Shelton Bros and upcoming Southern Brewers Conference

It's a whirlwind week for me - I just got back yesterday from attending both session of the Shelton Brothers Festival, held in Atlanta this year, and will be heading out to Nashville tomorrow for the Southern Brewers Conference. Here are some musings on both.


Thoughts on The Festival: 

First of all, holy shit the Cantillon line was, at all times, epic. I didn't even bother on Friday night, but I was able to get a couple pours in a reasonable amount of time on Saturday. They were delicious, of course. But I wished I could sit down and enjoy a few more ounces over a longer period of time.

This is why I'm not usually a huge proponent of beer festivals, in general. Beer culture, to me, is sitting down with friends (that you have or not met before the occasion) talking over beers in a relaxed fashion, enjoying the beers and each others' company. The Festival was useful to me in that I had the opportunity to drink some beers I wouldn't have the chance to otherwise, plus, the brewers are there to chat with, especially during the quieter VIP sessions.

A huge number of the beers were either: sours; IPA juice bombs; or barrel aged 10+% ABV stouts or saisons or sours or porters. All of which I enjoy! But having a couple hundred of them is overwhelming, and honestly, after about a dozen I don't think one's palate really registers much else.

But, the inherent nature of beer festivals aside, The Festival was a great event, well run, with gorgeous beers from faraway (and nearby) places. I had several conversations that were immensely valuable and interesting and I feel like I learned a lot. So, success!

And god bless the breweries that brought pilsners, lagers, and bitters (looking at you, Creature Comfort, Concrete Jungle, Holy Mountain, and Coniston/Ridgeway.) They were all delicious and excellent palate cleansers.

Thoughts on the Southern Brewers Conference:

Well, I haven't been yet, but I'm super looking forward to it. I've never been to Nashville, and my friends at Rhizome Productions (the folks behind the SBC, Nuit Belge, and the aforementioned Shelton Brothers Festival) are based there, and I've heard awesome things about the city.

As always, I'm looking forward to the opportunities to learn some stuff in educational sessions and by talking to industry folks, and get together some thoughts about how the beer culture down here has developed as a region and where it's going - identifying challenges and solutions, which relate to the culture of the South as well as the overall national craft beer culture and growth.

So, things start up on Wednesday with Nashville brewery tours and the opening of the conference trade show during the afternoon and the opening reception in the evening. Thursday and Friday morning focus mainly on educational sessions and trade show hospitality events, until 2pm on Friday, when the Brewer v. Distributor "Family Feud" session begins. It's moderated by Nashville noted alcoholic beverage attorney, Will Cheek, and includes folks from Yazoo, Highland, Creature Comfort, Trim Tab, and Cigar City on the brewing side against distributor reps from Nashville, Knoxville, and Meridan MS.

Channel your inner Richard Dawson (or Steve Harvey) and let's play some Family Feud! (While drinking!)

Not motivated to check it out yet? Well, what about the fact that you can raise money for your state's brewers guild WHILE learning, drinking, and networking? The Southern Brewers Conference/Rhizome Productions will donate money to state guilds that have ten or more breweries in attendance. It's a divvy up of 10% of the net profits of the conference - last year, six states qualified (FL, GA, NC, TN, AL, and LA) and each earned $1100 for their guilds.

Last year it was five breweries to qualify, so y'all need to rise to the challenge in 2017!  It may be down to the wire, but there are still tickets available and there are still discounted hotel rooms at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel for $149/night. So take a road trip and hang out with your community while we work together to make it better for beer lovers and makers.