For the last three years, Craft’d Company has been hosting in-person Beers with the Brewers events with Massachusetts breweries. The Boston-based business actually offers a variety of special event production services for beer festivals, taproom openings, popups and beyond, as well as services for promotional products, event staffing, online marketing and even themed bar trivia. Its most popular event, the aforementioned Beers with the Brewers, allows attendees to experience a local neighborhood’s best beers while learning the story behind the brews.
But with events and taprooms closed across the country, Craft’d Company has adapted its services to the current world of digital beer entertainment. Its new Virtual Beers with the Brewers offering now orchestrates live stream guided tastings, giving viewers the opportunity to learn about, interact with and support their breweries while giving breweries the ability to connect, market and sell some product.
To celebrate American Craft Beer Week this week, Craft’d Company is actually hosting two Virtual Beers with the Brewers events with some craft beer legends — Harpoon Brewery CEO and Cofounder Dan Kenary will be featured today, Tuesday, May 12, and Brooklyn Brewery Cofounder Steve Hindy will be featured tomorrow, Wednesday, May 13. It sure doesn’t hurt to have some star power to attract attendees when doing these.
“The virtual events have been successful because it’s still an intimate, one-on-one conversation with the brewer, but we’ll have up to 500 viewers tune in throughout the hour-long tasting,” said Craft’d Company Founder and CEO Christine Healy. “Even after the live tasting, viewers can grab the beers we’re talking about and go back to watch anytime on our social media pages. It’s a great interactive activity when you’re spending a lot of extra time at home.”
Leading up to each live stream, Craft’d Company typically announces four beers for the tasting so viewers can purchase the variety pack in advance and taste along at home. Since launching the virtual series on March 19, 2020, Craft’d Company has hosted live streams with over 30 breweries in Massachusetts and Rhode Island including Wormtown Brewery in Worcester and Foxborough, Mass., Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Mass., Lord Hobo Brewing in Woburn, Mass., and Foolproof Brewing in Pawtucket, R.I. Anyone can purchase the featured beers and go back to the guided tasting at any point. All live streams are archived and can be viewed on Craft’d Company’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
Each live stream is hosted by Healy who tastes along with the brewers while asking questions about the story behind the brewery, brewing process and different beer styles. Live-viewers have the opportunity to ask their own questions directly to the brewers during the event as well. Of course, the most amazing part is probably the price.
“There’s no cost to the breweries to be involved. This is one way we can support the fantastic community of breweries we’ve worked with over the past few years in a devastating time,” said Healy. “We take on most of the heavy lifting from marketing each tasting upfront to archiving the videos and making those available to the breweries afterwards. We’ll be hosting with breweries throughout the Northeast soon and hope to expand beyond that eventually too.”
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