How do we grow BeerAdvocate internationally?

I hope the effort succeeds. More interaction of folks with differing beer cultures and experiences can't help but be a good thing. I certainly will be more aware of being as welcoming as possible anytime I have encounters here with beer friends from outside the United States. Will be following this thread to see if there are other things that us American BA's can do to help with this effort.

 

I think it's great that you're trying to reach out and expand your audience—it has the potential to enrich the site in so many ways.

Not sure if this is possible on the technical side, but if the site could be set up in such a way that people connecting to BA from other areas of the world were automatically sent directly to the forum for their region (based on language, or IP address, or whatever), that might increase global traffic. I'm just thinking about how I first found BA—like everything else, my guess is it probably started with a Google search. If I'd searched for "beer" back in 2010 and been directed to a site in Swedish or Swahili, I probably wouldn't have hung around for very long. Make it easier for people to find their local community on this global site, and they might find it more welcoming.

 

I have been building enterprise software for over 20 years. It's about localization. Otherwise, you are just pissing into the wind and will get little to no adoption.

 

I can't see the problem, one thing common to everyone here, we love beer and trying new ones. Here in the UK we had a near miss, in the 1970s the breweries were trying to sell us pasteurised, re-fizzed crap, thankfully some breweries, mainly local ones, kept proper beers and CAMRA ( Campaign for Real Ale ) helped to promote them. These days we have a much wider choice of beers in both the pubs and shops. Only problem is what we used to call Real Ale is now Craft Beer which puts the price up. I blame you lot for that. Happy drinking

 

It is indeed great that you directly reach out to us overseas users. I have to admit I have not been very active, and mostly just read the often very detailed reviews. These are in my view the major strength of BA, a written review is far more infomative than a simple rating. Often I do not agree with a rating, but can read in the review that this comes down to a difference in taste, not quality. Therefore I do prefer BA from other platforms. But certainly it also takes more effort to compose a review.
Anyway, what I believe is hindering the spread of BA in Europe most is the few European craft beers ratings, and the lack of availability of many excellent American beers here. Most European ratings are on rather large company beers, which are of little interest to Europeans who can get these in any shop around the corner. This would change with the involvement of more European users, for sure.
The beer culture here in Germany is also very different from the US. I may exaggerate a little, but there is virtually no overlap in interest and very little talk between the grumpy traditionalists, who stick to their (often major) pilsner brand to the end and cringe at the mere mention of things like fruit beers and cold hopping, and the often eloquent hipsters of the craft beer scene on the eternal quest for new tastes.
The other issue is certainly the availability of American beers, which are still the core of BA. Sure, one can easily get the beers from Sierra Nevada, Stone, Brooklyn and SteamWorks (yeah, I know that one is Canadian) and a few others. But these are mostly license brews with European breweries and many other excellent beers (those of Bell's in particular) reach this continent seemingly only in private luggage. Then again, even the smaller European brands can be hard to get if they are from another country than the one you are standing in while looking for them. The question then is of course what could BA do about this... But, you asked about my views and here they are.

 

I learned about beer all across Europe many decades ago. I am still impressed with the places we visited, the beers we savored, and the folks that took us in like family.
After many fits and starts here in America, the early 00s saw a general upheaval in all things brewing. It's the unfortunate arrogant attitude that American beer is now the best on earth that puts off people from everywhere, including a great number of Americans. I also learned many years ago that many northern Europeans know the English language better than many Americans. Just some of my thoughts and experiences.

 

Dropping the "American" (or English or German) in the beer style name when it is not necessary (in most cases in my opinion).

 

I think its fair to say that few would be overly interested in reading about brews that cannot be found and tasted. Here in Australia we have access to numerous reviews about new local brews and breweries etc and much of this can be sourced locally. Likewise how many Americans are interested in reading reviews about Red Hill Brewery beers, or Mornington Peninsula beers, or those of Holgate or Murray's etc etc (all local). I myself have access to a good degree of American craft beer but this is only a portion of those available obviously.

 

@SFACRKnight I have no idea. Something that works in the US can bomb in Germany. Case in point.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jul/28/retail.money

 

That's great to hear and I wish I could try some of them!

 

Well, I have been a member here since 2015 and this is my first post!

I think it is a very difficult task as many have pointed out. You need "regional" contributors to discuss beers that are actually obtainable to those from other countries. I know there are/were a few guys using and contributing to BA from my country (the last time I looked).

I generally just read BA when something pops up in a Google search when I search for something specific.

I don't think the US guys realise how big and diverse the craft scene is in the rest of the world. Even in my part of the world we have a fairly decent scene with lots of great breweries (and some not )

I were in London two years ago and the scene there is really great. Look up Verdant Brewing company just to mention one. In Amsterdam you get a lot of US beers actually, which was great as I had the opportunity to try a good few US "well-know" beers like 90 minute, Two hearted, etc. Their local scene is also great.

My opinion is that it will take a huge effort to really get into international regions and I am not sure that there is a business case for it.

 

The craft beer scene in South Africa is huge and growing. Not only that, there is a really good public interest in home brewing. I personally know 4 or 5 people who are currently brewing their own. A friend and I share brew day pics, talk about our beer recipes and specs, and brag about equipment, and it inspires me. It would be great to relate to people from the same country who have access to the same ingredients as me, to share ideas and to brag about our brew which is "better than everyone else's".

So a forum area with specific regions might be nice, and perhaps sub forums per region in that. What would be quite cool about that (when the pandemic allows travel again) is for people traveling to a region to be able to ask advice on where to find a decent microbrewery close to where they'll be going, and which beers to look out for.

 

I think a good start for any international posters would be to take a seat at the virtual bar in any of the "What Beer Are You Drinking Now?" threads. It's a very low-key, easy way to participate & see what's going on here and let us know what's going on in their place. Post a video of a performer you like.

@QuakeAttack, great suggestion. I too have been involved in enterprise software development for over 20 years, and spent a few years of that tenure supporting product translation...you got me thinking.

If this site had a locale setting, and auto-detection to translate posts on the fly, that'd be bomb-diggity.

So, for static site content, like a product release, sure. No problem. I think there's many idiomatic grammar structures which could cause inaccurate (possibly offensive) translations of free-form, dynamic user entry.

I could foresee a moderation issue if the language is not fluently understood by a moderator.

 

As an American, I love reading forum posts from our international friends. Love to hear about the beer culture from other lands. Although I love the fact that American craft culture has drastically expanded and improved over the decades, I still hope that most of the world brewers continue to tweak their local traditional brews vs abandoning them to promote American craft beers (i.e. I would hate to travel to Belgium to see more NEIPAs and fruited kettle sours on tap at a local pub than lambics, saisons and Gueze And witbiers etc.

 

A good idea would be to organize a Beer Advocate Festival outside the US (with both US and local breweries). It would be great to have one of those in Chile.

There are a ton of beer fests in Chile but they are more European in style (as I've been told). You pay admission, there are bands and there is beer to be bought (50 or more breweries usually). The styles you encounter are the ones that are amenable to drink in 500ml or liter steins. A US style beer fest, with some high octane beers, would be a nice change of pace.

Also, the new proposed changes of making reviews mandatory is a good way to not grow BA internationally. In Chile only about 10% (being generous) of people speak English and I'm sure it is similar (maybe not to the same degree) in other countries as well.

 

Ratebeer seems to have a solid amount of international raters. Is it due to having country editors, and what are country editors exactly?

 

Just share the site man your doing well on Google it's the first thing you see for beer reviews. Idk branch off on social media.
its the first I would do to advertise your site and get more traffic

 

I can explain the situation for Belgium

As U said yourself, BA is US-centric so most beers that are discussed are not available in Belgium and I guess that we already know R local beers. You get fed up about reading that this and that beer are top notch without ever having the chance to taste it yourself. Most (not to say all) US based beershops will not send overseas because of US regulations (at least, that's what they tell me) and the prices for the 'giants' ... Well, there are other options for that price (like a nice wee little dram) that are more easily available over here. I must say that I met a lot of nice people through BA and we did our fair share of trading but this consumes a lot of time and effort.

I guess, like me, most of us here in Belgium enjoy our beers at home because most pubs will not sell craft beers. And the minority that does, well ... I already mentioned the price tag a few lines above.

So, dear Todd ... In my honest opinion, you have a good website that is used as a reference by US based beer lovers & for those 'foreigners' that would like an insight on US craft beer. Stick to your guns and keep reviewing those US craft beers for us.

 

1. I tend to lurk in the background. I enjoy reading about US Beers and subscribed to the magazine from the beginning. I visit the US two or three times a year or did before COVID 19 and like to be up to date. My old Beer Advocate T Shirt was always a good conversation starter either here in the UK or in the US. I tend to use Untappd for short reviews rather than the more in depth BA reviews. I use BA’s City Guides if I’m visiting somewhere new.

2. untappd is easy to use and easy to rate beers on and as the social media aspect, I tend to use Rate Beer also for its “Places” pub/ bar ratings. As you’ve stated BA is very US centric but there’s nothing wrong with that, US beers are why I joined BA in the first place.

3. Have non US home pages, more foreign language items. Form partnerships with European Consumer groups such as CAMRA, and craft beer Brewers & distributors like Beer52, Beer Wulf, Honestbrew etc. Raise your social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc and publicise your app more.