Craft Beer Marketing Awards - The Beer Thrillers

Allusion Brewing Wins Three Awards at the 2023 CBMAs

B. Kline — Wed, 10 May 2023 00:53:00 +0000

Allusion Brewing Company Won Three Crushies at This Year’s CBMA’s

Craft Brewers Conference 2023

The Craft Brewers Conference is going strong in Nashville, Tennessee. It will be wrapping up tomorrow night and ending with their World Beer Cup award ceremony. But today, they announced the winners of the “Crushies” or the CBMAs. (CBMA stands for Craft Beer Marketing Awards.)

Last year Allusion Brewing Company took home two awards. You can read that story here: Allusion Brewing Company Wins Two Top Awards.

This year they didn’t go home empty handed either.

Allusion Brewing Company Wins Three Crushies

Allusion Brewing Company

Allusion Brewing Company won three ‘Crushies’ (awards) at this year’s Craft Beer Marketing Awards ceremony at the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Allusion Brewing Company won:

Best Ready to Drink Cocktail
Best Tap Handle
Best Charitable Cause Partnership

Best Ready to Drink Cocktail

They won the Best Ready to Drink Cocktail – Can or Bottle Design (Brewery Produced Only) for their “Winston Wallace, the Wassail Weasel Wassail is liquor, apples, brandy, and other spices”.

Best Tap Handle

They won the Best Tap Handle for their “Halloween – themed Tap Handle, Waning Moon Blackberry Cobbler Sour Ale”.

Best Charitable Cause Partnership

They won the Best Charitable Cause Partnership (Breweries Only) for their “Special Brew Rock for Life Concert Series Provides financial support to families with children residing in Western PA”.

Congratulations to Allusion Brewing Company

The wins keep coming in for Allusion Brewing Company! They were also our “Battle of the Breweries” 2023 winner (this year’s winner).

They also won two awards at last year’s CBMA ceremony. You can read about it here: Allusion Brewing Company Wins Two Top Awards.

From last year’s article:

At the annual Craft Beer Conference (in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year), held over the past few days; Allusion Brewing Company received two awards. Both in “Craft Beer Marketing”. They won their awards for “Best Tap Handle” in the US and “Best Flight Display” in the US.

These are two big awards for the small brewery out of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. Receiving any award is always a great moment for any brewery, but being recognized at the Craft Beer Conference and winning a national award (and top place) is especially huge for the small hometown brewery.

Much like the Great American Beer Fest, the World Beer Cup, and many others – the Craft Beer Conference has their own award ceremony where they announce winners in several different categories on a whole host of things.

Their first award was for “Best Flight Display” in the US. They have a very cool flight board, which are pull out drawers from an old library’s card catalog cabinet. They use the cabinet to keep track of the flights that are out.

Their second award they have won was for “Best Tap Handle” in the US. I didn’t have a good picture of their tap handles, but found a picture of their bar background from TribLive back in 2020 (October 9th, 2020) when they were opening.

I got to stop out at Allusion Brewing Company in November of 2020 when I was taking my trip out to Indianapolis and back. It was early in the day so the place wasn’t full yet (actually I was the only person there at the time, they had just opened), but it was a really lovely building and brewery. The beers were great. And if you are ever in the outskirts of Pittsburgh you definitely should stop in.

For more information on my trip there, you can check out these articles:

The Trip to Indy – Day Two Recap: Landfall in Pittsburgh and Shenanigans (Allusion Brewing Company, Couch Brewery, Hop Farm Brewing Company)

The Trip to Indianapolis: Day Two: Rock Furnace Trail, Allusion Brewing Company, Couch Brewery, Riverview Park, Hop Farm Brewing Company, and The Meadows Casino and Racetrack.

You can find them on Google Maps here: Allusion Brewing Company.
Allusion Brewing Company Wins Two Top Awards

For More Information on Allusion Brewing Company

For more information about Allusion Brewing Company you can visit their very well designed website here: Allusion Brewing Company – Official Website.

The following comes from Untappd: Allusion Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. They have 53 unique beers and just over 4,600 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.84 (as of 5.11.23). Their Untappd description reads: Vandergrift’s hometown brewery, offering a consistent library of approachable beers taking the tradition of each style seriously. Craft beer is about bringing people together – come join our story.

For more information, you can find them at their social media pags here:

For More of our Award Articles

Looking for more articles about breweries and brewers winning awards? Check these out:

Thank You For Reading

The Craft Brewers Conference just wrapped up, which means the Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAs) and the World Beer Cup 2023 winners were just announced. Be sure to stay tuned here at The Beer Thrillers for all the updates from the Craft Brewers Conference, and the award ceremonies.

Also, we just started our Discord server. Be sure to find that here: Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server), come in and hang out with us.

Like I always say at the end of these articles — thanks for reading. We appreciate all the views and visitors! Let us know what you think of the site and the blog, and how we could improve it!

Cheers All!

-B. Kline

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Craft Beer Marketing Awards Announces Tattoo Category for Charity

B. Kline — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 03:18:47 +0000

The new CMBA’s Tattoo category – for the Michael James Jackson Foundation

The CBMAs

Craft Beer Marketing Awards

The CBMAs are a yearly award given out at the Craft Brewer’s Conference. CBMA stands for Craft Beer Marketing Awards. We’ve covered them a bit in the past here on The Beer Thrillers, as well as occasionally you’ll see ads for them pop up on our sponsored / ad spaces around the page.

This year we’ve been given press credentials so we’ll be making our way out to Nashville Tennessee to attend the conference in person. (Yay! Can’t wait!)

We covered how Allusion Brewing Company won two awards last May:

Allusion Brewing Company Wins Two Top Awards

For a quick dive into more information on “The Crushies” (the name of the CBMAs), read this quick quote and go to their website below:

Honoring the Best Beer Marketing and Design From Across The World

Welcome to the Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAS). Home of the Crushies!

The CBMAS were developed to recognize and award the very best marketing in the brewing industry across the world. Breweries, their agencies, artists, and marketing partners are invited to enter their top work. The 2023 CBMAS include categories that recognize all aspects of beer–related marketing. Will you take home Crushie?

Check out 2022 Crushie Award Winners here.
Craft Beer Marketing Awards.com

The Tattoo Category

The new tattoo category at the CBMAs

In a direct press release sent to me by Chris Collora you can read the following on the new tattoo category:

Melville, NY — In the spirit of giving, the Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAS) has announced that 100% of all proceeds of its new category – “Best Beer/Brewing-related Tattoo” – will be donated to The Michael James Jackson Foundation (MJF), an organization that funds scholarship awards to black, indigenous, and people of color within the brewing and distilling trades for a more just, equitable, and dynamic future.

“We are helping literally change the face of American brewing,” said Garrett Oliver, Founder/Chair, MJF and Brewmaster, The Brooklyn Brewery. “We sent more people of color to Siebel Institute of Technology last year, than had attended the entire previous decade. The MJF is all about genuine and lasting change.”

The decision to create the category is because of the popularity of tattoos in the beer industry.

“Tattoos are empowering, they look awesome, and they just make life cooler.” said Jim McCune, CBMAS Co-Founder. “Tattoos and craft beer are synonymous. The CBMAS brand is covered in ink – from our judges to our graphics, and Crushie trophy!”

The fourth annual CBMAS Awards Competition is now accepting beer-related marketing and design entries from around the globe (including hard seltzer, cider, mead, and RTD cocktails). The deadline for entries is January 27, 2023. Breweries, agencies, artists, and marketing partners are all invited to enter their best work.

Additions this year include new categories, a redesigned Crushie award trophy, and plans for an in-person awards ceremony during the week of the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville, TN.

The CBMAs is the first worldwide awards program that focuses on excellence in the artistic and creative marketing and packaging efforts of breweries, designers, and agencies. It has become the industry’s expert voice and hosts a marketing podcast – Marketing on Tap – sponsored by EGC Group.

Houston-based Hillebrand Bev Pros returns as the presenting sponsor for the fourth year in a row. New sponsors this year include: WA-based Yakima Chief Hops, NY-based DWS Printing, AL-based Steel City Taps, and VA-based BarTrack.

“As presenting sponsor over the years, we’ve seen the amazing work delivered from breweries and marketing professionals across the globe. We’re even more convinced now of the incredible impact that great marketing has on our industry,” said Prabh Hans, VP Domestic Services, Hillebrand North America.

“Full Pour is proud to partner with the CBMA’s for the 2023 awards season,” said Bryant Vander Weerd, Founder/Creative Director, Full Pour Media. “The work they’re doing to recognize marketing campaigns and creative work in the industry is admirable and we’re happy to support such a great organization. Cheers!”
Craft Beer Marketing Awards.com

Michael James Jackson Foundation

The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling

The Michael James Jackson Foundation is a grant-making organization that funds scholarship awards to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color within the brewing and distilling trades. The program is open to candidates at the beginning of their careers, as well as those looking to continue their education. The MJF awards present an opportunity for members and patrons of the brewing and distilling industries to directly fund a more just, equitable, and dynamic future.

The Michael James Jackson Foundation

Michael James Jackson (1942-2007) was the world’s greatest beer and whisky writer. His books have sold more than 3 million copies in 18 languages and helped launch the craft beer movement in the United States and worldwide. His conception of a taxonomy of beer styles serves as the framework for understanding the complexity of modern beer. Largely separate from his “beer family”, Michael had his equally beloved “whisky family” and wrote about the subject with the same erudition, humanity, and passion which he brought to the subject of beer. While not a person of color himself, Michael can only be described as actively and profoundly anti-racist. We are proud to name this foundation after the 20th century’s greatest champion of grain-based beverages.
The Michael James Jackson Foundation

Michael Jackson (the writer) books line my bookshelves and are an inspiration when I write here for the blog, so having a category in his honor with money going to the charity in his name is perfect for an awards ceremony based around marketing and writing and such and perfect for the Craft Brewers Conference.

For More Information

For more information be sure to check out the following links:

Other Awards

To see our articles about other awards and breweries who have won awards, check out the following articles:

Thanks For Reading

As always, thank you everyone for reading the blog. Chris Collora has messaged me a few times about doing press release articles for the CBMAs – Craft Beer Marketing Awards – and I am happy to oblige (though a bit slowly). I have received my press credentials for the Craft Brewers Conference and this year I am planning on attending it in Nashville Tennessee. Personally I cannot wait as it looks to be a complete blast.

I recently finished “The Little Book of Craft Beer” by Melissa Cole (click the link to read the review), and soon will be (hopefully tomorrow) finishing “Drunks” by Christopher M. Finan; look for a review of that shortly.

I am working on getting the problems with WordPress corrected, and also working on getting the site to look better overall and do an overhaul of the site. One of the biggest things I want to do is have pull – down menus that will be able to take you to the different parts of the site. Especially as we are looking to start doing more and more videos and podcasts. So be on the lookout for all these changes and new additions to the blog.

Once again, thank you all for reading.

Cheers!