The State of The Pint – 7 Years of Craft Beer Greatness!

Just dusting off the cobwebs from our 7th Anniversary bash down at Toronado San Diego. For the past 3 years, we’ve tasked ourselves with planning and executing a beer event that attempts to exceed the previous years. While all three events have had different vibes, this years was the best yet and will push us to top it next year. A huge thanks is in order to the entire team at Toronado San Diego. While my dealings with San Diego treasure Nate Soroko was very laid back and chill, the service staff was in high gear this weekend, making sure everyone was happy.

Looking Back on 7 Years

In Fall 2007, Jonny and I had no idea where this was going, but we did know we were going to go somewhere. Our dream of ditching the IT service business is becoming a reality, as old and new breweries depend on us daily to deliver industry wide news, honest coverage of festivals and events, and to serve as a platform for those who need a loud, dependable voice. We’ve gone through a few WordPress themes, many interns, many reader catching gimmicks, but are still the same group of rock stars that love the craft beer industry and culture.

Would we do anything different if we had to do it all over again? Heck no. Before the days of being able to buy Facbeook page likes, we were in peoples faces. Passing out stickers, business cards, cold calling breweries, giving away t-shirts that were paid for with our family’s money was what we did to get our name out there. While we had no marketing training, or any forecast that would lead us to believe it would work, we never doubted that it would for one second. Were we crazy, definitely, but no regrets, and we’re happy that we did it.

Moving Forward

Without spilling the beans, we are happy to let you know that we have made ourselves sustainable. We do that by following the model that put us on the map: providing a free valuable service to any and all craft breweries as well as our readers. You will never see us offer a Premium Service for something .99 a month, or a paid for newsletter. You will never hear of us charging a brewery to print their news or event info. Whether you want to share today’s news or read today’s news about the craft beer industry, it will be here and free.

Along with the growth of this booming industry, we have become a valuable asset to those who want to sell craft beer related products and services. Partnering up with folks with similar ambitions as The Full Pint will keep us going strong and hopefully growing as well.

In the near future, we will be providing unique Great American Beer Festival coverage. We’ve covered the last three years in a very similar fashion, and will be breaking away from the informative yet safe format we’ve been sticking too.

While we have moved to a very fast web host platform, we will be updating our overall appearance with focus on mobile optimzation and responsiveness. We have a lot of information gathered over the last 7 years and want to make sure you get all of it from us in a blink of an eye, regardless of whether you are on your computer, phone or tablet.

We have some other tricks up our sleeve that we aren’t ready to unveil, but stay tuned as we move forward and continue to be the leaders in the craft beer news and information space.

With love,

Dan

PS: Special thanks, we know we’re missing some folks: Firestone Walker Brewing, InsideTheCellar.com, Dr. Bill, New Brew Thursday, Four Brewers, Beachwood BBQ, Greg Koch, Mitch Steele, 38 Degrees, Toronado SD, Naja’s Place, Phantom Carriage, Deschutes Brewery, New Belgium Brewing, Facebook, Twitter, Grandstand, LA Brewers Guild, San Diego Beer Week, West Coaster SD, Jonny and Danny’s supportive family, RateBeer’s Joe Tucker, Cigar City Brewing, Allagash Brewing, SweetWater Brewing, AleSmith Brewing, SalesMonkey App Dev Team, Killa Mike, Hop Heads, Woodshop, Tony Yanow, Oskar Blues, Pints For Prostates, Cheeba Hut, Craft Beer Radio, The Hop Man…