Howdy all,

Well, somehow we all survived the trip to San Diego for the Annual Craft Brewers Conference. Don’t ask me how…especially with a daytrip to Tijuana thrown in for good measure.

Anetta, Peter, Mike and I all made the trek down and were joined by a bunch of our fellow OCB members. The brave souls included John from Church Key, the two Jason’s from Cameron’s, George from F&M, Doug from St. Andre’s, Steve and Matt from Beau’s, and some other familiar faces including Chris from the Rhino (great bar at Queen & Dufferin), Paul from Pepperwood Bistro in Burlington, and Mirella from Beerology. Quite a crew!

We attended a number of interesting seminars, none of which were better than one called “Thinking Outside the Pumpkin” with the three wise men from the US: David Buhler from Elysian, Marty Jones from Oskar Blues, and Greg Koch from Stone. Not only the most inspring seminar, but by far the funniest too. We listened to their stories and those from the audience on how to get attention from consumers and the media by, well, thinking outside the pumpkin. So stay tuned for some fun Great Lakes events in the future (such as our Orange Peel Ale release party…more info to come).

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting Stone in Escondido. It was the Disneyland of breweries. Unbelievable. I was fortunate enough to go twice, once for the opening reception with 1500 other brewers, and secondly for a private tour and lunch on their ridiculous patio. If you’re ever anywhere even remotely close to this place, you owe it to yourself to stop in for a visit.

All in all, it was an amazing trip, and it has inspired me to get in touch with our customers more than ever while continuing to brew great beer. Stay tuned for a Great Lakes blog page where we’ll have lots of fresh news…

Posted by John Bowden, Great Lakes in Great Lakes