May 13, 2017
At this year's Craft Brewers Conference, the GBH team held a panel discussion on the topic of storytelling for breweries, how it evolves as it grows, and how the story of craft and the story of a single brewery can align and diverge. Breweries have historically united to tell the story of "craft beer" as they work together to build the category and create an educated consumer. But in the past few years, the emphasis has shifted to the uniqueness of the individual journey, and how one brewery differs from another as they both collaborate and compete for the same customers. So we put our thoughts into a short presentation and panel discussion with GBH's storytellers and representatives from breweries as we discuss the similarities and differences between these approaches, all the while trying to determine what's at stake for the next generation of storytelling in American beer. Panelists: Michael Kiser, GBH Founder + Creative Director Erin Jones, Marketing Director, Burial Beer Co. Josh Hambright, Central State Brewing, co-founder Matthew Curtis, GBH storyteller, podcast host Kyle Kastranec, GBH designer and storyteller Special thanks to our friends at Bluejacket for generously hosting us. Photo by Oliver Gray