It's not every day that your hometown Beer Society wins an award for something we've done to help promote the craft beer scene in Tallahassee.
But that day is today!
Recently, we found out that the great folks at the Leon County Office Of Economic Vitality, Deep Brewing Company and yours truly had been named the 2021 winners of the Florida Economic Development Council's "Innovation in Marketing Public-Private Partnership Award" for our collaborative work on the "ElectroMagnetic Bitter" campaign we helped launch in early 2020.
FEDC’s award recognizes Florida’s best economic development organizations for marketing strategies aimed at leveraging the strength of more than one community organization to advance a common goal.
But for those scratching their heads as to what the "ElectroMagnetic Bitter" campaign is or was, it's OK: A lot has happened in our world since early 2020. So let's refresh:
Bitters a sweet concept for magnetics
And the reason they wanted it to be the aforementioned "bitter" style is because among ALL the accolades the lab has received over the years — including 17 world records and a list of more than 100-plus patents — perhaps its most significant contribution to the global science community is its invention of the building block of resistive magnets: a stack of CD-thick copper alloyWhile the disks themselves — varying in width from a few centimeters to nearly a yard, and featuring a series of holes and slits that allow cooling water to pass through — were invented by Francis Bitter in the 1930s, they saw significant improvements in the 1990s through technological advancements created here in Tallahassee.
The reconsideration of the shape, size, and alignment of the bitter's cooling holes resulted in the highest-field resistive magnets in the world. So potent and efficient that four of the world's five largest magnetic laboratories now use the "Florida Bitter" technology produced in Tallahassee.
Now, we know that's a lot to take in for anyone who doesn't work in this field or hasn't been in a science class for a hot minute, but let's just say this: OEV's idea was genius. And together, we helped pull it off.
Delicious beer worthy of MagLab celebration
The result was a beer Deep brewed call "ElectroMagnetic Bitter," and its creation ultimately helped promote Tallahassee-Leon County as the Magnetic Capital of the World, support STEM education and highlight our local community’s incomparable resources in magnetics technology and applied sciences through a memorable sensory campaign that included — at the end of the rainbow — a SUPER-delicious beer.
“We felt this project was unique and tailor-made for our community,” OEV Deputy Director Drew Dietrich said in a blog post written by OEV's Kianna Brown following the announcement of the award. “It represents a community-wide approach to promoting the amazing assets of Tallahassee-Leon County, such as our nationally-recognized breweries and world-class magnetic technologies.”
![Leon County Office Of Economic Vitality, Deep Brewing Company and TLH Beer Society won the "Innovation in Marketing Public-Private Partnership Award" for work on the "ElectroMagnetic Bitter" campaign in early 2020.]()
Giving back to STEM
Drew didn't have to pitch us long on the idea. After all, one of our primary goals with the Tallahassee Beer Society is to help "Tallahassee win" — and we do our part by constantly using our platform we've built to be the megaphone for how good our craft beer is here in Tallahassee.
“Given the opportunity to lend some of our unique voice and style to a project highlighting what we think is an overlooked gem in Tallahassee — in Florida really — and to do it through a beer, is like a dream,” Matthew Crumbaker, co-founder of the Tallahassee Beer Society, said in the statewide press release that went out about the award. “We feel that a project like this just scratches the surface of possibilities when an entity, like OEV, lends its guidance and resources to smaller place makers in a community and parlays that into something tangible that folks from all walks can relate to.”
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Then Deep took it one step further.
Owner and head brewer Ryan LaPete felt the best way to amplify this campaign was to give back, which is why they agreed to donate a portion of the ElectroMagnetic Bitter proceeds to support local STEM education programs, such as SciGirls and Camp Tesla at the National MagLab.
“Team DEEP is excited to learn that our ElectroMagnetic Bitter campaign, in partnership with OEV and the Tallahassee Beer Society, has been recognized as a top-notch collaboration,” Ryan said in that same press release. “Lots of hard work and creativity were poured into this effort by all. Not only did we get rewarded with a great beer, awesome people and an amazing way to impact our community, we get this news as a bit of extra icing on the cake.The beer was launched in February of 2020, but the full campaign - and all we had planned for it - was cut short due to the pandemic.
But nevertheless, we persisted!
Relaunching after pandemic
OEV, DEEP Brewing Company and the TLHBS decided to join forces again in February 2021 to relaunch the brew and develop swag with local businesses, including DivvyUp, Full Press Apparel and Target Print & Mail.
Added Target Print & Mail owner Jeremy Cohen: “We were happy to be part of this project, and it’s great to see OEV being recognized for what they do best, shining a bright light on many of the good things happening here in Tallahassee."
So thank you to OEV, Deep and everyone who helped raise awareness about just how awesome the National MagLab is — and why Tallahassee should be beyond proud to be its home. This was, hands down, one of the coolest things we've ever worked on in our short four years of existence!
Danny Aller is the co-founder, along with Matthew Crumbaker, of the TLH Beer Society. Reach the Beer Society on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or email: tlhbeersociety@gmail.com
