BB(W)C: Improving Beer Writing Since 2010

About two months ago, an article on the state of beer writing blew up on several Facebook groups I follow. The gist of the article is there are not enough knowledgeable beer writers out there educating the uninitiated. Is that true? Yes and no. Good beer writing is not often seen in traditional media, and there’s a lot of bad beer writing out there (I’m looking at you, Thrillist). But there is a lot of good beer writing in the blogosphere.

Most beer writing isn’t up to the quality and quantity of writing about food and wine. But, beer writing is relatively new compared to food and wine writing. News organizations have employed food and wine critics for decades. How may have beer critics and reporters? But beer writing is getting better and one reason is the annual Beer Bloggers conference Starting this year the conference is changing its name to the Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference to reflect that it’s participants are beer writers. For now, blogs are just the most common medium.

If you’re a professional beer writer, passionate part-time blogger or a Twitter beer evangelist, you you need to get to the 6th Annual 2015 BBWC. This will be my 4th and I’m already excited about it. This year’s conference will be July 17-19 in Asheville, NC (aka Beer City USA) with great breweries like Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues and others serving up delicious beer and food. Don’t miss it!

Why Attend?

1. You’ll meet beer legends. The last 3 years I’ve met Garrett Oliver, Jim Koch and Ken Grossman.
2. You’ll make new friends who love beer as much as you do.
3. You’ll drink amazing beer from all over the country.
4. You’ll go home with cool swag. The best was a set of four Spiegelau beer glasses at BBC12.
5. You’ll learn informative stuff to make you a better beer writer.

How can it improve your blog/writing/social media presence?

1. You’ll be inspired. I was writing a really bad homebrew blog at BBC12. Beer Makes Three was born at BBC12 using what I learned there.
2. You’ll learn to effectively use social media.
3. You’ll find out how to use pictures and videos better in your work.
4. You’ll pick up technical tricks from experts. A WordPress developer presented at BBC14. He’s got a great beer blog himself and is an avid homebrewer.
5. You’ll get a glimpse inside the beer industry and get to talk to brewers, distributors and retailers.

Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference attendees who registered as a Citizen Blogger received a discounted fee. In consideration for the discount, two blog posts were required about the conference. This is the first of two.