With the rise of craft maltsters across the United States, finding ways to help tell that story to consumers via your staff is a great way to make a deeper connection with both those buying your beers and the farmers working with your malt providers.
Both Fullsteam and Cahaba make use of these relationships and are finding ways to tell that story online and across the bar.
This was discussed during Writing Craft Malt Into Your Brand Story, a series of talks hosted by RadCraft’s Emily Hutto. The next planned discussion is set for 2 p.m. (eastern) on Friday, October 27, entitled The Art & Science Of The Content Calendar.
Fullsteam’s Sean Wilson is a huge proponent of using craft malt in the company’s beer, making sure to work with all three of North Carolina’s malt houses: Epiphany Craft Malt, Riverbend Malt House, and Carolina Malt House. That means field trips to meet the farmers that the companies work with and bringing along staff to understand where the beer starts.
“I like looking for unexpected stories to tell,” the brewery’s founder said. “Not that barley, the base of the foundation of what we do, is played out. But there are these fun specialty grains and craft blend stories.”
One such story includes a cookout at a rice field in eastern North Carolina with Tidewater Grain Co. and its malted rice along with working with Epiphany, which makes a couple of the brewery’s Saisons.
“Many farmers like beer,” Wilson said. “Finding ways to collaborate and connect with others that might be interested in the product that the farmers grow.”
And not just the brewery as a purchaser but chefs and food buyers can also be included in these connections.
“We get to breach that gap by saying ‘We care about this too. We go this direction with it,’” he said. “We can say, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we collaborated or connected what you do on the food side and what we do on the beer side?’ And we have those opportunities because of the mutual relationships with farmers and maltsters.”
READ MORE: Certified for Sustainability: 10 Investments For Craft Malt, Beer, and Spirits Producers To Consider
Telling that story online matters, added Cahaba’s Kayla Stinnett.
“The nature of marketing is just a never-ending curiosity,” she said in her approach to creating marketing pieces for online usage. “I want to get a real feel for it, I want to learn the ins and outs of it from beginning to end. What is important to the production manager? What does our brewmaster think? We chatted with the farmer, just to get insight into his experience with it and why he wanted to move to this crop. We chatted with our Riverbend rep and just wanted to know more about why he wanted to bring this to Alabama.
“It was having all these conversations with all of those people, as well as the site visits. Always be curious. You have never learned enough. There is always more to know. And always come into every kind of thing with that, especially craft malt.” (See BirmingHelles – A BHAM Collaboration Brew)
Wilson stressed that if this matters to your business, put the investment into it, in other words, pay them for their time.
“[Telling staff] ‘We really would love for you to go join us for the field day, it’s open up to staff,’ but put in ‘and we will pay you for the time that you’re involved,’ or the gas or whatever.
“I think it goes a long way to incentivizing staff — maybe part-time bartenders or part-time packaging people or whoever — to express in real dollars that you value their time, and that if it’s important enough to us that we want to pay you to participate in this.
“If the budget is there, I would definitely encourage that.”
Along with the Content Calendar discussion this month, RadCraft will host Using Social Media To Support Brewery Sales on Friday, November 17 as well. See the entire conversation below:
Photo courtesy Fullsteam
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