How to Create Community Through Craft Beer

Craft Beer Meet Up

This past week was spent saying hi to hundreds of strangers, yet not one ever felt like a stranger. Have you ever wandered into a room and knew immediately that it was filled with your kind of people?

That is what these past two weeks were like for us the second we drove into our campsite at Lake Guntersville State Park to attend the RVE Summit 2019.

RVE Summit 2019

For those of you that are just here for da beer, hear me out for a bit. I’m sure most of us have been to one conference or another, for work, for school, to get a promotion, to pass a test, to get credit, or learn something new. Most of us also probably dreaded those conferences. I can hear your grumbling, “Take up my entire weekend. Nobody cares about this crap. I’m just going so I get that promotion. Maybe I can sneak out early…” You get the picture.

This conference, though, is nothing like that. This conference is more about connecting with friends on the road, learning from like-minded, inspirational people, connecting over campfires and communal nomad potlucks.

Ok, yes, while there are workshops, keynote speakers, and presenters, and you do learn stuff (a lot of stuff, actually – my head is still exploding), the biggest takeaway from this conference is the community.

The actual conference is all about learning how to create an income while traveling in an RV, so there is a lot of information about SEO (search engine optimization for those that don’t speak the language), image optimization, work flow process, building a YouTube audience, entrepreneur mindset, but there’s even more about following your dreams, creating your own rules (theme of this year’s conference), finding your tribe, and bucking the typical 9-to-5-bust-your-ass-for-a-job-you-hate.

Craft Beer Tribe

You all can guess our tribe has something to do with craft beer, so in the name of finding our tribe and creating our own rules, we crafted (get it, crafted?!) the RVE Summit’s first ever Craft Beer Community Meet Up.

And oh how fun it was! In the spirit of sharing entrepreneurial ideas, we wanted to let you know exactly (well, not exactly – you are supposed to create your own rules) how to create – I mean, craft – your very own craft beer meet up. In 20 easy steps, no less.

Disclaimer (I love disclaimers; they get me out of trouble.) – This is how we did it. This took place at a conference, yours will probably take place at your house or a brewery. We had beer donated (you know that whole entrepreneur kinda thing with a YouTube, beer blog, you give us beer we promote your brewery kinda thing), you will probably have to buy it. We are home brewers; you don’t have to be a home brewer, but you have to admit, it’s kinda cool if you are (especially if you brew in an RV, specifically for the RVE Summit). We conned people into emails so we can build our business (no conning actually involved, yes, we have emails, but OMG, these people, like you, are our people, our tribe, our fellow craft beers geeks, and we are so happy that we get to stay in touch with you.) but you should con (just ask) them into phone numbers so you can build your own tribe.

How to Create Community Through Craft Beer in 20 Simple Steps

1) Drink craft beer at craft breweries. (Click here for Stout Life Approved places.)

2) Brew your own beer for yourself and friends.

3) Travel anywhere in anything to get to the craft brewery.

4) Once you get to the brewery, Say hi to a stranger or better yet, play Cards Against Humanity with them – strangers no more. (affiliate link – click here to read more on that)

5) Become friends with brewers and owners – they love to talk about their beer. We know this because we have an entire interview series called Stout Conversations.

6) While traveling, Attend the RVE Summit or any other community meetup that has craft beer (better yet, you bring it, and then share it).

7) Say hi to all of your neighbors and offer them a craft beer.

8) Host a craft beer meetup at your camp site (or wherever you are on this extraordinary planet) and encourage rookies and veterans of craft beer to attend.

9) Talk about craft beer at your meet up ( KISS – keep it simple and short; no craft beer lover is stupid.) You could even talk about food and beer pairings, but still, create your own rules.

10) Give samples of all types of beers – don’t forget to say cheers (in whatever language you choose)!

11) Allow people to actually drink the beer, not just sniff it. (Kenny does that, sniffs it, a lot…then finally drinks it.)

12) Give gratitude to humanity (especially the brewers of the donated beer and the attendees who are now your friends and now have to put up with your weekly emails because they fell for the trick of signing up with name and email.)

13) Give more samples of beer – again – cheers!

14) Remember, the beer you brewed for yourself and your friends?  Give it to your friends.  (No, you cannot keep it. You can always make more.)

15) Don’t say good-bye to your new friends, just say cheers and see you later (They will come back – you have the good stuff – so you better like your new friends, they now have all of your contact information because like them, you fell for that marketing trick of giving away your business card and now they also have your email – wicked grin).

16) Be good stewards of the earth, recycle the cans and bottles of the craft beer and clean up your trash. Yes, even the trash the was left over by those that think non craft beer cans and bottles belong in the ditch (they actually do belong in the ditch, but Mother Nature doesn’t like that kind of beer either – another wicked grin). 

17) Buy more craft beer because now you have more friends with an expensive craft beer taste just like you.

18) Stay in touch with your new friends. They have friends you haven’t met yet, and you can help your new friends convert their friends.

19) Be very proud of creating more craft beer snobs – so proud that you stick out your chest and beat it like the gorilla you are!

20) Repeat!

In my previous non-RV, nomad life, I was a teacher, so of course this 20 step lesson plan can be adapted for any craft beer lover.  Simply choose what steps you want to follow (who am I kidding, follow all the steps, especially #20!)  and with craft beer in hand and cheers on the tip of your tongue, you are now ready to create community through craft beer.  

Stay tuned for a craft beer family tree to help explain all of the different craft beers to your newly converted craft beer friends. Soon you can sound just as educated as your wine geek friends!

Cheers to being a craft beer geek or snob, or whatever you want to call yourself. Create your own rules!