Alex's project, big beers and Twitter polls

My former co-worker, Alex, was a Business Major at McMaster
University (he just graduated) and he had to do Marketing with
a group of others in his course. His group landed at Shawn and
Ed Brewing in Dundas where they had to create a marketing
strategy aimed at these craft brewers' new aluminum bottles.

I think the thing I enjoy the most about my job is that I tend to be surrounded by young people as co-workers.

Back when I was a journalist, I worked part-time at a Beer Store in Mississauga through the 1990s and had a blast. I was surrounded by bright, young Generation X types, most of whom are now married with grown kids. Granted, they are all now in their 40s so they ain't kids anymore.

There was a five year break from 2000 to 2005 where I delved into politics on an administrative level and was surrounded by, well, bureaucrats. Nice people for the most part but dealing with constituents, not so much fun. That is, unless you enjoy being yelled at by stranger because it's snowing out and "What are you going to do about that?" Same thing as you, Asshat... wait for Spring.

So when I returned to the Beer Store in 2005, I had a new group of young'uns surrounding me - the Millennials, which are folks born between 1981 to 1996, putting them anywhere between 22 to 37 this year. (Anyone born after 1996 is, apparently, in Generation Z or, my preferred handle, the iGeneration. I think the second one is perfect.)

The older Millennials are pretty much settled into their lives now but the younger ones are just finishing university or college and, well, their lives are about to begin. So it's a lot of fun talking with them because man, you learn a lot of cool stuff. Granted, while I'm not too old to learn new things, I am just old enough to not always remember them.

These two fellows would be Ed Madronich, left, and Shawn Till, right,
the owners of Shawn and Ed Brewing in Dundas. Now I have no idea
how much of the McMaster Marketing study they used. Maybe a little,
maybe a lot but hey, when a free think-tank of your target market gives
you some Marketing ideas, I'm gonna say it's probably wise to pay heed.

So I'm always asking them about school and the things they are learning there because let's face it, the landscape's a lot different than when I was there. Apparently, computers are around now so that must be helpful.

So, at my last Beer Store, I worked with one young fellow, Alex, who had just graduated with his Business degree from the DeGroote School of Business, which is under the auspices of McMaster University in Hamilton. One night while we were working, these aluminum bottles for Lagershed beer, the flagship brew of Shawn and Ed Brewing in Dundas came back with someone's empties.

One of the sales reps at Shawn and Ed's Brewing
gives this 10-foot inflatable bottle of Lagershed a
big old hug. What can I tell ya? There's a lot of
love in Ontario's Craft Beer industry. And hugs.

Shawn and Ed, I don't know what those bottles cost you but we only give folks a dime back for each.

Alex smiled as he saw them and then told me he and a group of others did a project on them for a Marketing class at school. Well, if you're gonna lure me into a story, any innovation in craft beer is all the bait you need. He told me that the class had a number of businesses to choose from, each with a unique business challenge. In the end, his group landed at Shawn and Ed and their challenge was to create a marketing strategy for their new aluminum bottles.

Now because the small brewery, which opened in 2016, does not have a canning line equipment, which, I think, start at about $500,000 and go upwards from there, they decided to use the aluminum bottles. That way, they could still use the existing bottling line but there was a bigger reason the marketing class landed there.

"Because previously, Shawn and Ed only did glass bottles (sold in six-packs) and we don't sell single bottles of regular brands at the Beer Store or LCBO, this allows them to have a single entrant on the shelves," Alex told me. "This has the same volume as a tall can (473-ml or 16 ounces) so this is their equivalent to buying a tall can."

In essence, the aluminum bottle is similar in function to a glass bottle, Alex continued. You still need a church-key to pop the cap. "It's very similarly priced to, say, a Nickel Brook can and it keeps in their values of believing that beer should be drank out of bottle, not cans." True enough - my new store sells them for $3.25 so it's the same price range.

But it's the individual package, rather than, say, a six-pack which is the biggest advantage, Alex said. "Our group that the best venues for sales would be the golf course or any sort of sporting venue you can't have glass at because broken glass (and) people stepping on it. Stuff like that."

Against all odds, I still haven't visited Shawn and Ed
Brewing in Dundas and I say against all odds because
they're really not that far from me. I'll be there soon.

Know that a six-pack of new product in the craft beer industry might be too much of a commitment for some drinkers, whereas a single can (or bottle in this case) is a gimme, this new aluminum bottle "allows them (Shawn and Ed) an easier way for people to try but it also gets them into all of the venues, whether it be a golf course or whether they (wish to try) getting it into the Roger's Centre."

So in the end, Alex's group keyed on the various locales that a single aluminum bottle could land, as well as the issue of not being glass. And that's what he told me in a nutshell. Now to be frank, I have no idea how much or how little of his group's marketing strategy has been used by the brewery. But I'll tell you this, when a bunch of bright young minds, who are also your key demographic and your future, create strategies for you, I'd pay attention. Further to that, it didn't cost the brewery a dime. Can't beat that price-sticker!

When I discovered that Amsterdam Brewing's 3 Speed
Lager came in a 568-ml can as opposed to the usual
473-ml format, I was curious. That is until I did the
millilitre-to-ounce conversion and saw that it was
19.2 ounces, exactly the same as the Oskar Blues'
Dale's Pale Ale I enjoyed numerous times on the Las
Vegas strip during recent trips. Dale's is neck-and-neck
with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale as my American favourite.

Okay, speaking of marketing, our good friends at Amsterdam Brewing created a little bonus for craft lager lovers recently. Walking past our can display (which I seldom touch because I'm more in the heavy lifting department), I noticed something different about one of their products. I am quite familiar with their 3 Speed Lager, which is a nice, mild, grassy and lightly citrus lager that pairs well with a lunch. A good starter beer as I like to call that style.

But because it's paired with other Amsterdam beers on the shelf - in this case, their classic Boneshaker IPA and Pale Rider Dry Hopped Lager (now that is one killer lager) - I couldn't help but notice something. It was taller than the other two on each side. And I mean, by a significant margin. So I checked it out. It was 568-ml as opposed to the usual tallboy 473-ml (16 ounces). So I did what I always do and plugged the 568-ml into Google to see how many ounces that equals. You may notice I do that all the time. I have American readers on here so I want to include measurements they use daily. In America, only drug-dealers use metric. Also ounces still mean more to me as a measurement than anything in metric. Same with Fahrenheit over Celsius.

So when I plugged 568-ml into the conversion chart, it told me that equaled 19.2 ounces. Okay, now that's a number I know! You see, during my many trips to Las Vegas, I have come across a beer exactly that size - Oskar Blues Brewing (Lyons, Colorado) Dale's Pale Ale. For my money, it's one of the best Pale Ales in America, standing alongside Sierra Nevada (Chico, California) Pale Ale.

So, of course, I posted the 3 Speed on Twitter with a Pale Rider beside it for comparison purposes and followed it with a tweet about Dale's Pale Ale being exactly the same size.

It's not long ago you would not have seen these two Great Lakes Brewing
IPAs side-by-side on Donny's Party Porch Patio. The reason is simply
that they are both Tank Ten beers and there is only one Tank Ten in the
brewery so, you know, one at a time. However, that changed very recently
when GLB announced Octopus Wants To Fight was getting year-round
status. That's a break in tradition for the Etobicoke brewery. Also, yes!!

I got back a "Big cheers, Don!" from Amsterdam for their big beer as well as a "Gotta go big!" from Oskar Blues. (Bad news, guys... turns out size matters.) But hey, I guess that's proof that sometimes, good things do come in larger packages. And for the record, that big ol' 3 Speed costs $3.25. A bargoon, my friends.

Okay, now we're on the Twitter world so let's continue with that. About two years ago, I noticed everyone's favourite Ontario beer writer, Drunk Polkaroo, started posting beer-related polls on the social medium. I didn't really think twice about it until one day, I thought, "Hey, that might be fun to do!" Of course, I had no idea how to do it but I figured I'd just ask one of the Millennials at work. (In retrospect, I suppose I could have just asked Polk.)

Okay, how did this beer get its name? Well, the huzzahs go
to Troy Burtch, GLB's marketing and communication dude.
He was scrolling through Twitter one day and someone had
posted a picture of himself drinking GLB at a bar. However,
behind him was one of those tree racks with all the arms for
coats and someone had stuck a sign on it that said "Drunk
Octopus." Bam! Octopus Wants To Fight became a name...

Eventually, I noticed a little bar graph under the reply area - where you link pictures or GIFs - and figured that was probably it. So I was enjoying a Great Lakes Brewing (Etobicoke) Octopus Wants To Fight IPA one day and realizing it was my favourite GLB IPA, I thought, "Let's see if others agree." So on May 11th, I did my first Twitter poll. All by myself, I might add. No, no, hold your applause until the end of the show, please.

The question was simply, "Of these Great Lakes IPAs, which would you like to see year-round?" My four choices were: Octopus Wants To Fight, Karma Citra, Thrust! An IPA and Lake Effects.

I assumed and stated outright Octopus would be the overwhelming favourite. However, Drunk Polkaroo was one of the first on, saying he had done a similar poll one year prior and that Octopus and Karma were virtually neck-and-neck. Minutes later, GLB retweeted my poll so I figured hey, they were curious, as well. I kept my eye on my poll, which runs for 24 hours and damn if Polkaroo wasn't on the money. Octopus and Karma were pretty much even until the end.

Onto my next poll: Which one of these Left Field Brewing
(Toronto) IPAs is best? The Greenwood IPA or their Laser
Show Vermont Style Imperial IPA? Well, I put that out
there on Twitter and eventually got the winner I wanted.

Of the 179 votes cast, Octopus took 36%, Karma City 33%, Thrust nabbed 19% and Lake Effect collected 12%. Honestly, I thought Octopus would be well over 50% of the vote but with the comments tweeted, it became clear all four had their ardent fan-bases.

Now that was back in May so let's fast-forward to a couple of weeks back in August. With suitable fanfare, GLB posted on all of their social media that Octopus Wants To Fight was becoming their first-ever year-round IPA. Months later, this has precious-little to do with my poll and much more to do with their ongoing daily customer response in person at the brewery or on social media. GLB needed a year-round IPA. And as you can see in the picture, I can now enjoy both an Octopus and a Karma Citra with my three-pound shrimp burrito. And believe me, it takes two beers to wash one of those down. Also my horse, Octopus, won so that's kinda cool.

Which leads me to my most recent poll, this time revolving around two beers from Toronto's Left Field Brewing.

Sensing that Brayden's beer was falling a little short in my poll, I brought
in a ringer and said that the Greenwood was the only beer on Midgard
(that would be Earth) that was Thunder God-approved. Thor may have
got Greenwood a few extra votes but in the end, Laser Show took it all.

My local LCBO at Trafalgar and Dundas in Oakville is an excellent place to grab new craft beers - the best in town for certain. So recently, their beer guy, Josh, started beginning in two beauties from Left Field - their Greenwood IPA and the Laser Show Vermont Style Imperial IPA. Both are outstanding. Greenwood, at 6.3% and 65 IBU, is all peach, pineapple and best of all, hazy as hell. But hey, Laser Show is no slouch with its melon, orange and fruit, clocking in at a nifty 8% and 80 IBUs. Now the Greenwood runs $7.25 while the Laser Show is pricier at $8.95 a bottle. So they're "special occasion" beers. And apparently, I must consider Tuesday night or Recycling Day to be a special occasion as I have grabbed a lot of this pair. Like dozens of both at this point. And that lead to an interesting conversation between me and Twitter buddy Brayden (@BraydenMoore1) one night.

My new (yet somehow old) Beer Store brought me back in contact
with Big Rig Brewing's (Ottawa) Alpha Bomb Unfiltered IPA. But
when I poured one the other night, I did what I also do - stopped
about two inches before the top of the glass. The head had other
ideas. Now is it just me or does that over-the-top head look exactly
like an atomic bomb cloud? Didn't stop me from drinking it, okay?

Now Brayden hails from northwest Ontario and since my first newspaper job was a daily in Kenora (about as northwest Ontario as it gets), I applaud him for being handle those winters. I know I couldn't. Back to the point. I was singing the praises of the Laser Show one day and Brayden noted while, he, too, loved it, he would give Greenwood the edge. You know what that means... TWITTER POLL TIME!! (This game's fun.) I gave poll-takers four choices. A) Greenwood, B) Laser Show, C) They're both excellent and D) Worst. Poll. Ever.

In the end because I didn't have a powerhouse brewery retweeting me, there were just 15 votes over the 24 hours but the results were indisputable. Laser Show took 47%, Greenwood nabbed 27%, "They're both excellent" garnered 13% and "Worst. Poll. Ever" also collected 13%. I'll be honest. I was kinda hoping that "Worst. Poll. Ever" would win. Okay, that's enough for today so Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...