Half Acre Release at Matilda

We had a Half Acre Release party at Matilda in Lakeview last night.  It was genuinely a good time.  We pull some good folks -- so many that we blew through all the Half Acre Lager they had and had to go to a neighboring bar, Sheffields, to grab another barrel.  That's community at its finest. 

My main role at these functions is to go around and say hi to folks.  I can approach a table of three or four people and say "hi," and usually they look at me like I have a penis growing out of my forehead, but as soon as I say that I'm the owner of a beer company and just wanted to thank them for drinking our beer(it also really helps when I offer them free beer) -- their faces slightly melt and we're able to strike up friendly conversation.  People love beer.  People love the people who make beer.  I think every guy, craft beer head or not, would agree that having a beer company is better than most jobs that cram you into cubicles and roast you under florescent light all day.  But even women seem to be really interested by the process, and the fact that some people got together and started to make something that gets pushed all over the city for people to consume during their leisure time. Maybe everyone at one point or another has said to themselves that they might try making something and offering it to the masses for purchase.

It's a very powerless feeling.  I know how much beer we make and the places that sell it, but I don't really know who is buying it or why.  I do a lot of tastings and have a pretty good sense for who would be interested when I see them, but purchasing behavior in general is very complicated.  I won't pretend to know much about it, but I'm fascinated by it.

We all feel as though we're not influenced by marketing, the opinions of others or much of anything but our pure like / dislike of something.  I like the way granola bars taste, so I buy granola bars.  However, I think that people have so many conscious and subconscious processes that the ultimate decision is a reflection of so many things that we can't even understand the depths of our own conclusions.  Look into marketing research done by advertising agencies. Unfortunately this stuff is true.  We're little sponges sucking up all that information being broadcasted at us all day long.  You can consciously tune it out, but your subconscious is accepting all that information and gradually altering its understanding of which is the better fabric softener.  

Regardless, we toasted many new faces last night and gave people the opportunity to try some of our beer and had a great time in the process.  Kevin, the owner of Matilda is a great guy, and we're happy about the collaboration.  

Half Acre Beer Co thanks Paul Eggers for romancing a lady friend in that establishment and talking up the beer.  Grassroots are the best roots of all.

Gabriel

Half Acre Beer Co