Brewers Association Supports Independent Bloggers and Writers with new seal
Recently, the U.S. Brewers Association launched a new facet of their Independent Craft Seal initiative: the ability for advocates of craft beer (including magazines and websites like this one) to adopt a “Supporter Seal” to demonstrate their solidarity.
It remains to be seen if the same thing will happen in Canada. With the announcement this month of a Canadian Craft Brewers Association, it’s certainly possible that a similar initiative could make its way onto the agenda.
The new seal
For the last 10 years, Craft Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association, Julia Herz, has opened the Beer Now Conference (formerly the Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference), and for the last eight years the Brewers Association has sponsored the conference. We are very grateful for their longterm support of this conference whose mission it is to help new and established content creators learn, network, and evolve into the the independent professionals they want to be in the beer community.
That is why we say that the Brewers Association, in essence, supports independent bloggers and writers in the same way it promotes independent breweries. Yes, we’re talking about the BA’s #SeektheSeal campaign and its own mission to capture “the spirit of what small and independent craft brewers have achieved,” according to BrewersAssociation.org. Over 4,000 breweries have adopted the seal and integrated it in a variety of ways, from packaging to billboards. In December 2018, Herz wrote a detailed piece about the impact the seal has had since launching.
That’s Independence You’re Reading
As bloggers, writers, podcasters, and influencers, you, too, have the option to show your support forindependence by adopting the Supporter Seal from the Brewers Association. Details can be found here. Who’s eligible? “If your business, organization, or website supports independent U.S. craft breweries, you’re eligible to use the independent craft brewer supporter seal,” says the BA. When we asked Andy Sparhawk, Craft Beer Program Digital Content Editor for CraftBeer.com, if that means beer bloggers and writers could adopt the seal and put it on their websites, he replied, “Yes, the Supporter version of the Seal was developed for that reason!”
