Town & Country hosts a unique internal education program called T & C Beerology. Our Craft Beer Manager and Director of Retail Development, both Certified Cicerones, lead monthly training sessions with our sales team. These recurring, craft focused courses focus on: Beer ingredients, Brewing process, Beer Styles, Off Flavors, and Proper Handling/Storage.
We implement supplier provided educational resources such as BeerMerchant.com, Beer Confidence, and brewery selling tools. The program incorporates blogs and industry publications such as: Ratebeer.com, Beer Advocate, Draft Magazine, Beer Street Journal, Craftbeer.com, Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher and The Complete Beer Course by Joshua Bernstein.
T & C Beerology begins by covering beer basics, and then advances through individual breweries and brands within our portfolio. We conduct bi-weekly brand quizzes that focus on a brewery's specific brands and the brand's attributes: Style, ABV, availability, and package sizes.
Sampling our product portfolio plays an important role in our training. Twice a week, our Craft Beer Manager samples new product offerings to our sales staff using the AATMF tasting process, our sales team experiences the brand with the intention of being able to offer a firsthand description to our retailers. Being able to put the description into their words provides an authentic and unique sell story. Frequent sampling keeps the brand at the top of the Account Manager's mind, resulting in a larger sales focus.
For those that are looking to learn even more, we conduct small classes focused on becoming a Certified Cicerone. In these classes we sample beers to find off flavors such as oxidation and diacetyl. We blind taste to learn to identify styles using BJCP guidelines.
We recognize that our Account Managers and customers benefit from ongoing beer education due to the rapid growth of our industry and the constant introduction of new brands. As a result, we provide weekly new item updates to our retail customers that include new items and available draft offerings.