[UPDATE] More South Island Brewers On-board

Since my last post about the breweries of the South Island willing to participate in this filming, we have a few more to add to the list.

The Mussel Inn - Yes

Moa Brewing - Yes

Matsons - Yes

Only a handful off breweries I need to follow up to see if they are interested and then South Island planning is complete.

Using Technology To Share The Journey

I have spent the last couple of days setting up accounts so we can feed photos, locations, blogs, updates, tweets, and hopefully video including some live streaming.

So this is what I have setup so far.

Instagram app for iPhone

Both Kelly and I will be taking photos and uploading them.

We will have it set up so that Instagram will update:

Twitter - to our respective personal accounts @epicbeer and @epicbeerkel
Flickr - both will feed into  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzcraftbeertv

The Flickr feed turns up on our website http://nzcraftbeer.tv

Probably also have it update Facebook. Also considering 

Footfeed app for iPhone

This lets us checkin on Foursquare, Gowalla, Lattitude, as well as post to Twitter and Facebook. This way people will know when we arrive at a brewery. And can keep an eye out for photos, and hopefully video.

Untappd

We will be used to check in and let people know the beers we are trying, only issue is when we are just sampling it doesn't let you checkin more frequently that 15 minutes. It might be all over in that time.

Tumblr or Posterous

Considering one of these as a way to collect all our content stream in one place.

uStream

For live streaming video. Issues are going to be cell network speed and quality, and then if that works battery life. The best I am likely to get out of my iPhone is going to be about 45 minutes of streaming video over a 3G network.

I welcome and encourage any feedback on other apps or tools we should  considering using  to distribute this content about the NZ craft breweries of New Zealand in the Summer of 2011.

North Island Brewers To Be Contacted Soon

Due to the time it is taking to build an up to date contact list of all the brewers, then individually emailing them with a suggested date and time to come and visit, then following up with a phone call, on the back of running a business, the North Island brewers will be contacted in the next few days (if I have time) or once we return from the South Island road trip.

It's our intention to visit the North island brewers in the second and third weeks of February. 

So North Island brewers sorry if you are feeling unloved right now, but you will received the love in a few weeks.

Cheers
Luke

South Island Brewers Embrace TV Show

Over the last week I have slowly been contacting nearly all the South Island brewers to see if they are available and interested for us to come to their breweries, to meet them, have a chat while tasting their beers, and filming some video footage to share with the world.

The following is a list of those I have talked to so far and their response. This list is in geographical order of the places we plan to visit

BeerNZ - Yes, Craig is a champion for craft beer so we are going to catch up with him at his warehouse

Pomeroy's - Yes, Ava has been kind enough to offer us some rooms at the B&B next door. Even though it is the first night, I'm sure we are going to be sick of sleeping in a camper van after 12 days and 2,000 kms. 

Golden Ticket - Yes, Ally G is coming to meet up at Pomeroy's, since he is contract brewing his beer at Invercargill Brewing.

REQUEST TO REMOVE - No.                                                                                                    

Wigram Brewing - Yes

Three Boys - Yes

Cassels & Sons - Yes

The Twisted Hop - Yes

Green Man Brewery - Yes

Emerson's Brewery - Yes

Crafty Beers - Yes, Tom the Pom (previously of Emerson's and Green Man brewery)

Invercargill Brewery - Yes

Arrow Brewing - Yes

Wanaka Beerworks - Yes

West Coast Brewery - Yes

McCashins Brewery - Yes

Townshend Brewery - Yes

Monkey Wizard - Yes

Golden Bear Brewing - Yes

Lighthouse Brewery - Yes (will need to let Dick know his website isn't working)

8 Wired Brewing - Yes

It is great to have some much support so quickly with little notice. I will be following up the other breweries in the South Island I haven't got an answer from yet, and up date the list as I get their feedback.

I was pretty nervous at the beginning of the week, having booked airfares, and booked the campervan, based on blind faith that the brewers are a bunch of generally nice people, and will support something that is in all our best interest. 

So I am breathing a bit easier going into the weekend with such a great turn out.

Now I need to address the technology issues we may have such as cell coverage, and bandwidth to be able to upload some video content from the road.

Cheers

Luke

NZ Craft Beer TV Road Trip Starts Filming 19th January 2011

Luke Nicholas & Kelly Ryan of Epic Brewing Company are heading out on a road trip around New Zealand this summer to try and visit every small independent craft brewery.

After spending many weeks looking at ways to get a TV show about craft beer on NZ broadcast TV, we came to the conclusion, that funding was an issue. We could go to NZ on Air to help out, but you need to have a timeslot from one of the networks before you can get funding. And you can't get a TV slot without funding. Catch 22.

Beyond the funding issue was if someone else paid for the filming, then they own the content, and can do what they like with it. Then there is the possibility that the show would air late in the evening (alcohol involved), on a less than prime time night, and only ever be shown once. Therefore our potential audience was greatly reduced. To a point that made us question the relavence of traditional broadcast TV.

Craft Beer is a niche in the world of beer, but a niche filled with very passionate people. People that care about the people that produce a diverse range of beer styles, which offer amazing flavours and aromas.

So we plan to film this TV quality video content, and initially distribute it via online distribution channels. This means that the videos of the breweries will be available to anyone with an internet connected device anywhere in the world.

As great as it is to live in NZ we only have a population of 4 million people. There are probably that many passionate craft beer lovers around the world that would love to watch the videos about the craft breweries in New Zealand.

We will go back to the traditional TV boardcast networks once we have a finished product (ie TV series) and offer it to them, but it will be on our terms, and we will keep the rights to the content.

Everyone wins.

Cheers
Luke