Great Brewers Community Strengthens with Beer Groups

With the launch of Beer Groups on GreatBrewers.com, beer enthusiasts can now engage in a community of local beer fans, discuss upcoming events, and be the first to find out about new, seasonal, and limited beer releases. According to Eric McKay, the creator of GreatBrewers.com, "traffic has grown exponentially since our February 2009 relaunch, but the site has lacked a real sense of community to accommodate our visitors. Beer Groups serve to provide that community."

The foundation for Great Brewers is built upon beer passionate wholesalers throughout the country that collectively represent more than 400 breweries and actively service over 50,000 beer retailers in 14 states. Within those states, there's a growing curiosity among consumers regarding what interesting new beers will be arriving, when they will become available, and where they can be purchased. Beer enthusiasts are also eager to learn about local upcoming beer sampling events, beer dinners, product promotions, "Meet the Brewer" events, and even beer industry job openings.

Beer Groups give brewers, distributor members, beer retailers, and beer enthusiasts the ability to post content to a localized community. To simplify the communication of this information, members of the group receive automatic email notifications summarizing new content. By default, new group members will receive a daily email summary of new content, however, users have the flexibility of adjusting their notification settings to receive summarized email updates instantly, hourly, twice daily, or weekly (click the "My BeerCloud" tab, hit "Edit" and adjust "Notification settings"). Additionally, each Beer Group offers an RSS feed, which provides members with an even broader range of options for receiving local beer updates.

Most Beer Groups are regional, and are active year round, however some are set up for specific major events, such as Beer Weeks. As Great Brewers Wholesaler Membership grows, more Beer Groups will be added. To join a group, simply log in to GreatBrewers.com, go to the Beer Groups tab, and click "Join" beside any groups that interest you. Once you are a member of a Beer Group, you can easily invite people to join by clicking the "Invite Friend" link in the left column of the specific Beer Group page. The left column also lists options for types of content you can submit to that group, including stories, beer lists, forum topics, and more.

The Great Brewers team hopes that Beer Groups help them achieve their mission of bridging the gap between the world’s great brewers and the consumers who enjoy their products, with a paramount focus on education and on enhancing beer distribution practices through the sharing of information.

Related Features:

• Check out Beer Groups
• See the current roster of Great Brewers Member Wholesalers