Featured Beer Blogger: NICHOLAS ANDERSON

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: NICK ANDERSON

AUTHOR OF: BEERMONGER

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Nicholas Dean Anderson
Internet nickname (if applicable): Um…”Stop writing me; I keep telling you you’re not the father– that Dell guy is…” Don’t have one, really.
Twitter handle: the_beermonger
Name of blog: Beermonger (www.beermonger.net)
Current location: Inside the Beltway, the DMV, Washington DC Metro Area. That’s all you get.

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up? Well, I grew up all around Northern VA. I was born up here and lived about an hour away in a town called Middleburg until I reached Kindergarten age (more about that here). After that I split my time between the towns of Vienna and McLean.
2. What sports if any did you play growing up, through college and beyond? Nothing organized or official. My dad was a big basketball fan, so there’s that. I grew up during the Redskins heyday so I’m a lifer there. Big Hockey phase in High School. The only thing I really participated in a big way was Martial Arts. I studied Tae Kwon Do through Junior High into High School, and my Uncle who’s a world-class Sambo player, Judoka and Jujitsu instructor got me into those, which led to my love of all things MMA.
3. How old were you when you had your first beer? Believe it or not, I was 17. I actually only missed one day of High School. Yup, I was that guy.
4. If you can recall, what is the story of your first beer? Where did you have it? What style and brand was it? It was the weekend before my best friend went away for college, so us and another friend got a 12 pack of Bud from somewhere (still don’t know) and crushed it. About 2 1/2 beers in, I caught a little buzz and enjoyed it through the rest. My buddy, after his fourth, was decimated. It was hilarious.
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 attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg VA for a couple semesters (Fall ’97-Spring ’98). I started as a Music Major (guitar) with the intent of going into Recording Technology, but rediscovered a love for playing and started shifting to Performance. My only activities were sleeping in (if at all), drinking way too much and working at the library. I received a one-year ‘Academic Suspension’ and took that as a hint that I might not be welcome back. In all honesty it wasn’t for me.

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: I’m nerdy about everything that interests me, so I got into Sierra Nevada and Pete’s pretty quickly. The real ‘moment’ was my first trip to Tucson in early ’99. A friend said I should check out this beer they had out there call Arrogant Bastard. The full story is here. I was hooked.
2. Have you have additional craft beer epiphanies since the first? Detail as many of them as you wish: Dogfish, for sure. The first 90 Minute I ever had just blew my little brain apart.  From there discovering their whole line really made me a believer in craft beer. Finally, after trying many times, to “get” Delirium Tremens and Belgian beer in general. Taking my first wine store job and perusing the walk-in fridge stocked by the beer geek who’d worked there before me. That was like finding the Library of Alexandria. There was almost full lineups of stuff from Cantillon, Abbey des Rocs, Hair of the Dog, Dogfish cork & cage 750mL’s of 90 and 120 and a vertical of Anchor X-Mas going back to ’94. I learned a lot that spring/summer.

Beer Blog Background

1. How long have you been writing your beer blog? I’m celebrating two years with beermonger.net on the 15^th of April.
2. What inspired you to start writing your blog? Working as the Beer Buyer at Rick’s Wine in Alexandria, I thought it would be cool for the regular customers and new peeps to be able to follow what was happening as it was happening. That and I just enjoy writing.
3. Why did you choose the name of your blog? I’d chosen ‘Beermonger’ as my title at work because it amused me (I still have a couple cards with it on there for proof). It only made sense to call the blog that.
4. What are you personal goals for your blog? What do you hope to achieve with it? Now I try to use it as a creative outlet more than anything else. I work in wine during the day, so this keeps a tether into the beer world for me. I suspect that like a lot of other bloggers I dream of finding someone or someway to make a living traveling and trying beers and giving my opinion on them. But if this only ever keeps me writing, that’s enough.
5. What is one of the coolest things that happened to you as a result of being a beer blogger? Well, when I became the Wine Buyer at Rick’s, I had to eventually give up the Beer side. I threw a post up asking if anyone wanted the job and actually found my replacement, Jon Brandt (who has an excellent blog of his own at beermudgeon.wordpress.com.
6. What are you top 3 favorite beer blogs/beer websites? I used to spend a lot of time on Beer Advocate and really should spend more there now. I love Hoptopia’s approach and output. Tom Cizauskas of Yours for Good Fermentables is a friend and a super-talented guy (not to mention a fountain of knowledge). I’m trying to spend more time on the blogs; it’s tough because I’m so used to just looking up stuff as reference for work. And The Beer Wench, of course!

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles? IPA, Stout, anything Rye.
2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries? Dogfish Head, Stone. The third is in rotation, with Lagunitas, Victory, Heavy Seas, Flying Dog, Russian River, Allagash, Brooklyn and many others coming and going.
3. If you could work with or for any one brewery, which one would it be and why? Tough question. Dogfish is kind of a dream job for me. Like I said, they really initiated me into what beer could be and how creative limits could be pushed. I’ve thought of myself as someone preaching the gospel of beer for a long time and Dogfish is the brewery I’m most likely to cite doing that. About a year ago I took a brewery tour with Sam Calagione and he talked about the affordable luxury aspect of craft beer. This is one of the ‘raps’ I’d go into working retail all the time: How I could spend $60 on maybe one or two bottles of wine that interested me, but for the same coin I could get two or three cases of some of the best beers on the planet. That just made me want to work for them more.  If not Dogfish I’d love to spread the word for some West Coast guys, though, like Lagunitas or Stone or Russian River if they ever make it out here fulltime.
4. Are you a homebrewer? If yes, what is the most unique and interesting beer recipes you’ve brewed as a homebrewer? Between the guitars, wines, beers, comics and video games I have enough expensive hobbies so no, I don’t homebrew. Maybe someday.
5. Do you have any beer certifications (BJCP, Cicerone, Siebel, American Brewers Guild)?? If so, what are they? I was looking at the Cicerone before I took my current job, and I might go for a wine cert at some point.
6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing? About a year and a half ago my wife and I had dinner at Brasserie Beck in DC. My main course was rabbit braised in Kriek and I had a De Dolle Oerbier with it. Still haven’t gotten over that.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job? I work for a small Italian Wine Importer as their Northern Virginia Representative.
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 love to play guitar again full time. I’d still give myself time to write though.
3. Are you married? Children? I’ve been married going on a year (it’ll be a year in May). I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies. Yet.
4. Outside of beer and writing, what are some of your other hobbies? Music, obviously; I’m a gigantic comic book nerd too. I love gaming and sports (NFL, MMA, NHL, Formula One—pretty much whatever’s in season except baseball). I’m a car and auto racing dork. I’m a history buff, amateur cook and a total nerd for politics. I love politics. It’s kind of the family sport.

Off The Beaten Path

1. If you were a style of beer, what style would be and why? Black IPA: Dark and bitter (this is guaranteed to make my wife laugh).
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? Guinness. In a proper imperial pint glass. That’s my ‘deserted island’ beer, too. I’d miss everything else, but I couldn’t live the rest of my life unable to have a pint.
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? Something based on you? I see some kind of cross between Rogue Chipotle Ale and the Pale Indian Ale that Dogfish had at Rehoboth last summer. The Pale Indian was a Saison type with Indian spices. It was kinda like drinking a samosa. I could see some of the exotic spices with some heat working for you (this isn’t creepy because I’m married, right?). If you’re asking what beer I’d like to make…I’ve got a couple ideas, and I really shouldn’t give this one away. Oh well, here it is: DIPA made with passion fruit. Call it IPAnema. I’ll be here all night, folks.
4. If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be? I totally had the Banky moment from Mallrats when I saw this: What abilities would I want? Weighing the pros/cons of certain power sets…I’d either have to go for the Superman Platter or some really obscure and seemingly worthless quirky power like Speedball (Google him, he’s hilarious). A guy like Cyclops appeals to me somehow: I think growing up with a lapsed Catholic family makes me interested in a guy who has to spend every second holding back his ability. If I were younger and less stocky I’d go Spider-Man in a second, though. Too many choices…
5. What is one of the craziest things you have ever done and lived to tell the story? 24 shots of Jim Beam and about a dozen beers in just over four hours. Not telling the rest of that one. Ok, here’s one I will tell: High School. Same summer as that ‘first beer’ story. Same two friends with me, actually. Well, I’m driving us in the Foxmobile, the ’81 Corolla wagon (with fake wood paneling) that was my first car. We’re heading down this side road late one night and with some egging on, I decided to go F1 with the little Toyota. There’s a section of this road with a pretty good straight that goes into a serious uphill ‘S’ with a bike path bisecting it. So I’ve got the ‘mobile up to about 65 or 70 (a feat in itself) when the S comes up, and it comes up really quick. Through blind luck, we careen through the wooden stumps that marked the borders of the bike path, over the bike path, the trees on the side of the road, and come out on the apex of the next turn without hitting anything or anybody. The rest of the drive was pretty quiet. The hill has since been smoothed out a bit.
6. What are your thoughts on bacon? Anywhere, anytime. The advent of bacon chocolate has changed my life a bit. I’m trying to work up a recipe for bacon chocolate ice cream, actually. For a half-redneck somewhat Southern Boy like me there’s nothing quite like some Hickory smoke to get the blood up. I’m thinking about picking up a copy of The Bacon Book; I was going to some time ago but there are some esoteric recipes that I wasn’t sure I could find cuts and ingredients for, but this past weekend my wife took me to a local International Market that I didn’t know existed and now I’m all psyched up to make Japanese Pork Belly. So yes, bacon. Glory.

SPECIAL THANKS TO NICK FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!