Featured Beer Blogger: JEFF McCLURE

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!

photo credit: Jonathan Koshi

INTRODUCING: JEFF MCCLURE

AUTHOR OF: GOLDEN GATE BEER BARS

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Jeffrey McClure
Internet nickname (if applicable): Troy McClure SF
Twitter handle: @troymccluresf
Name of blog: Golden Gate Beer Bars
Current location: San Francisco

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

Richmond District of San Francisco

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

Baseball in grammar school. Lost the 1992 CYO championship game at Larsen Park playing catcher when a fat kid barrelled into me & knocked the ball loose to score the winning run.

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

First in a bar was at 18…

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

…a Bass at Dave & Busters in Union City. It was part of a meetup for the Straight Dope Message Board. Didn’t tell my parents because they watched Oprah and knew everyone on the Internet was an evil pervert.

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 took a few courses at CCSF but nothing substantial. Took a photoghraphy class, and an improv class and helped build sets a bit, as I did theater the last three years of high school.

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.”

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

I’m not entirely sure I had what could be called an epiphany. I learned to drink at Trad’r Sam at 26th & Geary when I was NOT A SECOND YOUNGER THAN 21, that’s fer sure, even though I had my 21st birthday party there and everyone already knew me. It’s hardly a beer mecca, but as I’d burn out on Scorpion Bowls and Grasshoppers, I’d start cycling through the better offerings, which were (and I’m pretty sure still are) Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale, and Red Hook ESB. I didn’t know much about beer besides that the usual Bud/Miller/Coors offerings were fucking awful, and that even at around 22 years old, I really didn’t need to get drunk that badly.

I did start to realize that I was really preferring microbrews, both for taste and for the more forgiving effects the next morning compared to Trad’r's other offerings. Speakeasy (specifically their marketing) caught my eye, and I found some at Blackwell’s Wine Shop on Geary, and Prohibition’s my go-to beer ever since. It’s pretty ubiquitous in SF now, but back then, you’d only find it in places that put some effort into the beer selection, and I’d always take a look around and see what else was available, trying them from time to time, and it all just snowballed over this decade from “hey there’s a brewpub, let’s try that sometime” and “Budweiser only? Uh, I’ll just have a Diet Coke” to leaving every city I visit (even if it’s for just a weekend) an expert on their beer bars and “HOW THE HELL DID I JUST DROP A HUNDRED AND THIRTY DOLLARS AT CITY BEER?!”

Beer Blog Background

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

Started organizing ideas in May 2009 and jumoped around the various blogging services before landing at WordPress in late June.

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

Whenever I travel, I try to cobble together a good list of beer destinations from Yelp, BeerAdvocate, Beer Mapping and sites like that, but if you don’t know a city, a huge list of bars is daunting to sift through, and Yelp reviews can be fickle. Plus standards for what is called a “beer bar” vary wildly- in SF Beer Mapping, Pig & Whistle and Gestalt are on equal footing with places like Toronado & Monk’s Kettle. This always frustrated me, so I figured I could at least try to solve this problem by taking the best parts of all these sites and getting them in one place, so someone visiting SF can find a pub with a bunch of west coast IPAs that he can bring his kid to, or find a nice restaurant with a sour beer or two he can bring his spouse to for a special occasion. Tie in transit, maps, and try to present a (mostly) unbiased snapshot of the place so people can get a good idea of the places they might enjoy without having to try to find the average of 200 Yelp reviews.

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

Pretty self-explanatory, but I thought “San Francisco Beer Bars” would sound too generic, plus that’s what everyone’s SF page is titled. Had to include something San Francisco-y in the title, though, as I’m one of those obnoxious natives who capitalizes “The City” and means it. Plus I wanted something easily memorable and Googleable.

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

I really want to make the best single site to help a beer lover plan a trip to San Francisco, whether people stay on my site or use it as a starting point.

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

Well, I was interviewed for something for the first time since high school; that’s pretty spiffy. Plus it’s nice being in the loop of new breweries and bars opening up. And if Yaeger become the next Michael Jackson, I have an autographed copy of his first book.

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

BeerAdvocate, Beer Mapping (as I’ve always been a map geek), and probably Brian Yaeger’s Examiner site. Though I follow many, many more (86 Twitters and 54 RSS feeds at the moment).

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

West Coast IPAs, sours, and amber/reds. When people call me and say “Hey, I’m in Portland/Chicago/Pittsburgh/etc, want me to bring you back some beer?” that’s what I tell them.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Speakeasy, RRBC, and Drake’s, though the third spot is often occupied by my latest discovery.

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

I guess I’d have to say Speakeasy, as I like their hops, and I know some of those guys. Then again, maybe someone like Richard Brewer-Hay of Elizabeth St Brewery, trying to bring even more awesome beer to what’s already an awesome beer town.

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

No, but I’ve sat in with other friends as they brewed. I don’t have the room in my apartment, nor frankly the ambition, and luckily I live somewhere where you can’t throw a rock without hitting an awesome beer. Almost literally, as I live right between Toronado & Lucky 13. My friend Vince in Santa Rosa did brew one of my favprite all-time beers, a honey wheat which isn’t even a style I generally like at all.

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

I don’t suppose “Bay Area Beer Blogger” counts. Nor a half-completed stamp card from 99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall in Santa Cruz?

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

I know this makes everyone wince when I say it, but I am so *not* a foodie. That said, I’ve had great meals at places like Monk’s Kettle- I have to summon all my willpower to keep myself from going in for a beer and a pretzel eveytime I walk by- as well as pretty creative pairings at places like T-Rex in Berkeley, which makes beer cocktails (they have one that’s Racer 5 with vodka and hot sauce- fantastic!). I’m also beginning to develop a decent palate for cheese, which will hopefully open some culinary doors for me.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

Desk jockey at a clinic. Data input, phones, all that stuff that drives a man to drink.

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?

I’d be either a great baseball announcer on the radio, as I’ve been listening to the Giants on the radio my whole life and love it dearly, or Zane Lamprey because he and Pleepleus have the best job in the history of everything.

3. Are you married? Children?

No and no.

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

I’ve been into photography for some time now, though I’ve definitely tapered off in the past year. I’m also a bit of an SF history buff.

Off The Beaten Path

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

Probably a sour. Scary and unapproachable at first, but it just might grow on you.

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?

Hrm. I think I’d say Magnolia’s Proving Ground on cask. It’s already a wonderfully complex, hoppy beer, but putting it on cask just adds so much more to it. I’m always disappointed when they don’t have it.

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?

As I tell people, I’m the bar guy, not the beer guy. I leave the beermaking to the many who do it well. But if I had to, all I can be sure of is that I’d dry hop the crap out of it. I love beers that actually smell like a hop (Drake’s Denogginizer, Victory’s Hop Devil).

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

Most people would say that not getting hangovers isn’t a superpower, but they haven’t had one of my hangover from the past few years. You can only drink so much Propel with Alka-Seltzer in a morning. Barring that, teleportation. I hate flying but enjoy traveling.

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

I once ate a live cat. No, not really.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

I like it but it’s reached Whedon-esque levels of fanboy obnoxiousness. Yes, it’s awesome, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT UP ABOUT IT.

SPECIAL THANKS TO JEFF (OR IS IT TROY) FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!