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“Our business is unscripted,” quoth Charlie Papazian in his opening remarks at the Craft Brewers Conference. But minutes later, Keynote Speaker Greg Koch of Stone Brewing proved a snappy exception before 1700 assembled brewers and industry folk in a presentation that was pure theatre.
Miked and wielding a wireless control he stalked around the stage like the lean, mean brewer the title of his most popular beer suggests, summoning up moving pictures on big screens and constantly interacting with a rapt audience.
What’s in a keynote speech? Perhaps a simple message, a brewing figure’s anecdotes, maybe a couple of secrets, and especially an evangelical lift for the converted, shared confidence that we’re sharp, we’re ahead of the curve, hell, we’re the next curve. It’s a pep rally, and here’s this year’s shout.
If we ever needed a marker for craft brewing having arrived, “Be Remarkable” hit the spot. This high tech address employed every speaker’s trick short of a big red nose and a rubber chicken. It wasn’t a speech, it was a rollicking show, a tangible stylistic fabric. Creative use of integrated film clips established a funny conversational rather than narrative style. Greg’s theme had four points: Ethics, Camaraderie, Passion, Collaboration. Technically, the design sought to break the barrier of direct address down to something of a cross between Spalding Gray and a parody of an Amway feelgood rally.
The shenanigans started with a sharp three minute “vimeo” titled “I Am a Craft Brewer”. Put together by Greg with Chris Burke and Jared Cotton of Redtail Media, 35 familiar talking brewers’ heads extol their craft, one quick-cut phrase at a time. This is a must-see and can be retrieved online at www.beertown.org/craftbrewing. Passion started here. Audience rapport was instantly established.
Autobiography followed, starting with Stone’s first keg going on sale at Pizza Port Solana Beach July 26, 1996. Throughout this story figures on the big screen (a punk Tommѐ Arthur and certain usual suspects) repeatedly interrupt and heckle and sometimes even converse with the glib narrator. Cameraderie leaps out from the screen.
Ethics was a thornier though comic issue when bumper stickers proclaiming “Fizzy yellow beer is for wussies” were thrown into the audience and innumerable potshots taken at the slow-moving target of the corn-and-rice leviathans (well, Shock My Top!). Now it’s true dragging out the old Mencken saw about nobody ever going broke underestimating American public taste can leave a bad ester in some listeners mouths. Still, it’s hard to fault a guy who takes his own cellphone picture with the audience to prove to himself he’s really there with you. The ethical point made was “if you start out to sell out, you’ve already sold out.” And how about the song he threw in with a strolling Will Meyers (Cambridge Brewing) and the Alstroms (Beer Advocate) with admittedly shaky chorus “Teaching the World the Truth” about fizzy, yellow beer? Maybe more a nod to Pepsi than craft brew, but hey, it is a small world after all!
Collaboration banished any metaphorical off-flavors in a big toast to craft brewing. All beers hoisted were products of Ethical Collaborative Passionate Cameraderie, and went down well. Among them were Hot Rocks (Bend Brewing and Lost Abbey), Collaboration Not Litigation (Avery and Russian River, named by Natalie Cilurzo) and perhaps most collaborative of all Isabella Proximus (Tommѐ Arthur, Vinnie Cilurzo, Lorenzo Dabove, Rob Tod, Adam Avery and Sam Calagione).
So, what have we got? On the plus side, it was well-planned, well-rehearsed, technologically innovative for here and now and he doesn’t stammer. Minus, Greg could have tightened it up considerably without losing any special effects. The long late pauses punctuating the rambling cadence worked for Mark Twain, but here would be a good place to start trimming. Verdict: this was cutting edge entertainment for this kind of speaking event.
In closing Greg praised “websites like Beer Advocate and Rate Beer for allowing the wisdom of the crowd to suss out the truth and to share it”, adding that the audience of “real craft beers and real craft brewers are drinking beers that are compelling, authentic and remarkable and together we’re changing the face of American brewing.” Nothing elitist in that! We can only hope this slam bang show didn’t completely poison the well for the Poor Bastard in the spotlight next year in Chicago.
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