(Tampa, FL) – Cigar City Brewing is all the rage on the message boards today . . .
I posted a note to my Twitter feed last night pointing to a thread in which a Beer Advocate publicly revealed an email chain between he and Joey Redner, Cigar City Brewing Founder. If you get a white screen there, RB user, Jaxson, copied the original post here. Snippy responses were sent both ways and a firestorm of criticism has ensued in both directions on both BeerAdvocate and RateBeer.
Redner has issued his thoughts on the matter here.
RB user, Puzzl, started a poll which now has over 320 votes logged. The votes, so far, have been decisive.
This comes just a few days after Cigar City Brewing was named #3 brewery in the world on RateBeer.
As Joey has learned (and I have after working for a public services company), you never know where email may end up. Just a few weeks ago, we saw an email exchange between Todd Alstrom and Pisgah Brewing. With dozens of breweries set to open their doors for the first time this year and hundreds of homebrewers wanting to start a brewery in the next few years, a lot of young and hopeful startups (and, in general, many of us) can learn from this.
Or is no publicity bad publicity?
Instead of a growler, Dennis and Joey should invest $7 into “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
Considering they built their reputation via tickers who need and must have every single new and rare and limited offering from every hype brewery of the moment it’s kind of shocking that they didn’t see this “problem” of keeping up from arising. Also, if you’re that busy and can’t keep track of every single e-mail you receive there’s a simple solution.
Don’t reply in the first place.
Really, does this constitute beer news? Does every beer related website have to air other peoples dirty laundry. It’s one thing when users of the forums post such things, but I think this is in bad taste for beernews.
Rob, I understand where you are coming from and it was very difficult for me to post this but I would have been sleeping deep under a rock not to cover this story. It was the most talked about item of the day on the 2 largest beer sites on the internet and was also at topic discussed in social media circles. It was also painful because I one of the first if not the first to do a full-out write-up on Cigar City before they first opened and Joey has always been helpful with information through email.
As I noted in the post, there is a lot that young startups and others can learn from this exchange. I have mostly beer drinkers visit this site but I also get a ton of aspiring professional brewers and industry professionals as well.
I walk a fine line between reporting news and being a free PR arm for breweries. When stories like this come up, I simply cannot ignore them or it would mean that I am just a PR arm for breweries. If that means I have a door shut in my face if/when I visit Cigar City, I’m willing to risk that. Hopefully Joey sees that I tried to report it in a professional manner and balances this out with the other coverage I have given their beers over the last year.
Fair enough. I certainly understand your stance and applaud your service to both brewers and enthusiasts alike. I suppose it’s just hard seeing bad publicity snowball like this. As one of those soon-to-be young start-ups, it’s always alarming to see how closely our industry is monitored and how quickly word spreads. Of course that coin has two sides and our industry’s success stories travel just as fast, giving far reach to otherwise small breweries. I can say that it got me to promptly, and courteously, respond to the growing list of inquery emails I have been amassing.
Keep up the good work
Cheers
Rob
Joey will not slam the door in your face. I’m sure he appreciates the balanced coverage of this topic and I don’t think he holds grudges against level-headed people with good intentions. The self-entitled folks…can’t speak for them however 😉