The Hoosier Beer Geek 2010 End of Year Readers Survey: RESULTS! (part 2)

This is part two (of three) of our year-end survey results. To see the first part, click here.

Which of the following is your favorite Indiana Brewpub?

Broad Ripple Brewpub - Indianapolis 20%
Brugge Beer and Brasserie - Indianapolis 20%
Three Floyds Brewing Company - Munster 18%
Upland Brewing Company - Bloomington 8%
Barley Island Broad Ripple - Indianapolis 4%
Oaken Barrel Brewing Co. - Greenwood 4%
Bloomington Brewing Company - Bloomington 3%
Black Swan Brewpub - Plainfield 3%
Bank Street Brewery (New Albanian) - New Albany 2%
Lafayette Brewing Company - Lafayette 2%
Rich O's Public House (New Albanian) - New Albany 2%
Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery - College Park 2%
Shoreline Brewery and Restaurant - Michigan City 2%
Barley Island Brewing Company - Noblesville 1%
Big Woods Brewing Company - Nashville 1%
BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse - Greenwood 1%
Half Moon Restaurant & Brewery - Kokomo 1%
Mad Anthony Brewing Company - Fort Wayne 1%
Mad Anthony Brewing Company - Warsaw 1%
Ram Restaurant & Brewery - Fishers 1%
Ram Restaurant & Brewery - Indianapolis 1%
Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery - Downtown Indianapolis 1%

We've got another tie, and this one seems a bit like "the pupil becomes the master", as Brugge Brasserie and Broad Ripple Brewpub each received 20% of the vote. Stay tuned for our first ever live feed arm wrestling match, featuring Ted Miller and John Hill. Coming in third was Three Floyds, who, despite being all the way up there in Munster, casts a large shadow over the rest of the state.

What I like best about this category is that the votes are all over the place, thus proving (again) that we've got plenty of good options, and that in many cases, the best brewpub is the one you consider home.

2009
Brugge Brasserie 29.41%
Broad Ripple Brewpub 14.29%
Three Floyds Brewpub 11.76%

2008
Brugge Brasserie 32.0%
Broad Ripple Brewpub 13.4%
Three Floyds 9.3%

What was your favorite craft beer event of 2010?

Brewers of Indiana Guild Microbrewers Festival 26%
Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest 18%
Dark Lord Day 2010 13%
HBG4 - The Hoosier Beer Geek Fourth Anniversary Roundtable at Sun King 6%
Phoenix Theater's Brew-Ha-Ha 4%
Hoosier Beer Geek's Tailgate for Nothing 2%
Hoosier Beer Geek's Bus to Gravity Head 2%
Lafayette Brewing Company's Winter Warmer 2%
Upland's RadFest 2%
Big Red Liquors Summer Festival 1%
Keg Liquors Fest of Ale 1%

Although it would have been great to see that the Hoosier Beer Geek branded events had come in first, second, and third, we'll instead have to settle for the fact that events we're directly involved in organizing - BIG Microbrewers Festival (26%) and Winterfest (18%) - came in first and second. Coming in third was Dark Lord Day with 13% of the vote.

I'd be interested to see how many people that voted for the top 3 also attended HBG4.

2009
Brewers of Indiana Guild Microbrewers Festival 33.64%
Dark Lord Day 2009 18.69%
Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest 9.35%
HBG3 - The Hoosier Beer Geek Third Anniversary Roundtable at Sun King came 8.41%

This was a new category in 2009, so there is no 2008 data.

Which new Indiana brewery are you most excited about?

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. - Indianapolis 20%
Bier Brewery and Taproom - Indianapolis 19%
Triton Brewing Company - Indianapolis 16%
Flat 12 Bierworks - Indianapolis 13%
Black Swan Brewpub - Plainfield 12%
Three Pints Brewpub - Plainfield 3%
Brownfield Brewing Company - Indianapolis 2%
Blue Republic - Location TBA 1%

This was sort of a strange category in that some of the new breweries have opened already - but in any case it seems the Thr3e Wise Men (opening next week) has garnered the most attention with 20% of the vote. Coming in second was Bier with 19%, and Triton came in third with 16% of the vote.

Which of these sister-state breweries (with beer in Indiana) is producing your favorite beer lineup?

Founders - Michigan 35%
Bell's - Michigan 32%
Goose Island - Illinois 9%
Jolly Pumpkin - Michigan 6%
Two Brothers - Illinois 6%
Dark Horse - Michigan 3%
New Holland - Michigan 3%
Bluegrass Brewing Company - Kentucky 1%
Thirsty Dog - Ohio 1%

2010 marks the year that Founders (35%) finally caught Bell's (32%) and became the people's choice as favorite sister state brewery. Goose Island reclaimed third this year with 9% of the vote.

2009
Bell's 46.28%
Founders 30.58%
Jolly Pumpkin 7.44%

2008
Bell's 39.2%
Founders 33.0%
Goose Island 7.2%

Which of the following has been your favorite Indiana craft beer development of 2010?

Better distribution of better Indiana beer 24%
Sun King beer in cans 23%
Craft Beer Sunday Carryout 22%
Tomlinson Tap Room Opening 16%
Plainfield's Brewpub Explosion (Black Swan and Three Pints) 4%
Bier Brewery Opening 3%
Election Day Drinking 2%

In this category we all win, as any development is good development. But better distribution of Indiana beer received the most votes (24%), followed closely by Sun King cans (23%) and Sunday craft beer carryout (22%).

2009
The opening of Sun King 50.85%
Further influx of craft beer in Indiana bars and restaurants
Availability of more out of state beer in Indiana

I've lost some of this data.

The final question will be in the final installment of this series tomorrow.

The Hoosier Beer Geek 2010 End of Year Readers Survey: RESULTS!

Here we are in year five of this HBG adventure, and there's nothing more obvious to me than the fact that it's getting better all the time.

For part one of the 2010 year-end readers survey results, I thought it might interesting to compare this year to the previous two. Last year we had pretty graphs; this year we switched our survey software and the graphs didn't come together very well. Oh well.

Demographics

This year's average reader age was 34.04, and we've grown our female readership to 14% from last year's 12.5%. 94% of our readers are Indiana residents, followed by Illinois (4%), with readers from Arizona, DC, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Missouri also weighing in.

2009
Average Age: 34.30, 12.5% female
Indiana 91.8%, Illinois 2.46%, Missouri 1.64%
2008
Average Age: 33.29, 19% female

This year we also kept track of education and income level, and those numbers look like this:

Highest Level of Education Completed

High School Dropout 0%
High School Graduate / GED 3%
Some College / Trade School 15%
Associate's Degree 6%
Bachelor's Degree 48%
Master's Degree 15%
Doctorate Degree 10%
Imperial Doctorate Degree 0%

No one bit on my (apparently stupid) Imperial Doctorate Degree joke.

Income Level

$0 - $25000 5%
$25000 - $40000 15%
$40000 - $60000 27%
$60000 - $80000 14%
$80000 - $100000 12%
$100000 - up 9%

A high percentage of you make a lot more money than I do. If you're hiring...

Other websites

According to the data, 67% of our readers also visit BeerAdvocate. Makes sense to me. The numbers continue below.

BeerAdvocate.com 67%
IndyStar.com 43%
IndianaBeer.com 37%
RateBeer.com 37%
Nuvo 18%
World Class Beverages' Blog 16%
Metromix 15%
Untappd 13%
CraftBeer.com 11%
The Potable Curmudgeon 11%
Indy Beer Meetup 11%
GirlsPintOut.com 8%
Drinkers World 1%

People could select more than one checkbox in the survey, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

Which Indiana brewery is producing your favorite lineup of Indiana beers?

Three Floyds Brewing Company - Munster 34%
Sun King Brewing Company - Indianapolis 27%
Brugge Beer and Brasserie - Indianapolis 11%
Broad Ripple Brewpub - Indianapolis 5%
Upland Brewing Company - Bloomington 4%
New Albanian Brewing Company - New Albany 3%
Bier Brewery - Indianapolis 2%
People's Brewing Company - Lafayette 2%
Back Road Brewery - LaPorte 1%
Barley Island Brewing Company - Noblesville 1%
Crown Brewing Co - Crown Point 1%
Oaken Barrel Brewing Co. - Greenwood 1%
Power House Brewing Company - Columbus 1%
Ram Restaurant & Brewery - Indianapolis 1%
Shoreline Brewery and Restaurant - Michigan City 1%

It comes as no surprise that once again Three Floyds is producing your favorite lineup, but Sun King is closing in fast. Brugge comes in third with a respectable 11% of the vote.

2009
Three Floyds 51.67%
Sun King 14.17%
Brugge 8.33%

2008
Three Floyds 59.8%
Brugge 12.4%
Upland 8.2%

Which of the following is your favorite Indiana craft beer retailer?

Crown Liquors - Various locations 21%
Kahn's Fine Wine and Spirits - Various locations 21%
21st Amendment - Various Locations 8%
Parti-Pak Liqours - Indianapolis 8%
Goose the Market - Indianapolis 5%
Payless Liqours - Various 5%
Sahara Mart - Bloomington 5%
Stony's Still Liquors - Indianapolis 4%
Alabama Liquor - Indianapolis 2%
Big Red Liquors - Bloomington 2%
Keg Liquors - Clarksville 2%
Bourbon and Canal - Terre Haute 1%
City Wide Liquors - Various locations 1%
Liquor Locker - Evansville 1%
Mr. G's Liquors - Noblesville 1%
Pat's Liquors - Porter 1%
S & V Liquor - Various locations 1%
Vine & Table Gourmet Market - Carmel 1%

It's a tie! Dance-off! Both Crown Liquors and Kahn's Fine Wine have earned 21% of the vote, and in third we have a tie between 21st Amendment and Parti-Pak Liquors (each with 8%). What's it all mean? It means we have good options.

2009
Kahn's Fine Wine and Spirits 27.73%
Crown Liquors 19.33%
Parti-Pak Liquors 12.61%

2008
Kahn's Fine Wine and Spirits 18.7%
Crown Liquors 14.3%
The Hop Shop 14.3%

Which of the following is your favorite Indiana beer bar?

Shallos Restaurant and Brewhouse - Indianapolis 16%
Scotty's Brewhouse - Various locations 11%
MacNiven's Restaurant and Bar - Indianapolis 9%
Rathskeller - Indianapolis 7%
Ale Emporium - Indianapolis 6%
Heorot - Muncie 6%
Wellington - Indianapolis 5%
Chatham Tap - Various locations 4%
Chumley's Beer House - Various Locations 4%
Goose the Market Enoteca - Indianapolis 3%
Beer Sellar - Indianapolis 2%
Black Sparrow - Lafayette 2%
Fickle Peach - Muncie 2%
Fiddler's Hearth Public House - South Bend 2%
Finch's Brasserie - Bloomington 2%
Gerst Bavarian Haus - Evansville 2%
Yogi's Bar and Grill - Bloomington 2%
Crazy Horse - Bloomington 1%
JK O'Donnell's - Fort Wayne 1%
Knickerbocker Saloon - Lafayette 1%
Pass Times - Valparaiso 1%
Sonka Irish Pub - Terre Haute 1%
Union Jack Pub - Indianapolis 1%

I can't say I'm unhappy to see that (the beautiful southside of Indianapolis') Shallos has come in first for your favorite Indiana beer bar with 16% of the vote.

2009
MacNiven's Restaurant and Bar 11.86%
Buffalo Wild Wings 10.17% (remember them?)
Shallos 9.32%

2008
MacNiven's Restaurant and Bar 15.0%
Rathskeller 13.8%
Heorot, Muncie 12.5%

More later.

The Hoosier Beer Geek 2009 End of Year Readers Survey: RESULTS! (Part 2)

This is part two (of three) of our year-end survey results. To see the first part, click here.

5. Which of the following Indiana sister-state breweries is producing your favorite lineup of beer?


As we noted in the first round of results, our readers tend to be pretty consistent in their voting habits. This year's favorite sister-state brewery was Michigan's Bell's Brewing Company, who lead with nearly half (46.28%) of the vote. Coming in second was Michigan's Founders Brewing Company, with 30.58% of the vote. In third place was Michigan's Jolly Pumpkin, with 7.44% of the vote. Jolly Pumpkin was a new entry to our top three.

Last year's standings - Bell's (39.2%), Founders (33.0%), Goose Island (7.2%)

6. What was your favorite craft beer event of 2009?


This was a new question this year, and (perhaps) there was a surprise in the mix. In first place was the Brewers of Indiana Guild Microbrewers Festival (Summer), taking 33.64% of the vote (no surprise there). In second place was Dark Lord Day 2009 (18.69%) - probably meaning that quite a few of our readers attended Dark Lord Day. (I found that interesting, anyway - look for us there this year!). Coming in third was the new Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest, which gathered 9.35% of the vote.

As an honorable mention - and I want to make sure that those of you who didn't attend realize that you shouldn't miss it this year - HBG3 - The Hoosier Beer Geek Third Anniversary Roundtable at Sun King came in at fourth place with 8.41% of the vote. Considering the percentage of votes versus the number of people that attended our party, we'll consider that a compliment.

7. Which craft beer event are you most looking forward to in 2010?


The top three in this category are the same as those in the previous one - the Brewers of Indiana Guild Microbrewers Festival (Summer) (26.32%), Dark Lord Day 2010 (24.56%), and the Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest 2010 (18.42%).

I think it's worth noting though - coming in just behind our top three were the Hoosier Beer Geek's Second Annual Craft Beer Breakfast at Brugge Brasserie (we're shooting for late March) (7.02%), HBG4 - The Hoosier Beer Geek Fourth Anniversary (5.26%), and Hoosier Beer Geek's KOTBR 100 Bus Trip to New Albany (we're shooting for March 6th for this one) (5.26%), Hoosier Beer Geek's Second Annual Indiana Food and Craft Beer Symposium (4.39%) (no idea on a date yet), and Hoosier Beer Geek's Tailgate for Nothing 2 - The Revenge (3.51%) (no date yet). We're glad to see the support, as we're really trying to get a series of quality events put together.

We had a request for the full list of your votes for favorite Indiana beer bar, and here they are:

MacNiven's Restaurant and Bar - Indianapolis
BW3's Downtown - Indianapolis
Shallos Restaurant and Brewhouse - Indianapolis
Heorot - Muncie
Scotty's Brewhouse - Various locations
Rathskeller - Indianapolis
Chatham Tap - Indianapolis
Beer Sellar - Indianapolis
Deano's Vino - Indianapolis
Old Town Ale House - Fishers
Yogi's Bar and Grill - Bloomington
Black Sparrow - Lafayette
Chumley's Beer House - Various Locations
Fickle Peach - Muncie
Union Jack Pub - Indianapolis
Barley Island (guest taps)
Bone Dry Bar & Grill - Highland
Chubby Trout - Elkhart
FARM-Bloomington
Fox & Hound Pub - Indianapolis
Gerst Bavarian Haus - Evansville
Rich O's/NABC Public House - New Albany
Pass Times - Valparaiso
Sonka Irish Pub - Terre Haute
Spencer's Stadium Tavern - Indianapolis
The Wellington - Indianapolis
Trion Tavern - New Haven

And the sad and/or misguided write-ins

I don't go to bars.
None (not been to them yet...).
They all suck balls.

Look for the final section of results soon.

The Hoosier Beer Geek 2009 End of Year Readers Survey: RESULTS!

For part one the 2009 year end readers survey results, I thought it might interesting to compare this year to last year. As an additional improvement, we've got a collection of graphs to make things a little more clear.

Demographics

This year's average reader age was 34.3, and 12.5% of you are women. 1.67% of you are other. 91.8% of our readers are Indiana residents, with Illinois (2.46%) and Missouri (1.64%) coming in second and third. In any case, we're glad to have you.

Last year's average age was 33.29 - which basically means that in the year that's passed, you've gotten a year older. As have we. Glad to see you're still along for the ride. Unfortunately the percentage of female readership has decreased from 19% to 12.5% - an issue we hope to address with some women-specific events in the coming year.

1. Which Indiana brewery is producing your favorite lineup of Indiana beers?


When it comes to your favorite Indiana brewery, it's no surprise that Three Floyds is running the show (51.67% of the vote). Perhaps a little more surprising is the instant success of Sun King Brewing Company, who came in second in our survey with 14.17% of the vote. Filling out the podium was Brugge Beer and Brasserie, who earned 8.33% percent of your votes.

Last year's results had Three Floyds in first with 59.8% of the vote, Brugge in second with 12.4% of the vote, and Upland in third with 8.2% of the vote.

2. Which of the following is your favorite Indiana craft beer retailer?


The HBG readers have again voted Kahn's Fine Wine and Spirits (27.73% of the vote) as their favorite Indiana craft beer retailer. Crown Liquors has again come in second, with 19.33% of the vote, and Parti-Pak Liquors comes in third with 12.61% of the vote. Our congrats also go out to Sahara Mart and Keg Liquors for coming in 4th and 5th in our survey despite having zero Indianapolis area locations. Both of those stores are doing fantastic work - we know from experience.

Last year's results - Kahn's Fine Wine and Spirits (18.7%), Crown Liquors (14.3%), The Hop Shop (14.3%). We were sorry to see The Hop Shop go in 2009.

3. Which of the following is your favorite Indiana beer bar?


It's a repeat victory for MacNiven's Restaurant and Bar as your favorite Indiana beer bar. This year they took 11.86% of the votes, narrowly beating Indy's Downtown Buffalo Wild Wings (10.17%). Shallos Restaurant and Brewhouse took third place with 9.32% of the vote.

It's also worth noting that there were quite a few write-in votes for Rich O's/The New Albany Public House, but we excluded them from this category since they're in the next one. We'll be visiting New Albany for the whole experience, and we hope to bring a group along - tickets for the KOTBR 100 bus trip to New Albany will be on sale in late January/Early February.

Last year's results - MacNiven's Restaurant and Bar (15.0%), Rathskeller (13.8%), Heorot, Muncie (12.5%)

4. Which of the following is your favorite Indiana Brewpub? (Not the same as Brewery - in this case you are rating the total Brewpub experience.)



The number of repeat winners would surely seem to indicate that we had the exact same readers voting this year as last year. You shouldn't be surprised to learn that Brugge Brasserie (29.41%) has taken the award as your favorite Indiana brewpub for the second year in a row. Coming in second was the Broad Ripple Brewpub (14.29%), followed by Three Floyds Brewpub in Munster (11.76%). Same as it ever was..

Last year's winners: Brugge Brasserie (32.0%), Broad Ripple Brewpub (13.4%), Three Floyds, Munster (9.3%)

More results soon.

The Hoosier Beer Geek Readers Survey - Results (Part 2)

As we stated yesterday, a fine fifty-nine Hoosier Beer Geek readers took the time to answer our first every whole-hog survey. Thanks again to those of you who took time out of your busy days to give us a little feedback on what we do.

Because there was a lot of data to cover, we broke this up over two posts. Part one is available here.

6. How much beer do you drink?

A few every month: 3.4%
A couple a week: 39%
One a day: 33.9%
A couple a day: 16.9%
More than a couple a day: 6.8%

Interesting.

7. Have you ever bought a beer because of a Hoosier Beer Geek review?

Because we're not getting paid to do this, we hope that whatever influence we can have on breweries or distributors will lead to benefits we can somehow pass on to our readers. We've certainly seen the appreciation of breweries like Brugge (free beer for our New Year's Party), restaurants and bars like Deano's Vino, Hot Shotz, and Badaboomz, and distributors like World Class Beverages (beer for sampling at our Big Car Events) and Cavalier. We hope that whatever influence we can have continues to foster these relationships in a way that can be beneficial for anyone reading.

Having said all that, 49.2% (29 readers) said that they had bought a beer because of a Hoosier Beer Geek review, with twenty of you taking the time to relate that it was a good to great experience. That's pretty damn awesome.

Only one comment left was of a negative experience:

"Not well, I normally don't like IPA's but the raves that DFH 90 IPA got I thought maybe I had the wrong beer to try. Nope...I really don't like IPA's."

Sorry about that. We salute your efforts, anyway.

8. Have you ever visited a bar/restaurant/brewpub/liquor store because of a Hoosier Beer Geek review?

28.7% (17) of you responded that you have visited a beer location because of a Hoosier Beer Geek review. So how did it go for those folks?

"I can't remember"

"That belgium place. Great food, good beer."

"Awesome."

"I went to Hot Shotz because you are always talking about it. Great Place that I've been back to."

"BBC in Louisville. Kahn's on Keystone. If my business trip allows for it I'll go to the beer mapping site to look for something interesting to bring back home."

"Excellent, it is one of my favorite drinking holes. The Legend Cafe in Irvington."

"Thank you for introducing me to Hot Shotz."

"All of the places with good beers are always good experiences. Seriously."

"Great!"

"I think an option for Not Yet would be more appropriate. :)"

"We had never been to Deano's Vino and probably would not have gone without the HBG events there. Now that we have been, we will definitely come back. The atmosphere was great and it's very impressive that craft beer stays on all 3 of their taps and the regular prices are very fair, not to mention the pitcher specials!"

"Very well, although it was just the beer dinner at L'ex. Most of the other places we had been to before."

For those of you who've make the trips and had a good time, we've glad we could be of service.

"Not well. The Badaboomz downtown is a dump."

To be honest, we've heard varying reports on Badaboomz over the past few months. It strikes us as odd because short of a little confusion with the beer menu, none of us have every had a bad Badaboomz experience - and we all visit Badaboomz fairly regularly.

Apparently some changes are in the works for the downtown location - so keep an eye out for that. Hopefully the full beer menu stays - if nothing else they deserve kudos for the expansive selection.

9. Please rate these Hoosier Beer Geek features in order of how likely you are to read them.



The graphic is a little hard to read, but I think I can sum it up for you. As it turns out, everyone likes (at least a little bit) almost everything we do. There were very few negative responses.

It was good to know that our Roundtable reviews remain amongst the most popular of things we do - sometimes they get a little long-winded. We'd like to think that's what sets them apart from typical beer reviews.

10. Why do you read Hoosier Beer Geek?

Forty-nine responses for this one. Greatly appreciated.

Some highlights:

"The love of beer is something that has to be shared, whether in person or via the internet."
I couldn't agree more

"Along with a beer it helps put me to sleep.... just kidding."
I just want to point out that came from the oldest person responding.

"My husband and I just began homebrewing and we want to learn more about beer. We would also like to learn about events where we can meet other homebrewers in our area."
We certainly appreciate your readership and hope you'll stick around. We can we also recommend the Foam Blowers of Indiana.

"I like to hear about my beer. And Jason's a pretty cool guy."
Apparently Jason's mom is reading.

"I like beer, I like Hoosiers, I like geeks. I like Hoosiers who are geeky about beer. I like Hoosier geeks who talk about beer. I like beer that is enjoyed by geeky Hoosiers."
We like wordy comments.

"Beer, Soccer fans, throw in a good friend of mine... what's not to like? Once again, it's well written, the descriptions of the beers are excellent, it's free, and it shows up in my inbox randomly -- a literary present of sorts. If you want to reach out to your readers, and perhaps reach a few more at events, why not promote your ladies? Both men and women love them beer drinking females. The men perhaps for the wrong reasons..... especially those prone to stalking, but there are lots of women out there who just want to know that there are other female connoiseurs of beer. Then they might come out of their shell? Bring the husband or boyfriend? Just a thought."
A literary present? How many beers did Jim buy you? Thanks for the idea about promoting the ladies - we're working on a Ladies Only event.

"I like reading up on new beers to try and like that Indy has a group of people who don't consider specials on beer a $3 pitcher of Coors Lite. I drink to enjoy the beer, not because I'm looking to get sloshed--so while I haven't shown up yet to a local beer event, I think that my boyfriend and I may come to one eventually."
If he's not up for it, you're still welcome to show up.

"I like beer It makes me a jolly good fellow I like beer"
Is that a song? I can't find it on Itunes.

"You guys (and gals) do a great job and I like your witty writing and no-holds-barred approach to tastings - since I frequently go through Indiana on my way from wisconsin to Ohio, it's not abnormal to stop and pick up beer in Indiana and you do a good job of promoting the local beer scene. Good job!"
Your check is in the mail.

"You guys rock. It is really nice to see real reviews from true beer lovers. The my first beer story with the fishing trip was excellent.
A little love for a guest column! Nice.

"HBG is a great source of local beer news and is written with great personality. The reviews are very accessible and lacking in pretension. Overall just a great combination of current beer news in Indiana and good beer people.

We'd say the good beer people are our readers - Thanks everyone.

The Hoosier Beer Geek Readers Survey - Results (Part 1)

We'd like to thank everyone who participated in our first full fledged readers survey. Fifty-nine of you took the time to answer the questionnaire, and thanks to your answers we hope to continue to bring the beer to you in new and adventurous ways.

Because there was a lot of data to cover, we'll break this up over two posts.

1. Demographics

As could be expected, the vast majority of Hoosier Beer Geek readers live in Indiana. We do have a few out of state readers - a few in St. Louis, Missouri, a few from Kentucky, a gentleman in Madison, Wisconsin who is welcome to mail us New Glarus products, another fine reader from Orlando, Florida, who is welcome to send us some warm weather, a class act of a man from Greeley, Colorado that we'd love to receive regular shipments of Oskar Blues products from, and a dashing young man from Seattle, Washington who we should probably send a t-shirt. For those of you reading from far away, thanks for your support - we hope your as excited about Indiana beer as we are about beer from everywhere else.

The average age of our readers? 34.35, with our youngest reponder being 22 and our oldest at the sprightly 58.

Hoosier Beer Geek is very much a boys club, with 85% of our readership being male, and the better 15% female. Luckily the attendance at our parties hasn't been so one-sided. We'd very much like to raise that percentage - the fine females of Hoosier Beer Geek are looking into a ladies-only event in the upcoming months.

2. How did you first find out about Hoosier Beer Geek?

The majority (52.9%) of Hoosier Beer Geek readers found out about us through links from another website - which means my trolling (just kidding) of messageboards and other beer sites has paid off! A few of you found us through press coverage (InTake, Nuvo, Time, People, National Geographic). While we certainly appreciate all our readers, for those of you referring us to friends (at least eight readers), a special thanks.

3. How do you read Hoosier Beer Geek?

This was pretty balanced, with 49.2% of our readers saying they visit the actual site, 39% reading through RSS, and 23.7% receiving our posts through email. Only one person responded that they weren't a reader and just enjoyed surveys.

4. Which of the following Hoosier Beer Geek events have you attended?

This was certainly eye-opening. Of 59 responses, only 10 readers admitted to attending a Hoosier Beer Geek event.

5. If you have not attended a Hoosier Beer Geek event, what's keeping you from attending?

It seems the reason most of our readers haven't attended our parties comes down to date/time issues or location. Date and time issues are pretty much out of our control, but we're certainly hoping to diversify our event locations in the future.

Five of you said you haven't attended because our events "are not (my) scene", and four of you said you're not comfortable with introducing yourself to people with the phrase "I read your blog". While we certainly understand that line of thinking, we really do want to let you know that if your comfortable with meeting new people, we're more than happy to have you out.

There were a few comments left that we'd like to address:

"The events don't seem welcoming to new people. It seems like you have a group of friends that all get together. Are there typically a lot of new people?"

While it's true that we have a group of friends that get together - it's only been through regularly seeing each other at the events that we got to know each other. There are a few pairs of folks who knew each other before Hoosier Beer Geek, but for the most part it's been an entirely blog-based group. If we haven't been welcoming before, we'd love it if you'd give us a second shot. Just let us know ahead of time that you're coming out - that way we know to expect you.

"(I) Don't know if I'm enough of a beer geek."

For those of you who are new to this - We want to meet you more than almost anyone. I'll be honest in saying that it's incredibly rewarding to know that we've had some part in introducing folks to something new. It's great to hear the opinions of those who are just walking through the craft beer door - a door some of us walked through not so long ago.

By the way, only five of you called us dorks. I think we all expected more votes there.