, and these are always breweries I admire. You can definitely take their sponsorship of the blog as my endorsement of what they’re doing. So what do Breakside and I have planned?
The B&B Town Halls (Title Pending)
Brewmaster Ben Edmunds and I sat down a few weeks ago to brainstorm collaborations, and we settled on a project that’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re still workshopping the title (suggestions welcome!), but the concept is holding a series of public conversations throughout the year. We want them to have a more cultural focus rather than a technical one. We’ll have a few panelists join me and someone from Breakside as moderators (Ben will be a regular), and the end we’ll take questions from you.
Ben with a half-pour, excited about the new project.
We’re still working on topics. One that emerged complete in our mind—though it will probably be later in the year—serves as a good example. “Why aren’t Belgian styles popular in the US anymore?” Twenty years ago, one Belgian style, witbier, was on its way to becoming the best-selling craft style and Belgium looked like a great tradition for transportation. Breweries like Ommegang and The Commons sprang up with the idea of making Belgian-style ales. And they were popular—for a time. Now, good luck finding even one example on a taplist. We’ll get guests who are experts and dig into the topic. Our goal is to find both the most well-known figures as well as those who are very knowledgeable, but less famous.
We’d love to hear from you, too. We’ve got a Google sheet with ideas, and I’d love to add to it. What topics interest you? What phenomenon(s) are happening in the beer world you’d love to explore? Our hope is that these are thought-provoking and fun. So please shoot us your ideas. You can ping me in comments, via email, or on any of my various social media accounts.
It is going to be a fun project and a really fun year. Please welcome Breakside and and join me in thanking them for their support and collaboration.