80% of people who take part in a virtual event do so for educational purposes, and what better thing is there to learn about than beer? Attending a virtual beer festival is a great way to do just that. Drinking beers, ales, stouts and lagers isn’t just about socializing in the bar: it’s about appreciating the process that has gone into making the drink. You can learn about the flavor profiles, find out how to identify the different tastes on your palette, and try different beers from all around the world. In the past year, virtual beer festivals have really taken off as a way of uniting customers with breweries, pubs and bars. It’s also a fun way of finding out more about beer from the comfort of your own home.
Live Streams and Sessions
Virtual events have given professionals in the beer industry the opportunity to reach a wider audience all over the world – not just drinkers who go to bars. Some of the most entertaining and informative virtual events use live streams and sessions to interact. They will even poll the audience to ask their opinion. In 2020, CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) hosted a virtual beer festival over a three day weekend, with live streams and different hosts, introducing beers from all around the world. This added to audience engagement in a far more positive way than simply watching some beer videos online.
Virtual Beer Tasting
Beer52 is another company that has been hosting virtual beer festivals to help support the breweries, and with great success. All attendees buy a ticket, which includes a delivery of a range of craft and small brewery beers (Beer52 recommends that you don’t drink all the beers in one night.) Then, over the course of two days, festival-goers can participate in online tasting sessions, getting notes about flavor. The first online beer festival they hosted was attended by 50,000 people. They were treated to interviews, live musical entertainment, and celebrity guest speakers. There was even a traditional pub quiz held online, complete with chat rooms so you could talk with others about the beers (and a little about politics).
Future Festivals
Virtual beer festivals are definitely here to stay. They are an excellent way of uniting beer lovers all over the world – and you never have to leave the house! Rockstar Beer is hosting “Brunch Beerfest” in 2021, as well as the “Cinco de Mayo Beer and Tequila Festival.” Untappd is running “Hop Huggers” and “Bottoms Up.” Many pubs and bars are also hosting their own local beer festivals via Zoom and Skype to get the community together. Even when all the entertainment venues and drinking establishments are back open, virtual beer festivals are still likely to be popular, and they are certainly uniting beer lovers in the common cause.
Attending a virtual beer festival can be great fun and very educational. You can taste new ales, learn about flavor profiles, be entertained by knowledgeable guest speakers, and have a great time online with other beer aficionados.
I did try an online wine tasting last year. It was to be honest weird but hey you got to do what you got to do especially with these challenging times! But yes I agree with you that Beer Online festivals are here to stay aside from it being safer than the usual festivals its a lot more economical! Cheers man!
We did something similar over zoom, cannot beat in person however, its a good substitute for now! Great read 🙂
Virtual Beer Festival interesting. Thanks for sharing with us.
I love how creative people have been with Zoom over the past year. It’s so important to stay connected even while we have to be distant. A virtual beer festival is a great idea.
I didn’t know they had virtual festivals. I wonder if you’re right, and people will keep using virtual resources for things they didn’t before. I bet you are… It certainly is convenient if you can’t make it (or don’t want to) in person, but you still want to go.
My sons did this kind of thing to celebrate their best friend’s birthday. It was what they called a “zoom party.” It does look weird, but I guess it is better that way. At least they got to enjoy seeing their friends.
I have never tried to attend any virtual festival this year, but this one looks really exciting!
Zoom has changed the game for a lot of events. I wouldn’t have considered having a Beer Tasting Festival virtually but this sounds like a good idea. I think these types of events will continue (as well as having in-person events) because so many more people can participate. With the delivery of the beer to taste, people can participate from almost anywhere.
Virtual Beer Tasting sounds so interesting. Never heard about it before.
So happy it’s festival season again. I would love to attend this one!