Coming soon.. please help

I'm struggling with writing all my posts recently, but I'm back and going to try to do one post per week minimum. BUT I NEED YOUR HELP.

I have a bunch of posts planned but I don't know what to do first, so I want you guys to tell me what you are most interested in, then I will write about it.

Here's the options:
- A wrap up of my recent USA trip which includes a visit to Seattle, Portland, The City, San Diego and LA.
- A review of the L2 Beer Industry Digital IQ report
- How to be little; rough digital ideas for tiny breweries (I intend on publishing usable strategies that could easily be implemented and will make profit)
- Micro brewing is not a Trend; an article on why Marketers need to stop calling craft beer a trend and see the bigger picture.
- Beer Tweets; why twitter is more important for craft brewers than any other channel.

That's it. Hopefully I can get each of these articles done in the next couple of weeks, if you really want to see one of them, just leave a comment below.

Vic on the Park & The Projects, Beer & Cider Festival

Small is the new big, or something along these lines. That's what the people are saying. The back of the previously shabby Vic on the Park is a fairly small space and not very inspiring for the likes of a beer festival. So it's a surprised and a joy to see the area nicely filled with a beer sipping community on a fine sunny Saturday in March.

The car park/basketball court translated nicely into this micro festival, with about 7 tents lining the back wall and the beer garden providing the shade.
Each of the brewers (see below) brought around two beers (in some cases a beer and a cider), with the exception of 4 Pines who brought all of their beers and Mountain Goat who snuck in a few seasonal beers to keep the regulars happy.

There wasn't much new or exclusive on offer, but I don't think it was a negative. While bigger beer festivals tend to get a lot of press, little events like this are what make the beer community grow. Of the 300 plus people who were at the event, only a few were familiar faces. The rest were locals who, maybe for the first time, were getting into and having a conversation about craft beer.

Beer highlights for me was the very crisp and roasty Pinchgut BLK PLZ, a beer that nicely handles the trend of making black versions of traditional beer styles. It retained the dryness and crisp smack of the pilsner while just letting on a nice little coffe aftertaste.
Other Beer highlight would be the Mountain Goat Rare Breed Before The Dawn Black IPA, another blackened up style, this time the IPA was a bit more powerful than the pilsner. Floral, citrus aroma, IPA body but then a big hit of roasted malts that combine with the hops gave a dark berry finish.

Hopefully the Vic and The Projects continue to do more events like this, but maybe, with a little less cider. For photos of the event try The Vic & The Projects facebook pages.

Trainworks Post Review

I wrote a piece on Trainworks which you can go see at Brews News now.

What's your opinion on Big Beer Festivals, are they good for the craft beer community? Do they attract the right or wrong crowds? What improvements could they make?

The Grifter Interview

I mentioned that I had done an interview with the folks from The Grifter Brewing Company a few weeks ago. Well, I finally got around to clearing it up and you can have a read of it here. Tell me what you think. I'd really like to know if this is the kind of information that you wanted to know about the starting of a brewery? Could I have approached it differently?

Craft Beer and Marketing

Tonight I'll write an article about this video, in the mean time watch this and have a think if you want.

Landline's beer stories

Landline have done a few stories about beer which are worth the watching to get an understanding of some of the problems and complexities that face the craft beer industry.
Here are the stories:

• Trouble Brewing - which features my ugly face serving the judges at the Royal Sydney Beer comp and some great stuff from some brewers.
• Hop To It - a great article about the hop industry, how it's affected by the diminishing size of the beer market and how craft brewers are bringing the hop market back.

It's great to see the beer industry getting some attention on probably the largest media platform for agriculture at large.