You probably weren’t aware there was a beer bloggers conference, but there is and I’m super stoked to be attending.  Red Lodge, MT, based Zephyr Adventures has organized two such conferences, the inaugural one in Boulder, Co. last summer and one in London (as in the United Kingdom) earlier this year.

Zephyr Adventures creates active vacation tours, ensuring you’re treated to the local culture while allowing participants to discover exciting new things on their own.  In addition to tours focused on hiking around Yellowstone and Mt. Kilimanjaro, biking in Tuscany, rollerblading in Alaska, and many others, they’ve produced wine and beer blogger conferences, fitness and health blogger conferences and the International Food Bloggers conference.

So why a beer blogger conference? There are now more than 1,000 beer blogs around the world with the bulk of them being “citizen bloggers,” those who are not affiliated with a brewery, newspaper or other commercial enterprise.  Like the wine industry several years prior, the craft brewing industry has recognized how important those blogs are to advancing craft beer. The conferences bring together industry and citizen bloggers to learn about each other, drink great beer and pick up tips and techniques for better blogging.

This year’s conference takes place in Portland, OR, an incredible beer mecca, from August 19-21. Events include panel discussions on connecting with local breweries, beer law advocacy, and info from the Brewers Association, a trip to the hop fields, a dinner and beer tasting hosted by the Oregon Brewer’s Guild, and, of course, a Portland pub crawl.  Yeah, I’m a beer geek and proud of it. 

If nothing else, I’ll have a lot of new content to post here on Growler Fills. And no, I’m not going to stop extolling the virtues of beer runners.  Are you headed to the Portland Beer Blogger’s Conference?  Send me a note at growlerfills @ gmail . com and we’ll be sure to connect and geek out.