Full Disclosure

The media landscape is getting incredibly hazy. The line between sales and content is not only blurred—in many cases, it has completely merged. You may have noticed that respectable news orgs have dabbled in ways to make the lines between reportage and advertising vanish, a process that has been evolving for years. As we transition to a social media-fueled world of journalism, organizations have been overhauling their professional ethics and guidelines.

As readers, you have a right to know whether any rules guide this blog and, if so, what they are. Below are the guidelines I’ve been using for years—along with an updated note about my partnerships.

Beer Samples, review Books, and Event Entry

The US is home to 8,000 breweries, and each one makes dozens of different beers a year. As a conservative estimate, breweries churn out a quarter of a million unique beers each year. I am a natural bottleneck in the flow of potential stories because I can't drink a quarter of a million beers. I have never asked to be put on a brewery’s mailing list, but a few have asked to put me on theirs. Generally I receive beer for awhile until a brewery decides there’s not enough quid in their pro quo and I get dropped. Similarly, if I’m at a brewery, someone occasionally puts a pint in front of me gratis or presses a bottle in my hand. If a brewery sends or gives me beer, I won’t write about most of it (though it may appear in social media or the podcast). At some point, I will see a story in a beer and write about it, but a brewery may send me lots of beer before it happens.

My rule is this: I will drink any beer (or cider) a company sends me, but I make no promises that I’ll discuss or review it, and definitely no promises that I’ll discuss it favorably. The brewery makes sure to get their beer at the front of the line so that it will pass through my bottleneck—but that’s it. I try to make sure always to reveal whether a beer has been supplied by a brewery so readers can judge. 

I accept books for review, too, with all the same rules. For what it’s worth, getting samples is completely typical in the world of media. I suppose because samples could be construed as “payment”to unfunded bloggers, the onus to admit you received samples is greater for the blogger than the newspaper. But you should recognize that newspapers get tons of books and beers, too.

This is going to start sounding repetitive, but giving me free access to an event only means I'll cover it, not that I'll cover it favorably. (Once common, comping writers for events is now quite rare.)

Products

I don't solicit products and will reject them if people offer to send samples. I just don't do product reviews.

Tours and Junkets

This is the hardest one to know how to handle. I get incredible access to breweries, and that definitely influences me. By being able to see facilities and chat with the people who make the beer, I get a much deeper understanding of their process and ultimately their products, and I pass that along to the reader. Touring breweries is an indispensable part of my job. I fund my own visits. I paid for my book-writing trips to Europe and selected the breweries to visit based on interest, not offers to pay for the travel. That’s not how everyone does it. In fact, when one publisher told me they didn’t offer travel budgets, they actually encouraged me to seek out companies that would fund my travel. That publisher was perfectly happy to have me write a book about the companies that funded my travel. I declined and paid my own way.

In some cases, I am invited to visit a brewery on their dime. I don’t accept all of these offers, but when I can I do. Carlsberg, Guinness, Pyramid, and others have flown me in to see what they do. When newspapers receive offers like this, they often send a reporter, but pay for the travel themselves. That’s definitely the gold standard, but as a self-funded writer, one that’s not always possible.

This is how I handle it. When I accept a brewery junket, I am completely transparent about the arrangement to my readers. I will never present those trips as anything other than they are. But much as the case with beer samples, junkets don’t ensure positive coverage, and both Carlsberg and Pyramid may have had cause to regret adding me to their list of invitees. And I don’t accept all offers; if I sense a brewery has an expectation of positive coverage in exchange for the travel, I turn them down.

Partner Relationships

In the past few years I’ve begun to fund the work here by partnering with sponsor breweries. You can read more about them here. In brief, I solicit these relationships with breweries I admire. Much as their sponsorship is a tacit endorsement of my work, my selection of breweries is an (explicit) endorsement of their products and company. I won’t partner with a brewery I didn’t admire.

Since I also cover those breweries in the normal course of events, you deserve to know we have a financial relationship and I will always remind you of those.

If you have further questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me.