WHAT'S OUR STORY?
A brief history of Beermingham...
Beermingham Brewers Collaborative, a 501(c)(3) organization, was established in 2021 to introduce BEERMINGHAM, USA to the world, and to promote its position as a bona fide leader in craft beer production.
Our mission is to showcase the outstanding breweries that call the Birmingham-metro-area home, to acknowledge and share their accomplishments, and to promote Birmingham, AL as a prime destination for beer tourism.
Beermingham Brewers Collaborative's founding objective was two-pronged: to promote Birmingham's burgeoning craft beer landscape and to leverage the relative success of the local craft beer brewing industry during the 2020 economic downturn, in an effort to help salvage Birmingham's decimated restaurant, bar, and live music scene (i.e., customers of craft breweries!).
In an action-packed November weekend, 2021 Brewzapalooza added over $40,000 in revenue directly into Birmingham's recovering entertainment and hospitality industries, while providing ticketholders with top-tier entertainment.
As the economic climate quickly shifted from shutdowns, layoffs and unemployment to issues of recruitment and workforce retention, presenting a brand-new set of challenges, the Collaborative pivoted our approach to better accommodate the new paradigm. Our efforts segued from simply administering "life support" to members of these industries, to developing strategies seeking to scale tourism activities around local craft breweries by "pairing" the experience with standouts of our local Hospitality, Entertainment, and Live Performance sectors. Beermingham, USA has become a valid destination for sophisticated beer-tourism.
In addition to amplifying the message of the individual breweries and promoting their many and varied activities and events, the Collaborative also creates original programs and initiatives in furtherance of our objectives. To that end, we developed the Beermingham Invitational Brewing Competition to celebrate the art and science of brewing by allowing our local craft breweries to compete against each other as well as respected breweries from around the region and beyond.
We also introduced Brewzapalooza (Beermingham's Craft Beer Week) into the local lexicon. Now observed in October (kicks off the first Sunday), the festivities are an original celebration of local craft beer, local live music and local food, which is held in tandem with the Oktoberfest activities of our local breweries.
We are actively developing Beermingham 365, so that daily local craft beer specials from a roster of Birmingham's' most iconic hotspots, may be accessed from a single online source, replete with brewery profiles, latest releases, and brewer insights.
In spring 2024, we'll be adding the Beermingham Homebrew Competition and the Homebrew Hullaballoo to our lineup. (Stay tuned for details as they emerge.) Our events are free to Beermingham Brewers Collaboratives members (excluding VIP experiences). Tickets are available to the general public via our website.
Proceeds from event ticket sales will establish a scholarship/grant fund for serious local candidates pursuing studies and/or high-level experience in the brewing arts and sciences and also help support several worthy local charities.
The Beermingham Plan:
