Panama Gets Its First Micro Brew Fest

Craft beer and homebrewing are far from strictly American phenomena. The contagion has spread south and it can't be stopped.

On March 2nd, Funky Brewster and N Producciones will present the first ever Panama Micro Brew Fest in Panama City, Panama. The event will feature craft beer from local producers and heavy hitters from abroad.

Breweries slated for festival include:

• Rogue Ales (Oregon, USA)
• BrewDog (Scotland)
• La Rana Dorada (Panama)
• Istmo Brew Pub (Panama)
• Casa Bruja (Panama)
• La Legítima (Panama)

Check back after the fest for an exclusive review from a local blogger!

Win Tickets to the Atlanta Beer, Bourbon, & BBQ Festival!

The Local Beer Blog is teaming up with Drink, Eat, Relax and the Trigger Agency to give away two tickets the Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival March 2nd in Atlanta, GA. The contest will run 48 hours only from 12pm EST on February 12th to 12pm EST February 14th. All you have to do to enter the drawing is retweet the message I send out tomorrow at noon. Follow me on Twitter so you don't miss it! On February 14th I will draw a random entry and announce the winner. 


[UPDATE - 2/14: We have a winner! Jamal Tolson of Manassas Park, VA, you're going to the Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Fest! Thanks to everyone who participated! Cheers!]

Top #Beer Hashtags on Twitter

I was reluctant at first, but Twitter has become my go-to social media platform. (If you haven't yet, follow me now.) Unlike some other social media sites, posts made on Twitter (aka "tweets") are immediately live for all your followers. There's no need to build up likes and comments in the hopes that people who already follow you might see your post in their news feed. The downside is that after a tweet is made, it falls further and further down the update list as more and more tweets come in.

Herein lies the real power of Twitter: the hashtag. A hashtag is a keyword preceded by the # symbol that can be used to categorize a tweet and make it easier to find. By clicking on a hashtag in Twitter, someone can immediately search for all the other tweets out there tagged with the same keyword. For example, if you want to keep up to date on a particular subject (like beer), you can use a social media management tool such as TweetDeck or HootSuite to monitor that hashtag. Or, if you're a blogger like me, sharing your post on Twitter with the appropriate hashtag makes it infinitely easier for people to find your content.

The hashtag has become such an important part of social media marketing that hashtags are now part of all the major social media channels: Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Vine, to name a few. 

So, what are some of the most commonly used hashtags used in the craft beer community? I'm glad you asked:

First Taste with Burial Beer Co.

Set to open this spring, Burial Beer Co. will be one of several businesses sure to revitalize Asheville's South Slope neighborhood and convert the somewhat defunct, semi-industrial part of town into Asheville's new beer district. Burial Beer Co. will be within walking distance of Green Man Brewery and Asheville Brewing Company, and soon, Twin Leaf Brewery and a number of new restaurants will join them nearby.

I recently sat down with the three owners of Burial Beer Co. to talk about their plans. There's something about looking into the eyes of young entrepreneurs as they share their dreams with you -- you can't help but take part in their excitement.