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Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Alan McCormick is an attorney whose real estate focused practice includes working with breweries on commercial leasing, land use, and trademark and related intellectual property issues. He writes Growler Fills, a blog focusing on Montana beer news, is the co-creator of Missoula Craft Beer Week and the Montana columnist for the Rocky Mountain Brewing News.
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Bryan Roth is a former journalist now working in communications at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. His blog, This is Why I'm Drunk, focuses on socio-cultural aspects of the beer community and the broad trends that drive them, including the common language of beer, changing drinker demographics and how alcohol content impacts beer ratings.
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Jessica Miller combines her training in writing, teaching and poetry with her eye for observation to tell stories using strong visuals at her blog HeyBrewtiful.com. Away from her blog she handles media relations and web development for Reformation Brewery in Woodstock, Georgia, where she’s even been known to change a keg or two.
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Oliver Gray is a professional writer and editor who dabbles in Corporate IT when his boss demands it. In his copious spare time he runs the beer and writing blog, Literature and Libation, which focuses on narrative storytelling, literary techniques and grammar, and cultural essay (as if such things really exist in the context of beer).
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Fermenting Narrative Wort into Literary Beer for Fun and Profit(Just Kidding)
(About the profit part)
Oliver Gray
“The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.”-Oscar Wilde
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Every Beer has a StoryIt’s easy to get lost in the details of drinking the beer, ignoring the rest of the narrative that lead to the beer.
Sometimes the story comes from your interaction with the beer, not the beer or brewery itself.
Example: Sam Adams Thirteenth Hour Review
• Personal anecdotal opening• Cohesive theme that ties into the
name of the beer• Sensory descriptions woven into story• Overall feeling of how I liked the beer
from tone/story
Writer First, Beer Enthusiast SecondWith Literature and Libation, my focus is on writing not beer. The beer is a catalyst for the stories, a unifying concept, not the heart and soul.
Creative freedom; never feel obligated to write anything that doesn’t excite me as a writer. I get to truly enjoy what I write, not just bang out words because words.
Example: Victory Summer Love Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
• Beer review with no adjectives• Focuses on the words, grammar,
writing, not the beer itself• Perfect for a blog; no sane editor
would let this into a magazine• A lot of fun to write
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Writing Outside BeerBeer touches so many aspects of culture; sociology, agriculture, diet, technology, business, law, art, etc.
Try to get my head out of the pint glass and look at the bigger context of beer in society. Essays are perfect for exploring broader concepts and starting conversations about things that “matter” in our culture.
Example: The Syncretism of Sam Adams
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
• Overall theme ties human and religious history to beer history
• Researched, thought-out argument, not just off-the-cuff opinion
• Topically relevant; Jim Koch and Sam Adams were being talked about
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”-C. S. Lewis
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
Bryan Roth
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Beer Research
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
We are not alone
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
No. Seriously.
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Everyone’s doing it.
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Now get learning• 87% of online adults say the internet and cell phones have
improved their ability to learn new things
• 72% of internet users report they like having this much information available to them
• 76% of online adults say access to the internet has made average Americans better informed
Source: Pew Research Center
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Sources to help you stand outBeer Ratings Beer Advocate RateBeer BeerGraphs
Industry Info Brewbound Shanken News Craft Brewing Business
Academic Research
Google Scholar JSTOR Personal Interviews
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
How it’s helped meMoving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
How can it help you?
Easy DifferentNotes from a beer review
Behind-the-scenes look at your research
Writing about a brewery opening
Post with cited arguments
Sharing information provided to you
Offering facts and figures not everyone is seeing
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
Journalism/Storytelling and Wrapping it All Together
Alan McCormick
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
WHY? You are in an enviable position to report news and deliver stories that are not being reported/told.
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
Utilize your “non-beer” strengths.
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
HOW?
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Facts:
Context:
Purpose:
Collect and Verify
Provide the background and “big picture.”
Have one. Know what it is.
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
Forget: “Write what you know.”
Write what you discover.
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
Discussion
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Moving Beyond The Beer Review
2015 Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference, Asheville, North Carolina
Bryan Roth@BryanDRoth thisiswhyimdrunk.wordpress.com
Jessica Miller@heybrewtiful heybrewtiful.com
Oliver Gray@OliverJGray literatureandlibation.com
Alan McCormick@GrowlerFills growlerfills.beer