"I Am A Craft Beer Drinker" Video Released

Craft beer drinkers all over the world enjoy proclaiming their love for the quality malts, hops, yeast and water that comprise their favorite beers and they enthusiastically support the many craft breweries that genuinely care about the beers they brew.

It was with that spirit and passion that the "I Am A Craft Beer Drinker" video was created. Stephen Johnson, from the beer show New Brew Thursday, first had the idea for the video after seeing the "I Am A Craft Brewer" video produced by Stone Brewing CEO Greg Koch in May 2009.

"When I saw the original "I Am A Craft Brewer" (IAACB) video, it really hit me and I wanted to be a part of that community and an advocate for beer," said Johnson. "That's when we started New Brew Thursday and one of our first goals was to do a video like the brewers video but from the perspective of the drinkers."

After several revisions Stephen completed the script in February of this year. "I didn’t want the video to be a replica of Greg Koch’s video but I did want people to realize where we got the idea and understand that we were paying homage to the original IAACB video. I also wanted to inspire people."

So Stephen, along with his NBT co-hosts John Holzer, Brad Kohlenberg and Dr. Bill Sysak, set out to shoot the video with as many craft beer drinkers in it as they could. Even though they had a limited budget, they were able to make a trip to the East coast to film at Dogfish Head Brewery, Victory and Flying Dog. In Philadelphia, they even wandered into Triumph Brewing near midnight and the manager was gracious enough to open the doors so they could do some filming.

They also shot some footage in the Midwest when they visited the Craft Brewer's Conference in Chicago in April. There they met up with many of the brewers in the original video and were able to do some more filming at Half Acre and Piece Brewery Chicago. Dr. Bill helped open some doors and garner support for the project by recruiting friends like Ray Daniels, president of the Craft Beer Institute and founder of the Certified Cicerone program.

Of course, being residents of Southern California, filming in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County were a given. "The Bruery and Stone Brewing Company were both immensely helpful in getting this video shot by opening up to us at off-hours and letting us roam free to get the footage we needed."

Once the shooting was complete, they gathered the footage and began putting it all together. "The editing process for the video was long and arduous", said Johnson, "and involved the consumption of a lot of craft beer!"

With a goal of completing the video before the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, they were able to beat that deadline by just over a week.

The New Brew Thursday gang and many of the Southern California cast members gathered on Friday night at The Bruery in Placentia for the premiere of the video. 

For those unable to be in attendance, the video is included below.  It will also be featured next week at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in the Support Your Local Brewery pavilion.

And if you have not seen it yet, please enjoy the inspirational video which started it all, "I Am A Craft Brewer".

As for Stephen's dream of inspiring craft beer drinkers?  Mission accomplished. Thank you guys for your passion for craft beer and your desire to enliven that passion in others.

Cheers!