Yes yes, Australia Day and all that. How many active users do we have on the AUS/NZ forums? Craft beer in Australia is clearly gaining more traction with 'mainstream' drinkers; yet I see very few active users on this forum and was wondering if there's somewhere else Aussies congregate or if sites like BA simply haven't really caught on (yet).
The craft beer scene in Australia is booming yet the AUS/NZ forums on this site are floundering - quite sad really.
There's lots of mainstream awareness of BA/RB- the reviews pop up as the first few google results for many beers so I know quite a few people who are familiar with the sites themselves. Just the Australian forums aren't that well used for some reason. Most people on here have been around for a while also. I personally wish these forums were a bit more active. There's a larger presence on untappd/twitter definitely.
I think it's just a numbers game. Say 80% of the population is of legal drinking age. Assume roughly 70% of the adult population drinks regularly. Then say that out of these, 50% prefer beer. Then, with the craft beer boom, if you have (just say) 10% of drinkers turning to craft, probably only 20% are really into it (just a pluck). Out of these, just say that there are 10% that go online to beer websites... USA, with a population of ~315mil would have ~175k people onlne. Aus, with a population of ~24mil would have ~13k people online. They are made up numbers, but you get the picture. And that's without taking into account the spread of people over various websites.
Facebook is awash with craft beer guys & groups, From new to craft (Perth Beer Snobs), intermediate (Craft Beer Enthusiasts) to hardcore (insert secret group here). These are Perth spurred ones, plenty more out there - Yeer in Beer, Pics of Interesting Beer, plus the million of international ones. Why not so much debate or new people in this forum - I just think it comes down to the fact it's easier to do on other platforms. No of fence to BeerAdvocate but it's just not competing with the new social medias
There is a fair bit of action on Twitter. Interaction between a lot of Aussie craft enthusiasts, amateur beer writers/bloggers, bar owners, commercial brewers and homebrewers. I am more active there than here.
Apart from the breweries themselves and some stockists, anyone in particular you recommend following?
I've found quite of bit on Australian craft beer traction on Instagram.. whole feeds devoted to beer reviews per post. Breweries/pubs/hotels are quite active on that platform.
I agree with you there. Coming from LA, I expected at least half as much activity given the wide range of Australian craft beer market. However, the usual suspects pop up on this forum.
Social media. Plain and simple. #craftbeer #neckbeard, you get the idea. Far easier to post a pic on Instagram add some beer **** and some silly hashtags and look like a genius and get a bunch of like minded followers.
I use to rate everything in Ratebeer but became very tedious. Only jump back onto BA this week because of the BIF organized by MrKennedy Started posting on instagram a while back to keep a record of what I had tasted along with the silly hashtags. Not much debate on instagram though. Every beer seems to be the best thing ever especially if it was brewed in Australia. Does make it easy to keep up to date on new stuff though
I wish people would keep rating on RB and put where they got the frigging beer in the review... untapped is good to see new beers become available, but most people give everything a 4 or 5/5.., ie a review yesterday : a bit Meh...5/5 WTF?
what we really need to happen to get the forums happening again is the return of Mr Yallop, or whatever he was before he became that moniker......
