A few weeks ago, Tierney and I made good on our promise to co-celebrate our birthdays (there’s just one day in-between our respective day!) during a day trip to York.
We grabbed giant $5 orange crushes (Tierney) and Bloody Marys (me) at the White Rose before heading over to the new York Pretzel Factory for free mimosas and delicious, hot, soft pretzels.
Afterwards, we swung by Liquid Hero for some refreshment, then over to Columbia Kettle Works to hang with a bunch of brewers (more on that soon).
Somewhere in there, we decided we were going to this year’s Beer Bloggers Conference in Asheville, NC — and actually made good on it. We’re both signed up and ready to go. I’ll be covering it here, while Tierney will document her side on Stouts and Stilettos — but we’ll probably have several collaborations, especially since we’re driving the eight hours down and back together, leaving ample time for brainstorming and other hijinks.
Obviously, we’re looking for the perfect hashtag.
- #Sara&TierneydoAsheville
- #HbgGirlsGoneSouth
- [Your suggestion here]
The conference includes not only great field trips to big-time craft breweries like Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues, but it’s also packed with some great blogging/writing seminars, which I’m excited for. There aren’t a lot of conferences for what we do.
A couple of years ago I attended a “healthy living bloggers” conference in Cambridge/Boston, which I enjoyed — but despite occasional cooking and fitness posts, I’m not a healthy living blogger. In fact, the biggest difference at that event may have been that I was one of few professional writers who had been blogging for many years.
The Beer Bloggers Conference is shaped not only around beer, but about the tools we use to share information with our readers. There are specific sessions on social media, WordPress, improving beer reviews as well as a live-blogging session where you’re tasked with sampling and writing beer reviews in under 5 minutes. For that, you not only need to be well versed but decisive — and, of course, quick. It’s sure to be an interesting exercise.
Because of the exciting growth of the craft beer industry here in the Harrisburg area, I’m also looking forward to Past, Present, and Future of Asheville Beer, which will be a panel discussion featuring notable leaders from the Asheville beer community.
I’m curious about the Anheuser-Busch 3 p.m. Tasting, which will grant us access to AB’s rigorous daily quality tests, which they do to ensure consistency in their brands.
Stay tuned for more from us as summer nears, and help us select a hashtag to follow our travels down south. Cheers!
