Back in January I wrote a list of aspirations I had for the year ahead, some for the website and some on a more personal level. As its nearly 2011 below is an update on how 2010's aspirations went...
Continue to build the number of breweries listed on our site: In January we had around 40 breweries listed on the site, we now have 120 breweries and over 600 beers but considering there are over 700 micros in the country there's still a lot more work to do here.
Work with breweries to build their range of beers listed including more mixed cases: We've definitely added more breweries products to the site but I still think we need more mixed cases and other brewery products like clothing and gift packs listed.
Find new cost effective ways to market/spread the myBrewerytap word: We've had some success here, joint competitions with Thornbridge and our listing on I Want One Of Those stand out and I've been really happy with response to our fixed membership US 52wbc which I hope to run again in the summer.
Find more interesting ways to 'add value' for our club members, so more glasses, more crisps etc...: Bit of a failure here, we did give away some great extras such as pork scratchings, keyrings and glasses but it soon became apparent that we just couldn't afford to include extra gifts in the club when the margins involved were so tight. We did though add quite a few extra non-beer products to the site including Pieminister pies and T-Shirts from Thornbridge as well as our T-Shirts own which we had designed and made.
Add more features to the site (better events calendar etc...): I'm pretty happy that we satisfied this aspiration by adding a great beer festival calendar (big thanks to Steven at Aletalk!) as well as adding beer and food pairings to many products (big thanks to Alex at Allbeer!). We have lots of new features for the site in the pipeline in the early part of 2011, such as multi case shipping discounts when buying more than one case from a brewery. We also hope to have international shipping integrated and a dedicated pick and mix section for the unusual and or popular beers we hold in stock shortly.
Learn more about brewing /brew some beer: This was a personal aspiration and I've had lots of fun learning more about brewing in 2010. In March myself and two friends enrolled on Brewlabs "start up brewing" course which as well was being a lot of fun, contained lots of practical information on brewing as a career. The course also gave me a lot more confidence in the subject of beer in general with the module on flavour characteristics (bad ones as well as good) particularly helpful . I also enjoyed a couple of brew days at friendly breweries which were great fun.
Start a pilot brewery: Too busy to achieve this in 2010, as for 2011... watch this space!
Visit more breweries/Meet more brewers: I always enjoy visiting breweries (who doesn't) and was lucky enough to visit lots of breweries in 2010 including, Allendale, Bull Lane, Kelham Island, Sheffield Brewery Co, Crown, Great Heck, Wylam, Marble, Moor, Hawkshead and Mallinsons. If you've never been on a brewery tour/visit, make sure you do soon, they really are a lot of fun and I've found without exception brewers to be a very accommodating and friendly group of people. I'm looking forward to visiting more breweries in 2011!
Visit more beer festivals: I went to a few good festivals in 2010, including GBBF, SIBA north and Hawkshead but nowhere near enough.
Drink more (good) beer: Although a completely subjective thing, I think I did this in 2010 although there's always room for more!
Blog more: Hmm not sure I managed this, finding time and/or inspiration continues to prove difficult.
Looking back I've had a fantastic 2010, developing myBrewerytap has been great fun (as well as at times infuriating) but has confirmed that beer is what I want to be involved with going forward. Its such a fascinating and fun subject to be involved in, I've met so many great people and made some great friends in 2010. My only regret is not becoming involved in the industry sooner.
Here's to a great 2011. Happy New Year!
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