Boundary Bay at the Craft Brewers Conference

Ed and Janet – the powerful duo behind Boundary Bay Brewery were in San Francisco last week enjoying the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC).  The annual conference is an event organized by the Brewers Association, and is a unique event marketed to brewpubs and larger breweries alike.  From March 23rd through the 26th, professional brewers from far and wide gathered in San Francisco for brewing education, vendors showing off the latest and greatest in brewing products and services and, of course, meeting and greeting others in the brewing industry and enjoying loads of great craft beer together.

At the Craft Brewers Conference, all aspects of running a brewery were covered from brewery operations, export development and technical brewing to selling craft beer, brewery startups and sustainability.  For brewpubs (like us!) in particular, speakers offered advice on working with chefs, hiring and training managers, word of mouth marketing, the benefits of partner brewing and how to reignite the fire of established brewpubs.

Janet, our General Manager and all around powerhouse, tweeted from her personal Twitter account during the event and here’s what she had to say about her time at the Craft Brewers Conference last week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toronado Ale House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virtual Beers

photo posted by @BrewSpeakGirls

Last week we tried our very first Virtual Brewers Night.  We sent the beers and the schwag down to Alligator Soul in Everett and told everyone to show up with their smart phones in hand.  We didn’t really know what to expect, but we thought it would be a relatively fun adventure no matter how it turned out.

Over the last three years, we’ve had a lot of success with Boundary Bay Brewery on social networks.  We’ve built up our online community to over 12,000 members on Facebook and almost 3,000 on Twitter and are happy to say that it’s still growing every single day.  We’ve found fun, unique ways to interact with our online friends – from writing Haikus about Cabin Fever to recommending favorite BBAY beer and menu pairings.  We even ran a contest around Father’s Day where people wrote about which Boundary beer their Dad was the most like in hopes of winning a membership to the Washington Association of Beer Lovers.  It’s been a lot of fun and we’re always looking for new ways to connect with our social media community.  So, we decided to take the basic idea of a tweetup and turned it into a Brewers Night.

Here’s a little bit of what BrewSpeak blog had to say after attending our Virtual Brewers Night: “So, amid splendid food and drink, and with live music from “Stan is Love”, it was time to get down to some serious tweeting. The twitter feed was up on a tv screen, with both Alligator Soul and Boundary Bay actively participating, offering prizes for correct answers, and raffle tickets. If you want to see the tweets from the night, search for the hashtag #bbaygotsoul. You’ll find a fair few tweets from us as well. Pretty soon some of the more avid tweeters were gravitating towards each other, and before we knew where we were we were actually having real life, proper conversations! We had an excellent chat with Tim Gormley from www.beerblotter.com. The beer blotter guys have been blogging for about a year, and based on the conversation with Tim, and a look at their blog, I can heartily recommend it. We have a lot to learn from folks like Tim – a good guy with a love of great beer.  It was also fun to meet Tim Lorang from www.timlorang.com. Tim is a man of many talents, who among his many skills, counts himself as a social media integration specialist, with a background in both wine and beer. Who knew such people existed? All in all, despite the slightly odd premise, I’d count the evening as a success – with the evening made better for us by being big winners at the raffle. So Cheers to both Boundary Bay and Alligator Soul for an innovative event that will hopefully be repeated.”

photo posted by @Alligator_Soul

On our end of things, it was a little bit odd…and definitely jealousy inducing!  It’s rough to be holed up alone in your office at 8pm on a Thursday night interacting virtually with people drinking your favorite beer on earth and talking about it…while you get none (at least ’till you’re off the clock!).  As the night got rolling, people posted pics of themselves at the brewers night…standing at the bar with a beer in one hand and their phone in the other.  Even the owner of Alligator Soul posted a pic of his “command central” – his laptop loaded up with Tweetdeck to track all the happenings of the night.  My pic was less fun…just me in my office.  But it was fun to get to “see” what all these Social Media users looked like in real life. It was a bit like dodgeball as we kicked off the trivia via Twitter and awarded tickets for correct answers.  It was a challenge to track all the people interacting with us and Alligator Soul throughout the night, but with the help of Hootsuite, it was definitely doable!  We were impressed with how the night went, overall, and would absolutely do it again.

Thank you to all who joined us for our very first Virtual Brewers Night. We really appreciate you being willing to go on this social media adventure with us.  Till next time…Cheers!

Oh Yes We Did

Last night, around 9 pm or so, our owner Ed Bennett received a very welcome phone call.  It was from Beveridge Place Pub and they were calling to tell us that the Boundary Bay Brewery IPA has been named the official Winner of Hoptoberfest 2010!  If you haven’t been following along with us as we’ve tweeted, blogged, etc. about this for the last month, here’s a very, very brief overview from last night’s post to the Seattle Beer News blog:

“With people across the country closely watching political results this week,Beveridge Place Pub will be announcing a much more important winner tonight [November 4th] at 8pm. They’ll be announcing which Washington IPA earned the right to become the Beveridge Place Pub house IPA for 2011 by garnering the most customer votes during their month-long Hoptoberfest, which featured IPAs from a slew of Washington breweries. The field was narrowed down to three favorites on October 25: Black Raven Trickster IPA (reigning champion), Boundary Bay IPA (former repeat winner), and Two Beers Evolutionary IPA. Becoming house IPA at Beveridge Place Pub is a serious honor and a lucrative business incentive (BPP goes through a lot of pints of IPA…). Good luck to all 3 breweries this evening.“

We are thrilled to have been named the House IPA for 2011 at Beveridge Place Pub!  We want to thank everyone who came out to vote and to support Washington craft beer!  Thanks for helping us Take Back the Tap!  Cheers to all the amazing Washington breweries who participated in this Hoptoberfest competition and especially to Black Raven and Two Beers Brewing Co. who made it to the final three with us.

 

Cheer on Local Olympian at Boundary Bay Brewery!

Last Sunday, our Tap Room here at Boundary Bay Brewery was packed with Olympic Hockey fans watching USA and Sweden battle it out.  As one of our fans on Twitter put it  “Celebrating USA victory at Boundary Bay Brewery in B-ham. Fans intermittently chanting “USA” and “IPA.” ” We created such a ruckus, CTV themselves were considering heading down to check out the action as we televised their Olympic coverage.

If you missed out that night, don’t worry!  We have another chance to cheer on America’s Olympic Hockey Team. 

Today (Thursday, Feb. 25^th) at 3:30 pm PST the Canadian and American Women’s Hockey Teams fight it out for the Gold Medal. We’ll be televising CTV coverage of the event in our Tap Room so come join us for Happy Hour (4-6pm) with sweet deals on pints and munchies.

Best of all, we’ll be cheering on Karen Thatcher, a Blaine local on the American Hockey Team!  Come root for the home team and show your local pride!!

And as always, Thursdays are our Cask Night during Happy Hour.  Each week we feature a different style of cask ale for your tasting pleasure. The Hockey game starts at 3:30 and our Happy Hour starts at 4 pm, so come early and plan to unwind with a couple of pints of our cask ale and super satisfying munchies like Kobe sliders, Bison sliders and tacos.

St. Paddy’s Day with Boundary Bay Brewery

a pint of Dry Irish Stout from Boundary Bay Brewery

We all know that Saint Patrick’s Day is a big holiday when it comes to beer.  But for us here at Boundary Bay Brewery, it’s taken on a whole new dimension this year.

We’ve always had a long history of being a community hub; often described by locals as “pure Bellingham.”  So, it should come as no surprise that Boundary Bay Brewery and General Manager, Janet Lightner are behind the efforts to get Bellingham’s first St. Patrick’s Day Parade up and running.

Bellingham’s first St Patrick’s Day Parade will hit downtown streets on Saturday, March 13^th at noon. The event, spearheaded by our own Janet Lightner, is being coordinated by an all-volunteer committee and is directly aimed at bringing the community together.  The parade is timed to follow Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department’s Runnin’ O’ the Green Race and Fun Run at Bloedel Donovan Park.  “We’re looking forward to a day full of fun for the entire Bellingham community,” says Lightner.

Her inspiration is the long tradition of St. Patrick’s Day Parades in Chicago, New York, Savannah and New Orleans.  Like those cities, this parade will honor Bellingham’s Police and Fire Department personnel.  Lightner adds, “Especially this year, we want these brave men and women to know that the community supports them.”

Like the traditional parades of Lightner’s inspiration, the Bellingham parade will feature Irish dancers, pipe bands and marching bands.  In a non-traditional twist, however, Bellingham’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is focusing on being green.  The parade organizers are encouraging human and green powered floats representing local businesses, schools, neighborhood associations and groups from all over the community.  Entry into the parade is free and Lightner hopes that will encourage lots of local businesses to come together to participate in this year’s parade.

Want to get involved?  The parade’s website is www.bellinghamstpatricksday.com and the Facebook fan page is www.facebook.com/stpatsbham.  The committee is also using Twitter to build support at www.twitter.com/stpatsbham. Information requests can be emailed to stpatsbham@gmail.com.

the Penk O'Donnell dancers at Boundary Bay, 2009

We’ll be continuing the St. Patrick’s Day fun at Boundary Bay Brewery on Wednesday, March 17^th with our annual Irish shenanigans.  Enjoy a special menu of traditional favorites like Sheperdess pie and corn beef and cabbage (regular menu also available) and kick up your heels to live music from the Paddy Whackers.  Enjoy a pint of Dry Irish Stout and pull up a barstool for the Penk O’Donnell Irish dancers – a yearly St. Patrick’s Day treat at Boundary Bay Brewrey.



Brewing a Belgian Beer at Boundary Bay

On January 23rd, The Washington Beer Commission is putting together the first-ever Belgianfest 2010!

Here at Boundary Bay Brewery, we’ve brewed up a Tripel to submit and we’re really looking forward to this beer festival.  Not only will the Belgiumfest highlight the skill and creativity of many Washington breweries, but it will celebrate the Belgian approach to brewing, which seems to be a whole lot like our own!  Belgians don’t limit themselves on their ingredients or brewing techniques and are not always compelled to “brew-to-style.”  Basically, if they like it, they brew it! And we can really appreciate that attitude!

There are many styles of Belgian beers (over 500 varieties!) and many that are practically impossible to categorize by style. However, there are some well accepted style definitions and, interestingly, our beer falls into one of those categories.  We’ve hand crafted a Tripel for this competition…historically a brown ale, but many (like ours) are now a golden blond and sweeter than a dubbel.  Both Dubbel and Tripel are Flemish Dutch words meaning double and tripel (respectively) that historically refer to a rough measure of the alcohol level in the beer styles.  Traditionally, monks would brew a beer around 3% or less for their consumption, then a dubbel at about 6% and then a tripel at about 9%.

Our Tripel was made with Pilsner, Vienna, Special B and Belgian aromatic malts.  Then, we rounded it out with Tettnang and Saaz hops, Belgian Candi sugar and Abbey Ale yeast, which is a Belgian Ale yeast with a very high alcohol tolerance traditionally used to make trappist style beers.  I do believe we’ll have some kegs to try here in the brewery, but the brewers are keeping things top-secret right now and keeping their lips sealed as to a release date here at Boundary Bay.  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for our real-time updates and we’ll be sure to spread the word when our Tripel’s coming up on tap!

And, if sampling a bunch of really creative, interesting Belgian beers from Washington breweries somehow isn’t enough to get you to the Belgianfest, the Washington Beer Commission has a few more tricks up their sleeve.  In addition to the two sessions of beer tastings on January 23rd, there will be a Belgian Beer Dinner at the Corson Building. Dinner details are still being finalized but check the Belgianfest website for more info as they post it.  Plus, there is going to be a special beer brewed exclusively for members of the Washington Association of Beer Lovers (WABL).  Word on the street is that it’s going to be a blended beer made with different Belgianfest beers from several participating breweries and that the group will collectively decide what the blend should be. The actual blending will happen just before the event, when most beers are ready, so no one knows what the beer is going to be like until the event.

Check out this partial list of beers you’ll get to try at the Belgianfest!  See you there…

THE DETAILS:

Saturday, January 23, 201

Session 1: 12-4pm
Session 2: 6-10pm

The Engine Room @ Georgetown Studios
5890 Airport Way S.
Seattle, WA 98108
Map

Admission:
$30 advance tickets
$35 at the door
Separate tickets required for each session
Admission includes a tasting glass and ten 4oz tastes
Designated driver admission is $5 and available at the door only
cash and check only at the door
21+ only

Space is limited- Order your tickets early!
Tickets are available online and at ticket outlets.

Boundary Bay Brewery’s Social Media

Last October we here at Boundary Bay Brewery found our way to social media.  At the time, we weren’t entirely sure what it all meant or what we were supposed to do with it, but join we did.  In the (almost a) year since, we’ve continued to gain fans and get notice from the food industry, the craft beer industry and social media mavens.  In the most recent issue (August 2009) of Front Burner, the official publication for the Washington Restaurant Association, Heather Donahoe wrote an article about social media titled “Dive Into the Conversation: Come Up With Bigger Profits.” Here are some excerpts from the article about our social media here at Boundary Bay Brewery:

Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro in Bellingham understands the benefits of social media better than perhaps any other restaurant in Washington. The popular eatery got serious about its social media efforts late last year and now has nearly 5,000 Facebook fans and almost 1,000 Twitter followers. Before jumping headlong into social media, Boundary Bay had a well organized blog that had drawn a fair amount of interest. Joining networking sites was the next natural step.

When the restaurant’s general manager Janet Lightner learned about Twitter last October, she was intrigued enough to ask her public relations specialist, Amy Jones, to set up an account. The response was overwhelming.

Amy Jones, Public Relations for Boundary Bay Brewery

“It absolutely exploded,” Jones said.  “We’ve gotten to where when we put our info on one site, we already have so many people excited about what we’re doing that it has spread to Twitter before we can even Tweet it ourselves.”

Boundary Bay Brewery uses Twitter and Facebook to share their menu specials, announce the release of seasonal brews and put out the invitation for special events.  Social media friends and fans of the restaurant respond by passing along the information and continuing the conversation.

“Customers love feeling like they have a personal connection to us, and this has been such a simple way to provide that,” Jones said.  “Answering people’s questions and becoming a personality instead of just an information source is what it’s all about.  It’s become a self-sustaining thing.”

Boundary Bay is in the advantageous position of being a craft beer brewer.  This niche makes their business of special interest to an already enthusiastic demographic. Building on that unique position, Boundary Bay has gained its devoted social media following.

“I’ve actually heard customers in the restaurant say things like ‘Oh, I’m one of your Twitter followers, and I’m here because I found out your Imperial IPA is on tap,'” Jones said.  “It’s exciting to see that connection.”

Jones offers a bit of advice for newbies to the social media game: “It’s really important right from the beginning to create a personality that allows you to interact with your fans in a way that feels real and personal,” she said.  “If you’re able to make that happen in the beginning, you’ll see sustained success in the long run.”

Sweet Tweetin’ at Boundary Bay Brewery

Last night we had our very first Sweet Tweet at Boundary Bay Brewery!  This year, we’ve gotten into social media pretty deeply and one of our favorite sites is Twitter.  We decided to invite some of our Twitter fans to our beer garden for a tasting menu of our new summer desserts.  We asked them to help us pair each dessert with a beer and to post tweets about it while attending the event.  The tweeters were served the Larabee Cake (a chocolate mouse, meringue and blueberry confection), a Strawberry Shortcake in a honey-champagne glaze and a Cherry Porter Ice Cream cake.  They were each poured tasters of a selection of our beers and asked to taste and tweet and tell us what they liked best.  They even got to try a chocolate wort reduction sauce drizzled over figs as the grand finale!

Larabee Cake

After tallying the votes, here’s the Sweet Tweet results: the crew chose Dunkles Bock as the clear winner to accompany the Strawberry Shortcake (thought the Stout got a few votes too – especially when tasted with the shortcake biscuit!).  “Dunkles Bock brings out some nice complexity and cuts the sweetness.”  When it came to pairing beer with the Cherry Porter ice cream cake, the opinions were much more divided.  As one of our voters stated quite clearly: “With Dunkles = yum.  With Stout = yummier!”  One of our tasters thought the Stout was the undeniable obviously right  choice, while another observed that the “Dunkles Bock makes the cherries pop…”  And last, but not least, the Larabee cake was paired with everything from the lightest (our Lightner Ale) to the Oatmeal Stout.  “Stout works with the chocolate perfectly and cleanses the sweetness.” vs. “Ale works surprisingly well…Ale works best with the more strongly flavored desserts, contrary to my expectations.”

Overall, the Sweet Tweet was a great success!  We were blessed with a group of Twitter techies who were well versed in beer and food as well.  They served as an incredible think-tank and we are so thankful to all of them for being part of this event with us.  If you’d like to read more of the comments posted during the Sweet Tweet, go to search.twitter.com and type #bbst (boundary bay sweet tweet) in the search field to see all the results.  And, if you’re still longing for more Sweet Tweet action, you can check out all the photos from the event on our Facebook Photos Page.

our sweet tweeters

Boundary Bay Brewery’s Sweet Tweet

Twitter is a relatively new word in the world of small business, public relations and marketing.  Yet, Twitter continues to prove itself as a huge, powerful tool in strengthening brand identity and in creating a community around a business.  At Boundary Bay Brewery, we’ve leaped into social media and are enjoying finding our fans spread across the world (even when our beer doesn’t get distributed further than Idaho!)  Not only is it fun to be a local brewery, but to then also find that we have active supporters as far flung as Tokyo, Russia and Denmark makes for a very rewarding social media experience.  But, we wanted to do more with social media then just hear what people are saying about our brewery and our beer.  We want to get in touch with our fans and get them involved in our business.  That’s why we’re holding our very first Sweet Tweet next Tuesday afternoon in the Beer Garden.

Donica Burnett, of Bantam Cakes, is also our dessert chef and we’ve been very happy to unveil her new Summer Dessert Menu at Boundary Bay Brewery.  Her creations are so popular, her dessert menu actually sold completely out the first night we offered it!  But, since the menu is so new, we haven’t decided on recommended beer pairings for all the creations.  Now, Boundary Bay Brewery Twitter fans have a chance to be part of a unique opportunity…our very first Sweet Tweet! We want Twitterers to come in and sample our new desserts and help us decide which beers pair best with each of the tasty treats.  Twitterers will taste for free, but the deal is they have to tweet for their food (you know…like sing for your supper.)!  We want the Twitter universe to feel like they are tasting with us – sampling Donica’s amazing desserts and debating whether the Dry Irish Stout or the Pilsner set off the flavors of the Larabee Cake better. So, if you attend, plan on tweeting your opinions between tastings.

If you’d like to participate, head to our Twitter page to get all the details!

Boundary Bay Brewery Chooses Father’s Day Winner

We chose the winners today for the Boundary Bay Brewery’s Father’s Day Contest! Our fans were given the task of telling us which Boundary Bay beer their dad was the most like.  Our congratulations go to Lori York who won first place in our contest.  She said her dad is “…just like the Boundary Bay IPA, the best that ever was! Everything else is just a Pale imitation! My dad is the real deal.” And Ryan Cassady placed second when he said “My dad is like Boundary Bay’s rotating cask ale because he’s smooth, has a big mouth(feel) and is firkin awesome.” Thanks to all who participated in our contest and stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for more contests in the future.  Cheers!