Tough Topic: Breweries & Social Media

I have been intrigued by how different breweries have reacted to my blog posts.  By far I would say most breweries have no clue I am here.  That is fine with me.  I understand I am not on everyone's radar.  I often wonder what makes the cut.  Great Divide retweets or shoots off a "thanks" for the review to many bloggers on their Twitter feed, yet I have never received an acknowledgement.  What does Great Divide use as a metric to decide how they warrant a response?  Others such as Hook & Ladder often post a comment and promote a blog post of mine.  On my birthday Sierra Nevada started following me.  I think this is smart.  For one it shows an appreciation of someone promoting your product and an acknowledgement goes along way.

Recently I received backlash from a brewery.  I counted Metropolitan Brewing among my Twitter followers and assumed they read this blog on a frequent basis.  The day I published my review of Metropolitan I no longer could count them as a Twitter follower.  They de-linked me within hours of posting.  I know they saw the review, and I did not feel it was a bad review.  I gave an honest review of a two-year old brewery with a lot of potential.  Did I call them out on their issues?  Yes!  I am not their cheerleader.  I am a reviewer, and my commentary was not harsh.  Most of the problems I listed were either solved or easily solved, and I finished my post by telling readers to go buy their beer.  You can see my harsher posts here, here and here and Metropolitan's review was nowhere close to harsh.

By flat out disavowing my blog instead of just ignoring it Metropolitan annoyed me.  Actually, they pissed me off.  I stocked up on their beer to start doing beer reviews to further promote their products.  Social media counts as free marketing and by taking a passive aggressive stance Metropolitan lost out on marketing.  I am one of the few people I know who think Metropolitan will be successful.    With marketing skills like this maybe I am wrong and they will fail.

Breweries market mostly to a crowd that skews to the young and technologically savvy.  They need to embrace the social media world and not make snap decisions.  If a brewery feels a comment is not fair they should respond to it.  Engage the market and address what issue a consumer has, or at least ignore it.

Beer Review: Backdraft Brown by Hook & Ladder

A few months ago I wrote about a flank steak I marinated in Backdraft Brown.  If you missed that post check it out here.  Backdraft Brown is brewed by Hook & Ladder Brewing Co. in Maryland.  While many breweries do charitable work or sponsorships, Hook & Ladder has pledged a penny from each pint and a quarter from each case to burned firefighters and other burn victims.  The brewery is run by two brothers.  One of the brothers is a firefighter, and clearly wanted to stay connected to his roots.  The brothers even brew near where they grew up.

Tasting Notes:
Poured a dark brown into a shaker pint with a nice off-white head.  Backdraft Brown has a nutty aroma with notes of caramel and roast.  Additionally, there was a hop aroma which is not always prevalent in brown ales.  Flavors of malt chocolate and a slight hint of smoke come from this light bodied beer.  It is an easy drinking beer that is not overpowering allowing you more than one.

Pairing Suggestion: Steak

Cooking With Beer: Backdraft Flank

Sometimes cooking with beer works sometimes it does not.  This is the first recipe I developed myself for the blog.  Developing a recipe involves a great deal of trial and error, but perseverance will result in success.  I know summer is now officially over but as football season is getting started a few of you may need a good tailgate recipe.

Here is a recipe I recently tried out that worked well:

1 Flank Steak

1 Bottle Hook & Ladder Backdraft Brown

Combine for 12 hours in zip lock bag.

Grill to desired doneness.  (I grilled it for about 20 minutes on low coals)

Make sure you rest your meat.  If you do not know how to do this, then you really should not be allowed in the kitchen.  Also, cutting flank steak across the grain will generate a better mouthfeel as you chew on it.

Paired with: Backdraft Brown of course!