Featured Beer Blogger: AARON MIELKE

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

Curious what goes on in the minds of your favorite beer bloggers? Well, The Beer Wench is and she has embarked upon a mission to interview as many beer bloggers that she can — from all over the world. Are you a beer blogger? Do you want to share your story? Send me an email!

INTRODUCING: AARON MIELKE

AUTHOR OF: SNOBBY HOPS

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Aaron Mielke
Internet nickname: Sometimes I go by “jimithng23” after “Jimi Thing” by the Dave Matthews Band and “23” was the jersey number of my childhood idol, Michael Jordan
Twitter handle: @snobbyhops and @jimithng23
Name of blog: Snobby Hops
Current location: Davenport, IA

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

Very small town in rural Illinois, near the Quad Cities, called Andover. About 600 people. Everybody knew everybody and everybody knew everybody’s business. I couldn’t wait to get out of there 10 years ago. Now, I want to take my family back to the country!

2. What sports if any did you play growing up, through college and beyond?

Basketball, soccer, football, baseball, and track

3. How old were you when you had your first beer?

Officially – 2 or 3 years old
Drink to get drunk – 16 years old

4. If you can recall, what is the story of your first beer? Where did you have it? What style and brand was it?

Oh ya, I can recall. A friend of mine got his brother to hook us up with some Bud Light. We had a party at my dad’s house because he was out of town. Actually, I was late to my own party. When I showed up, the house was already full of people! I was pissed! I drank 6 beers, got hammered, and puked. I didn’t touch another beer for an entire year.

5. Where, if applicable, did you go to college? What did you study? What additional activities, organizations, sports did you partake in during college?

I went to Bradley University in Peoria, IL on a full-ride scholarship in Civil Engineering. I met Captain Morgan, screwed up my priorities, and didn’t make it back for my second year. I then went on to enlist in the United States Army National Guard. I then enrolled at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL. A “glitch” in paperwork kept me from my enlistment bonus and GI Bill, so after a semester I had to go back home.

Craft Beer Epiphany

Every craft beer enthusiast has at least one pinnacle craft beer experience that completely changes ones perspective on beer. I refer to this mind-blowing moment as a “craft beer epiphany.”

1. What was your first craft beer epiphany? Recall as many details about it as you can:

Well, through high school and most of college, Bud Light was the beer of choice. I moved on to “heavier” beers like Michelob and Coors heavy. Then I began mountain biking in 2007. A good friend of mine joined me and we headed out to the grand opening of a city park, Sunderbruch, here in Davenport. I knew there was going to be beer drinking and grilling so we grabbed a 30-pack of BL, a dozen brats and headed out.

After nearly killing myself by clocking a tree with the entire left side of my body, causing me to somersault across the trail, and banged my head against another tree (always wear your helmet!), I found the rest of the group in the parking lot to commence on boozin’. I pulled up my cooler full of BLs and the entire party stopped. I looked around and everyone was drinking craft beer.

Everyone.

There must have been 25-30 people under this tent all wondering why the f@#k I brought BL. They weren’t being condescending towards me; just the beer. After weathering that storm, I was introduced to Sierra Nevada, Goose Island, and various other local microbrews. Wow! This stuff is amazing, I thought.

Basically, from that point on, I have become a “beer snob.” Not a snob in the true sense of the word, but in the way that I appreciate a really good craft beer. All the time and thought that went into brewing it. The care taken to get that distinct flavor.

2. Have you have additional craft beer epiphanies since the first? Detail as many of them as you wish:

I wouldn’t say I’ve experienced an “epiphany” since the first, more of continuing down the craft beer path. I rarely go to any old bar, especially if they are lacking in craft beer selection. Instead, I’ll hit up one of the 4 local brew pubs we are blessed to have here! Now, with snobbyhops.com, I’ve opened up another avenue to experience even more in beer culture as I continue to explore and learn as much as I can.

Beer Blog Background

1. How long have you been writing your beer blog?

Since December 23rd, 2009 so it’s still in its infancy. Give me a break people!

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

Ah, inspiration and the source thereof; such a difficult question to answer and answer clearly. I guess it just “came to me.” Not to downplay the importance of inspiration however, I would say the inspiration for Snoppy Hops was more of a result of brainstorming. I knew I wanted to begin my own blog. I’ve blogged in the past but nothing serious or consistent; just something to do.

Much of my inspiration to begin blogging has to be attributed mostly to Robb Sutton (robbsutton.com & bike198.com). Initially, I began following his blog on mountain biking. Watching how successful he became, and in such a short amount of time was inspirational. So, I asked questions, researched other bloggers, and followed them through their blogs. In doing this, I realized this was something I wanted to do – share my thoughts with the world on topics that I really enjoyed.

I took as much in as I could and began brainstorming on different niches, researching their potential for success, and figuring out what angle I could take. Beer happened to be one of those niches. In my research, I didn’t come across near the info I have in the last 30 days of actually blogging on beer, which I can attribute to social networking, so naturally I didn’t think there would be much competition. Well obviously I was wrong and in more ways than one.

Blogging isn’t about competition. It’s about community and sharing. Learning from one another and growing together. I have learned that pretty quickly. Wrapping all of this ridiculous nonsense up, during my brainstorming session I thought “why don’t I blog about beer? I mean, I love beer…I really f’n love beer. Good beer. That’s it! I’ll do a blog about beer! I’ll do beer reviews. I’ll interview home brewers, local breweries. I’ll have guest posters…” and on and on. I filled 3 pages of my yellow legal pad with post ideas. This was it. Beer was going to be my niche.

3. Why did you chose the name of your blog?

You have a knack for asking questions in order of relevance, I like that! Basically, picking up from the last answer…. I threw around a few different ideas, most of which were already registered domains. I didn’t want to buy an existing domain and have any baggage that may be associated with it. I knew I wanted to incorporate the word “snob” somewhere in the name so I opened up my text editor and started throwing ideas on the screen.

When snobby hops came out, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I think the name has a great ring to it, it’s unique and memorable, and it is marketable as a brand. I ran the idea by my wife and she loved it. That’s rare that she likes any idea that I have so I knew I had something with snobbyhops.com.

4. What are you personal goals for your blog? What do you hope to achieve with it?

I would like to begin bringing in unique beers for review from the brewers themselves. I also want to put my spin on each beer that I taste. Hopefully, I can grab my readers with a unique style and brand so that they continue to come back and be loyal to my blog. In doing this, I will begin creating unique content and copy that my readers can download. From here I hope to share home brew recipes, weekly beer releases, and other inside news as related to beer culture.

Also, just in the past week through social marketing like twitter and facebook, I’ve started building relationships with other beer bloggers. I am really looking forward to meeting new people and experiencing new things because of these relationships. I never realized there was such a large community of us in the internets! Eventually, I hope to look back on snobbyhops.com as my launching pad into blogging success. But this success will only come if I’m able to provide my readers with unique and relevant content that they can’t get anywhere else. This is a great challenge and it’s what keeps me blogging.

5. What is one of the coolest things that happened to you as a result of being a beer blogger?

So far? Being asked to do this interview

6. What are you top 3 favorite beer blogs/beer websites?

That’s a loaded question…being that I’m so new to the scene, and my day job sucks up so much of my time, I haven’t been able (err, ya that’s a lame excuse) to discover much else. I checked your site out after you requested this interview and I love it! The three that I keep up with on a daily basis:

• Mikesbrewreview.com
• Thebrewsite.com
• Beergeni.us

I know there are thousands more, but so far, these are my favorites.

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

Stout. Is there any other style? Ha! Just kidding. I am in love with stouts. There are so many variations, so many good ones, and a few bad ones. One of my local brewpubs does a coffee stout that’s simply amazing. Bent River Brewing Co’s Uncommon Coffee Stout. If you like coffee, and I know you love beer, you should try to get your hands on some. If you’re ever in the area, I’ll buy you one!

After that I really enjoy porters. I’ve had such a wide variety of porters. There’s a review on my site of the Unplugged Old English Porter from New Glarus Brewing Co in Wisconsin. Such a complex, delicate, and elegant beer. My first porter experience was at the hands of Left Hand Brewing Co. with their Black Jack Porter. I fell in love with their porter and have been hooked on the style ever since.

I’m really gaining an interest in hoppy IPAs. There was a time, when I was first introduced to craft beer, that I could not stand hoppy beers. Now, I’ve come to appreciate the presence of powerful hops. I’ve got a taste for tripel lately as well. Man, there are some amazing tripels out there; Boulevard’s Smokestack Series Long Strange Tripel is fantastic and was completely unexpected from that brewery.

Since tasting that beer, I have learned much more about Boulevard and have a newfound respect for their brewing. Since I’m on Boulevard, their Doublewide IPA and Quadrupel are fantastic. They hit the cover off the ball with the Smokestack series. I’m really anticipating getting my hands on their latest, the Collaboration No. 1 Imperial Pilsner. I’m not a big pils fan, but basing upon the Smokestack series, this should be good!

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

My favorite has to be local – Bent River Brewing Co. They really do a great job. The Brew Kettle in Cleveland is fantastic. I hit them up while on a MTB trip to Ray’s Indoor MTB Park. Great beer and great food. After that, I am really enjoying what Flying Dog has come out with; I’m after some Raging Bitch but can’t come across it around here. Left Hand has some good stuff too. Obviously, I’m liking Boulevard right now as well. New Glarus has to be on my list. Sorry, I can’t keep it at 3.

3. If you could work with or for any one brewery, which one would it be and why?

Interesting question. I haven’t ever considered working for a brewery. I am sure, as I continue down the road of beer blogging this question will come up again. Maybe then I will have a better answer.

4. Are you a homebrewer? If yes, what is the most unique and interesting beer recipes you’ve brewed as a homebrewer?

Not yet

5. Do you have any beer certifications (BJCP, Cicerone, Siebel, American Brewers Guild)?? If so, what are they?

Just a certification to drink beer.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

This is an aspect of beer culture that I have yet to experience as well. I haven’t actually paired food with beer but it’s something I am really looking forward to getting into. I love cooking so naturally, food and beer go well together in my book.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I am in sales at a Ford Motor Company dealership. It’s wonderfully horrific. By the time you read this, I am really hoping I am back in the A/V industry, designing home theater systems again.

2. If you could change your career at this very moment, without any restrictions on what you could do, what would you want to do and why?

Problogging on beer, mountain biking, and cooking. Running my own very successful enterprise…wait, I’m starting to give away too much information!

3. Are you married? Children?

I am very blessed in this department. I have a beautiful wife who supports me in everything that I do. Together, we made the most beautiful angel the world has ever seen. Of course, I’m biased. She’s 9 months old today actually. Also, we have a wonderful black lab named Rook. He’s a year and a half and is more work than the baby!

4. Outside of beer and writing, what are some of your other hobbies?

I’ve already alluded to a few of them. Most of my spare time around this time of the year is spent online and hanging with my family. I enjoy playing my Taylor acoustic guitar, especially with a fresh pair of strings. Also, I really like to cook; mostly grill. The Food Network is possibly the only channel we get!

When the weather allows, I’m found mostly on one of my mountain bikes tearing up some sweet singletrack. MTB’ing is probably the best stress reliever I have ever experienced. The sport requires such a high level of mental concentration and focus that all that garbage that happened during the work day is completely gone at the end of the ride. When the ride is over, there’s the post-ride comraderie and craft beer drinking while talking about what happened during the ride, where we’re riding next, and where we’re eating that night. Great times.

Off The Beaten Path

1. If you were a style of beer, what style would be an why?

I would probably be a stout. I’m pretty predictable and consistent. If you don’t know me, I’m not quick to give you my secrets. However, once we become better friends you’ll see that I’m pretty complex, have great taste, but simple all the same. Wow, that was an odd exercise.

2. You were caught smuggling beer illegally, which has now been made punishable by death. Right before you are sent to the executioner, you are offered one last beer. What beer would you chose and why?

Bourbon County by Goose Island. I’ve never had such a heavy buzz after one 12-ounce beer in my life. If I’m going down, I may as well go with a buzz.

3. If I contracted you to brew a beer (or design a beer recipe) called “The Beer Wench” — what style would you chose and what, if any, extra ingredients would you add?

Based on the pictures, it would have to be blonde, or something lighter. You love bitter, bitter hops so it would have to be a double or triple IPA. Other than that, I have more to learn about “The Wench” so I’m sure that’s a good start.

4. If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?

I would have to be able to fly. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a fighter pilot. My crappy vision put a stop to that career path.

5. What is one of the craziest things you have ever done and lived to tell the story?

I nearly burnt my dad’s garage to the ground when I was 12. A friend and I had just discovered the flammable properties of alcohol and various other chemicals commonly found in hairspray. Our summer days were spent torching things with our homemade flame throwers.

One day, we got really brave and decided to play around with gasoline. We found a small flower pot, filled it with gas, and dropped in a match. On the dirt floor of the garage sat our flaming pot of gas. We watched in wonder, as most humans do, as the fire burned. It was quite boring however, so we thought it would be better if we put more gas in the pot.

Keep in mind, this was a working garage so there was lawn equipment, motorcycles, and various other tools, machinery, and chemicals present in this garage. To that, we really didn’t care. We just wanted to burn some gas. So, our pot is on fire but it was too boring. We grabbed the gas can and poured it out onto the already flaming pot.

Bad decision as I’m sure you’re thinking right about now.

The flame from the pot followed the stream of gas pouring out of the can, bursting the can into flames in my friend’s hand. The can fell to the ground and now there’s gasoline everywhere: on the mower, on the motorcycle, all over the floor. Bad news. Well, we got lucky. I went and grabbed the garden hose and was able to extinguish the flames. We were able to clean much of the evidence up and I took the mangled gas can down to the burn pile, dug a hole about 5’ deep and buried it. 2 years ago, 16 years after the carnage, at my dad’s 50th birthday party, I told him what happened.

The look on his face was priceless.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

I love you simply for asking this question. ‘Nuff said.