Details for Portsmouth Beer Week can be found at http://portsmouthbeerweek.com/

Here are some of the highlights for 2022 Portsmouth Beer Week Events

• Sour Days hosted by Throwback Brewery
• New beer releases, from Loaded Questions, Throwback Brewery, WHYM Craft Pub and Brewery, Stoneface and more…
• Bockfest Hosted by Liar’s Bench Beer Company
• Beer and Food parings, Trivia nights and more…
• AND Meet NHs Newest Brewers – a Speed Dating Style Tasting Event! @ Throwback Brewery

Check out http://www.portsmouthbeerweek.com for additional information

For anyone that knows me, I love movies — and I search out different beer movies every year to feature them during #PortsmouthBeerWeek. We’ve discovered some great movies to share with our beer community.

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It’s been a while, but the a beer movie has been featured during the BeerNow conference before (I believe that this is the second movie feature).

The first movie feature premiered at the second Beer Bloggers Conference, held in Portland, Oregon. We were lucky to be in town when “For the Love of Beer’ premiere. The Love of Beer Movie features women in the Pacific Northwest beer scene (i.e brewer, pub/bar owner, etc..) and what their daily lives are like. Great movie. Check it out: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2040553/

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Now back to the main event, Beer. A Love Story.

A film about the art of brewing, about strong-minded brewers who want to create the best beer in the world and by doing so challenge how Big Beer has been running the industry for decades.

Check out the trailer for the “Beer. A Love Story” movie.

Note: If you sign up for the FREE conference, you are invited to participate in the Q/A panel on Saturday and will have the option to watch the movie prior to the Q/A panel.

Check it out and register today!

The Virtual Beer Now Summit is free for anyone to watch and will take place November 5th and 6th. Here is the agenda

• Thursday, November 5
  • 7 AM PT/ 10 AM ET Featured Q&A With Julia Herz
  • 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET Enhance the Value of Your Beer Writing With SEO Strategies.
  • 11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET Beyond The Ad Network: Exploring Creative Ways to Make Money From Your Blog.
  • 1 PM PT/ 4 PM ET How Bloggers Can Better Work with Breweries
  • 3 PM PT/ 6 PM ET 3 Reasons Why Your Instagram Strategy Isn’t Working
  • 4 PM PT/ 7 PM ET 1264 to 2020: A Journey Through History With Czechvar
  • 5 PM PT/ 8 PM ET An At-Home Sensory Experience with Bell’s Brewery.
• Friday, November 6
  • 7 AM PT/ 10 AM ET Throw Me Your Best Pitch.
  • 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET Learn How to Overcome Your Fear of Live Video and Get the Raving Fans You Deserve
  • 11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET 10 Ways to Secure Your Site from Potential Threats and Hackers.
  • 1 PM PT/ 4 PM ET Beer Media in 2020 – Where Do We Stand?
  • 3 PM PT/ 6 PM ET How Bloggers Can Support Black Creatives.
• Saturday, November 7
  • 12 PM PT/ 3 PM ET Beer. A Love Story. US Media Premiere Panel and Screening

Check out the trailer for the “Beer. A Love Story” movie.

Details:

• WHEN: March 29th, 2020
• TIME: 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
• LOCATION: Virtual! (on the world wide web)

Details from ThrowbackBrewery.com

Drunk History (and science!) with Throwback Co-Founders Annette and Nicole

Please join us on Sunday, March 29th at 8pm as Throwback Brewery co-founders Annette & Nicole give a live, inebriated rendition of the story of the famous Portsmouth Alemaker Frank Jones. Along the way, Annette will try to wow you with some tipsy tidbits on brewing. David Adams, founder of Granite State Growler Tours, will be deftly moderating the whole mess.

Tickets to the ‘show’ are $5* and can be purchased here. We will then email you a link to the live web show on the 29th. Can’t make the live show? We’ll email you a link to the recording afterwards.

Want to follow / drink along with the girls while at home**? Call us during our open hours to order a ‘Drunk History Pack’ (or two!). Here’s what we will be drinking:

– Hopstruck Red IPA – 6.4% ABV(16 oz can)
– Cheek Squeezer – 4.9% ABV (16 oz can)
– Campfire Smoked Robust Porter – 6.4% ABV (16oz can)
– Coconut Rum Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout – 11.1%ABV (375ml bottle) – a Rare Breed beer!

The above beer package is $22 and there are only 20 of these packages available, since we only have 20 of the special barrel-aged Coconut Rum Barrel-aged beers.

* We aren’t sure this will be worth 5 bucks, but, hey, we could use some cash! Then again it may be worth much, much more!
** We definitely recommend grabbing the Drunk History pack and enjoying it at your leisure, but we do NOT recommend trying to keep up with the “trained professionals”.
*** not appropriate for anyone under 21 or for anyone who might object to potty mouths… ’cause, you know, we’ll have had a few and might not be able to avoid dropping a swear or two.

Portsmouth Beer Week kicks off on Saturday February 22, 2020 with the 8th Annual Seacoast Winter Brewfest @ the Portsmouth Gas Light Co.

Check out the calendar of events for a guide of what’s going on. Visit http://www.PortsmouthBeerWeek.com for additional information.

“The Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference (BMTC) provides hard information about the important and growing functions of beer marketing and beer tourism that you can bring home to both grow and improve your local offerings. Content is applicable to and you will be able to network with breweries, brewery guilds, Destination Management Organizations, tour operators, marketing agencies, and media.”

This conference is hosted by the same group that created the “Beer Now” conference (which is formerly the Beer Bloggers Conference). The conference activities are both focused on beer, but the marketing conference is more directed towards tourism.

The focus audience for the conference includes breweries (tap room managers, tour guides, event planners etc..), tour operators, tourism organizations, brewery guilds — basically anyone interested in increasing their local beer tourism and beer marketing.

The Beer Now conference is geared to social media content creators (writers, bloggers, IG, FB, etc.). Some may be tied to a specific brewery/geography, but many provide content for a wider audience and interest. If you cross over in your focus, both conferences would be relevant.

The 2020 Marketing and Tourism conference kicks off with two certification program options: Beer Marketing Certificate Course, presented by Kevin York Communications and a Beer Tourism Certification Course. Both are optional. [Pretty Cool]

Unfortunately, the 2Beerguys crew will not be in attendance (But our buddy Dave from Granite State Growler Tours is planning on attending). We had an opportunity to visit the Tampa/St Pete’s area in 2016, for the 7th Annual Beer Bloggers Conference. There’s a lot to do while you are there. If you have a chance to visit any local breweries, I recommend the following:

• Cigar City Brewing, Tampa – https://www.cigarcitybrewing.com/
• Angry Chair, Tampa – https://angrychairbrewing.com/
• Brew Bus Brewing, Tampa – https://brewbususa.com/
• Coopertail Brewing, Tampa – https://coppertailbrewing.com/
• Cycle Brewing, St Pete – https://cyclebrewing.com/
• Dissent Craft Brewing, St Pete – https://www.dissentcraftbrewing.com/

For additional information about the conference, please visit the Beer Marketing & Tourism website, https://bmtcon.com/

Running thoughts from Day 2 at the 2019 Beer Now Conference

• Never Write a “Brewery Profile” Story Again | Jess Baker, Editor-in-Chief of CraftBeer.com
  • What makes a story stand out? Be Difference?
  • “Share stories of people who inspire your writing”. Not all stories are different nor interesting.
• Podcasting in the Craft Beer World. Chris Leuke
  • Checklist for creating a podcast: http://pubcastworldwide.com/beernow/
• You don’t have to live on beer alone: An experiment in diversification. Jeff Cioletti
  • Coming out soon: “Drink like a geek”
  • There are approximately 2,000 craft distillers in USA.
  • There are 300-400 craft breweries that are also distilling.
  • “Don’t expect to get rich, when writing a book. Expect to cry a lot, when you see the royalty statement.”
  • Sake Brewers Association of North America –
    https://sakeassociation.org/

• ReImagining Beer: Crafting a new voice for the industry. Zachary Rosen
  • All beer recipe starts with a though. Need to think about what you are going to brew, before you get started.
  • We experience beer through all our senses. It’s not just the beer in the glass, but it’s everything else that’s happening at the same time.

9:00 – 11:00 AM  Four 30-minute sessions

• Never Write a “Brewery Profile” Story Again | Jess Baker, Editor-in-Chief of CraftBeer.com: 
• Podcasting in the Craft Beer World: An Untapped Opportunity | Chris Luecke, Pubcast Worldwide: 
• Don’t be Afraid to Diversify as a Beer Writer | Jeff Cioletti, DrinkableGlobe.com
• Re-imagining Beer: Crafting a New Voice for the Industry | Zachary Rosen, Beeroretical Technologies.

11:00 – 11:10 AM Break

11:10 – 12:10 PM Three Editors Walk into a Bar: Q&A with Beer Media Leaders | (Panel Discussion) Jill Redding, The New Brewer; Sarah Freeman, October; Kate Bernot, The Takeout..

12:10 – 1:40 PM Cheeses of Europe: Beer and Cheese Pairing Lunch, led by Julia Herz ofCraftBeer.com and Cara Warren.  Beers graciously donated by these Montana Brewers Associationmembers:

• Lewis & Clark Brewing Co., @lewisnclarkbeer
• MAP Brewing Co., @mapbrewing
• Mighty Mo Brewing Company, @mightymobrewco (IG)
• Phillipsburg Brewing, @philipsburgbrew
• Red Lodge Ales, @RedLodgeAles
• Vizsla Brewing, @vizsla.brewing (IG)

1:40 – 2:30 PM Lightning Talks.:

• Owen Ogletree, Brewtopia – What is Cask Ale?
• Kerri Allen, Beer Wench – Rediscovering a Love of Classic Beer Styles Through Travel
• Sterling Stokes, RVABeermeister.com – Cooking With More (Better) Beer
• Huck Bowles, Huck’s Beer Buzz – History of BBC
• Kirk Richardson, Craft Beer Country – A Match Made in Craft Beer Country: Exploring Beer and Food Pairings
• Andrew Bieber, CyclingCicerone.com – So you Suddenly Own a Brewery. What Now?

2:30 PM Depart for Montana Brew Fest / Live Beer Social! 

3:00 – 4:00 PM Live Beer Social! Sponsored by Montana Brewers Association (Mansfield Convention Center)

Participating Breweries:

• Bayern Brewing (Missoula, MT)
• Black Eagle Brewery (Black Eagle, MT)
• Bozeman Brewing Co (Bozeman, MT)
• Jeremiah Johnson Brewing (Great Falls, MT)
• Kalispell Brewing Co. (Kalispell, MT)
• Lewis & Clark Brewing Co. (Helena, MT)
• MAP Brewing Company  (Bozeman, MT)
• Meadowlark Brewing  (Sidney, MT)
• Mighty Mo Brewing (Great Falls, MT)
• Philipsburg Brewing Co. (Philipsburg, MT)
• Snow Hop Brewery (Helena, MT)

4:00 – 6:00 PM VIP at Montana Brew Fest 

6:00 PM Dinner sponsored by Mighty Mo Brewing (

Evening on your own – The Brew Fest and events at local bars last until 2:00 AM

Here are some general notes from Day 1 of the Beer Now Conference.

Why Great Falls?

• Lewis and Clarke spent some time here.
  • “The Lewis and Clark Expedition from May 1804 to September 1806, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the first American expedition to cross the western portion of the United States. Dates: May 14, 1804 – Sep 23, 1806” “They journeyed westward across Montana from April 1805 to September of that year.” (from Wikipedia)
• Montana made malt. Agriculture within the Golden Triangle, with Great Falls being the bottom tip. Malteurop works with local Montana farmers, to malt local (2-row) barley
• Montana is second in the nation for beer drank per capita. (Behind New Hampshire — YEAH BABY)
  • https://vinepair.com/articles/map-states-drink-beer-america-2018/

Top 10 things to do in Great Falls

• Outdoor dining
• Live mermaid show
• Celtic Cowboy, best Irish Pub with Sports experience
• Steinhaus (dedicated to local Montana craft beer)
• Chat with a farmer
• Head to elevation 33,30
• Giant Springs State Park
• Five Waterfalls (called Electric City). Hydro electric dams
• 27 sculptures around town.
• Meet the locals

Random Thoughts

• Best Things Ever:
  • ROOM HAS AMPLE Power outlets. Floor and wall options.
  • WIFI has stayed fully operational (for now)
• Conference Rule: (BOOO) If you are drinking beer, you can’t pour your own beer. [When will someone pour us a beer! This tea/coffee ain’t cutting it.]
• 9:05 Reno pokes fun at Julia.
• 9:36 First “Huck” reference
• 10:45 The Montana Local, Better Website, Better Influencer, panel was informative. The website strategy guide and checklist can be downloaded from http://www.406marketing.com/beernow
• 11:00 Sean is onto his second English Breakfast Tea. No beer sighting yet.
• Lester Jones from NBWA, has an “entrance song”.
  • You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer – Frank Zappa
  • Cool notes from Lester
    • 1830 pieces of legislation passed since 2012
    • Frank Lauer was the first beer lobbyist, lobbying against taxes despite a civil war. (circa 1862)
    • From 1977 to 2019, there haven’t been many changes within the top five suppliers (market share) in the US. The Top 5 in 1977 had a 70% market share. Now, the Top 5, holds 80% share.
    • “Paintings are like a beer, only beer tasted good and it’s hard to stop drinking beer” – Billy Carter, 1977
    • TTB permit number 10,629 permitted breweries in this country. NH permits are 111. MA is 239.
    • New TTB permits 514 in Q1 2019. 5 in NH.
    • TTB brewery permits issued per day. Currently 5.7 permits per day, in 2019.
    • The number of places that you can buy beer is growing. (Amazon, Drizzly, MiniBar, Klink, Sauce, Hopsy, Total Wine, Bumble, Brick and mortar)
    • As new retail and e-commerce expands, traditional bars and taverns close? [Decline from 2010 through 2017, with a slight increase in 2018.]
    • Since 2010, on average, beer consumption might be down, but the average ABV per serving has increased. Drinking less? Bull crap! Just drinking differently. Not drinking less, drinking differently. We’re looking with blinders on, at different channels.

• Malt: The Montana Difference
  • Three states in the US produce 75% of the barley in the US: Montana is #1 in seeded acres, Idaho is #1 in overall production and North Dakota.
  • Montana’s acres are “dry acres”. Not irrigated.
  • Hardly anyone plants barley, just for feed (unless it’s for their own operations).
  • “You can’t make good beer with bad malts.”

• Keynote: Josh Noel, Author of Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out
  • “If you are telling the story of beer, with accuracy and respect to the story — you aren’t a beer blogger, you are a journalist”.
  • Why not the same passion for yogurt? “No one goes to a bowling alley and orders a pitcher of Yogurt”.
  • “It’s a frenzied and chaotic time in craft beer” “too much choice”
  • Not a fan of October. https://oct.co
  • Something learned: “joining pods” (not a positive thing) …. https://www.google.com/search?q=joining+pods

• Made in Montana
  • Learned about growing malts and hops in Montana.
  • Glacier Hops Ranch. Steam Distilled hop oils. Benefits include better shelf life for hoppy profile (aromatics). Only added on the cold side. It’s a substitute/enhancement for pellets. Produced only from fresh hops, before they are dried.

• Beer and Cheese pairing, with Chimay
  • “I didn’t make the yeast, I isolated the yeast”, quote from Father Theodore
  • Chimay’s history
    • 1850 Founded the Abbey by 17 monks from Westvleteren
    • 1862 Launched Chimay Premier (Red)
    • 1876 Started to produce cheese
    • 1956 Launched Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue)
    • 1966 Launched Chimay Cinq Cents (White)
    • 1982 First shipment of beer to the US
    • 2013 First brewed Chimay Doree (Gold)
    • 2015 First brewed Grande Réserve Barrel Aged
  • Fun Facts
    • Started pairing beer with cheese in 1876
    • 51% of the Chimay beer produced is exported
    • There are 6 trappist breweries in Belgium, 13 total in the world.
    • (Now) 1.8 Chimay beers per second are consumed
    • It takes 10 liters of milk to create 1 kilo of cheese
    • There are 200+ farmers in the Chimay area, producing milk for the Chimay Cheese
    • Chimay uses 3.5 liters of water to create 1 liter of beer
    • In 2018, Chimay brewed 183,871 hecto liters of beer.
    • There are 154 employees working for Chimay.

Many thanks to Jeremiah Johnson Brewery for hosting a dinner at the brewery, along with other Montana breweries.

I hope that you enjoyed day one

Hey Beer Now Friends,

If you head over to www.beernow.com, you may have some troubles locating the #HashTag for this year’s conference. Here are some suggestions:

• #Beernow19
• #BeerNow
• #VisitGreatFalls

If you’re looking to have some fun, I recommend adding these also:

• #BeerMeow (why not)
• #BeerNowandLater
• #BBC19 (For the OG’s)

Stay tuned for more #BeerNow19 fun.

Sean/Ryan