Hoplight Social Turns Five!
Five years ago, Hoplight Social was born as a result of a couple of beer lovers wanting to focus more on the lifestyle side of the craft beer industry. We truly believed that great beer brought great people together. While we have evolved with the industry to cover more types of alcohol (hello craft cocktails, hard seltzers & hard teas), our core belief remains the same but with a twist…great spots with great booze brings great people together.
What better way to celebrate the five year anniversary of us launching our website than sharing our five favorite memories so far!? Trust us when we say that we have met so many great people & experienced so many great events over the years, it really was so hard to narrow it down to the below list. Here it goes in no particular order:
1. Covering GABF (aka Great American Beer Festival)
How could the GOAT of beer festivals not make the list!? We have so many epic memories from our years of covering the Great American Beer Festival as media in Denver every year. From partying on the Melvin bus, to touring great local spots like Avery Brewing, to discovering new beers from around the U.S., to meeting epic people who are trailblazers in the industry. We are so grateful for having the honor of covering and making so many great memories over the years. So many in fact, that this article would quickly become way too long if we shared all of the greats so instead we are linking out to a few of our favorite recaps:
2016: Paired Recap
2017: Night 1 Recap & Night 2 Recap
2018: Night 1 Recap & Night 2 Recap
2019: Night 1 Recap & Night 2 Recap + Awards Recap
Also, be sure to get the full details on future plans for GABF by visiting here, and add it to your list of must attend beer festivals because you’ll definitely have the time of your life! ?
2. Visiting MadTree Brewing in Cincinnati, OH
We first discovered MadTree Brewing Company while we were covering GABF in 2016. After experiencing the magic that was Joon for the first time, we knew that we needed to get ourselves to their brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2018, we finally made it to their brewery and it was everything we thought it would be + more. The beers, the location, the people who worked there were all top notch.
To give you an idea of just how wonderful this brewery is, one of the owners was there on his day off and happened to see us taking photos. He immediately came over to say hello to us. WHAT!? Talk about a warm welcome and getting a sense of just how passionate this brewery is about their beers and community. If we lived in Cincinnati, they would hands down be our local watering hole and we can’t recommend them enough.
It’s not always possible to get a triple threat of great quality beers (order anything on the menu and it will be good), great people (seriously everyone there seemed to love their job and was so engaged with beer lovers), and amazing location (indoor/outdoor spaces that were family and dog friendly). This place checks all the boxes and we are counting down the days until we can visit them again.
3. Getting Weird With New Belgium
New Belgium definitely knows how to show beer lovers a good time! Whether it is touring one of their amazing breweries in Fort Collins or Asheville, or attending their epic Tour de Fat events, you are guaranteed to have a non-stop smile on your face whenever New Belgium is involved. We’ve had an absolute blast going on some fun tours that involved drinking some incredible beers with great people and ended in us getting to slide down both their epic slides (yes, they have real slides at both their breweries). We also got weird with them at their Tour de Fat in San Diego, CA in 2016 + 2017! Word on the street is that Tour de Fat is back for a 2021-2022 season and we can’t wait! ? Get the full details by visiting here.
4. Going On A Cross Country Road Trip (In Beers)
In 2018, we made big moves and made the move from San Diego, CA to Atlanta, GA. During our road trip across the country, we decided to experience each city we stopped in through their beer scene. We picked one brewery using google maps, then we asked the locals at that first stop where else we should go. As a result, we experienced so many great breweries along the way and were so excited to share our experiences with our fans. So if you find yourself looking for an epic beer adventure, be sure to check out our Cross Country Road Trip In Beer (Part One + Part Two) Sneak Peak: we’re about to hit the road again in August 2021 to add some more to this series! ?
5. Interviewing Great People (+ a Few Interviews of our Own)
Over the last five years, we’ve had the chance to sit down and interview so many great people in beer. Getting the opportunity to hear each person’s inspiring story and then share it with the world has always been one of the greatest joys for us. Through our interviews, we have also tried to help lift up other women in beer. You’ll see that a majority of our interviews so far have featured some pretty incredible women! If you’re looking to be inspired, we encourage you to check out the People In Beer section of our website.
We also had the camera flipped on us a few times over the last five years. Our monthly segment on CW6 in San Diego where we taught people how to cook with beer was definitely a high for us. We’ll never forget the experience and forever be grateful. We were also featured by VoyageATL in 2019. We are usually the ones behind the camera, so we have always been so grateful when given the opportunity to share our own story with y’all! ?
Cheers to five years! We can honestly say that we love this community with all of our hearts. We are so grateful to have been a part of it for so many years. Thank you to everyone who has been part of our journey so far, we wouldn’t be where we are today without each and every one of you. YES THAT INCLUDES YOU READING THIS. You’ve kept us inspired and we look forward to the many new adventures ahead. We can’t wait to raise a glass with y’all in person soon as we start venturing out again!
Kristina & William Prickett
Be sure to follow us on our social media and join the conversation with great people around great booze.
