We’re Internet Famous!

As a totally legit google search confirms, Internet Fame can most accurately be described by looking at the Instagram profiles of @thirstyexplorersclub, @crafttourist, @thebeerrater and @seatoskybeerguy.

That may not be totally accurate…. Okay, it’s not accurate at all but that’s what made this project with Parkside Brewery so much fun.

Initial Meeting of the Minds

Back at the start of June myself, Tim (Craft Tourist), Mike (The Beer Rater) and Malcolm (Sea To Sky Beer Guy) all met up at Parkside Brewery in Port Moody with our brewery buddies Travis and Vern. It was to discuss doing a collaborative beer between all of us and Parkside.

Wait, a legit brewery discussing a collab with some craft beer nerd-stagrammers?! Hell yea!!

I don’t remember a ton of “work” getting done in that first meeting, we were more just shooting the s#!t and clinking glasses together. But the two big consensuses that came out of it was that; A) we wanted to donate some proceeds to a charity, to which we decided on the BC Hospitality Foundation and B) we all wanted to do a fresh hop beer and include the fine folks at Northwest Hop Farms. There’s only one issue with planning a fresh hop beer in June, we were a tad bit early.

Typically fresh hop season is from the end of August through September so it looked like we had some time on our hands to plan out all the other details.

Face Down, Phones Up

Meeting of the minds part 2 came about 5 weeks later. This is where we decided we wanted to do something different and brew a fresh hopped beer with Kviek yeast. It’s different, it’s risky, and it’ll make us even famouser! In all honesty though we all loved the idea of trying something out of the box for this. Kviek yeast is typically used by farmhouse brewers but it can also work well in certain IPAs. Let’s give it a shot in a fresh hop West Coast IPA!

This second meeting also came with some prep work. Our task was to come to the meeting with some potential names for our fresh hop Instagrammer beer. We all racked our brains.

What would be catchy? What would tie in all our Instagram accounts? What could be turned in to a good label design? What hasn’t been used already? That answer to the last question is, not much.

We all came with some damn good names (some can’t be repeated here). I think Parkside my have to hire us after this project to name some of their future brews. Would you drink a beer called “Money Shot”?

After much deliberation, and a few vetos on some questionable names, we narrowed it down to “Beer Mail” and “Internet Famous”.

A little bit of background on the names for you…..

“Beer Mail” was meant as a shout-out to the wonderful world of beer trading. Beer nerds around the globe have stockpiles of bubble wrap, packing foam and Ziploc bags for safely transporting beer across provincial lines, national borders and stubborn seas. All to showcase these foreign and hard to find beer on their Instagram.

“Internet Famous” was a self-deprecating call out to our Instagram ‘fame’. We wanted this to be silly and show that just because something is on social media, doesn’t make it true. We just wanted people to have fun with this one.

But how were we to pick between these two stellar names??

The People Have Spoken

Phase 3 of the collaboration process was to solidify the name. What better way to find out what the people want than asking those very people? So we put it to a vote. Each of us beer-stagrammers, as well as Parkside, had a 24 hour voting process on Instagram to see which name would take the crown.

In case you missed it, here was my introduction and explanation of the name options….

When the dust settled at the polls, Internet Famous prevailed as the clear cut winner. Now it was time for a label design.

It Helps To Have Talent

I gotta tell ya, Parkside sure is lucky to have the graphic designer they work with because none of us 4 yahoos could do what the talented Devon from Epik Creative can do. Case in point, my design entry…….

Our first meeting with Devon was via a Skype video call from the comforts of our own homes. One thing I definitely noticed was how much more productive meetings can be when they aren’t at a brewery surrounded by beer. Go figure!

All of us were just spitting ideas out at Devon and somehow she was able to filter through our sarcasm and bad jokes and get some inspiration. The basic idea we wanted to show, as mentioned earlier, was how you shouldn’t believe everything you see on social media.

A few other key elements we wanted featured in the artwork were; a call-out to the alternate name “Beer Mail”, the lovable Vern from Parkside, our Instagram handles, a shoutout to Northwest Hop Farms, a skateboard, a camera, a hiking book and some Parkside swag. Have fun, Devon! LOL.

This is one of the first sketches she sent us and it was awesome!

Sketch number 2 was even better and somehow Devon added all the elements we asked for.

When all was said and done this is the glorious can label design that we ended up with. Look at all the finite details in this design. It’s like looking at a Where’s Waldo book and finding little hidden treasures all over the place. Great work, Devon!

Hey BC Beer Awards! Let us send this in as a late entry for label design. What, you afraid it’s gonna win?

Hop Rambo – First Wort

The time had finally come! Time to visit Northwest Hop Farms and see how a fresh hop beer gets from farm to fermenter.

We piled in to Tim’s car in the early morn (sans Malcolm as he had prior engagements) and made the drive out to Chilliwack. There we met up with Vern & Travis from Parkside and John from Northwest Hop Farms where we were shown the whole process of harvesting the hops.

These farm workers haul the hop bines in from the fields where the hops are separated from the bine in the cleaning station. They were in the middle of this process when we arrived.

John crushed up some hop cones for us and told us to take a whiff. The smell was intoxicating!

We then drove out to the fields to see where the hops are grown and that’s when Hop Rambo arrived chopping the bines with his machete. We were in awe of his knife wielding skills.

We just stood back, sipped a beer and watched Hop Rambo Sr. and Hop Rambo Jr. do their work. John also gave us some good schooling on the hop industry and how hard it can be for these local farms to survive. It really gives you a new appreciation of the entire process.

Pedal To The Floor! Get These Hops to PoMo

Maybe I’m naive but I had no idea how quickly the hops had to get from the farm to the brew. We literally drove em from Northwest to Parkside that morning after enjoying some beers in the hop fields. I guess that’s what makes them fresh. Duh.

When we arrived at Parkside our good buddy Malcolm was already waiting, ready to haul some burlap bags in to the brewery.

After we finished being children and playing around with the hops it was time to throw them in the boil. Not the hops that were on the ground, in case you’re concerned. That’ll be for the next beer, fresh hop asphalt infused IPA.

Hamish and Vern watched over to make sure we didn’t mess anything up while we pretended to brew a beer and add to our Instagram stories. We all took our turns dumping hops in the boil and then went to enjoy a ‘well deserved’ pint. This is where Hamish let us know that this was the first time they’d used Kviek yeast at Parkside.

This is what makes this beer so exciting, we didn’t just take an existing style that Parkside brews well, add fresh hops and change the name. We brewed something completely new. Please only submit Untappd ratings over 4.0.

Time To Party

After a few weeks doing it’s thing the beer is now ready to be consumed and enjoyed. As I write this on Sept 24th we’re two days away from the official release party at Parkside. See the flyer below and tell your family and friends….even your enemies as long as they aren’t total jerks.

I hope to see you all down there on Thursday and enjoy a pint with you.

Here are a few more photos from the brew day….

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UPDATE Oct 3 – PARTY PHOTOS!!!

The release party for Internet Famous has come and gone but definitely not forgotten. What an amazing night! Thanks to everyone that came out to high five, hug and clink glasses with us. This was such an epic ride and I hope to be able to do it again someday soon.

• Special thanks to Travis at Parkside for making this all happen behind the scenes. It couldn’t have been done with you.
• Thanks to Vern and Sam at Parkside for being so open to the idea of letting some instagrammers collab with you.
• Thanks to Hamish for putting up with us acting like yahoos and pretending we know how to brew a beer.
• Thanks to Devon for designing one of the most epic labels I’ve ever seen. All the details in it are next level!
• Thanks to John at Northwest Hop Farms for providing the delicious hops for the beer and bringing fresh garland for the party. LOL.
• Thanks to the BC Hospitality Foundation for allowing us to partner with you and have this beer attached to such a great cause.
• Thanks to our wives for being patient and allowing us to come out on school nights.

Here are a few photos from the night. Til next time…….