Kai Eldridge

As we round out week 9, I am feeling confident and in the swing of things. This past week was a piece of cake. I went to the Lake City Brew Pub, Brother Barrel, and Winter Beer fest to take photos. I did some editing, I posted every day to socials, and I wrote my academic statement. I also made a powerpoint for my presentation next week. I am really proud of myself for how far I have come, what I learned, and how natural I feel in my current role.

My photography skills have been getting exponentially better, and I can take photos in half the time that it took me the first couple of weeks. The highlight of this week was writing my academic statement, because it helped to realize just how much progress I have made. I also had a great talk with Todd (co-owner of EBBC) about the company continuing to have someone in a social media role (maybe me?!). It was awesome that he was so receptive and seems see the value in my work.

The most frustrating part of this week was when I went to take photos at Brother Barrel. The kitchen wasn’t ready to take my order until 4, and with the sun going down earlier and earlier every night, by the time my food arrive it was already dark. I tried for a long time to get some good photos, but I may have to scrap them completely which would be a real bummer. I have plans to go earlier next week to (hopefully) get some shots while there is a bit of sunlight out.

Tomorrow I will meet with Doug for our last check in. For the rest of the week, I plan to visit each of the brewpubs one last time to take a few more photos before I leave!

**about the photo: RC holding this week’s special holiday flight! My two favorites where the whisper winter IPA, and the s’mordor (s’mores inspired beer!).

Today I am especially grateful for the forgiving and flexible schedule of a social media manager. My 12 year old dog, Izzy, recently had a stroke. She isn’t doing well, and if she does not begin to eat in a few days, we will have to put her down. Due to the fact that most of my work can be done remotely, I was able to go home and visit her today. In fact, she is sitting next to me as I type this. She’s shaky and can’t walk in much of a straight line, she is hard of hearing and legally blind, but I am happy to just be in her presence.

Why am I sharing this with you? Internships (and college in general) are a time of exploration. I can say this with confidence as someone who has spent my 4 years of undergrad across 4 cities, 2 universities, 2 gap-years (not consecutively), 2+ majors, and is now working towards a career completely unrelated to my field of study. My past experiences tend to leave me with a better understanding of what I do not like, rather than what I do, but it is helpful all the same. My time at Elliott Bay Brewing Company has taught me that I would like my future career to be a 9-5 (never thought I’d say that…) or to be completely flexible, as this internship is. I have two jobs in the evenings and weekends to pay the bills that my unpaid internship doesn’t, and it’s a drag. But, this schedule has helped me realize that I want my evenings and weekends free to go out, see friends, and practice self-care. This is an exciting revelation, that takes me one step closer to being a “real-adult!”

Speaking of my future choices: this week I spent a lot of time organizing and it was AWESOME. Organizing thousands of photos to share, edit, and post was time consuming and knit-picky, but I enjoyed every minute. (I only wished I’d had more photos so that it would have taken longer!) My mom has been telling me since I was a kid, that I should find a job that utilizes my organization skills. I have always resisted because it sounded boring, but I’m starting to think she may have been on to something. Last spring I was an intern at the Thurston County Food Bank, and some my favorite tasks were administrative as well. I think it is time to stop denying and start to listen to myself and others…

I’m halfway there and I’m on my way and I’ve got to say, I’m feeling ok!! 🙂

The highlight of this week (by far) was talking to Doug about his yeast project. At the Burien brewpub, Tom brews a beer called North Atlantic Haze. The yeast used in North Atlantic Haze  is seasonal. The only time you can buy it in small(ish) batches is October-November. (In theory, EBBC has access to the yeast during other months of the year, but it costs a lot more and has to be bought in bulk.) Essentially, if they want to buy the particular strain of yeast when it is not in season, they have to blow their entire yeast budget for the year on a single beer!

In order to make the beer accessible year round (and save a thousand bucks), Doug is working on propagating the yeast in a lab. He not a microbiologist, and has learned everything from YouTube videos or from a yeast book published by the Brewers Association, but the project looks to be successful so far. He showed me how he captures/stores/propagates yeast from a single cell, and I even got to try it out myself. The hope is that in a few weeks, they will begin to brew the first batch of North Atlantic Haze with the yeast Doug has farmed. I can’t wait to try it out.

Another highlight of the week was participating in the Beer Education 1 class at Elliott Bay Brewing in West Seattle. All new employees are required to take the hour long class which includes learning basic information about how beer is made and different types of beer, a brewery tour, and a tasting. Not only was it educational, but fun. I recently got a job as a server at a sports restaurant. They quizzed me on basic beer knowledge and I was stoked to realize that I knew all they were asking and more.

|Beer fun facts!| Beer is composed of 4 basic ingredients: water, barley (processed into malt), hops, and yeast. Water makes up the majority of the beer. Malt is what gives sweetness (and often, color) to beer. Hops is what gives off bitterness. Yeast eats the sugars, which come mostly from the malt, and the more sugar in the beer, the higher ABV (alcohol content). In most beers, the natural sugars from the malt are enough, but for some darker beers or pumpkin beers for example, cane sugar has to be added. This is why super light beers (like Bud Light) have fewer calories than an Oktoberfest beer for example! They have fewer calories because they require less sugar in the brew.

The rest of this week has been pretty typical. I went to the different brewpubs to take photos. I posted content daily. I met with Doug and Adam to discuss future plans and current progress. I also did quite a bit of research on how to take better food photos because I want to make sure that the content I’m putting out is my best work possible.

(The first few weeks I was so focused on cranking out content that I never stopped to consider the quality of content. Although I know that the photos I have been producing are better than what Elliott Bay was doing prior to my joining the team, I do not think that I am reaching my full photography potential. I want to learn to take better photos, and although a lot of the skill will come from practice, there is a lot I can learn from others online about how to take food photos and how to use the camera.)

In terms of content creation, a fun new resource I have found is the Preview app. Some of my favorite beer instagrams such as @allagashbrewing and @elysianbrewing have Instagram themes (which means that all of their photos use similar filters to look more cohesive). I’ve begun to do this with the Elliott Bay and Brother Barrel accounts, and the Preview app helps me to plan out my posts to make sure that they look good next to each other and all fit in with the theme!

My goals for next week are:

-post another employee spotlight

-create content to promote the BAI (Barrel Aged Invitational)

-do more research in regards to using my camera

As I round out week 4 at Elliott Bay Brewing, I am feeling excited! I am excited for the Barrel Aged Invitational happening in just a few weeks, and the new marketing strategies we are working on for that event. I am excited because the first employee profile that I wrote went live on Tuesday and received positive feedback. I am excited because yesterday I went to Lake City and took some really great shots at EBBC and Brother Barrel, and I look forward to sharing them with social media. Most of all, I am excited because I finally feel in the groove of things.

I am a Type-A, perfectionist. I thrive off of constructive criticism, reassurance, and schedules. This internship is completely self-directed. I choose my hours, have complete creative control over posts and marketing strategies, and I do not receive much feedback on my work unless I ask for it. To some, that would sound amazing. To me, too much freedom breeds fear!

Elliott Bay Brewing did not have a staff member dedicated to social media management prior to my joining the team, so, they are just about as in the dark as I am. I was constantly feeling anxious the first three weeks. I was nervous that I was disappointing people. I was afraid I wasn’t meeting expectations. I was convinced that it looked like I was not putting in enough effort, even though I was working my BUTT off and spending a lot of my free time outside of internship hours checking up on socials to track progress.

I was able to reflect quite a bit this week, and I have come to terms with the fact that I am simply too hard on myself. It is important to push ourselves to be our best, but it is also important to give ourselves credit for the work we do!

I am relieved to say that week 4 was fabulous. Of course I am still working just as hard, but I have begun to relax and give myself some credit. After all, this is an internship, not a career. It is ok not to be perfect and to not know exactly what is going on all of the time! The past 4 weeks have taught me to be present, flexible, and to trust myself. Woo!

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Now that I have gotten all of that off of my chest, I would love to share this weeks accomplishments.

As mentioned earlier, I (finally) posted the first employee spotlight article. It was written about one of the head chefs at the Burien pub. His name is David and we had the best time chatting. I was not able to fit in everything he shared with me, but in summary, he was forced to drop out of high school and get a GED so that he could make money to help support his family. He never wanted to be a chef. It was supposed to be a temporary job, but cooking opportunities fell into his lap over and over again and he was a natural. He was super sweet and fun to talk to, and I hope some of that came across in the profile. I wish I could have shared more of his story, but it would have gone on forever!! Check out David’s spotlight article here.

This week I also did quite a bit of research. I noticed that increased follower count as begun to slow since I first started. I did some research on how to create the most effective posts, what not to do, and how to increase engagement. Three of my biggest takeaways from this research were that:

1. Timing matters! Posting a photo of a beer at 9:00 am is not as effective than posting a photo of a beer at 3:00 pm. I like to check things off of my mental list, so I would typically post on socials in the morning or early afternoon, simply to finish the task. From now on, I will be posting at times with more purpose.
2. Consumers find it annoying when there are too many promotional posts, slang is used, and when the author tries to be funny. This was an important one for me. I used slang in a post on Wednesday. I said “spooky szn,” thinking I was being hip. After reading this article I quickly went back and edited the wording to say “Halloween.”
3. Photos with people in them get 38% more likes. –> This is VERY important information. I was told right off the bat that I could not post photos with customers in them for legal reasons, because getting permission was too much work. However, 38% increase in likes would be a LOT more likes so I did some research. It turns out, there are not many legal issues around taking photos of customers as long as you get verbal consent from them and are not using the photos to profit (ex. for a commercial or promotional pamphlets). In fact, not to my surprise, it appears that many people would be excited to be featured on a company page. They will often repost the photo. (I know I would!!)

Some other week 4 accomplishments include but are not limited to, taking photos of food and beer at Brother Barrel and the Lake City Pub, editing photos, and writing out more interview dialogues.

My goal for next week is to continue to post content that aligns with the research I did this week, take some photos with people in them, and post another employee spotlight. I’m also excited to meet with Dan on Tuesday to shoot some barrel tastings, and to meet with Doug on Thursday to shoot/learn more about his sustainable yeast project! As usual, I will continue to be consistent with daily posting to socials.

On Saturday October 6th, I attended Elysian’s Great Pumpkin Beer Festival. While posting to Elliott Bay’s Instagram story to live broadcast what was happening at the event, I tasted a variety of pumpkin themed and Octoberfest beers from local companies. The night involved games, food trucks, a DJ, tapping a giant pumpkin, and dancing with cornstalks! It was such a fun experience, and I felt pretty cool being in attendance at the event as a social media manager. Plus, all proceeds from the event benefited the Fred Hutch cancer research center.

As for the rest of this past week, it was extremely busy. I scheduled 11 interviews with employees across all three locations. There was quite a bit of travel involved, which left me feeling exhausted, but I was grateful to have had the opportunity to sit down with so many different folks at Elliott Bay. Due to the fact that I am splitting my time between Lake City, West Seattle, and Burien, I have found it difficult to remember the names of and get to know all of the staff at the 3 pubs and Brother Barrel. I have been interviewing as many staff members as possible in order to write profiles (employee spotlights) on them for the Facebook page. It is so fun getting the chance to chat with them about their experiences, passions, and time at Elliott Bay! Community is highly valued at the company (which is clear through my personal experience and the interviews) and it is important to the managers that I showcase how wonderful their community of employees (and neighbors and regulars) is!

As usual, I have been sure to post on social media for Elliott Bay and Brother Barrel consistently, every day. Doug and I have also decided it would be beneficial for us to meet weekly to discuss progress, and so that I have all the support that I need. This internship is very self-directed, so I appreciate having an outlet to ask any questions or share concerns I may have. Most of all, I welcome the opportunity to get any feedback. My experience as a social media manager is extremely limited, and being a food photographer is a completely new experience. I often feel overwhelmed because I don’t really know what I’m doing. I constantly have to remind myself that I am an intern, so this is a learning experience. I don’t have to be perfect. There was no one dedicated to the position prior to me joining the team, so I do not really have anyone to show me the ropes or give me advice/criticism. This is wonderful in terms of creative freedom, but it has been a challenge because I have had to teach myself the skills through trial and error.

A perfect example of trial and error is the use of photoshop. I’ve found that VSCO has a lot of the basic features that photoshop does, but they are easier to use. I can imagine that if I was doing professional photos the photo quality would be better if I used photoshop, but seeing as I only post to Instagram/Twitter/Facebook (which don’t require large photo dimensions) I don’t think that photoshop is a necessary tool. After spending way too long messing around with it and not getting the results I had hoped for, I have come to the conclusion that non-professional users probably do not require what photoshop offers.

Another example of learning by doing, was figuring out which outlets to use for each post. Before I took over the position, anything posted by Elliott Bay was automatically shared to all social media outlets: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. So, when I first began, I would post a photo to one of the outlets and then turn around and post that same photo to all the rest. I noticed that although we were increasing reach by posting more content, likes on the Facebook were actually decreasing. We were getting more likes on each post and more people were clicking on the page, but some people were taking the time to “un-like” the page! This made sense to me, because when I follow a restaurant on Facebook, I do not want to see a post from them every day. Rather, I want to hear about events, read fun stories, or see when new specials are coming out.

I have now begun to tailor posts and captions to each individual outlet. Sometimes I share the same photo across all 3, but I often change around the wording. For example, I put less information in my captions on Twitter than I do on Facebook, because tweets should be short and sweet, while Facebook posts can be longer.

My goal for next week is to take more photos of beers (because it’s a brewery, and I haven’t done much of that) and to post the first employee profile!