Smithwicks ad & Homebrew - "Homebrewers, we salute you"

[Bazza]

Personally I find the ad mildly amusing if a little toe-curling at the very end, but I don't find it offensive.

The slogan, however, is nonsense. They're a large business who exist for profit, as opposed proud hobbyists like most of us lot.

Still not as annoying as HH13 with its 'more hops' (more hops than what?), or 'triple hopped' (that could mean anything!) bullshit.

I like the idea of our own ad though. We have BrewCon footage and could get some footage from a competition and maybe put something together from that.

The Belfast brewers performed a brewing demo, of both ag and kit, to a modest gathering about 2 years ago. My bro took almost an hour's footage with his professional video gear, and I've been meaning ever since then to sit with him and get it edited down to a couple of minutes. I remember a lot of improvised equipment being employed at the time, so there's probably a fair amount of usable material in that, if it's of any help?

-Barry

[DEMPSEY]

Let's not beat about the bush here. There's no better than myself at having a laugh at some of the inventive antics that Homebrewers get up to in tackling this hobby,however this is the marketing arm of a very clever company that is planting and image in the public conscious, why, because they want you to buy their products.

[nigel_c]

I'm sure a lot of clubs around the country have loads of pics and clips that could be compiled into a nice add.

[helmet]

I'm sure we've all experienced the same scenario...the one where you tell someone you home brew and they automatically think it's made in a bath tub and is guaranteed to "blow the head off ye".

In my opinion, I think the term home brew will always have that connotation, that you're just a mad lad in a shed with no clue what he's doing and making 80% proof hooch.

But if you phrase it different and tell someone you make craft beer it's another conversation, they talk about a beer they've recently tried a new brewery they've heard of etc.

In my opinion the advert plays on the assumption of what a home brewer is, rather than what a modern home brewer has actually become. Not once did it show someone measuring mash PH, carbon filtering their water, temperature controlling fermentation, growing and cultivating their own hops. These are the things that make a Craft Brewer, and differentiate us from the stereotypical assumptions of a home brewer!

Craft
noun
An activity involving skill in making things by hand.
"the craft of brewing"

Spot on Aidan. I had the production lads behind the ad out at my house at the end of July. Their whole approach had a negative slant. They had minimal interest in seeing my set up, talking about beer or even anything remotely technical like making yeast starters. All they really wanted was the disaster story. Has anything ever exploded on you? Have you ever made someone sick? What do your mates make of this carry on? Are you a modern day Unabomber? That kind of thing.
The whole thing felt pretty flat to me and they clearly didn't have any interest in making an ad about people "crafting" beer, they just wanted a few You've Been Framed moments. Bah!

[Will_D]

Re. our own add:

We are not alone!

Some people have posted that this is a (mon?) subtle(!) attack on Craft Beer!

"After all craft beer is brewed by HB nerds who have gone commercial"

So when I say "we are not alone":

    We have the resource of the NHC [loads of people, loads of skills, loads of time but only  a few hundred quid]

    We have the HB shops of Ireland [4 shops also a few hundred quid, no time]

    We have the Craft Brewers of Ireland [ no time but shed loads of breweries and so maybe a few thousand quid]

Can you imagine what say O'Haras and Rye River could contribute in terms of sponsoring a video add?

Would be great to get it on telly but with SocialMejia we could reach more peeps probably

[EndRamble]

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

https://youtu.be/uYMuJDajujc

[irish_goat]

Spot on Aidan. I had the production lads behind the ad out at my house at the end of July. Their whole approach had a negative slant. They had minimal interest in seeing my set up, talking about beer or even anything remotely technical like making yeast starters. All they really wanted was the disaster story. Has anything ever exploded on you? Have you ever made someone sick? What do your mates make of this carry on? Are you a modern day Unabomber? That kind of thing.
The whole thing felt pretty flat to me and they clearly didn't have any interest in making an ad about people "crafting" beer, they just wanted a few You've Been Framed moments. Bah!

That's disappointing. I'll bring this up with the Smithwick's people as that's not what they were telling me they were looking for at the start of this process.

[Leann ull]

Guys the NHC is an amateur organisation, in spite of the massive achievements we have made in terms of members competitions, conferences group buys meets etc etc etc if we expose ourselves to a commercial business of course they will have their own agenda and unless we are present at their meetings we have no idea as to what their real intention or marketing direction is.
I have never disguised my attitude on this forum to the Macros, I'm not pissed with them just feel that when they use us for their own intentions like this it erodes all the other really positive stuff we do.
I see this exposure for Irish homebrewing as positive as it puts us on the map, and its up to us now to show joe public that we are better than the stereotypical imagery portrayed.
Twice bitten now

[auralabuse]

That's disappointing. I'll bring this up with the Smithwick's people as that's not what they were telling me they were looking for at the start of this process.
[/quote]

Not to start an argument but in the interest of fairness, my experience with the guys was the opposite. They had a look at the set up, asked loads of questions, had a taste of the beer and had a good chat about the time and dedication involved. They mentioned some amazing set ups they had seen over the last few days. They were amazed at the money and time people put into things. Even mentioned that someone was making sausages or pudding from the spent grain. They said it tasted amazing.

[bigvalen]

Well if you look at it in its totality it shows Homebrewers as chaotic and while every Homebrewer has a fook up story,or two, most have a normal brew day and brew their beer without incident.

The film crew kept trying to setup jokes..turns out that no matter what they tried to do, reality was better. They said 'OK, can we get a shot of you opening a beer?'. One of us had one of my brews, and the AD gave me a dark mysterious bottle. "Right, open that". It was a coke, with a mentos in the top. It didn't really react that much. I grabbed one of my tripels which was WAY overcarbonated, once I realised what they were looking for. It exploded all over the place. I think there was another bit, they were filming me running some water through the pots - I disconnected some silicone hoses in the wrong order, and got covered in water. Looked hilarious, because my reaction was 100% honest.

Let's face it, homebrewers stagger from catastrophe to consternation, repeatedly. As soon as we get it right, we move onto something harder.

And yes. I'd love to do a parody Ad for some mass-market beer, with lads marvelling at how bland it was, how it's great to have a beer that tastes the exact same, 10 pints a week for 50 years, giving out about people putting flowers in beer (then being told there is a wee bit of hops in their beer too), and then giving out about barrel aging beer - 'No! 3 hours on beechwood sawdust should be good enough for anyone!".

John

[cruiscinlan]

I'd love to do a parody Ad for some mass-market beer, with lads marvelling at how bland it was, how it's great to have a beer that tastes the exact same, 10 pints a week for 50 years, giving out about people putting flowers in beer (then being told there is a wee bit of hops in their beer too), and then giving out about barrel aging beer - 'No! 3 hours on beechwood sawdust should be good enough for anyone!".

Sawdust?  Muck, nothing but the finest flavourless stainless for me!

[Slev]

Bigvalen - do you feature in the final ad?

[bigvalen]

Bigvalen - do you feature in the final ad?

Yeah...I did a demo of medieval brewing for them

[Slev]

Cool. 
Bit of craic seeing yourself on the box,  I'd say.

[Bubbles]

and the AD gave me a dark mysterious bottle. "Right, open that". It was a coke, with a mentos in the top.

Ffs.. I think that's all we need to know about about their planned approach for this advert. Portray home brewers as bumbling idiots, lurching from one brew house disaster to another. "Fair play to the home brewers, they're eejits, but sure god love them.. they're having a go...". What are their morketing people thinking of???