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: LARRY MCINTOSH

AUTHOR OF: MADHOUSE LARRY’S BLOG & USA BEER TRENDS

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Larry McIntosh
Twitter handle: @madhouselarry @TheMADHouseAds @USABeerTrends
Name of blog: madhouselarry’s Blog & USABeerTrends
Current location: Austin, TX

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

East Point, GA, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, St. Petersburg, FL, Alexandria, LA

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

Football, soccer, baseball, track, surfing, water skiing growing up. Mostly water skiing and soccer in college years. Now, mountain and road cycling, snow skiing, and living vicariously through my kids’ sports.

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

I don’t recall. I remember sneaking sips as a kid in Atlanta (1960s). Carlings, Falstaff and such. My first clandestine whole beer consumption may have occurred in Ponte Vedra (1970s). I was 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?

There was this big, pro tennis tournament going on during the day at the country club. That evening, some of the surf rats I hung out with mentioned that the beverage people forgot to lock up a cooler with a few beers in it. We partook. I think it was Budweiser. We snagged the 3 or 4 beers left and went over to the golf course to drink them. No buzz, but some of the best and loudest burps we had ever produced. I’m sure we woke up the alligators in the lagoon.

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 test-drove Auburn for a couple of quarters. That didn’t quite work for me (or them). While back at home, helping my grades recover through intensive study at Louisiana College, I worked as a DJ at the only local FM rock station. That got me interested in communications.

A friend was at The University of Texas at Austin and suggested I look at their communications department. One visit to Austin was all it took. Fell in love with the town and the school had the stuff I was looking for.

My degree is in Radio-Television-Film. Activities while at UT included beer, water skiing, motorcycles, and hitting the live music venues. I mean, it was hard to resist a town where you could go to a club, pay a $3.00 cover, and see The Fabulous Thunderbirds and maybe that Stevie Ray Vaughn kid, too. Yeah.

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:

Did I mention I managed a liquor store my last year or so of college? The beer selection when I started consisted of Bud, Miller, Lite, Coors, Coors Light, Pearl and Lone Star. I slowly started building the selection by adding popular imports of the time (Guinness, Harp, Heineken, Becks, Carlsberg, Fosters, Corona, etc.). Once we had those in place and selling, we began adding the stuff no other stores carried.

Samuel Smith’s, Old Peculiar, Old Nick, Dortmunder, Pilsner Urquell.

The beer guys knew any time they brought a new beer into the market, I’d be willing to give it a shot. When we opened out second location, we had an eight-door cooler. I stocked that puppy full of imports and hard to find (in our region) American beers. Everything from Blatz and Hamm’s to Jax and Olympia.

Then we started seeing real craft beers pop up. Anchor Steam was one of the first “craft beers” we brought in. I found that the beer customers would almost always try the new stuff. Everyone liked to experiment. A trend we still see today out there in the Beer Nation. This was in the early to mid 80s. Not a moment, but a moment in time.

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

I guess the second coming of craft beer for me was when Texas laws changed and brewpubs began sprouting up in Austin. That first wave was cool. I loved going to Waterloo Brewing, having a burger and a beer, and smelling the beer being brewed. Pretty much re-lit the fire for me. I started homebrewing around this time, too.

But, the latest version of my craft beer love affair began about ten years ago. I go to Durango on business regularly and really grew to love the beers from there – Steamworks, Ska, Carvers, Durango Brewing, Pagosa Brewing. I’m always comparing them with the excellent beers brewed here in Central Texas – Independence, Live Oak, 512, Uncle Billy’s, Real Ale, Freetail Brewing, and others. Now, we have even more little breweries ready to crank up here. Exciting times for a beer nerd like me.

Beer Blog Background

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

Just started both this year. The madhouselarry’s Blog talks some about beer, and some about my business, and some just plain random stuff. I started USABeerTrends to gather and deliver informal information regarding craft beer, the people who buy and drink it, and the folks who make it.

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

I was looking to do something different than other blogs. Whereas I read a number of blogs for their beer reviews or find out what’s being released, USABeerTrends is set up to deliver the opinions of others – to help us understand what the Beer Nation is thinking.

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

The URL was available. It’s that simple.

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

In the end, I wouldn’t mind monetizing it, though I don’t ever see it being a moneymaker. Maybe if it’ll pay for an occasional round of beer … Other than that, I’m hoping to help brewers understand better who their customers are and who potential customers might be, and maybe help the brewers make more informed decisions about what they are going to brew or what market they may next enter.

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

Free beer! That’s always cool. I think hooking up with a bunch of Twitter-beer geeks at GABF this year was most excellent. You “meet”, talk, and make friends with people from all over the country, and that’s pretty cool. Through blogging, I’ve met fellow beer buddies TheBeerWench, Hookonwinter, ChipperDave, BeerTownAustin, CraftAustin, TeecycleTim, BeerTodd, and others.

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

Hard to say. I enjoy Charlie Papazian’s stuff, Wenchie is always entertaining, Dave is loaded with Colorado brew info, Tim does good stuff with Beer Runner, Beer at 6512 keeps me in the Durango loop, BeerTownAustin is great with local Austin stuff, PJ always has something interesting to say (Starting a Brewery), and on and on.

Beer Talk

1, What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

IPA, Porter, Stout.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Right now, probably Oakshire, Left Hand, 512

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

Oskar Blues looks like a fun place; Ska Brewing has a great new facility and they have a great vibe; 512, Independence, Live Oak and Real Ale here in Central Texas each offer unique opportunities to learn; Dogfish Head is always pushing the envelope and does a great job of self promotion. Any of these would rock.

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

Yes. Most interesting was a failure, an oaked chocolate porter. Not sure where it went haywire.

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

Nope.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

I’m old and simple. Beer and pizza or a burger – that’s heaven for me. Doesn’t really matter the style.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I’m the Warden of The MAD House, a small advertising and design shop that concentrates on building brands that bring enjoyment to life. We like to help businesses that cater to our passions. So, water and mountain sports, resorts, CRAFT BREWING (Hell-lo!), cycling, food, blah, blah, woof, woof.

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 would own bar on the beach in Tahiti because there is sun, surf, and the women don’t wear no brassieres.

3. Are you married? Children?

Yes, 26.5 years. A 17 y.o. son, and a 12 y.o. daughter.

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

Well, if you read my blogs, you’ll see I’m not much of a writer. I do enjoy mountain and road cycling, homebrewing, family, snow skiing, and really bad photography.

Off The Beaten Path

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

IPA I’m bitter, but I smell good.

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?

Today’s choice (which would be different from yesterday’s or tomorrow’s) would be Great Divide’s 15th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA, if any were left.

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?

Having seen the Wench in action, it would have to be smooth, but in your face all at once. A session brew, I think, with the power to last, but complex enough to surprise with every sip. It would have to remain calm in a cab stuck in Denver traffic, and then not get over-carbonated downstairs at the Rock in the company of Sam Calagione. Say no more.

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

First, I’d need to fly. Then the power to be invisible. Of course, the power to drink as much beer as I want while maintaining a blood alcohol level that is still legal would be cool.

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

(Disclaimer. Of the list of things I showed my lawyer, these are the only two he’d let me talk about.)

As a kid, unintentionally jumped a tugboat wake in the middle of the night in a friend’s overpowered Boston Whaler. Three of us were buzzing along about 40 mph in the middle of Tampa Bay way too late at night when the horizon suddenly went dark. Next thing we knew we were airborne. Way airborne. Engine screaming, us screaming. The boat torqued over to the right in the air and landed on its side and almost went over. The kid on the right side got soaked. All of the stuff in the boat flew out. We looked back and realized we’d hit the huge wake from a tugboat that was cruising out to the Gulf. Now, this is the kind of stuff we would normally do during the daylight hours – on purpose. At least then you can gauge speed, wake height and such. Oh, and you know where the wake is. Good times.

Either that, or, as a 12 year old, trying to surf on 10 foot East Coast storm waves with a 5’4″ beater of a surfboard. Back then, a big day was chest high. These puppies were double overhead plus. I had no business being out there, got caught inside when a big set rolled in and got worked by 4 waves in row. Had an intimate conversation with God as I bounced across the bottom in darkness asking him to please turn the washing machine off. When I finally popped up, the set was done. A buddy who was wisely paddling in grabbed my raggedy ass, stuck me on the front of his board and helped me in. We just sat on the beach the rest of the day and watched Mother Ocean go off. Next day was chest high and glassy and I was back at it. Ahh, youth.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

Bacon tastes good. Pork chop tastes good. Bacon wrapped pork chop tastes real good. I like me some bacon.

SPECIAL THANKS TO LARRY FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

At the end of August, a good friend and I embarked upon the cross country road trip of a lifetime. The road trip had multiple purposes — 1. it was my big move from Florida to California (my whole life actually fit into a Dodge Neon = ridiculous) 2. it was the preliminary launch of our (Shana’s and mine) social media expose called Project Y-ine (a research project focused on studying and observing the drinking habits of Generation Y) and 3. it was an opportunity to travel for beer events all throughout the South.

The one destination that neither of us had ever been to and had been anticipating since the beginning of the trip was Austin, Tx. Austin is the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of The World” and is known for being a young, hip, liberal & very artsy city. And, of course, it is also known for having a kickass food & beverage scene.

Prior to our visit, my friend Chris from the blog Beer Town Austin set up a few beer events and Texas beer tastings with two local bars. One such bar was Uncle Billy’s Brew and Que. They have developed quite the reputation amongst beer geeks — both local and national. The GM, Ryan, was extremely hospitable and took me on a tour of the brewpub brewing facilities.

Here is the video footage of the behind the scenes tour of Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que:

(I apologize in advance for the darkness of the video. This is my first attempt at editing and I know that I have a lot of kinks to work out. Bear with me …)

After two amazing beer nights in New Orleans, my traveling companion (Shana) and I decided to “take a break” from beer for a night of vino with the authors of Another Wine Blog in Houston, TX. Another Wine Blog is the brainchild of Amy and Joe, a husband-wife team dedicated to wine, food and home-brewing. They currently reside next to NASA right outside of Houston, TX — but something tells me that may change in the very near future (wine country or bust).

The night began at a fun little pub called Boondoggles. Poor Shana. Just when she thought she was finally getting an evening of wine — we ended up at a pub. The beer menu was decent (a mix of corporate, craft, local craft & German imports). The food menu was your classic fried pub fare and pizza goodness.

Prior to that night, I had never tasted a beer from Texas. Joe steered me towards Saint Arnold, a local Houston brewery. Naturally, I went with the IPA. The Saint Arnold IPA was relatively light in body (for an IPA) and it had a very mild sweet grass hop and hay aroma. The taste was clean with very low malt flavors and a mild hop bitterness. Overall, it reminded me more of a pale ale than an IPA — but it was good. It went very well with the spicy, fried appetizers we ordered as well as the “Tejas” pizza (chorizo, andouille sausage, onions, jalapenos, Texas goat cheese, romano and provolone cheese).

From there, we went to a wine bar for some vino and dessert. I also got an opportunity to play chess — which I got my ass kicked in by Joe. Nonetheless, my brain appreciated the stimulation.

The next morning, Amy took me and Shana to see some of the rockets at Nasa. I assume that at some point or another everyone dreams of being an astronaut — well, I did at least. Unfortunately, I never visited the Kennedy Space Center when I lived in Orlando, FL. Luckily, I got the opportunity to check out Rocket Park at NASA.

After the brief stop at NASA, Shana and I found ourselves back on the road headed towards Austin, TX. Lucky for us, this leg of the road trip was the shortest.

For some time now, I have been wanting to visit Austin. After all, it is a college town — young, hip, progressive and unique. And on top of that, it is also the “Live Music Capital of The World.”

Being the bacon and pork obsessed human that I have become in the past year, it was only natural that I visit my good twitter friend — the one, the only, the most infamous — BACONATOR. Luckily, he turned out to be of the non-serial killer type and was willing to put us up for 2 … errrr 3 … nights.

Unfortunately for me, but fortunate for Shana and Baconator, we only had one night of beer consumption in Austin. BUT OHhhh what a glorious night it was …

Prior to arriving in Austin, I had already setup a night of beer debauchery and fun with Chris Troutman from a local Austin beer blog called “Beer Town Austin.” And from there it spiraled into a super awesome Austin tweetup (aka organization of people who interact via twitter) involving local beer geeks drinking local beers in local beer bars and noshing on local food.

The first establishment we visited was The Draught House Pub & Brewery.

Much to my surprise and UTTER delight, The Draught House had New Belgium’s La Folie on tap. Now for those of your who live in states where New Belgium is distributed, this might not sound like a big deal. But, for me, it is. La Folie is New Belgium’s original wood-conditioned beer that rests in French Oak barrels between one and three years before being hand bottled, numbered and corked. It is deep crimson brown in color with a pungent apple cider vinegar and wild yeast aroma. The taste is smack you in the face, pucker-up the lips, destroy the sides of your cheeks sour. Think sour cherries and tart vinegar with a slight hint of old wet wood.

Starting off with La Folie definitely set the mood right. Austin food blogger Jenny Chen took the whole mood to another level when she showed up with two coolers full of boozy confections. In addition to authoring the blog “MisoHungry Makes It With Moonshine“, Jenny is also the local founder of the Cupcake Smack-down. In honor of our visit to Austin, she whipped up 3 out of this world recipes made with local Austin beer.

1. Drunken German Chocolate Cupcakes – 512 Cask Pecan Porter Cake filled with coconut, almonds, and Irish Cream topped with chocolate pecan praline liquor butter cream and a maple bourbon pecan

2. Drunken Lamingtons – twist on the traditional Lamingtons recipe adding beer (Shiner Bock for this particular batch) to the cake batter, and 512 Pecan Porter to the chocolate syrup.

3. Uncle Billy’s Coffee Porter Cupcakes – Uncle Billy’s Coffee Porter Chocolate cake filled with kahlua and nutella, topped with a Irish Cream Cream Cheese frosting and cocoa roasted almond.

The boys from Beer Town Austin also met us up at The Draught House. They organized a tasting of all the Texas beers on tap with the owner and brewmaster. Chris and I filmed our tasting and the footage will be released in the near future after it is edited. We tasted several beers and, instead of listing them now, I will wait to reveal them when the video is ready.

The highlight of the entire Texas beer tasting was The Draught House’s very own Jakima Saison. This was one of the most cloudy beers that I have ever seen. And the color was a really unique bright orange. Normally, the saison style has an aroma of Belgian yeast and a bit of barnyard funk. The Jakima Saison aroma was pure hops — and Simcoe was definitely on the nose (this was later confirmed). It was definitely the most interesting saison-style beer that I have ever tasted — everything about it was crazy (color, aroma & taste). BUT regardless of its weirdness, it was damn tasty.

The next stop of the night was Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que. Almost immediately after arriving, the GM Ryan took a few of us on a tour of Uncle Billy’s brewing facility. I captured the tour on video and the footage will be released after minor edits. Following the brewery tour, we were given a few sample flights of Uncle Billy’s beer. Ryan led us through an official tasting of each beer — which was also captured in soon-to-be-released video footage.

My favorite Uncle Billy’s beer was definitely the Double IPA. SHOCKING, I know. It has a nice balance of malt and hops — with the 3 C’s being the main hops used.

The beer tasting was followed by more of MisoHungry’s amazing cupcakes as well as a burger run.

Unfortunately for the sake of the blog, the Texas beer experience ended here. The remainder of time spent in Austin involved a few cocktails, lots of wine, BBQ, ice cream, endless amounts of hot sauce, amazing food and a crazy night of rock band.

Stay tuned for more information on my cross country road trip!!! Next stop — Los Angeles, California.

Cheers!

]]> http://drinkwiththewench.com/?feed=rss2&p=1549 2 http://drinkwiththewench.com/?p=1461 http://drinkwiththewench.com/?p=1461#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:02:53 +0000 Wenchie http://drinkwiththewench.com/?p=1461

You must forgive me, for I have been terribly rude.

You see, for two weeks now I have been planning an intense 11 day road trip across the southern most states of the United States. And I have not even made one mention of it on my blog — for which I apologize.

The original purpose of the road trip was merely to move to a TBD location in Northern California.

Now, the trip has become so much more.

A good friend of mine, Shana Ray, developed a rather intruging idea for a market research project for the wine industry consisting of traveling across the country interviewing members of Generation Y about their wine consumption. The project was still in development phase when I ran into her at the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference in Napa & Sonoma.

Attending the Wine Bloggers Conference was the final push I needed to move to California. It was the 4th time, in the course of 11 months, that I had visited the “Bay Area”. Each and every time I visited, I swore to myself (and many of my friends) that I would move there. And now I am finally holding true to my word.

This Monday, August 17th, I disembarked on a cross country voyage that will take me through the cities of Tampa, New Orleans, Houston, Austin, TBD New Mexico, Phoenix, Los Angeles and TBD NorCal.

After a bit of persuasion and a few glasses of wine, Shana Ray made the commitment to join me on the adventure. We decided that there is no time like the present to launch the preliminary phase of her market research project on the drinking habits of Generation Y.

ANNOUNCING PROJECT Y-INE — the first social media exposé on Generation Y and their drinking habits from the minds of Shana Ray and Ashley V Routson.

Project Y-ine will go past the generic survey questions and talk to people in their own backyards, bars or wherever else they hang out and drink with friends. The research and findings will be documented in an interactive, social media based journal of the experience, utilizing several social media platforms to capture their experience –including blogging, video-blogging, tweeting, facebooking, twitpic’ing, etc.

The move could not have come at a more opportune moment in my life as The Beer Wench. I’m about to launch my blog into the next phase. The talented people from Venataur Web Design recently developed a new interface for my blog. In addition to a new “look and feel,” I am in the process of reorganizing the content of my blog.

BUT. La creme de la creme of the entire “makeover” will be the addition of video blogs. The use of video on my blog will begin with my cross country trip. I have beer events set up in 3 of the cities along the trip:

1. New Orleans with Jeremy Labadie of “The Beer Buddha”

2. Austin with Chris Troutman of “Beer Town Austin”

3. Los Angeles with Chris Spradley of “Brewerires Bars and Beer Food”

I will do my best to announce the dates, times and places we will be meeting for each of the events. If you are in the area, you are more than welcome to join us and I am open to additional collaborations along the way (email me at drinkwiththewench@gmail.com)

Last but not least, I am also excited to announce that I will be attending both the Great Lakes Brew Fest as well as the Great American Beer Festival in September. Details of both of those trips are to come.

Keep your eyes peeled in the very near future for a new Drink With The Wench interface as well as the addition of video to the blog!

Cheers!