Last week I was the after-dinner speaker at the annual meeting of the Maumee Valley Growers Association (MVGA). MVGA is a non-profit organization that works to strengthen the economic vitality of the northwest Ohio greenhouse industry. I was on familiar ground attending this event. I knew many of the growers very well. With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture I I had worked very closely with the industry between 2004 and 2012, assisting the growers in the development and implementation of what is termed an industrial cluster strategy. The creation of MVGA was one of outcomes of these efforts.

Rather than just giving a standard after-dinner talk Beth Scheckelhoff, Chair of MVGA’s Education Committee, suggested a quiz-style format in which I would ask a series of multiple-choice questions and members of the audience would be provided with ‘clickers’ with which they would be able to choose what they thought would be the correct answer. Audience responses would be recorded and the percentage who chose each answer would be displayed. The quiz section of the evening would be followed by a beer tasting.

Leading a beer tasting was not something that I had done before. In planning for it I recognized that while there may be a few craft beer drinkers in the audience the majority would probably be macro-beer drinkers or non-beer drinkers. While there would be some younger folks in attendance the overwhelming majority of people would be an older demographic, over 50 years of age. Also there would be a fairly even mix of men and women. All of this I took into account as I decided which four beers I would choose for the evening.

The four beers that I chose were The Crisp, a German-style Pilsener from Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn, NY; a selection of Fruit Wheat Ales (apricot, raspberry, and wild blueberry) from Sea Dog Brewery in South Portland, ME; All Day IPA from Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Mi; and Blitzen Holiday Ale from Maumee Bay Brewing Company in Toledo, OH. The logic behind my choice was pretty straightforward. I chose one lager (The Crisp) and three ales. This gave me the opportunity to talk about bottom-fermenting and top-fermenting yeasts. Pilsener’s are a classic beer style and so I wanted the group to sample a good one – The Crisp is highly rated. Fruit beers are something that I enjoy occasionally and I thought the group might enjoy trying these. As it turned out these proved to be the evening’s most popular beer – everyone got an opportunity to sample the apricot, raspberry, and wild blueberry. I opted for an IPA because I felt everyone should taste craft beer’s most popular style. At the same time I did not want to overwhelm them with hops. At 42 IBUs Founders All Day IPA seemed a good choice. The fourth and final beer was a Christmas Ale. With the Christmas season just around the corner I thought that we should finish the tasting with a seasonal ale. Interestingly enough the beer available before and during dinner was Bud Light – a nice contrast to the beers that followed dinner.

The tasting portion of the evening seemed to go well. Prior to sampling the beers I spoke briefly about the difference between ales and lagers, International Bitterness Units, and Alcohol by Volume (something to which you generally do not have to pay attention when drinking macro-brews). I also, without trying to sound too much like an over-bearing beer snob, talked about the “proper” way to drink a beer, emphasizing the importance of aroma, appearance, and taste in that process.

Prior to the beer tasting I had given a ten-question beer quiz. Each question had four multiple-choice answer options. Once the audience members had recorded their answer (using ‘clickers’ provided) the correct answer was revealed as was the percentage of people opting for each possible answer. This was then followed by a slide providing further background on the correct answer. For example, the first question I asked was “how many craft breweries there were in the United States in 2014”. Four possible answers were given – —397,  975, 1,498, or 3,464. The correct answer, of course, was 3,464. The slide accompanying this question was a graph that showed the number of breweries (traditional and craft) in the United States for each year between 1873 and 2014. This slide allowed me to briefly tell story of the fall and rise of American breweries. Other questions that I asked included “what is the best selling beer in America?”, “the residents of which country consume the largest amount of beer per capita?”, and “what is the leading hop producing state in the country?” The audience seemed to enjoy the quiz format. It was fun, interactive, and informative.

All in all it was an immensely enjoyable evening. It was great to catch-up with some folks I had not seen in a couple of years. Hopefully I won a few converts to craft beer as well. Or, at the very least, enhanced people’s knowledge about and understanding of craft beer to the extent that at the next opportunity they might choose a craft rather than a macro-brew.