From the mysterious to the masters of their craft, “This Job Rocks” is where I walk in someone else’s work shoes. On Twitter and Instagram #ThisJobRocksYVR.
When days begin and end with a beer tasting, it’s easy to answer “Best beer ever?” with “the beer in your hand,” but Chris Bjerrisgaard, Marketing Manager at Parallel 49 Brewery and co-founder of Vancouver Craft Beer Week (VCBW) treats his work seriously:
It all depends on things like the time of year, the time of day, where you happen to be at that time, what sort of atmosphere is around you. I've had some pretty fond beer drinking memories with some pretty 'mediocre at best' beers in my hand, so really, it's what you make it. Of course the marketer in me would love to also just tell you the entire Parallel 49 Brewing line up — haha.
Hailing from Rossland, this small town guy moved to Vancouver in 2003, where he was working as a startup marketing consultant. In 2009, intent on developing his online personal brand, Chris started a blog, figuring if “I was going to write about something it might as well be something fun like beer.” The blog was short-lived however, as not long after, his beer career really took off.
It’s not nearly noon as I saddle up to a bar stool in the taproom of the East Van brewery staple where Chris orders us a Craft Lager + Tricycle mix; a pint for him, and thoughtfully, a half-pint for me. With a full afternoon ahead of us, we finish our beers and head to lunch at St Augustine’s on The Drive. Beer ordered and food in our bellies, we talk some marketing shop talk and he fills me in on some his favourite parts of his busy days:
Anytime I feel I've accomplished a win or launched some sort of new project, like launching Jerkface 9000 and watching it become our 2nd best selling beer behind Gypsy Tears, or something small such as helping a sales rep land a new account, or having a really social media post with super high engagement rates.
On our way back to the brewery, we pay a quick visit to the team at Merchants where the post lunch, pre dinner lull gives us the opportunity to talk a different kind of shop, foodie talk filled with insights into local oyster farms, milk punch recipes, and the secret of late night steamers. Back at the brewery, Chris takes me for a behind the scene glance at what goes into all of the areas of the beer biz: from brewing to quality assurance, sales and of course, his domain, marketing.
What’s the one thing that most people don’t know about your job?
How much work it is. A lot of people see my job as me out having beers and schmoozing. That's is a part of it, and something that is a super fun part of my job, but what people don't see are the nights where I spend 4 or 5 hours banging through emails to try and clear my inbox, all the customer service stuff I do on a daily basis, the hundreds of sponsorship requests I get every week, etc. That stuff is the very unglamorous side to what I do. That said, at the end of the day when I've put in 12 - 16 hours and have a clear inbox and a few big wins on the day then it's all worth it.
Our last stop is the Vancouver Craft Beer Week festival at the PNE. After 5 years of building a brand around VCBW, Chris and his team were given given the opportunity to collaborate on a weeklong festival inside Vancouver’s beloved fair. This is a guy who wears many hats to pull off the events he does. It might be all in a day’s work, but all of the heavy lifting Chris has done as part of Vancouver’s thriving beer community is a reason for us all to cheers indeed.
The Parallel 49 tent is bopping and I get to try out my pouring skills to round off, just another day at the office. Proust!
