Craft Beer scene encompasses more than just a week

Ryan Aschebrook, left, and Brennan Chambers work at the Sprecker tent at a Madison Craft Beer Week event in May. Though celebrated one week in May, the scene is growing in Madison (Jennifer Gragg/Madison Commons).

Madison’s Craft Beer Week lives beyond its name. Though the events do only take place for one week, their impact lasts much longer.

Madison Craft Beer Week began in 2011 through the joint efforts of Robyn Klinge, Jeffery Glazer, and Bill Rogers. Along with a love for beer, both Klinge and Rogers also work in the beer industry. Rogers works at the Malt House, and Klinge runs Females Enjoying Microbrews which hosts beer tasting sessions for women at the Vintage.

“We started this because we enjoyed attending craft beer weeks in other cities,” said Klinge. “We thought it would be fun to do here and that it would be a good fit for Madison.”

Establishments that offer craft beer can participate and create their own events for the week. This year, Craft Beer Week had 350 events. Customers could watch home brewing demonstrations, take a bike tour of craft breweries, and even learn which craft beers go with different types of pizza. This year, the events took place between May 1 and May 10.

The Brewers Association defines craft beer with three words – small, independent, and traditional. Simply put, this means that the brewery itself must be small and mostly owned by craft brewers. The brewing follows traditional methods of making beer. Often, craft brewers also create their own methods for brewing. Sharing that information is one of the goals of Madison Craft Beer Week.

“Education is a really big part of Craft Beer Week,” said Ryan Aschebrook, a sales representative for Sprecher Brewery. “We have a lot of consumers who don’t know a lot about craft beer or don’t know if they like it or not, so it’s important to educate consumers on what it is.”

This information isn’t just limited to people who live in Madison.

“We work closely with the Madison Visitors and Conventions Bureau, and they do a lot of national promotion on our behalf,” said Klinge. “The event definitely attracts people to the area for craft beer.”

The event can also be a great place to introduce the types of beer different craft brewers make. On May 9, Sprecher gave out free samples at Trixie’s Liquor Store.

“We chose the Hard Apple Pie beer and Hard Ginger beer because they are still pretty new products,” said Aschebrook. “We chose our Special Amber beer because it is our flagship and our Black Bavarian beer because it is our highest rated beer.”

Establishments can even get creative in how they incorporate craft beer into their events. As well as handing out beer samples, Sprecher also collaborated with Tip Top Tavern to create samples of beer sausages.

Though many businesses reported an increase in sales during Craft Beer Week, they also experience long term effects.

“There’s an increased customer base, too,” said Klinge. “A lot of the participating bars get a lot of customers in who wouldn’t normally go there or maybe didn’t know that particular place offered craft beer.”

These long term results are far from finished, though. Many craft breweries continue promoting their products and participate yearly in Craft Beer Week.

“The more craft breweries do samplings and talk to customers, the more the craft beer community overall will benefit,” said Aschebrook.