Raising the profile of Craft Beer in New Zealand

[JoKing]

So incase you are all wondering why subscribers to NZ Craft Beer TV on Twitter and FaceBook are getting inundated with the Luke and Kelly’s TV show, and even seeing the items pop up right here on realbeer, I thought I’d take the time to lay down a discussion for y’all.

 

It’s all in the name of promoting craft beer in NZ, and raising it’s profile here in the good old NZ.

 

I’m gonna put it on the table right now before it’s too late and say that in my eyes, It’s certainly not about promoting “Epic Beer” or trying to raise the profile of that company. Initially for me, because it was organized by Luke – my initial suspicion was that it was all an exercise to promote the Epic Brewing Co. etc. A lot of people have dismissed this to me as stealth marketing – for Epic. As I have nothing to do with Epic, you an take it from me that it has about as much to do with Epic, as it does with the other 44 breweries involved in NZ Craft Beer TV.

 

Please take the time to read below an email sent to me by Kelly Ryan of Epic Brewing Co.

 

Hi all,

 

As some of you know, we've completed the first episode of NZ Craft

Beer TV that you can all see here in its 2 parts:

http://nzcraftbeer.tv/

 

Or:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_JmRyB1ZEQ&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE6yWKWWXho&feature=related

 

What we would really love now is the support of all the breweries

involved in any way, shape or form that you can. This means hitting

the social media circuit as much as possible. Put links to the videos

on your Facebook pages, tweet out the episode to your followers on

Twitters, embed the videos and really drum up interest.

 

There are also a few questions regarding the series and collaboration

beer that we've endeavoured to answer here:

 

http://nzcraftbeer.tv/tripjournal/2011/5/2/a-little-q-a-on-mash-up....

 

Any other queries, please let us know.

 

This has taken a lot of time and money, but we honestly believe that

the more promotion this gets, the better off it has to be for New

Zealand craft beer, breweries and the people that enjoy beer. Please

help us out and get it out there. We're beginning to get interest from

abroad, people wanting to try the beer and folk who are genuinely

interested in the series, the concept and to satisfy their curiosity

about Kiwi beer.

 

With regard to the timeframe for the forthcoming episodes, we are

dependent on the production company (and the fact that it took 7 hours

to just do a voiceover for one episode!!), but will get it all out

there eventually!

 

Any support you can think of and provide would be amazing.

 

Put the links into your blog or send the video through to your local

media contacts so they can check it out.

 

Thanks heaps!

 

--

Kelly Ryan

 

 

Now, why leave it to the breweries to have all the fun promoting this? Realbeer.co.nz is the largest craft beer enthusiast / home brewing community in New Zealand. It’s time for all of you to step up and show some support.

 

I read on here all the time about how you all have tried to “convert” conventional beer drinkers to craft beer drinkers. It’s a commendable move… keep it up.

 

What else can you do to promote craft beer in NZ, so that we can increase the national consumption from 2 – 4% to 100%? Get your selves motivated to do something for this community that has literally CHANGED YOUR LIVES.

 

Don’t just sit behind your computer and read this, then do nothing about it. DO SOMETHING. I can’t tell you what it is… but lake they said over at Nike… JUST DO IT!

 

If you know someone who knows someone and can make a difference – tell them about NZ Craft Beer TV.

 

I for one will be changing my Avatar on Realbeer, Twitter and Facebook to the NZCraftBeerTV "Mash Up" label. I suggest that you do the same! Like a BlackOut... but rather a "MashOut".

 

That’s all I have to contribute for the short term.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Joe.

[JoKing]

Fuck yeah. That sounds awesome.

[nzbrewer]

Yeah we have been looking at getting tea towels made, but haven't found anything under $13 per tea towel, unless we are going to print 10,000+

[Ian Marriott]

Maybe someone will try to sell it to us?

 

[nzbrewer]

the Epic section of the NZ craft beer fridges, caues it is so huge and they don't put any other beers next to the Epic? what? ever noticed the other craft beers in the Epic section of the fridge? 

 

Ever thought it might be of some advantage to have this beer Mash Up distributed through the Epic distribution channels? Might mean lots of people will have access to it? Other brewers are welcome to put there hands up to help distribute.

 

sleeping do i feel a negative tone from you towards me? your last four posts seem to pointed in this direction. do you have something you really want to say to me?

[Sam]

"To be honest I think it should have Epic caps"

Seconded - When I saw the bottle I thought it was meant to be like that, in my opinion whoever brews it should leave their own mark on it as well. It would be very frustrating not knowing which of the breweries brewed which bottle.

The first episode of Craft Beer TV was awesome! Yes a more in-depth look at the brewing process etc would be great, but even getting a look inside these breweries is a great opportunity by itself. Also its only the first episode, maybe there will be some more in-depth stuff later on?

[Greig McGill]

Testify, my brewing brother!

 

For any doubters, seriously, try the beer. It speaks for itself, and it tastes like fermented kiwi! Mmmm, fermented endangered national icon.

[Rhyno]

and it tastes like fermented kiwi! Mmmm, fermented endangered national icon.

 

Sheer brilliance again Greg, I am sure that should be the slogan they use to market it to the tourists!

[Greig McGill]

Might just be a *tad* controversial, methinks... ;)

[Kelly Ryan]

Would rather it hadn't had the Epic cap! Don't really see this is an Epic beer personally. Main reason is that every single brewer that we visited was contacted by email, the recipe was open for discussion and no one at all came back to us with any ideas!

 

On brew day we had input from Steam, Mike's, Croucher, Valkyrie and Peak so we discussed the recipe with them. Sure, the grist was already locked and loaded, but hopping regime was figured out there and then and we would have seriously loved having heaps of brewers there! We understand the costs involved with flying/driving to Auckland, accommodation etc. so knew it was gonna be tough!

 

Suppose people are going to associate this with Epic (due to the hosts of the show...) and those blimmin' caps haven't helped... Either way, hope people enjoy it and it promotes craft beer in this country.

[Martin townshend]

As an idea and concept, this is superb and lovely.

BUT, so far in episode 1, it ain't flilled in the gaps to the 99% of the world who don't know what beer is made with, or it's history, NZ based or otherwise.

I know the boys went to a hop garden or two, presumably hit Galdfield maltsters and the fact that beer is mostly made from water would initiate the masses somewhat. (Should that have been episode one?)

From my perspective, the chance to talk beer with these guys from Epic was really neat. Kelly's knowledge was spot on. From the general publics end, editing on the first( and at the beggining of every episode) may need a (recap of) 'what is beer' (and a fermenter, a conditioning tank, a conterflow wort chilller, wort, etc)

Got to be careful this doesn't end up being a show for beer geeks only......

Haven't tried 'Mash Up.' Did text Luke a while before it was brewed to ask for the recipe so i could do it better, but all credit to him, he said not til after it was made, as it has been. Couldn't afford the time to get up to Aukland. Haven't tried said beer. Still waiting or the recipe!

Thanks so much to the boys for coming to visit my wee set up. Much appreciated. 

[Martin townshend]

Looks like I need to apoligize. I have misunderstood the point of this Craftbeer TV. (Thanks Grieg.) Now I realize it is to highlight the craft beer scene, not to educate the ignorant.

Thanks to Luke and Kelly for this initiative. They should be proud of thier acheivements.

[Kelly Ryan]

No problems, Martin.

 

The problem with beer on television/media is that it's generally quite niche. Take Brewmasters on the Discovery channel for example. Massive budget, great animation to explain the process of brewing etc., yet only 6 episodes were made and it struggled in the US to find it's target audience (due to episode slot changes amongst other things).

 

With that in mind, we wanted to create something that showed the people and the craft breweries of New Zealand. Something that beer enthusiasts, beer tourists and people travelling through (or living in) areas in NZ would be able to find online and then be able to physically hunt out.

 

Take wine on tele... Wineries are usually set up for tourists, so make for great television with scenery, vines, barrels, restaurants etc. It's not often you see the winemaker going through the process of how wine is made when the winery is visited by camera crews. We didn't want to go through the process of brewing in every separate brewery of New Zealand as this is something that is relatively similar wherever you go (obviously with subtle technical details that us brew-geeks love, of course!).

 

It's been really tough to put episodes together, but we're trusting the production company to put episodes together that highlight what all the great breweries of New Zealand are doing. The beers out there are too good for people to not know about them, so it's going to be interesting to see what sort of viewership these clips get. It would be great if TV picked up on them, but luckily the world is moving towards watching what they enjoy to watch on the internet... that's where we plan to get all of the episodes out there to all our friends in the beery world so that they can share them with their friends and people here and abroad realise it's not all just about yellow fizzy stuff down here.

 

The cool thing is that we just did a couple of voiceovers yesterday, so we should be looking at Dunedin, Invercargill and Arrowtown episodes up and active by the end of the week. We have some pretty good footage from these places, so we've got a good look into some of the breweries and have a good chat with the awesome brewers!

 

Luke and I are stoked at the support this project has been getting. We've more than half sold the first batch of Mash Up, have another in tank (which will have the right caps on them this time!) and the feedback has been great.

 

The recipe will be sent out to all contributing brewers Wednesday/Thursday this week. We really hope some other breweries around New Zealand have a go at brewing it. That would be one hell of a vertical tasting!