The 12th annual craft beer week, held May 15-21, allows beer aficionados from coast to coast the opportunity to not only sample a wide range of brews, but to celebrate the ever-evolving craft beer culture. And let’s face it: there’s a lot to celebrate. Currently, there are more than 5,000 breweries in the United States — up from 1,396 in 1997—and many of them will be holding special events including exclusive brewery tours, beer brunches, tap takeovers, pairing parties and much more. 

What Is A Craft Brewer?

Let’s start at the beginning: What exactly is a craft brewer? A small, independent brewer that produces less than 6 million barrels of beer a year. 

One of the hallmarks of a craft brewer is innovation; they are constantly introducing new flavors and experimenting with varying styles. IPA remains, by far, the most popular style of craft beer. But other recent trends include the explosive growth of sour beers, saisons (a single malt farmhouse-style ale), and lagers —the most popular type of beer in the world that has traditionally been snubbed by craft brewers. Fruit beers are nothing new, but the last year has seen the proliferation of more exotic options; mango beer anyone? 

Secrets Behind A Brewer's Marketing

Craft breweries often function as community hubs; they sponsor events, donate products and get involved in local philanthropy. Savvy event planners know they are a popular spot for a wide range of functions, from bachelorette parties to big corporate meetings.  Brewery-related tourism is also booming.  A growing number of travelers are happily plunking down big bucks to check out craft breweries, hit a rapidly growing number of local “beer trails” or to participate in a beer-themed event or festival. The three-day Great American Beer Festival in Denver, held every fall, remains the nation’s largest beer event; tickets routinely sell out in minutes.  Entrepreneurial folks are finding ways to cash in. Just last month a new company, the Damn Good Beer Bus,  started offering tours of 11 breweries in Florida’s Palm Beach County.

Going Rogue, Going Local

Craft brewers are increasingly trying to use local ingredients in their beers; fresh fruit and honey are perhaps the best examples. Rogue Ales & Spirits makes its beers using only ingredients, including honey and hops, grown on one of its two Oregon farms. In New York’s Hudson Valley, self-proclaimed “hoptometrist” Justin Riccobono, who started the region’s first commercial hop farm, now grows his own hops for use in local breweries and also acts as a consultant for a growing number of other hop farmers. He thinks that tour of local hop yards could be the next agritourism trend.  

Is Beer A Big Business Or A Big Bubble?

Clearly, nobody can dispute that beer is big business. But is there a craft beer bubble? Analysts continue to debate this point. Last year the number of breweries in the U.S. grew 16.6 percent (there were 826 new brewery openings and 97 closings.)  Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association, says that there is still opportunity for small and independent brewers, but “it is a much more competitive landscape.”

Still, craft brewers provided nearly 129,000 jobs in 2016; that’s an increase of almost 7,000 jobs from the previous year. But keep in mind that brewing generates a lot of additional jobs and marketing opportunities. The Beer Institute and National Beer Wholesalers Association insist that beer is “an employment intensive industry.” According to their most recent study, for every one job in a brewery or beer importer, another 34 jobs in other industries are supported.

If you ask us, these are plenty of bonus reasons to hit up a craft beer festival, beer trail, or better yet have a beer brunch with your loved ones. Check out what events are happening near you.  #BeerItFoward this week to help local communities, boost economy and jobs, support home-grown agriculture, and celebrate creative entrepreneurs. 

It's Monday again, and this time it's smack on the 1st of the month. Thanks to the news earlier this month that I was able to realize a personal goal of dropping the PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) on my home, which by the way is a completion of one of my New Year's Resolutions, I get the satisfaction this month of applying the old amount of $200/month that used to go to private mortgage insurance to instead go to the Additional Principle column on the online payment center of our mortgage manager, Quicken Loans, that normally goes unchecked and left blank.

Big thanks goes to a local realtor in my town of Beacon, Daniel Aubry, who encouraged me to make the call to cut ties with the PMI while I was interviewing him for one of his branded content articles regarding a clever real estate deal he wanted to highlight in my local publication A Little Beacon Blog. Daniel encouraged me to call the mortgage manager instead of waiting for them to call me to offer to check on if we were eligible or not for removal of the PMI. Thanks also to our community's hot real estate market, that drove our home value up above what we originally got the loan for, in order to make this PMI cut possible.

But Wait, There's More!

In addition to the monthly savings that will be applied to the principle of the loan, Quicken Loans cut us a refund check for the PMI since the time of them turning it off. The $75 was a welcome addition that basically goes straight to groceries, or a kid's after school programming.

Stick To The Savings

The savings, or rather, the application of this savings to a large amount of debt, isn't something that happens automatically. We need to check the box and fill in the amount each month, instead of opting for a lower monthly mortgage amount. I am so eager to live in a mortgage-free home, and remove that large sum of debt from my credit report, that this should be easy to keep.

Easy To Use Daily Credit Checker

Speaking of credit report, several of the banks are hooked up with credit score companies to provide you with a daily snapshot of your credit score. I have been using the free one that suddenly appeared with my CapitalOne Spark Business account. It gives me the history of my credit score, and a running tab of which accounts are open and what their balances are. The layout of it is great. Very easy to use and look at. I used to get this via whoever Suze Orman recommended, and even once bought her own credit report package. CapitalOne's is comparable to hers, where the layout is great and information easy to access.

Looking forward to seeing what happens for your Money Monday for next week!

What are you doing for your Money Monday? Make this an Invoicing Monday! Sometimes, just one invoice becomes very hard to send. You may be putting it off because your day is too busy, or for emotional reasons, you keep forgetting to send it (because you have a fear of billing clients).

This Money Monday is bringing you the solution to facing your fears, and to create a safety net to help you from forgetting to invoice clients. The solution lies in the beauty of QuickBook's Recurring Transaction tool that comes with your QuickBooks Online subscription. Worth every penny. If you identify wth any of the below scenarios, then working Recurring Transactions into your life will be worth your time, and probably earn you a lot more money.

Do these scenarios describe you?

• You forgot that the invoice was due, and actually never sent one for that month.
• You forgot that the invoice was due, and remembered 14 days later. Now do you bill the client? Or tack it onto the next invoice, thus duplicating it?
• You grow fearful of invoicing the client because this action makes you uncomfortable. Invoicing becomes something you dread, and put off, and forget about, thus causing a vicious cycle of not invoicing. Meanwhile, you're not getting paid, which makes you cranky, and you may even dread working with the client.

Click here for the full article and solution in our Ask The Expert section, in my "Art of Getting Paid" column.

It's happening...changes to Tin Shingle main architecture that helps you do two major things:

Quickly access all of your member benefits.

Promote your brand.

At long last, Tin Shingle's membership benefits are going to take over the main navigation of the website. Call it a "navigation takeover." The Tin Shingle website as you know it is going to be known as the Training & Promotion Center.

You should notice the changes within the next few days, and when that happens, we want to know your feedback, to make sure you're able to find everything as we intend.

PROMOTE!
Be sure your business is listed in the Business Directory! And that the personal profile of the owner of the company is filled out! Find this in the "Edit My Personal Profile" area, and same for the Business Profile.

Potential clients and customers do scour the Business Directory, Shopping Guides, Press Portfolios, and more, as do reporters and producers, so be sure to list some of your best or most favorite products and services there!

Always feel free to email us your questions on how to use or find something. The best way to reach us is by emailing member@tinshingle.com.

NOT A MEMBER YET?
It's easy and you're going to get hooked into a buzz-buliding community who thinks big just like you do. Plus you'll get loads of cool resources, like Media Contacts and Editorial Calendars. Find out more about membership here.