The Nelson Craft Brewing Capital group is celebrating a successful first year. It has been so good, in fact, that they have run out of their free Nelson Craft Beer Trail maps. First printed in time for Beervana in August last year, the 25,000 copies have all been snapped up. Emma McCashin of the McCashins Family Brewery and Stoke Beer, one of the core members, isn’t surprised. “I had originally suggested printing 50,000 but some in the group thought that was too ambitious for a first run,”  she said.

The all-volunteer committee has been pleased with the results, especially since it was produced on a minimal budget. Andrew Cole of the Moutere Inn pointed out, “We are working with small businesses in a recession so we have to be very conscious of costs.” “We have gotten lots of feedback from the brewers about how professionally produced the brochures are, and visitors like that every brewery is included,” says committee chairman Doug Donelan of New Zealand Hops, Ltd.

In addition to producing the maps, the group has plenty to celebrate. Highlights for the year include:

• Nelson Craft Beer Trail maps have been widely distributed throughout NZ and overseas including: NZ Beerfest, Auckland; Beervana, Wellington  – in 6,000 participant packs; Great Kiwi Beerfest, Christchurch; Marchfest, Nelson; festivals in the USA, Germany and Australia; Dan Murphy’s bottlestores in Australia; numerous accommodations and all the iSites in the Top of the South region
• Getting summer season staff T-shirt promotion in the Nelson iSite and Fresh Choice supermarket
• Featuring in articles in Brewer and Distiller Magazine and Beer and Brewer Magazine
• Receiving over 1000 website hits with around half of those downloading copies of the brochure
• Having Nelson Craft Beer Trail maps used for region promotion by Nelson Tasman Tourism and Tourism NZ (Nelson Tasman Tourism has identified Craft Beer as a key unique regional tourist draw)
• Hosting media and industry visitors from within NZ and around the world
• Donating a Craft Brewing tour to the annual Suter Art Gallery Auction

The group is working to ensure an updated brochure is ready for Beervana this August, and starting to look toward promotion and events for the upcoming year. Rose Griffin of the Gentle Cycling Company points out the opportunities for co-promotion, such as the launch events for the Nelson Tasman Great Taste Cycle Trail. “Cycling and beer are a natural fit,” she says.

You can bet they will print more than 25,000 maps this year.