Featured Beer Blogger: MERIDETH CANHAM-NELSON

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!

Welcome to the first interview of two in a mini-series featuring the authors of TheBeerGeek.Com and BeerGeek.TV! TheBeerGeek.com is co-authored by a husband-wife team from California. Together they have joined on a mission to visit as many breweries and pubs around the world as humanly possible.

INTRODUCING: MERIDETH CANHAM-NELSON

CO-AUTHOR OF: THE BEER GEEK

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Merideth Canham-Nelson
Twitter handle: @Girlbeergeek
Name of blog: thebeergeek.com
Current location: Carmel Valley, CA

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

Carmel, CA

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

I know you’re gonna laugh, but I’ll tell you anyway: cheerleading 7th –12th grade

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

Luckily my mom won’t be reading this…13.

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

Don’t really remember, but my father was a Silver Bullet man so maybe Coors. Whatever it was, I’m pretty sure it was cheapest on the shelf.

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 UC Berkeley and earned a BA in Psychology and Social Welfare. Partying, studying, and going to Cal sporting events were my primary interests in college. I began life as a beer traveler just after Cal. Later I got my Master of Social Work degree from Sacramento State.

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:

It has really been more of an evolution, rather than any sort of “Aha” moment. In the late 80s, Raleigh’s in Berkeley opened. I wasn’t quite old enough to drink there, but I was exposed to the many great breweries in the Bay Area at the time. In 1991, when Barclay’s opened in our neighborhood in Oakland, my love of craft beer blossomed and I became a full fledged, card carrying beer geek.

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

I used to state categorically that I didn’t like Belgian (or Belgian style) beers. That all changed when I went to Belgium. It’s a prime example of why our blog encourages people to travel and experience beers within their own context. There’s a reason different beer styles developed in particular parts of the world. They’re just better to drink there.

Beer Blog Background

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

Since July 2007

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

It seemed like the natural next step in our development as craft beer lovers.

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

Chris came up with the name before the term ‘beer geek’ became so ubiquitous. Originally, it mostly focused on him, so it is singular: thebeergeek. Later we decided to bring me out of the woodwork, but the name was already going, so we left it. We’re pretty much joined at the hip, so I suppose the name still fits.

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

Our biggest aim is to encourage people to find their own beer adventures. We want to show that anyone, not just hardcore beer geeks, can have a great beer experience.

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

We tend not to say what we do when we visit new beer places. On our blog we want to show what every person can do, not the perks we get once people find out we write a beer blog. Having said that, the coolest thing was when we were invited to be part of the media group for the inaugural Philly Beer Week. Among other things, they treated us to dinner with Tom Peters at Monk’s. Now that’s cool!

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

• Girlsguidetobeer.blogspot.com (love her tagline: “Taking the beard out of beer.”)
• Pencilandspoon.blogspot.com (Mark Dredge’s recent Englishman’s guide to SF beer is quite funny)
• Beerretard.com (Chris is a friend and his anti-beer douche, acerbic, cynical humor is the best, if not slightly politically incorrect)

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

I like everything from stouts and porters to blondes, but my favorite beer styles are German. Since you’re making me be specific, I’d say kölsch, helles, and altbier.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries? My three favorite breweries to visit are:

Andechs, Fruh am Dom, and Weisses Brauhaus.

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

I’d love to be part of a family who has been brewing for hundreds of years. It takes a heck of a lot of pride to continue brewing the same beer in the same brewery as your great x5 grandparents did.

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

Much to the surprise of most people, I do not homebrew.

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

Nope. I’ll leave that for the people without hay fever and with good palates.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

I don’t have a particular favorite, but I know it’s a good pairing if I can actually drink a beer I don’t like with the food it’s served with. Once the food is gone, I usually still don’t like the beer and can’t drink it alone.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

Psychiatric Social Worker

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’m trying to figure out how to get paid for beer travel. Inspirational speakers say find something you love and get paid for it. I must not have gone to enough seminars because I’ve been loving beer for years now and it still doesn’t pay for itself.

3. Are you married? Children?

I’ve been married to Chris Nelson, my beer traveling companion and best friend, for over 20 years. Human kids? They would just get in the way of my travel and beer drinking. We have two wiener dogs, Porter and Stout.

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

Tattoos, Orchids, and don’t laugh, card making.

Off The Beaten Path

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

A German Helles, not only because it’s one of my favorite beers, but also because I’d like to be seen as someone who you can spend all afternoon with and not get bored of, someone who is mellow, but still fun.

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?

The one I got caught with as a final “Eff you.”

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?

Since I don’t brew, I’d hire Sam Calagione to make it for me. Off centered beer…

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

The ability to mute people engaging in asinine conversations or perhaps the ability to shoot paralyzing darts out my nipples.

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

Walking across the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge in County Atrim, Northern Ireland. It is 65 ft long and 90ft above the ocean. No safety net. I was scared shitless because the wind was blowing something fierce. I stopped in the middle, but thought, “What the hell am I doing? I need to get OFF this thing.” They closed the bridge shortly after I crossed back to the mainland. They only close the bridge when winds reach 50 mph.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

One of the Universe’s greatest creations. Mmmm, bacon…

SPECIAL THANKS TO MERIDETH FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!