How to Approach Beer Competitions like GABF, Brewers Cup and More! Speakers: Blake Masoner, Craft Coast - Joaquin Quiroz Jr., QUAFF - Neva Parker, White Labs Submitting beer to a competition isn’t just about chasing medals—it’s a strategic process that can elevate your brewery’s reputation, sharpen your brewing skills, and drive internal team alignment. From recipe design to packaging choices, understanding what makes a beer competition-ready—and where it fits among style guidelines—is crucial.
This panel brings together award-winning brewers and seasoned beer judges to demystify the competition circuit. Panelists will share their approaches to style selection, category strategy, and what they wish they knew before entering their first GABF or World Beer Cup. Whether you're looking to improve your odds or just want to understand how judging works behind the scenes, this conversation will offer valuable perspective.
Key Takeaways:
How to evaluate your beers and determine which are competition-ready.
Deciding what style category to enter—why it matters and how to get it right.
Insights into how judges assess entries and common pitfalls to avoid.
Tips for packaging and shipping beer to maintain quality.
What winning (or not winning) means for your brewery, both internally and externally.
Stories and lessons from brewers who’ve brought home medals.
Only Great Ideas in the (Capitol) Building Speaker: Kelsey McQuaid-Craig, California Craft Brewers Association
The 2025 Legislative Session has included negotiations over distributor rights, defeating private right of action relating to storm water runoff, ADA right to cure expansion, and defending PAGA reforms that were passed last year. Hear an overview of key legislation going through the California Legislature, what the California Craft Brewers Association is advocating on, and what breweries can do to engage in the process.
You might want to stay out of politics as a business, but politics doesn’t stay out of the way you do your business. Find out what issues are brewing in the State Capitol that could impact your brewery in the future. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1:30 - 2:30 PM
Brewed for Compliance: Don't Let an Audit Sour Your Batch Speakers: Candace Moon, The Craft Beer Attorney
This seminar will provide brewers with a clear understanding of the TTB audit process, including what may prompt an audit, how to prepare in advance, and how to respond effectively. Attendees will learn best practices for recordkeeping, reporting, and communication with TTB investigators. We'll also review common compliance issues and strategies for minimizing risk. Participants will leave with actionable steps to strengthen their internal controls and maintain audit readiness.
Whether you handle your compliance in-house or outsource parts of it, this session will give you practical tools to stay audit-ready and confident. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Rethinking Tasting Programs: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Next? Speakers: Lindsay Barr, Draught Lab Sensory programs often fall short due to unnecessary complexity and a lack of clear goals. A lean sensory approach, using simple techniques, helps teams collect and apply tasting data more effectively. After partnering with hundreds of breweries over the past decade we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. In this talk, we’ll share practical insights, common pitfalls, and real-world examples to help you build a sensory program that sticks.
Discover how running a simple tasting program can lead to clearer insights, easier decisions, and better beer." Headshot attached. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Winning in Distribution Speakers: Derek Smith, Brewery Consulting Manager, Small Batch Standard Most breweries face challenges when it comes to succeeding in distribution. From understanding how the numbers impact the business as a whole to managing distributor relationships, running a sales team, and coordinating logistics, distribution is no easy feat. In this rigged game, wins can happen, though they often feel fleeting. Some breweries distribute out of necessity, while others seek the validation of seeing their beer on store shelves. Whatever your motivation, there are a few essential concepts you must embrace to find success in distribution. In this session, we’ll share these key concepts along with benchmarks to help you unlock the path to distribution success.
Learning Objectives: 1. Common pitfalls we see in distribution. 2. Step 1: Which benchmarks matter in distribution. 3. Step 2: Understanding your margins in distribution. 4. Step 3: How to accurately evaluate your portfolio performance. 5. A Winning formula for distribution We have worked with 100+ breweries over the last decade as the craft landscape shifted from a “Big Bang” moment to what we call “The Plateau” and now “The Reckoning.” But more specifically, our daily work is in an effort to understand the reasoning behind the numbers we are seeing and share with brewery owners individualized recommendations to, as our mission states, help craft breweries grow profit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beyond the Brewery Walls: Using Local Market Data to Drive Smarter Sales & Marketing Decisions Speakers: Jeremy Carney, Central Coast Analytics
In a highly competitive beer market like San Diego, breweries need to look beyond their own data to find opportunities. That means understanding:
Where target customers are located – Identifying high-potential neighborhoods based on demographics, income trends, and population shifts. The competitive landscape – Spotting where breweries, bars, and retailers are concentrated or underserved. Where to target on/off-premise accounts – Focusing distribution on the right bars, restaurants, and retail locations to maximize sales.
Attendees will receive access to BrewMap Insights an interactive tool that visualizes key market data to help breweries make data-driven decisions.
With these insights, breweries can refine their marketing content, product strategy, and taproom experience to reach the right people in the right places.
The best breweries don’t just react to the market—they use data to stay ahead of it.
