Holy Thursday: Preaching to the Masses

I remember distinctly where I was when I began writing the weekly Monday Rant posts on this blog. I was in Slippery Rock University's Bailey Library complaining about malt beverages such as Mike's Hard Lemonade. Here I am two years later and I still write it for pretty much every Monday morning. It's the Monday Quarterback of the beer world. I've experimented with a couple series of posts with intentions of doing them weekly, monthly etc. Unfortunately they never caught on.

Last week, I began a simple post with some for of a biblical-sounding quote that I churned up out of thin air. I thought it entertainment enough to do it for this one, too. As I cracked a smirk I decided to try and make a weekly post called Holy Thursday. I can have some idiotic quote I made up. It can also symbolize my poor attendance at mass. Holy Thursday is actually one of the holy days in the Catholic Church. It remembers the Last Supper the week of the Easter celebration. If you have any better-sounding ideas than Holy Thursday just let me know. I'm not totally committed, but would prefer it to be some religious or medieval undertones. Alright, enough blabbering. Let's roll.

"If thou dost well as an orator, thine ale shall flow." - Nobody

I've always wondered the world would be like if we saw a hefty dose of advertisements and ad campaigns from some of out favorite craft breweries. After all, we get enough from the major brewing companies whose product we've become bored with fro the most part. You know the ads I mean. If you don't, just watch the Super Bowl next Sunday.

I'm fairly sure the disparity (at least in my area) could be due to finances. The craft market just doesn't bring in as much as the big ones do. Still, craft breweries are bringing in a fair share of money. They continue to grow.

If craft breweries haven't taken any foothold in the form of television or radio advertisement they definitely have in the form of social media. Interacting on a personal level with customers and fans. I mean just take a look at some of the breweries you follow. They retweet cool pictures we take. Most are punctual in terms of getting back with responses to inquiries. One of the best here in Pittsburgh is East End Brewing. Take a look.

Working on that. But it's on draft now.RT @SteveOldrati: when are Smokestack Heritage Porter bottles going to be available at the brewery?
— Scott at EastEnd (@EastEndBrewing) January 19, 2014

And @HerzMuses too! MT @hoyle13: Nice @TribLIVE article on growlers http://t.co/UoFTPegeP0 cc: @Houghspgh @ArsenalCider @AllSaintsCraft #fb
— Scott at EastEnd (@EastEndBrewing) January 16, 2014

There's plenty more where that came from. I'd link or screen cap something to one of the major brewer Twitter accounts, but I just peaked at the Budweiser one and there's nothing. No questions answered. No retweets of anything. No interactions with any other breweries. No personality at all. The craft breweries might not ever catch the majors in terms of financials, but they've sure got them on the battlefield that is the web.

Check, Please

The following is a subject I haven't paid any mention to, nor even thought about, in quite some time. The subject I speak of it Untappd check-ins and believe it or not, is quite the scandal when said check-ins are automatically posted to social media feeds.

I find (by just observing he feeds of others) that the auto-posting of these things are an annoyance. Not to me personally, but it seems as if they are to the majority of people on social media. It's mostly for this reason that I've decided to refrain from posting mine to my Twitter feed.

That's not news since I haven't posted on to the other side in months, but what might be considered as such is the decision I've made recently to stop it entirely. After all, aren't those that even care about our beer more informed/interested/intrigued by a posting of a photograph? Now, by photograph I don't mean through the Untappd posting. I mean just a straight picture with a witty remark or something.

This brewer has got A LOT better with this

Now, on to the next issue at hand and something that does bug me personally. Even if those of us have found ways to weed out those whose feeds are all Untappd check-ins some of our favorite breweries have caused our plans to blow up in our faces by retweeting those that check-in to their beers and post them to social media. Nobody wins.

A few breweries have improved through being reminded that doing it annoys some of us. Thus, some feeds have been improve to actual interesting feeds with content and not just retweets of who is drinking their beer.

I think we've made it past the stage of dealing with the posted check-ins. Now, it's time for this order of business.