Why Breweries Are Avoiding Your Beer Festival and How to Step Up Your Game

The number of beer festivals in Colorado has grown to such a scale that there is no comprehensive listing. Brewers Association, the largest industry group, does not track beer festivals and who could blame them? Trying to create a thorough, searchable list would a sisyphean exercise akin to counting the calories in your beer. A futile, cruel exercise, much like burpees, that is best avoided.

How nutty, or should I say, how cheesy has it gotten? The latest Denver beer festival — a Mac and Cheese Beerfest features 10 different kinds of mac and cheese, DJs and live music, promising to “get the crowd on their feet.” Exactly, because nothing says, “I feel like dancing,” than copious amount of beer and comfort food.

What’s that? You still want to host your own beer festival?

Well you’d better make damn sure it’s a good one.

Start with the breweries. What is in it for them?

Sara Heinle of Mockery Brewery, who was kind enough to answer my online query, put it like this:

Beer festivals are a great way to showcase our beer to customers who may not know of our brand or may not visit our part of Denver (RiNo). In the past, we have had customers come in saying “Oh we tried you at this festival and had to come by to try more.” Beer fests can act as a tool to advertise our beer and brand. — Sara Heinle, Mockery Brewery

Sure, a percentage of attendees may be twenty somethings looking for a way to get blotto for $40, but most festival attendees are curious craft beer enthusiasts who don’t have the time to personally visit every Colorado brewery. After all, we’re #2 in the U.S. with 334 breweries, behind only California. In the Denver metro area alone, there are 88 breweries.

Contrast all of that legwork with the ease of a beer festival. Within an afternoon or evening, you have created a one stop shop for craft beer loving Coloradans to sip, sample and select beers for future consumption — at the brewery or whatever restaurants and liquor stores they have sway over.

Sounds great, so why are breweries not knocking each other over to vend at your festival?

Two reasons: Poor planning and lack of a philanthropic bent.

Planning first. How many other events are on the same weekend as your beer festival? Did you pick a great location? How do you support breweries? Do you have trained people to pour the beer? Do you provide ice, pitchers, and tables? Do you pay for the beer? How do you advertise your festival? Do you have a social media plan to promote your event up to and afterwards?

Is your venue properly heated or cooled for the wacky Colorado weather? Did you plan for enough beer based on ticket sales? Arrange for enough food trucks? Have you taken steps so people can enter the festival quickly and once in, aren’t standing in long lines?

One festival that improvised was Sesh Fest back in 2013. While attendees were queuing up to show their mobile tickets, beer angels appeared with cans of Ska Brewing beer. I’m still talking about that bit of genius four years later. If your best planning still results in a line, for the love of all that is good in the world, have some kind of entertainment nearby. Suggestions include a comedian, a band, anything to keep it civil.

To the second point, are you donating a percentage of the festival proceeds to a charity? Sara Heinle of Mockery, like many in the industry, prefers festivals with a nonprofit component. One of their favorite festivals to work with is A Night to Remember, which supports the ACT Foundation founded in memory of Alexander C. Teves. Teves was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting while shielding his girlfriend from harm.

Craft breweries all over the United States have stepped up to meet the needs of nonprofits. By canning water for natural disasters, donating a percentage of their sales, or hosting events in house, craft breweries in Colorado donated an estimated $73.4 million to charitable causes in 2016 according to the 2016 Brewery Operations Benchmarking Survey.

How can you enhance the beer festival experience and see returns for the breweries, ensuring a successful repeat performance next year?

Answer: A combination of social media and traditional marketing and hands-free technology benefits breweries, attendees and you as the event organizer.

Before your next event, harness the energy and know-how of Two Parts, who promotes craft beer events in addition to hosting their own successful soirees, like the aforementioned Sesh Fest. Partner and reap more attendees from their large following on Instagram, Facebook and the e-mail newsletter they send to thousands of thirsty craft beer lovers.

At the main event: Here at Denver based Spigot Labs, led by craft beer connoisseur Scott Vitale, we have created taste tracking technology so breweries know what they poured and exactly how much of it. By using RFID tracking on the bottom of glasses, attendees keep their hands on their beers and not their phones.

Furthermore, RFID tracking makes it possible for festival-goers to remember what they tasted. When breweries and event planners have this kind of information, coupled with a way to reach out post event, they can keep the beer loving public informed, entertained and engaged to buy a particular beer, attend their next event or sing its praises on social media.

Utilize social media platforms and attendee emails post event to capture attendee surveys, with an incentive upon completion ($5 off your next event). Respond to every piece of feedback so attendees know they’ve been heard, and most importantly, incorporate important improvements in your next festival.

As part of your post event social media or email outreach, include a way for attendees to order what they sampled. Contact the friendly staff at Craft Alley who taps (sorry, these puns are just flowing) into a constantly rotating list of beers from local breweries. Customers can pick up 32 ounce cans in their Platte Park store or order online for pickup or delivery.

If you’re looking for additional ways to promote your beer festival, reach out to beervangelists like Jonathan Shikes** of Westword or Jenn Fields** with the Denver Post. As far as we can tell, they don’t currently review beer fests, but we’re pretty confident they could be persuaded with a few free tickets to attend. The wowing is up to you.

** Note to Jonathan and Jenn, we appreciate all the well-written beer expertise over the years!