By the time I saw the announcement about tickets for Brew Talks Chicago, I had less than a week to plan childcare with my wife, but I knew I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to rub shoulders with local beer industry folks.

Like, literally rub shoulders, as we jostled to get the bar staff’s attention at Revolution’s tap room. It’s not a bad way to meet someone, and this was a great event for meeting new folks, learning about new breweries, and hearing from some much loved and respected local brands—specifically Revolution (our host), Forbidden Root, and 5 Rabbit.

There was a lot to absorb, but being there was an immersive experience that drew me closer to the industry than anything I’d been able to see online.

Here, in no particular order, are my main takeaways from the evening.

1. Beer is a Good Industry for Introverts

I was really looking forward to this event, but I’m introverted enough that that first moment of getting a drink and standing there feeling like everyone else had someone to talk to immediately began to undermine my confidence in my ability to make something of my evening.

But one reason to love this business as an introvert is that even as you start worrying that you’re no good at talking to people, you are already drinking a beverage that makes it easier to talk to people. By the time I was two in, I was all like, “Hey, I’m gonna work this crowd.”

2. Beer People are Good People

It helped that it was a crowd of beer people, and they are generally pretty open, welcoming, and friendly folk.

It also helped that I ran into a friend of a friend, Jake Garvey of Garvey, Inc., right at the beginning. We figured out how we knew each other and started chatting about beer and what we were doing there and so on. Turns out he’s in one of those very specific businesses that you don’t even realize existed but that is really important to the people who need it. His company helps other companies increase the efficiency of their production lines through line analysis and package handling products. Who knew?

I introduced myself to Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting, a guy whose work I really respect and enjoy and who I should have expected to be as agreeable and generous as he was. Not long after meeting me, he handed off my card to someone who now wants to speak with me about a possible project. No doubt an important part of Kiser’s success owes to that kind of thoughtfulness.

I was even able to speak very briefly with the evening’s panelists, Robert Finkel of Forbidden Root, Andrés Araya of 5 Rabbit, and Donn Bichsel of Revolution, the latter of whom told a small group of us a story at the end of the night that he might not have told at the beginning. And Chris Furnari, editor of BrewBound and the force behind the evening, was kind enough to say he’d check out my site, looking forward to a time when they might be open to contracting out.

(I know how it works, of course. Assuming he wasn’t just being nice, which he could have done without being so definite, and assuming he had the best intentions to actually check me out a bit, it’s quite likely he’ll get busy with other things and just forget. That’s all right: I have a plan for that. I’m just going to email him a link to this and tell him I gave him a shout-out. People love to read about themselves, right?)

My last shameless online networking plug goes to Steve Schmidt, a marketer who runs the Market the Brew podcast, which features interviews with brewery folks about how they’re getting people engaged with their brands. I first took note of him when he interviewed Alice George of Sketchbook (among my favorite breweries ever), and as someone who writes for beer folk, his podcast is one I need to follow.

3. Everybody’s Got Problems

One theme of the panel interviews was the challenge of running a brewery of their respective sizes. But Revolution is operating at a much greater scale than Forbidden Root and 5 Rabbit, so I found it interesting to hear that things aren’t just smooth sailing for Illinois’s largest independent brewery. They aren’t quite brewing at 50% capacity, and they’re recovering from some tough years of running out of beer for their distributor partners.

I think when you’re starting out, you always think, “If we only had a larger facility . . . If we only had more money . . . ” and so on. But like I used to tell my colleagues in the literary publishing world, everyone can always use more money. The question is what you do with what you have. Seems things aren’t so different in the brewing world.

Of course, Forbidden Root and 5 Rabbit have different problems than Revolution. As niche breweries, they spend a lot of time thinking about how to educate consumers about their unique brands.

There’s an irony here, for me. These breweries are all about using different ingredients and producing uncommon flavors. Yet they’re busting their butts trying to get some mindshare in a market that allegedly thrives on innovation and experimentation.

This reveals, I think, the fact that consumers really only want innovation in “safe” directions, and that really new things need to hit a certain tipping point to feel safe enough for the average drinker. But, as Araya and Finkel pointed out, that tipping point could indicate a fad or gimmick, and possibly a short-lived one. Their breweries are both committed to long-term and sustainable development. More power to ’em.

And I think they’re both doing really interesting things. They won’t be for everyone, sure, but I don’t know how you can call yourself a beer person and not be interested in exploring traditional early-American ingredients or Latin American-inspired recipes.

* * * * * *

I’m not sure that’s it in a nutshell, exactly. Maybe in a half-keg. Now if only I can come up with a good excuse to be in Massachusetts for the next session in October…

Image credit: Roman Drits/BarnImages.com