This article was originally published in the March/April 2026 issue of The New Brewer.

By Eeva Redmond

Elder Piper Beer & Cider, named for one of my husband’s ancestors, is located in the rural northern Michigan town of Petoskey, where I grew up. The brand is rooted in our personal history. The beers and ciders we make reflect the places we have called home and the two decades we spent learning our craft at breweries all over the country.

When we opened Elder Piper in 2024, I had visions of using my background in brewery marketing and communications to write blog posts and fill YouTube channels with long-form stories about our beers, ciders, and the people behind our brand. However, as many brewery owners know, there is so much more than marketing involved in operating a small brewery.

I need to be efficient and squeeze every ounce of productivity out of my days to keep our new business moving forward. When it comes to marketing, I will admit that I was intrigued by the webinars and articles on how generative AI (dubbed “gen AI,” a type of AI that can create new content and solve problems when prompted) could do my marketing busy work and make my storytelling process more efficient.

I watched webinars and experimented with large-language-model formats such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Over the last two years, I’ve also tried AI-powered integrations with browsers and with Adobe Creative Suite programs. While none of these tools has been a game changer for my productivity and efficiency, I continue to use AI tools in my brewery marketing to gain perspective and hone my messaging.

Uses for Generative AI

A Deloitte survey from September 2025 found that 53% of consumers are now either experimenting with gen AI or are using it regularly. Additionally, 47% of consumers use AI for product recommendations, according to a recent Adobe survey cited in Forbes.

Beer drinkers are using AI to choose which brewery to visit and what beer to buy. The practice is changing the way brewery communications professionals such as Kevin York of Kevin York Communications work to help breweries get their message out, too.

“Consumers are turning to these tools for recommendations, sometimes even before asking friends, using prompts like ‘what breweries should I visit in Chicago?’ or ‘What are the best hazy IPAs in Virginia?'” York said. “That shift changes how breweries can effectively reach new audiences and should factor into decisions around awareness, visibility, and traffic.”

Recently, I was in a new city to deliver kegs and wanted to know where to go for lunch. I typed “best lunch spots” into my search engine. An AI summary of the search results at the top of my screen showed the best options in an easy-to-read bullet-point list. I didn’t scroll further down the screen to the actual search results — I made my selection from the AI-generated recommendations and had a nice lunch.

I also use gen AI for creative ideas. We name our beers after native plants and local landscape features. I use Google Gemini to brainstorm with queries such as “Make me a list of 25 possible names for new beers that fit in with our brand” or “Act as a marketing expert and create a list of 25 names for a brewery yoga class.” I use ChatGPT to validate that our messaging is reaching area visitors with queries such as, “best brewery to visit in Petoskey.” The results tell me how well my message is getting out there and where I have opportunities to tell our story.

AI Prompts To Get You Started
To learn more about the way AI depicts your brewery, type your brewery name into a generative AI chatbot such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini and ask questions about your brand, such as:
• How would you describe this brewery?
• What makes this brewery different from others near it?
• Who is this brewery for?
• Which are the best breweries in the area for visitors?

The Importance of PR & Media

While social media remains an excellent way to nurture the community around our brewery, it is not the primary source for AI models to gather information. Generative AI models primarily pull data from information that is freely and openly accessible on the internet such as news articles, review sites, forums, journals, and brewery websites.

“This means PR and media relations have taken on a new level of importance,” emphasized York. “Coverage is no longer just something that reaches readers in the moment; it becomes part of the long-term data layer AI uses to answer consumer questions. In many cases, it’s the most reliable way to influence what these tools say about your brewery.”

Breweries will often need to do the groundwork to steer this coverage in the right direction.

“The breweries that will benefit most from AI-driven discovery aren’t chasing shortcuts,” York believes. “They’re doing the foundational work: telling their story well, earning credible coverage, and consistently showing up in trusted outlets.”

An article referencing our brand in an online or print publication not only helps get the word out, it also boosts our search engine optimization (SEO) score, as it is a credible third-party source referencing our brewery. AI tools bring a new layer of value to these media hits through generative engine optimization (GEO). GEO focuses less on keywords than SEO and more on credible, authoritative long-form content that can be quoted directly by AI-generated responses to queries. This includes long-form text in an article that features your brand.

Making Connections

Where do these media hits come from, and how can breweries get started making these connections?

Grace Lee-Weitz, senior content editor for Hop Culture magazine and Untappd, offers a beer media perspective on how breweries can work with publications to tell their stories in this age of AI. First, she commented that Hop Culture is not really using AI tools at the magazine beyond a few headline brainstorms. “There’s only so much AI can do,” she noted. “It can’t replace original reporting. You can’t replace a conversation that you have with someone. I like that human imprint.”

Going beyond social media to publications such as magazines and newspapers can help seed that online content. “I think publications have more of a chance to tell your story,” said Lee-Weitz. “Print journalism is a bit overlooked. We have, for the last decade, saturated social media. We started to use that as the end-all, be-all of getting your story out there.”

That, however, is no longer the case. “I like to think the 90s are back, baby! Print journalism still has a place to tell your story in a way that an ever-changing social media algorithm just can’t.”

Pitching your brewery’s stories in the current digital landscape can be daunting, but Lee-Weitz said the process shouldn’t be intimidating. She receives 15 to 20 pitches a day, and the story ideas that get her attention are the ones that have a human touch. “The best way [to pitch] has that human element of connection,” she explained. “Even if it’s just a two-sentence, personal connection to us, that is way more impactful than a one-pager from a PR firm.”

The story ideas also need to have a why. “The stories that really catch my attention are the ones that have a specific hook. And you kind of have to ask yourself, why would you want someone to read this?” said Lee-Weitz.

Getting your story out there requires legs. “AI is a guide,” said Lee-Weitz. “It’s like a legend on a map. You still have to get out there and walk it for yourself.”

The Human Touch

One of my big takeaways from talking with York and Lee-Weitz about AI is how much more valuable those moments of personal connection have become to all of us. As a brewery owner and marketer, I am trying to share those moments that spark curiosity for the beers and ciders we make with a lot of love and human effort up in northern Michigan.

I thought I was going to increase my productivity and efficiency by off-loading marketing work onto chatbots. I found that AI tools give me a new perspective that helps refine my messages and source new opportunities to connect with people who might care about our beers and ciders. Those tools do not do any of that work for me.

Craft beer has never been about efficiency or productivity — it’s about process and quality and care. If you’re planning to add AI tools to your communications kit, keep the humans at the heart of the stories you tell.

Eeva Redmond is the co-founder and creative director at Elder Piper Beer & Cider in Petoskey, Mich. She is a Certified Cicerone, beer competition judge, and communications consultant with over 15 years of experience working in marketing, sales, and communications for breweries including Sierra Nevada and Highland Brewing Company.