The BA Forum is a moderated discussion board for BA Members, which includes a daily email digest recapping posts from the last 24 hours. Members use this Forum as a networking tool, suggesting solutions to issues, posting comments or replies to others’ inquiries, etc.
The Brewers Association Forum is a place for association members to discuss topics with members of the professional brewing community. The focus is wide-ranging within the boundaries of professional brewers’ interest: technical brewing; brewery operations; business planning; selling and promoting beer and/or beer businesses, wholesale distribution, alcohol and regulatory issues, and more.
Brewers Association Forum Instructions and Rules
Forum Instructions
The BA Forum is divided into separate discussion boards, such as: Brewery Operations and Safety. After clicking on a discussion board, members can enter their question or discussion point via the “Start A Topic” button. Any member can reply to an existing topic by clicking the “Reply” button. New topics and responses are posted immediately on the online Forum and will subsequently circulate in the BA Forum email digest, which recaps posts from the previous day.
If you wish to keep up to date on a specific Topic or an entire Discussion Board, you can click the subscribe icon in the upper left section of the page. Note that doing so will trigger an email to you every time a new post is added to the subscribed topic or discussion board. You may also mark a topic to reference later by clicking the “Favorite” icon in the upper left section of the page. You may access and manage both your “Subscription” and “Favorites” in the tool bar on the right side of the BA Forum. This tool bar also allows you to access and edit your user profile, which can be seen by other members in the BA Forum.
Forum Rules
- No posting of press releases or otherwise blatant marketing of your company, products, and/or services. Supplier members are encouraged to contribute their technical expertise to existing discussions on the BA Forum. Product recommendations should be refrained from unless they pertain to the conversation or are specifically requested. Any unsolicited advertisements, press releases about products/services, or attempts to collect contact information from other members will be removed from the Forum. Supplier Members may post goods/services in the ‘Supplier’ discussion board. If you would like to publish specific product information, press releases or new product availability, please contact the Brewers Association advertising department for information regarding advertising opportunities on the Brewers Association website. Please contact advertising@brewersassociation.org for more information.
- Keep posts relevant and directly contributive to discussion. Posts that lack actual content, are intended for name/brand recognition, and/or do not contribute substance to a thread may be removed at the moderator’s discretion. This includes unsolicited ads, “hi-jacking” threads with self-
- No maligning, disparaging, or “flaming” of any other brewer, supplier, or other industry participant. Posts that refer directly to companies in a disparaging or negative manner will be removed. Please keep discussions civil, professional, and informative.
- Please keep comments relevant to the world of professional brewing. The Forum is an active and archived resource
sfor members to ask questions, provide answers, and search for information. Please save non-industry banter for other outlets. Please post content in-text instead of linked as often as possible. - Opening and closing announcements of breweries are encouraged. Posting this kind of information keeps everyone informed about changes in the brewing community. All contact information may be used when announcing an opening or closing.
- Event Posting Guidelines: Brewers Association Members may post to the forum up to two times regarding a special event they are hosting. If the event is happening prior to or concurrent with a Brewers Association event (Great American Beer Festival®, Craft Brewers Conference®, World Beer Cup®, etc.), the event may be posted up to three times before the start of the Event. Sponsors of a Brewers Association Events may have special conditions regarding posting their events if such language is included in their sponsorship agreement with the Brewers Association.
- Education for Fee: Advertising a product or service, such as education that costs the user a fee, is not allowed. We make exceptions for special events only where the following apply:
1. The organizers are not a school but offer a seminar for a cost.
2. The cost being charged is only to cover expense, not to make a profit.
3. The organizers are marketing a product, but this is not the business they are in.
4. This is a “special event” that the organizers are hosting, but it is not aligned with a Brewers Association major event (Great American Beer Festival, Craft Brewers Conference, World Beer Cup, etc.). - Brewers are encouraged to post notices of used equipment/ingredients available or sought after as well as current job openings. We strongly encourage you to use the Forum’s special Equipment for Sale/Needed, Ingredients, and Jobs discussion boards. Posters are encouraged to provide contact method and information so that readers may contact the seller/hirer directly. If a seller does not list contact information, any price inquiries should include contact information, as prices may not be posted directly in the Forum.
- Submissions to the BA Forum may only be made by Brewers Association members. Please refrain from forwarding the BA Forum to non-members as this devalues everyone’s membership. Please encourage non-members to contact the Brewers Association Membership team at membership@brewersassociation.org for details on how to join the Brewers Association and access all the benefits available to members. Regarding posting restrictions, a company membership is required to conduct any business or collect information for the benefit of any organization. Operating in multiple membership classes requires memberships in each of those classes for the purposes of conducting business.
Individual Brewers Association members may not post on behalf of a business they are representing or planning. If you would like to upgrade your membership to gain these posting privileges, please contact membership@brewersassociation.org. - Pricing: We are legally prohibited from publishing any material about pricing that could be seen as “guidance” or “signaling” to any brewer or Supplier member. We are allowed to discuss pricing only in aggregated industry information. For example, it is acceptable to reference aggregated data from the Brewery Operations Benchmarking Survey. Trade associations can work on certain items that individuals cannot. Trade associations can perform collective functions like salary surveys and cost of goods sold data in an aggregated format. We cannot participate in promoting or hosting activity that may violate anti-trust and/or competition laws or is otherwise illegal.
- Solicitation and Fundraising: The Forum is an appropriate place to discuss fundraising strategies and methods of generating capital to start or grow a business. However, businesses are not permitted to fundraise, solicit contributions, or link to crowdfunding campaigns within the Forum.
- The Brewers Association Forum, while limited to members, is policed by the users. If you see a post that violates any of the protocols, please contact the moderator@brewersassociation.org. The post will be quarantined until Brewers Association staff reviews to see if these Terms or a protocol is violated or not.
- The Brewers Association Forum is a private forum and can only be viewed by current members of the Brewers Association. Despite the ability to share posts on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the posts shared are only viewable to those who are logged in as members to the Forum.
- By using the BA Forum and without limiting any other remedies, your breach of any of the representations above may constitute a violation of our Code of Conduct found at BrewersAssociation.org/brewers-association-code-of-conduct. You also agree to be bound by the Brewers Association Marketing and Advertising Code, which are incorporated into these Terms of Use and found on BrewersAssociation.org/brewers-association-advertising-marketing-code.
Forum FAQ
How do I search for a topic or post?
You can use the “Search Forum” tool at the top of the forum homepage to enter a search query for the entire online forum. Note: This will exclude the Jobs discussion board. To search within a single discussion board, click that discussion board and use the Search tool at the top of the page.
I am getting too many results in my search and cannot find what I’m looking for.
Try adding more detail to your search queries in order to narrow down the results. For example, common terms like “hops” will yields tons of results. So adding a qualifier like “galaxy hops” or “dry hopping” will yield more specific results.
How do I respond directly to a specific post or reply within a topic?
Just click the “Quote” icon on the post you would like to address, and that post will automatically be quoted in your response. This will ensure that your post has the appropriate context, and other viewers will see that you are addressing a specific comment.
Note: To reduce clutter in forum threads and the forum email, we’ve created a “cheers” button to acknowledge posts or responses you’ve found useful. This is a shorthand way to say “thanks” without creating another post just for that.
How do I list an item I would like to sell in the forum?
Breweries may post equipment, kegs, ingredients, etc. for sale in the appropriate discussion board – “Ingredients” or “Equipment For Sale/Needed”. Pricing information is not permitted in forum posts. So, be sure to include your contact information so interested buyers can connect with you for details and price info.
Suppliers may post products and services they offer in the “Supplier” discussion board.
What are “Cheers” for on the discussion board?
Clicking the “Cheers” on a post indicates that you are thanking the poster for their contribution and/or like their post. Post that have received “cheers” from other users will say so within the post, including the number of times they have been cheers-ed. This is a quick way to say “cheers” or “thanks” and it keeps the topics looking clean and un-cluttered.
Can I post on behalf of another person?
All BA members are encouraged to post as themselves, in order to provide clarity and transparency in the forum. Posting on behalf of other companies or non-members is not permitted. If you are a member company and your staff shares a login, please note that your membership covers ALL employees. Your company administrator can invite other staff to join the membership and create their own login credentials via email. Please contact info@brewersassociation.org or moderator@brewersassociation.org if you have any questions about this!
How do I find out what’s new in the forum?
The forum home page will list the most recently created topics across all discussion boards by default. Additionally, there are quick links available in the toolbar below your profile on the right.
I’m receiving email notifications for every post from a discussion board or topic. How do I manage this?
Just go directly to that post or the specific discussion board and click the “Unsubscribe” button in the upper left.
I’d like to post something in the forum, but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate or allowed.
If you’ve read the forum rules and don’t feel confident about whether or not you can post something, feel free to email the proposed post to moderator@brewersassociation.org.
Helpful Links
- Contact Moderator at moderator@brewersassociation.org
- Forum Subscription Requests
- Forum Sponsorship Information
Please post your Forum submission on our online Forum.
All content on the Brewers Association Forum is considered intellectual property of the Brewers Association. No person may reprint or distribute this information without written consent from the Brewers Association.
Brewers Association Forum Terms of Use
AGREEMENT TO TERMS
These Terms of Use constitute a legally binding agreement made between you, whether personally or on behalf of an entity (“you”) and the Brewers Association (“Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), concerning your access and use of Brewers Association Forum (“BA Forum” or “Forum”).
You agree that by accessing the BA Forum, you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use, including our Privacy Policy at BrewersAssociation.org/privacy-policy.
Supplemental terms and conditions or documents that may be posted on the Forum or on our website, BrewersAssociation.org, from time to time are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to make changes or modifications to these Terms of Use at any time and for any reason. From time to time, we may modify or change this policy. We will update the date of this policy at such a time, so please check back from time to time to review any changes or updates we may make. Any price changes or material changes to your membership will take effect following notice to you.
USER REPRESENTATIONS
By using the Forum, you represent and warrant that: (1) you are of legal drinking age; (2) all registration information you submit will be true, accurate, current, and complete; (3) you will maintain the accuracy of such information and promptly update such information as necessary; (4) you have the legal capacity and you agree to comply with these Terms of Use; (5) you are legally allowed to use the Forum; (6) you will not access the Forum through automated or non-human means, whether through a bot, script or otherwise; (7) you will not use the Forum for any illegal or unauthorized purpose; and (8) your use of the Forum will not violate any applicable law or regulation. Without limiting any other remedies, your breach of any of the representations above may constitute a violation of the Brewers Association Code of Conduct.
If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current, or incomplete, we have the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Forum (or any portion thereof).
If we terminate or suspend your account for any reason, you are prohibited from registering and creating a new account under your name, a fake or borrowed name, or the name of any third party, even if you may be acting on behalf of the third party. In addition to terminating or suspending your account, we reserve the right to take appropriate legal action, including without limitation pursuing civil, criminal, and injunctive redress.
MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS AND ACCESS
An active Brewers Association membership is required to access and post on the BA Forum. Employees must be listed on their company’s membership roster. Individual members have the ability to read and post but require a company membership to perform commercial activities on the BA Forum. Supplier members cannot post advertisements for goods or services but can respond to Brewery members post where appropriate. Businesses with multiple ‘branches’ that constitute different membership types must adhere to the rules of the membership type they are interacting on behalf of. (i.e. A supplier member with a licensed brewery may not use the brewery membership to solicit the sales of the services/equipment sold in their supplier branch.)
MODERATORS
All users must follow instructions from Forum moderators. Forum moderators reserve the right to move, delete or edit posts at the moderator’s discretion without notifying the posters. Moderators reserve the right to remove posts from the email BA Forum digest if the moderator deems that such posts don’t bring value to members or violate any of these Terms. Removing posts is a manual process. Forum moderators may not be able to remove or edit messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.
LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY
Information on the Forum is for informational purposes only, and shall not be viewed as legal, accounting, or other professional advice, nor as substitutes for such advice. You shall use information found on the Forum at your own risk and you recognize and agree that we shall incur no liability of any kind arising from or relating to your use of or reliance on information provided on the Forum.
PRIVACY
We care about data privacy and security. By using the Forum, you agree to be bound by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms of Use. For more information, please visit BrewersAssociation.org/privacy-policy . Further, we do not knowingly accept, request, or solicit information from anyone under the age of 21 or knowingly market to anyone under the age of 21.
CONTACT US
For questions regarding the Brewers Association Forum, please contact: info@brewersassociation.org.
Effective date: March 18, 2024
Resource Hub