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Featured Beer Blogger: THE BEER WENCH

Wenchie — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:48:34 +0000

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: THE BEER WENCH

AUTHOR OF: DRINK WITH THE WENCH

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Ashley Virginia Routson
Internet nicknames: The Beer Wench & Wenchie. (Do not even ask me how, why and when people started calling me Wenchie. The Beer Wench was meant to be a BADASS name … but somewhere along the road people decided to give me a cutsie little nickname. Crazy kids.)
Twitter handle: @TheBeerWench
Name of blog: Drink With The Wench
Current location: I am a gypsy. (But currently reside in Berkeley, CA)

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

I was born in Denver, but grew up in the town of Montgomery — just 60 miles north of Manhattan in the very beautiful and historical Hudson Valley, NY. And despite what all the the city folks love to say, I am not from UPSTATE New York. I am from DOWNSTATE.

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

I swam competitively from age 6 till I was nearly 21. My swimming career ended with a debilitating bicep injury while in college and I was forced to quit just 6 weeks before the Big Ten Swimming & Diving Championships. (I tore my bicep in the weight room and trained on it until I could not lift my arm. I couldn’t even write. It was bad.)

In middle school and high school, I was on the track team. Although sprinting was my forte, I dabbled in almost every single field event — hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put, decathalon and I’m proud to say that I was the VERY FIRST female polevaulter in my school.

After quitting swimming, I played intramural ice hockey for a quarter at Ohio State. Then my senior year at Ohio State I joined the novice rowing team. After a month on the novice squad, the varsity coach moved me up. An ankle injury was my ultimate downfall and I got surgery just one month before the season started. Instead of quitting, I ended up holding my place on the varsity squad as a coxswain. And no, I did not just yell “stroke stroke stroke” the entire time.

What else? I grew up on a river and have sweet canoeing skills.

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

Technically, I had my first taste of beer while in the womb. Apparently, my mother’s doctor told her it was safe for her to have a half of beer a day during pregnancy. And naturally, my mother indulged. My father wasn’t too thrilled about coming home to a half of a warm beer sitting on the counter, though.

To this day, my mom attests that beer sent her in labor. Whether or not this is true, is debatable. Regardless, I was born to be The Beer Wench.

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

The first beer I actually remember drinking was Samuel Adams Boston Lager. My mother went to Boston College and my parents eloped in Boston. Despite the fact that my mother was born and raised in NYC, she has a weird loyalty to Boston (picks the Red Sox over both the Yankees and the Mets).

Samuel Adams was my mother’s beer of choice. Spaten was my father’s beer of choice. Those were the only two beers that I saw in my house growing up.

Speaking of Spaten and my Dad, that is a great story as well. My Dad rarely ever drinks anything other than Spaten. I’ve never known anyone so loyal to one brand of beer than my father. Our garage refrigerator is always stocked with it. Like always. My Dad brings his own beers to parties because he does not trust anyone else’s tastes. On my 21st birthday, instead of getting kegs of cheap beer for my college-aged cheap friends, he got Spaten. My Dad even brought Spaten to my cousin’s wedding.

Needless to say, I grew up being exposed to “good” beer and craft beer growing up.

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 love this question. Why? Because I love to live in the “glory days.” I am extremely proud of my achievements at The Ohio State University. I graduated with two B.A. degrees, varsity letters in 2 different sports and I was also involved in several school organizations. I guess you can call me an overachiever.

For this question, I will copy and paste from my resume:

The Ohio State University, 2001 – 2005, Columbus, OH
B.A., Psychology/B.A., Criminology, GPA: 3.6, Cum Laude

*Big Ten Scholar Athlete Award 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
*Ohio State Scholar Athlete Award 2002, 2003, 2004 ,2005
*Ohio State Varsity Swimming & Diving 2001-2004
*Ohio State Varsity Rowing 2004-2005
*Most Improved OSU Female Swimmer 2002
*Buckeye Power Club Award 2003
*Student-Athlete Advisory Board, Marketing Chair
*Romophos Sophmore Honorary (social chair)
*Bucket & Dipper Junior Honorary
*Mortar Board National Senior Honorary
*National Society of Collegiate Scholars
*Golden Key International Honor Society

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:

My first craft beer epiphany was with DogFish Head’s Midas Touch. At the time I discovered it, I was managing a restaurant in Columbus, OH. I was also studying for sommelier certification and extremely into wine. This was back in the day when DogFish Head did not have a wide distribution and its specialty beers were extremely limited and hard to find. My restaurant was able to secure two cases of Midas Touch (which back then was a lot to get).

Being the “beverage manager,” I made sure to do my research about the beer before it came in. The concept of the beer completely blew my mind. I learned that it was brewed based on an ancient recipe from a DNA analysis of scrapings from barrels in King Midas’ tomb. The ingredients themselves were so weird for beer: honey, saffron, white muscat grapes and barley.

Now you must remember, I was an uber wine geek at that time. So they idea of a “winey beer” really excited me. The flavor delivered as well. This beer completely changed the way I thought about beer and encouraged e to push my beer palate to the extreme.

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

The next beer epiphany was Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale. It was my first taste of an American IPA. It was this beer that turned me into a total hophead. Over the course of two years, while still in Ohio, I probably consumed at least one pint of it a day. No joke. My two favorite beer bars (in my early Drink With The Wench days) always had it on tap. And I used to drink it like water.

My greatest craft beer epiphany BY FAR has to be the first time I ever tasted THE GUEUZE. It was at The Map Room in Chicago in May of 2008. I was in town for the National Restaurant Association Show. Somehow my coworker stumbled upon Brian VanZandbergen of Merchant Du Vin and raved to him about me being a beer blogger.

At this time, I was a total hophead and extreme beer fan. The closest I got to drinking Belgian beers was Unibroue’s La Fin Du Monde and Trois Pistols — which are Belgian styles, not Belgian beers. And I most certainly never touched English of German beers. I wanted my crazy hoppy, big alcohol, over the top flavored beers.

You see, I consider myself to be of the “DogFish Head Generation.” I started drinking extreme beers and completely skipped over the “classic styles.”

Once Brian realized how amateur my palate actually was, he made it his mission to school me on beer. And so my coworker and I piled into his car for a memorable night of beer bar crawling and beer tasting throughout Chicago.

As fate would have it, we ran into Stephen Beaumont — renowned beer writer — at Goose Island brewery. Since then, Stephen has served as an inspiration, tremendous resource and mentor to me. Stephen was also there for my gueuze epiphany.

Long story short (okay I guess it’s a bit late for that), we found ourselves at The Map Room. Brian set us up with a line up of 8 different Merchant Du Vin imported Belgian beers. One of them was Cuvee Renee, Lindeman’s gueuze. From the first sip, I became consumed and obsessed by the gueuze.

And the rest is history.

Beer Blog Background

1. How long have you been writing Drink With The Wench?

I started the website in February of 2007. It was originally titled “The Columbus Beer Wench.”

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

I am a writer. I love writing. And I happen to think that I have an affinity for it. I used to write a random stream of thoughts blog but, after a few months of doing that I decided to really focus my writing skills on one subject.

So I chose beer. Why? Well once I started studying beer, I became obsessed. After I left the restaurant for the marketing and advertising world, I still wanted to be involved in beer. I started hosting tastings and events around town. And then I started my website to help promote my events, recap my events as well as record my tasting notes and experiences.

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

Around the time I started writing her blog, I was working for a marketing and advertising agency. As a result of my job, I understood the importance of establishing a brand (as well as the proper steps of doing it).And so, I sat down one night and forced myself to come up with an Internet beer identity. I wanted something that was relevant to beer, yet playful and ‘rough around the edges’ — just like me. To me, the name Beer Wench is unpretentious and rowdy. However, don’t let the word Wench fool you. The Wench knows her beer.

As for the name Drink With The Wench, that used to be the name of the events I would host around Columbus. When I realized that The Beer Wench URL was taken, I opted for Drink With The Wench.

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

The original goal of the blog was to force me to learn more about beer. When I started it, I was an amateur. I learn best when I take notes and, more importantly, when I teach others. The blog was originally a “virtual notebook” of my beer studies as well as a resource for me to organize beer tastings and beer events where I would teach others what I had learned.

I’m proud to say that I’m no longer a novice and, at the moment, I consider myself to be a beer connoisseur. The goal of my blog now is to spread the good word of craft beer — whether it be through beer tasting notes, beer news, beer event coverage, beer industry interviews, beer & food pairings, recipes with beer.

I love writing. I hope that my blog will help me turn my hobby into a career. Ideally, I would love to write about beer for a living (aka get paid for it). Michael Jackson is a huge mentor and inspiration of mine. I have said this many times before — my ultimate goal is to become Michael Jackson meets Ray Daniels with a little bit of Anthony Bourdain thrown in. I would love to get paid to travel the world, touring breweries, attending beer events, judging beers, hosting beer dinners & beer pairings etc… and then write all about my experiences. Eventually, I want to be published as well.

So if anyone knows how to make this dream a reality, please PLEASE help a Wench out!

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

I would say it definitely has to be all the people I’ve met. I have traveled all over the country and have met a tremendous amount of important beer industry folks — brewers, writers, bloggers etc. I love the beer industry. The people in it are truly amazing. It takes a special kind of person to dedicate their life to craft beer!

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

This is a really hard question. Especially since I started this beer bloggers series. I have been finding all sorts of exciting & interesting beer websites as a result.

For news, my favorite beer resource is: BeerNews.Org

For podcasts, my favorite beer resource is: The Brewing Network

As for blogs, my “favorite” beer resource is: Brookston Beer Bulletin (Jay Brooks has been blogging about beer longer than I’ve been legal to drink. He has a HUGE archive)

I know I said 3, but I must throw in a fourth beer resource. My favorite (alive) beer writer is Stephen Beaumont from The World of Beer. He is “new” to blogging, but has been writing about beer professionally for decades. And he is damn good at it!

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

Gueuze — I grew up in a “dairy country” New York. The smell of barnyard funk is relatively nostalgic for me. My neighbor across the street had horses as well. I’m oddly attracted to “manure” and grassy hay smells. My favorite wine regions — Rhone, Burgundy and Piedment — are known for producing “Bretty” wines. What can I say? I heart Brett.
American IPA — Specifically, the American IPAs hopped with Pacific Northwest varietals. I’m a huge fan of super high alpha acid hops. Love pine, resin and grapefruit flavors and aromas.
Saison — Back to the “barnyard” funk obsession. I love this style because of the Belgian yeast fruity esters aroma as well.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

This is a really tough question. American or European?

American (in no particular order) =

Russian River Brewing Company
DogFish Head Brewery
21st Amendment

European (in no particular order) =

Drie Fontien
Westmalle
Orval

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

Where would my skills and talents best be used and appreciated? Probably with DogFish Head. My writing in fairly witty and they “get” social media. I think it would be really fun to work in the Marketing “department” of DogFish Head. I love their creativity and passion. And I would love to work along side Mariah Calagione!

However, I have fallen in love with living on the West Coast. (Although, I would leave it for a job in the industry — hint hint). So if I was to stay on the West Coast, I would probably enjoy working for Stone Brewing Co. Same idea as with DFH. They are creative and “get” social media. And I love Dr. Bill and Greg Koch.

Can I do one more? New Belgium in Fort Collins would be an awesome place to work. I really admire their dedication to sustainability. I ride my bike every chance I get and would love to work somewhere that not only appreciates that, but encourages it. And I would love to help them take their social media presence to the next level.

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

Not yet. Being a gypsy has made it hard to aquire the proper equiptment and I have no yet had the proper room for it or storage space. Soon, though. Soon.

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

Cicerone Certified Beer Server!!!

I’m in the process of pursuing Cicerone Certification. Follow my adventures at In Pursuit of Cicerone Certification.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

My favorite pairing, by far, is beer mussels & gueuze (or saison).

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

Aye, therein lies the rub. I have no day job. No income source. Sigh.

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?

As I said earlier, my ideal job would be Michael Jackson meets Anthony Bourdain. I would love to travel the world writing about beer (possibly doing videos as well).

I would also love to do social media marketing, copy writing and traditional marketing for a craft brewery. I am super bummed that I missed the opportunity to do so with Stone, but hopefully another craft brewery will create a similar position (hint hint).

3. Are you married? Children?

Oh hell no. And hell no. I want to trade my uterus for an extra liver.

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

I am still a wine connoisseur, although it has been quite some time since I’ve truly wine geeked out. I’m an avid cook and and even more avid eater. I love developing recipes with beer. I like taking beer adventures on my bike (not a good combination, I know. Hence all my scars). I also love hockey skating, but rarely get the chance.

During college football season, I spend a good deal of time watching football. I am obsessed with Ohio State Football — to a fault. I can throw a better spiral than most boys I know (but I just can’t throw the ball as far).

I am also getting into both scotch and cigars.

Off The Beaten Path

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

If I were a beer style, I would be Orval — the only beer that is its own style. My creation story is stuff of childhood fantasies (the Countess, the wedding band, the trout). I am the only Trappist beer to be dry-hopped, which makes me earthy & spicy. The Belgian candy sugar gives me an underlying sweetness.

But the real kicker, is the Brett. Since I was inoculated with Brett at bottling, I am constantly changing in the bottle. Today I taste like an English IPA, but tomorrow I might be sour and reek of horse blanket. The wild yeast makes me funky and unpredictable, Yet, since I was purposefully inoculated by the Monks, it means that there is method in my madness.

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?

Definitely a gueuze. Although Drie Fontenien is my favorite, I might go for Lindeman’s Cuvee Renee because it was my first gueuze and it holds a special place in my heart. I would die after a moment of nostalgia and great memories.

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?

Ah yes, I finally get to answer this question. I’ve been really impressed by a few people’s answers on this question. The best answer by far was by Alex P. Davis. I was going to steal his idea, but instead I’m going to make my own recipe.

The base beer would be a Saison. I would brew the beer in Colorado because that is where I was born and I want to use Rocky Mountain water. Primary fermentation would be with traditional Saison yeast. The beer would then be put into Chateauneuf-Du-Pape wine barrels (my all time favorite wine region) with Brettonomyces and Hudson Valley unpasteurized apple cider (for extra fermentable sugars … not sure if it would work because I don’t know the technical details of Brett and re-fermentation in barrels). The final product would be dry hopped with rose petals (my birth flower).

Yeah, that sounds pretty cool to me.

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

Flight of teleportation. That way I can travel the world and do all the things I dream about doing.

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

Jumped off an 80 foot cliff. I was one of those kids growing up (okay maybe I’m still that way) that tried to out-do everyone. “Anything you can do, I can do better.” Cliff jumping was a hobby of mine in my later high school days. Naturally, it was illegal and very dangerous.

My friends and I went to a new spot that we heard about. We all started on the small cliff — about 30 feet. Then me and a few others decided to bump up our game and try the 50 foot. No biggy.

I decided it would be awesome to swim across the river, climb up the steep hill and attempt to jump off the 80 foot cliff. Why? Because I had to show off. I though I was such a badass.

I slipped when I jumped and ended up hitting the water at an angle. You have to understand, water becomes as hard as concrete from that height. When I hit the water, my contacts blew off of my eyes, my wind was completely knocked out and I was completely paralyzed. I thought I was going to drown. And as a competitive swimmer, drowning is your greatest nightmare.

Some boys across the river (on the small cliff side) jumped in the water and pulled me out. I could not walk for almost a week. And the whole left side of my body was a giant black and blue bruise. My ribs were bruised. I was a mess.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

I am utterly obsessed with it.

Thanks to everyone for reading “my story”! Sorry my interview was so long winded. But what can I say, I am a writer after all. And the one subject I can write a lot about is myself

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: MICHAEL BERGMAN

Wenchie — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:00:25 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: MICHAEL BERGMAN

AUTHOR OF: MIDWEST MICROBREWS

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Michael Bergman
Twitter handle: mwmicrobrews
Name of blog: MidwestMicroBrews
Current location: Green Bay, WI

Background “Snapshot”

1.Where did you grow up?

I grew up along the beautiful shores of Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan. It’s a small college town, with a independent spirit… as well as a great brewpub in the Vierling.

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

I didn’t have my first beer until I was 28 years old! I dabbled in harder stuff during college, but I spent the better part of my twenties as a pretty hardcore straight-edge, anti-alcohol, vegan, pretentious prick. By 28, I learned to calm down about a lot of things that I was so passionate about, and began to accept that having a beer didn’t make me a slave to alcohol.

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

I was lucky enough to have had a great beer for my first beer. I was living in Salt Lake City at the time, just a few blocks from the excellent Squatter Pub & Brewery. I ordered the Provo Girl Pilsner because of the name. It was love at first taste. I didn’t know anything about beer at the time. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between a stout and an IPA. What I did know was that this was a damn good drink and look at that, they make eight other kinds, too! I think I’ll see what those others are about.

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

I began college at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, but when I switched majors from Theatre to Philosophy, I started taking more and more of my classes at the University of M*ch*gan (*choke*spit* GO BUCKS! *ahem*) in Ann Arbor. Most of my studies were on late 19^th and early 20^thCentury German and French philosophy (Husserl, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Sartre, etc.

Craft Beer Epiphany

Every craft beer enthusiast has at least one pinnacle craft beer experience that completely changes one’s 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:

Having had a great craft beer as my first beer, I assumed that I just liked beer, not necessarily craft beer. It wasn’t until I had a Heineken that I realized that I didn’t like ALL beer. No offense to anyone who likes Heineken, but I thought it was just an awful, awful thing to have in my mouth. If that had been my first beer, I don’t think I would have ever had another. In a way, it was through drinking a crap beer that I realized that my tastes tended toward the fuller, bigger tastes and feels of craft beer.

Beer Blog Background

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

I started MidwestMicroBrews in January of 2007.

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

I’ve always been a fan of the “eat local” philosophy. When I became interested in craft beer, it was natural for me to want to drink the beers that are produced locally. Luckily, I live in Green Bay, Wisconsin now, where there are two excellent brewpubs within a mile of me: Titletown Brewing Company and Hinterland Brewing Company, as well as easy access to the dozens of other great craft brewers of Wisconsin.

I started MidwestMicroBrews as a simple way to promote the great brewers of this part of the county. At its foundation, it’s a directory of the craft brewers in the Midwestern states. The added content, like our Featured Brewer profiles, reviews, and beer news, have always been secondary to the directory.

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

I sometimes regret the name, since I know that the term “microbrew” is passé, but I liked the alliteration of it better than MidwestCraftBeer. I’m a sucker for alliterative titles, I guess.

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

I want to expand on our Featured Brewer profiles and offer more industry news as well as reviews, but as a dad of a nine-year-old and a five-month-old, I’m struggling to find the time.

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

Being asked by the organizers of the Great Lakes Brew Fest to sponsor the Michigan Beer Pavilion was really cool. I helped get Michigan brewers to attend. I also ended up spending most of the day of the festival pouring for the always-awesome Jolly Pumpkin of Dexter, MI. Spending a day sampling and talking beer with great people like The Beer Wench and Todd Parker of Copper Canyon Brewery was truly a treat.

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

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

Imperial/Double IPAs (the hoppier the better), Imperial Stouts and Scotch Ales.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Brewpubs:

Brewers:

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

That’s a great question. I would love to work with Central Waters Brewing. Not only are they a cool group of guys, but they are really progressive in their attitudes toward the environment, which I fully support. Among other initiatives, they’ve recently become Wisconsin’s first green-powered brewery, having installed 1,000 square feet of solar collectors. Very cool.

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

I’ve never been a homebrewer, and I doubt I’ll ever take up the hobby. Not only would it be tough to do in our two bedroom, 4^th floor condo, but I really like supporting the great brewers that are already out there.

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

No certifications. I’m purely an amateur enthusiast.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

Wicked-hot Thai curry with a big DIPA. Mmmmmmm… nothing better.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I’m a photojournalist for the ABC affiliate here in Green Bay. I fell into TV News after college. I thought I would do it until I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up. Ten years later, I’m still trying to figure that out. It’s been great for me, though— I’ve seen a lot of the world, and more importantly, I met my wife at my current station.

2. Are you married? Children?

I married my beautiful wife Kathryn in July of 2008, and we welcomed our baby boy Declan in July 0f 2009. I also have a nine-year-old son, Ashton, from my first marriage.

Off The Beaten Path

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

An Imperial Coffee Stout brewed with an insane amount of caffeinated coffee. It would also have to clock in over 10% ABV. I fully embrace my mild bi-polar disorder, so a beer that pulls you in two different directions at the same time seems rather fitting.

For years now, there is one beer that never ceases to put a smile on my face: Hopslam from Bell’s Brewery. If I could have one of those in me, I would die a content man.

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

It would have to be a bold beer, something that really punches you in the mouth. I’m thinking a Dry Hopped IPA with just a pinch of Ohio-grown, peat-smoked malts on the backbone to give it a little smoky taste.

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

I would have the power to stop time around me, but be able to move around within that frozen world. That way I could put people into strange poses and predicaments and then unfreeze time to watch their reaction. I suppose I could use my power to find bin Laden, but putting Ann Coulter and Keith Olbermann in bed together would probably be my first priority.

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

My sons may one day stumble across this, so I better not share those stories. Let’s just say if you wake up in Cleveland having lost the last four days of your life, it’s time to get a new LSD dealer.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

I’ve been a vegetarian since my early teens, so… no bacon for me. I understand the appeal, though.

SPECIAL THANKS TO MICHAEL FOR HIS AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: BRAD KLIPNER

Wenchie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:53:44 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: BRAD KLIPNER

AUTHOR OF: BEER IN BALTIMORE

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Brad Klipner
Twitter handle: @BeerInBaltimore
Name of blog: BeerInBaltimore.com – respecting good beer in and around Baltimore, craft beer cheerleader of the world.
Current location: Baltimore, MD

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

Baltimore, MD

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

Played and sucked at soccer from 10 yrs old through sophomore year of HS

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

Roughly 13 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?

A sip of Natty Boh (National Bohemian) while sitting outside on the front step with my late grandfather. Tasted AWFUL at the time! And then of course bad beer throughout high school and college.

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

Community college, business studies.. dropped out after 2 years to pursue a sales position… moved into a big comfy corporate job, was with the same company for just under 12 years; just laid off last month.

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:

First real beer that had me “turn the corner” and onto the path of righteous beer was Golden Monkey from Victory Brewing Co. I purchased it at a big wine/liquor store which also carried lots of craft beer singles. Honestly I bought a bottle because of the label. It’s a freakin monkey with 4 arms and a big eye on its belly. Of course I was buying it. But the taste! Oh my God. For such a big beer, it was full of flavor and so drinkable. I told friends and family it was like drinking banana bread.

That was the day I not only became a craft beer lover, but also a craft beer cheerleader. I began attending beer festivals JUST to drink Victory’s Golden Monkey and preach to the masses about how good it was, as well as chat with the folks from Victory. I was in love. That Belgian style tripel had me then seeking out true Belgians (Orval, Delirium Tremens, Chimay, Rochefort, etc. were some of my faves), then it was onto the amazing US craft beer scene where I found that many breweries here in the States are making some of the best beer on the planet.

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

I’d say the next big craft beer epiphany was the “Drink Fresh, Drink Local” movement; thanks in most part to a local beer rock star, Tom Cizuaskas. Beer is best when it’s fresh, so you’re doing yourself a favor by purchasing local beer. You’re also helping the local economy and if you’re a true beer geek, there’s a good chance you’ve met some of your local brewmasters, local brewery sales reps, owner, etc… so you have a connection with those folks who you know are busting their tails to help keep these smaller, local breweries going… all while providing good beer. But in the grand scheme, it’s really about supporting good, flavorful beer, period.

Beer Blog Background

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

Since March 24, 2009

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

Good beer! There were a number of quality beer blogs that I followed for a while and have personally been so passionate about good beer, that I too wanted to join in and begin writing and cheering on craft beer. And while my site is called BeerInBaltimore, it’s also about the overall craft beer scene, not just tied down to only Baltimore.

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

Not the most clever name for the blog, I’ll admit… but it’s self-explanatory. Though Baltimore is a great beer town with a rich history, so people in this town are beer drinkin’ people and I thought the site would be a good way to spread the gospel of good beer to them and I’m proud of that.

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

Honestly, the original goal was to cover the beer scene in Baltimore’s suburbs. There were already a handful of local beer blogs which covered everything going on downtown, but I felt like I could represent the burbanites as far as pointing them in the right direction, where to find good beer outside the city’s limits. Unfortunately, there isn’t much going on in terms off good beer in Baltimore’s ‘burbs, so the goal has shifted to good beer in ALL of Baltimore, as well as covering local breweries and craft beer news throughout the country/world that I feel is worthy of sharing.

Like I said above, we cover the local beer scene as well as beer-related news that interests ALL craft beer fans.

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

Being interviewed by the Beer Wench, duh! Oh and meeting tons of amazing people in the beer industry. From beer bloggers, writers and drinkers – to brewery owners, brewmasters and good beer bar owners/managers. There’s a special bond we all share and it’s great to chat with any of those folks over a pint or three.

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

My Google RSS Reader is filled with about 50 beer blogs from around the world, but here are my faves:

YoursForGoodFermentables (Tom’s a fairly local guy who’s done it all in the beer biz and is a huge fresh/local beer and cask beer advocate)
Brookston Beer Bulletin (Jay Brooks always comes hard with original and entertaining pieces)
Drink With The Wench (Ashley’s site has come a long way in a short time and I can tell you that right now, I’ve got 4 tabs open from her site, because I still need to find the extra time to read her SD Beer Week recaps and watch her interview with Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione. This chica is passionate about beer and seems to be traveling every week, driven solely by good beer… and trying to land a job in the biz!)
BeerScribe (Andy is a madman who could likely write for 7 straight days without stopping, his articles are always in-depth and interesting)
ThankHeavenForBeer (Nate and Mike are good dudes who also bring lots originality and thought to the table, very interactive and passionate)
And the “beer Bible” – BeerAdvocate. Ok that was more than 3, sue me!

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

Hmm, a smooth yet big barleywine (English or US), Double IPA, Belgian Quad and as of late – barrel aged anything

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Heavy Seas (Clipper City Brewing Co.), Stone Brewing Co., Southern Tier Brewing Co.

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

I’d have to say Clipper City Brewing Co. (Heavy Seas), since they’re the biggest and best local brewery. Not to mention they’re doing some really big things this coming year and it’d be very exciting to be a part of it all.

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

Not a homebrewer. Best quote I’ve heard concerning this question (you don’t have to publish this): Not a homebrewer, but I love good beer. I also love women, but I’m not a gynecologist.

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

Not yet.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

A big barleywine and the funkiest cheese I can find.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

Dad to my 1 year-old daughter. Fell victim to a recent round of layoffs after nearly 12 years with a large telecommunications company which can now be called NBC.

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?

My passion is craft beer. No other true hobbies. I could see myself back in the marketing world or even sales, but only for good beer. And as the saying goes, “Do what you love. When you love your work, you become the best worker in the world.”

3. Are you married? Children?

Married 5 years with one child (17 months old)

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

Being the best father I can be, always making my daughter laugh, enjoying time with my family (including my awesome dog), passionate Baltimore Ravens fan.

Off The Beaten Path

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

Orval, a style of its own!

An aged St. Bernardus ABT12. Pretty much my “perfect beer”.

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?

Lots of Brett yeast and enough IBUs to blow out your eye sockets.

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

Ability to fly. No doubt.

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

One I can publicly share? During my college years, I broke into a private swimclub late one night while in college with 5 friends (2 girls, 3 guys), a backpack full of beer and skinny-dipped… until we got busted by cops… then had to go back and rescue one friend who got so scared, she climbed a tree naked and sat up there for an hour.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

I tried to hate on the bacon explosion in the past, but bacon freakin rocks. Just keep the crazy bacon concoctions to yourself (the bacon-infused vodka for example, noo thanks!) Just give me some tasty crispy bacon and I’m good.

SPECIAL THANKS TO BRAD FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: JOSH CHRISTIE

Wenchie — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:00:14 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: JOSH CHRISTIE

AUTHOR OF: BREWS + BOOKS

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Josh Christie

Internet nickname (if applicable): Usually JChristie or UMF Skibum

Twitter handle: @jchristie

Name of blog: Brews + Books

Current location: Portland, ME

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Washington, ME, a classic small New England town with about 1,300 residents.

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

I was never really the team sports guy growing up, although I did my fair share of running and hiking. After some ill-advised peewee basketball as a kid, I stuck to skiing, golf, and track and field in high school. In college and the time since, I’ve stuck pretty much to skiing, golf and hiking.

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

I actually don’t remember having a beer until I was almost 20. My parents weren’t beer drinkers, and I was part of a relatively geeky crowd in high school so beer never showed up.

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

On a trip to Germany just before I turned 20, I felt like I had to finally try beer – it seemed like a must-do going to a country forever linked with brews. I had my first beer on the flight from Boston to Berlin. It was a Heineken, and it was pretty terrible.

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’m an alumni of the University of Maine in Farmington. I studied for a degree in political science, although I originally went to the school to enter the ski industries certificate program. On top of skiing about 80 days a season when I was in school, I was a DJ for the local radio station, communications director for the College Democrats and Political Science Club, and a member of the campus film club.

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:

Although I’d probably get some flak in the beer geek community for saying it, my epiphany beer wasn’t one of the “white whales” out there; the rare, expensive superbeers that people seek out, wait in line for or buy on eBay. It wasn’t even a particularly well-reviewed beer. Instead, my epiphany is based on totally sentimental reasons – Alaskan Brewing’s Alaskan Amber.

When I was finishing up my degree, I spent half of my senior year living out in Juneau, AK. I was traveling alone, I had just turned 21, and I’d be living further from my family than I ever had before. After a long flight from New England to Seattle, I bought a pint of the Amber in Seattle while waiting for my connection to Juneau. It is a simple, crisp and slightly nutty amber ale, and the taste and experience have made it my favorite ever since. It was one of the first craft beers I picked out on my own, had on my own, and completely loved. Not only that, but it was totally different from most of the local brews back in the Northeast.

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

I can’t really think of any epiphanies since that one. It’s been more of a continuing evolution of the flavors, looks and smells of beers I can pick out and enjoy. The only real exception is the recent taste I’ve gained for sours. For a lot of my time drinking beer, the taste of a sour was simply too bracing and different for me. For some reason (it might have been a Saint Somewhere or a Jolly Pumpkin brew), everything clicked recently and I’ve been searching for sours since.

Beer Blog Background

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

I’m not totally sure, but I registered my blog’s domain in February. I’d say that conservatively I’ve been writing Brews and Books for a bit less than a year.

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

A couple things. Mainly, I just wanted a creative outlet to talk about beer and books. I’d been using Twitter and commenting on other folks’ blogs for a few months before I started my blog, and wanted a place to write in one place without a limit on the number of characters I could use. Otherwise, I wanted to improve my ability to talk about beer and books in a critical and intelligent way. I hadn’t done any real writing since college, and it seemed like a good way to learn and improve rather than let those writing muscles atrophy.

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

I wanted to communicate that I’d be writing about both beer and books, and BooksAndBrews.com was taken.

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

Personally, I’d like to become a better writer. I’d like to be able to talk about beer and books more critically and intelligently. While college prepared me to write in a technical sense, I think that the blog will personally help me develop a much stronger voice – something I still fear my writing lacks.

Professionally, I’d like to be in the beer industry in a very peripheral sense. I don’t want to necessarily work at a brewery, but being involved in events and considered an expert – or at least a lay-expert – is a very real goal for me. And while I can’t think of a full time job in the beer world that would be a fit for me, a little income from my writing about beer would be fantastic.

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

Free beer. Free books. Meeting people. Actually having honest-to-goodness fans is pretty damn awesome too.

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

If I can count it as one blog, I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the Hop Press. The diversity of voices, topics and perspectives has made for fascinating reading every day of the week.

I also love Luke Livingston’s Blog About Beer – one of the sites that got me started blogging. Luke is a beer expert here in Maine, and stumbling onto his site and starting a dialogue started a fire under me to get writing.

Beer and Nosh is another must visit – simply unbelievable beer photography. If I ever need to decorate a pub, the pictures will all be from Jesse’s site.

Oh, and Drink With the Wench of course.

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

IPA, Stout and Barleywine.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Dogfish Head, Brooklyn and Stone. I, er, like extreme beers.

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

There’s not any specific brewery I’d like to work for – while there are definitely personalities in the beer world I admire, it doesn’t necessarily mean I want to work beside them and see how the sausage is made, per se. I’d want to be at a brewery that combines unique beers, creative marketing, a great back-and-forth with customers and an abundance of personality – your Surlys, your BrewDogs, your Dogfish Heads and Flying Dogs.

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

I am. The most unique beer I’ve brewed that’s ended up drinkable was a chocolate rye – a spicy rye beer with a ton of chocolate malt in the brew. The one I have in the fermenter right now is a white chocolate pale ale, which will take the cake if it ends up being drinkable.

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

None, although I’m hoping to get a Cicerone certification soon.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

One of my favorite pairings is a good, sharp cheddar with the Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog old ale. As my friend Travis described the pairing; “And with cheddar – pure sex. Hot sex in my mouthface.”

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I am a full-time bookseller at a local independent bookstore, project coordinator for a local nonprofit, and a writer for the RateBeer.com Hop Press.

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 stick with my current jobs, just with some raises. I absolutely love what I do, which is kind of an awesome place to be. I suppose I’d take a promotion in the world of bookstores, since managing or full-time publicity stuff would be great.

3. Are you married? Children?

No and no.

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

Reading, skiing, golf, hiking, and photography are the big ones. I’m also a big old school geek, so anything involving computers, comics, gadgets or video games is right up my alley.

Off The Beaten Path

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

I’d be a milk stout. Because I’m so sweet, don’tchaknow.

Depends. If it’s an old-school execution (something with guns, knives or a guillotine) I’d want Tactical Nuclear Penguin or Utopias, since they’d be strong enough to dull my senses before the painful death. If it was something like a lethal injection… well, fuck, I’m still getting killed. I’d stick with the strong stuff.

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?

Wenchenbrau? Hmmmmmm… Bacon-infused bourbon barrel brown ale. It’d be totally original, in-your-face, alcoholic, and fun to talk about. Probably north of 9% ABV.

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

I’d love some Quicksilver / Flash super-speed, since I could get everywhere super-fast and not need a car. Something like Atom Eve (from Invincible)’s matter manipulation would be cool, since I could turn anything into beer. Oh, and an energy ring like Green Lantern’s – though not technically a superpower – would round things out nicely.

Can you tell I’m a comic geek?

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

I’ve skied at various Maine ski areas in various states of undress. I won’t elaborate further.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

SO. GOOD. Everything is better with bacon. Everything.

SPECIAL THANKS TO JOSH FOR HIS AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: THOMAS HAM

Wenchie — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:25:17 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: THOMAS HAM

AUTHOR OF: THE AVERAGE BEER SNOB

Full name: Thomas Ham
Internet nickname (if applicable): Ummm. antioch or Average Beer Snob (as of a few weeks ago)
Twitter handle: AverageBeerSnob
Name of blog: Super creative… It’s Average Beer Snob!
Current location: Riverside, California

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Chino, CA. If you’ve seen the OC you’ve heard of it!

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

I played t-ball for 2 seasons until I got beaned and cried. Then I played soccer for one season until I got kicked and cried. Then I played roller hockey from about 11 until 21 or so (I never cried).

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

Sip of beer? Well, I was probably 6 or so, but it also had a cigarette butt in it! Then, I’d say about 16, but it was Mickeys! Then I’d say real beer was probably about 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?

I saw a Coors light can sitting in the back yard after some people were over the night before at my parents house (I was six!) and I drank some of it! I might have vomited after it, but I can’t remember.

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 did the Community College Circuit for about 4 years and then transferred to a private university where I am about 2 semesters away from a double degree in History and Political Science. But, I quit doing that a few years ago. As for additional activities, organizations or sports… I just wore skinny tight black jeans, was a vegetarian and talked about obscure hardcore bands with other kids that looked just like me instead of going to class.

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 think I was at this little bar in Redlands called The Royal Falconer with a buddy Pieter. We both drank Guinness, Boddingtons, Bass or anything else that was Irish or English. We loved going there because they had this sweet patio where we could puff away on tobacco pipes.

When I walked in for maybe the 3rd time and ordered a Guinness a guy at the bar told me to get Arrogant Bastard, it’d put hair on my chest. I then asked him what that was. He just told me to get it, so I did and I about had a heart attack! The stuff was strong and bitter! OH MY!

I struggled to drink the whole pint and vowed never to drink that horrid stuff again… Until the week after when I ordered it again! After that my wallet started to empty out.

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

I’d say when I finally got my hands on some brews from Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA a few years back I had a renewed interest in Craft Beers and almost completely stopped drinking Irish and English imports. Recently I found a love of Belgian (style) ales because of The Bruery in Placentia.

I live about 30 minutes from here and went down there a month ago. The first night I thought some of the brews were good, but nothing amazing. They were interesting though, Belgian style ales brewed with some flare! But, the other weekend I got to get my hands on some Melange No. 3 and I dropped 200 bucks to become a Reserve Society Member right away.

Beer Blog Background

1. How long have you been writing Average Beer Snob?

I’ve been writing my blog for about 3 weeks. I’ve thought about it for months though, maybe even years.

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

I don’t know. I think I heard something on NPR about bloggers and thought it’d be fun to do a niche blog. I loved reading beer blogs and thought I could do that! The only downfall is I am a terrible writer, with terrible taste buds.

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

Well, I am a blue collar worker with an average palate, low self esteem, no money, no class and a low vocabulary. So, I figured the Average Beer Snob would be great! I can tell you what I like and why I like it, but I don’t want any big words clouding my reviews. I don’t need the technical lingo to see that a beer is good.

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

World power. Or at least one brewer/pub owner/whatever to give me one free beer! Or a few regular readers would be nice too.

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

Well, I never thought I’d get responses from any companies on my reviews. I did get a response from Sierra Nevada on my review of Life & Limb, but then I realized my Tweet about the review was kind of forceful and sounded like I was telling them to read it. So, that made me feel like a jackass.

I also got a Twitter response to some mocking I was doing of Widmer Brothers from someone at Widmer… Told me I need to go to the brewery before I pass judgment on their beers. I guess those are cool since I got big companies to respond, but they’re kind of bad ways to get responses. They’re not free beer or a t shirt or anything.

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

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

I’m a west coast boy. IPA’s are up there. Porters are close to my heart. American Strong Ales are fun.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

The Bruery, Dogfish Head and Russian River.

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

HMMmmm. Budweiser? I could probably make some pretty sweet coin from those guys!

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

Working on it, but not yet.

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

No.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

I love cheese and strong ales together. YUM!

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I work for a phone company.

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?

Can I change who I want to be? I want to be Steve Jobs! Yeah! Then I can get the cool new toys before they come out!

3. Are you married? Children?

Married to a great wife that doesn’t get too mad after I spend a lot of money on beer. As for kids, I just said I spend a lot of money on beer… (If ya don’t get it… No, no kids yet.)

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

TV. Love me some Dexter, Scrubs, House, 30 Rock, and other junk. I also like to just hang out around a fire and smoke and drink.

Off The Beaten Path

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

I’d say I’d be… A DIPA. Strong on the outside but kind of sweet on the inside… Or I’d be a English Stout… They’re so damn sarcastic!

Trappist Westvleteren 12. I’ve never been able to try it! Flying to Belgium is kind of expensive ya know?

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?

American Blonde Strong Ale. You’re blond. You’re strong. As for ingredients… Lets add a dash of wit, a pinch of sarcasm and a handful of angst.

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

Flying. Ever since I saw the Ferngully when I was a kid I wanted to fly. I now realize that fairies being your reason for wanting to fly is kind of gay, but it’s the truth!

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

I’m pretty much not exciting.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

I don’t eat pork. It’s disgusting and salty! BLAH!

SPECIAL THANKS TO THOMAS FOR HIS ABOVE AVERAGE INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: BARRY WASSER

Wenchie — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:00:48 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: BARRY WASSER

AUTHOR OF: CRAFT BREW ADVOCATE

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Barry Wasser
Internet nickname (other title)(if applicable): Manhattan Craft Beer Examiner
Twitter handle: @Bitzybrew
Blog Name: Craft Brew Advocate
Current location: Manhattan, New York, NY

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

West Orange, NJ

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

Played intramural hockey in college and while growing up. Even broke my left shin bone (tibia) in 3 places the day after I graduated 8th grade playing roller hockey in front of my house.

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

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

My older bro (before I introduced him to craft beer) was a lover of Miller Lite (Adjunct Lager) and let me have one when with dinner one Sunday.

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

Went to Yeshiva University (a Jewish university in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan) for undergrad where I majored in Psychology. During college I was a drummer/percussionist in the jazz band and played intramural hockey.

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:

Although I spent a year and a half studying religion in Israel and drank lots of Leffe and Hoegaarden, I did not have my “epiphany” until coming back to America and trying lots of Belgian and German wheat beers. The one that caused me to have my epiphany was Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel.

I had it at the Gingerman bar in NYC after a jam session with some friends in midtown. Even though I had many great tasting beers and wheat beers before that, the complexities in Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel inspired me to explore every style of wheat beer and subsequently start my journey through the world of craftbeer.

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

One of the amazing things about craft beer is that each beer has the potential to cause one to have an epiphany. For example, even though I am a “hop head” and have tried lots of IPAs and Double IPAs, I from time to time try an IPA or Double IPA that blows my mind and causes me to re-evaluated the potential complexities of hoppy beers.

Over the past few months I have been trying more and more wild ales and Flemish Red Ales. This started when I tried Ommegang Rouge on tap at Rattle n Hum (my go to craft beer bar). It took me a few sips to get used to the sourness, but once I got used to it I was in “beer-vana”.

Lastly, I have experienced many craft beer epiphanies while experimenting with beer and food pairings. The most recent one came when pairing Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout with Bittersweet Chocolate (Valrhona 70% cocoa). The way the dark chocolate and dark fruit flavors in the beer mimicked the bittersweet chocolate was amazing.

Beer Blog Background

1. How long have you been writing CRAFT BREW ADVOCATE?

Started posting video reviews on YouTube in July 2009 and started my beer blog in October 2009

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

Combining my beer reviews with craft beer advocacy and other craft beer information. Also, sharing my love for craft beer with as many people as possible.

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

As a craft beer enthusiast I am also a member of the craft beer community, and the more people I meet who share this passion, the more I feel like they are a second family to me. So just as I would go out of the way and advocate for my family and friends, I feel a similar obligation to do so for craft breweries.

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

From my blog: AS A CRAFT BEER ADVOCATE I HOPE TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR BOTH THOSE LOOKING TO TRY NEW AND FULLER FLAVORED BEERS AND THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY BEGAN TO EXPERIENCE WHAT CRAFT BEER HAS TO OFFER TO:

1) DEVELOP THEIR PALATES AND…

2) KNOW WHICH BEERS ARE GOOD TO ACCOMPLISH # 1 AND… GAIN A GLIMPSE INTO ALL THE HARD WORK THAT CRAFT BREWERS PUT INTO MAKING QUALITY BEERS.

* I hope to not only share my journey through craft beer with others, but also track the development of my knowledge of craft beer. By developing my beer writing skills I’d like to one day write for some printed beer publications like Ale Street News.

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

While I enjoy my youtube channel (where I host most of my video reviews), I feel that my blog gives some added credibility. So I was satisfied with how my blog was developing, I made my own business cards and started bringing them with me to varies beer events at the craft beer bars in NYC. Through that I’ve sat down and chatted with various craft brewers and brewery rep.s and made connections that have made me even more proud to be a craft beer blogger and advocate.

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

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

India Pale Ale, Imperial Stout, Tripel

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Currently Stone, Allagash, and Lost Abbey. This list changes quite often because there is a long list of breweries that I enjoy many beers from and look forward to their beers as they are released through out the year.

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

I’d work for Port Brewing and Lost Abbey because not only do they continuously push the envelope of flavors possible to be present in beer, but they also nail each style that they brew and somehow produce bountiful complexity in each one.

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

I am not a home brewer yet, but have been collaborating with friends who are home brewers. Recently a friend and I brewed an Imperial Belgian IPA, which I hope to taste in the next couple weeks after it carbonated in the bottle.

(label for the Imperial Belgian IPA that I collaborated on)

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

I hope to one day get certified as a beer judge.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

Different roasty beers with grilled meat. Recently made my own home made Stone Smoked Porter/Chipotle pepper BBQ sauce. When I put it on any meat and pair it with a beer, it’s a party in my mouth every time.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

Psychology research at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

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?

Become a professional craft brewer. In general I love to be creative and brewing craft beer would definitely be a fun and satisfying way of expressing my creativity.

3. Are you married? Children?

I am not married and therefore have no children. I hope to get married and have kids one day.
Outside of beer and writing, what are some of your other hobbies? Playing and watching hockey, playing drums (drumset and other percussion instruments), and religious study.

Off The Beaten Path

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

Saison Ale. This style is:

a. spicy yet sweet

b. funky yet nice and mellow

c. light and refreshing yet flavorful and sophisticated.

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout because I’d die in beer bliss and not worrying about my impending doom.

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?

I’d brew a Belgian quad with dark chocolate and then age it in wine barrels with fresh dark cherries.

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

Time travel.

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

Walked through arab neighborhoods in Israel.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

Not kosher.

SPECIAL THANKS TO BARRY FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

REFLECTING ON 2009

Wenchie — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:49:35 +0000

A year ago, I would never have predicted that I would be where I am today. If someone was to tell me that I would have met all of the people that I met, traveled to all of the places that I traveled, and experienced all of the things that I did, I would not have believed it.

Let us rewind it back and look at 2009:

Still living in Orlando, in MASSIVE transition, working at Seasons 52 — high-end seasonally inspired fresh grill and wine bar. At this time, The Wench seriously studies for Sommelier and Certified Specialist of Wine certifications. At this point, wine is The Wench’s profession and beer remains her hobby.

The last weekend of January, The Wench travels to California for the ZAP Zinfandel Festival. Met SEVERAL of my twitter followers over the course of a few days. Drank lots of amazing vino, took a day trip to Napa. Trip was way too short.

Drink with the Wench turns ONE on February 7th!

Towards the end of the month, The Wench attends the first dinner in a series of Twitter Taste Live dinner party tweetups at Dolce Debbie‘s house in Tampa, FL. The theme was Italian wines & Italian foods and was co-hosted with Matt Horbund from A Good Time With Wine.

At the beginning of the month, The Wench co-hosts a Twitter Taste Live with Dogfish Head.

The rest of the month is rather uneventful.

The beginning of the month starts out with a BANG. The Wench tri-hosts THE FIRST EVER Twitter Taste Live Beer vs. Wine Dinner at Dolce Debbie’s house in Tampa, FL. Dolce Debbie planned and cooked a beautiful five course menu, Matt Horbund paired four of the dishes with a wine and The Wench paired the same dishes with a beer. The verdict? A tie.

The Wench announces her desire to work in the beer industry by announcing The Wenchternship. No one bites and the project is quickly abandoned.

Things take a turn for the worse when The Wench gets in a bad car accident. Car accident results in several weeks off from work and 2 months of daily physical therapy.

Car accident results in a mini-depressive episode and a significant reduction of blog posts.

Plagued by a series of unfortunate an undesirable events in Orlando (including the car accident), The Wench is “saved” when she gets invited to live with Dolce Debbie and her husband Barry Frangipane in Tampa, FL. Without hesitation, The Wench moves to Tampa.

Things begin to look better for The Wench. She begins to gain momentum.

Happy Birthday to The Wench. Ashley turns 26 on June 13th. Dolce Debbie hosts the party of a lifetime in honor of the birthday twins — The Wench and Aging Backwards.

Early in the month, The Wench attempts to enter what she calls “No Man’s Land” by writing a series of posts featuring linear pairings between beer and wine. Although widely popular, the series is short lived — with potential to be revived in the new year.

The end of the month brings an invite by Samuel Adams to attend an expense paid trip to Charleston, SC in July to attend a beer dinner at The Culinary Institute.

Things get REALLY exciting this month.

The Wench flies to Charleston, SC to attend a Samuel Adams beer dinner at The Culinary Institute of Charleston. She has the honor of sitting next to Samuel Adam’s head brewer, Bob Cannon, for the duration of the dinner. Following the dinner, The Wench lands her very first brewer interview with Bob Cannon. She also interviews the head Chef of the beer dinner.

At the end of the month, Ashley find herself back in Wine Country, CA for the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference.

While in California, Ashley takes her first trip to Twisted Oak Winery in Murphy’s. It is here where she develops an obsession for the River of Skulls and meets the love of her life, her rubber chicken aptly named “Don Quixote.” After a day full of wine tasting in the town of Murphy’s, drinking gueze, feasting on tri-tip, swimming in the creek and wine blending, The Wench spends a wonderful night sleeping underneath the Twisted Oak Winery Twisted Oak Tree.

It is in this moment that The Wench has an epiphany and starts thinking about moving to CA.

Day one of the Wine Bloggers Conference reunites Ashley with many of her Twitter friends from across the country as well as gives her the opportunity to meet new followers. She also gets to meet the boys from Mutineer Magazine.

Day two of the Wine Bloggers Conference is EPIC. The day starts with Bloody Marys and ends with Absinthe. Bus Number Four becomes legendary.

Day three of the Wine Bloggers Conference gives Ashley the confidence she needs to make her declaration to move to CA. The gears start turning and she starts plotting a cross country trip with instant BFF Shana Ray.

This month is one of complete chaos and absolute insanity.

The Wench officially decides on a whim to pick up everything and move across country — with no job, prospect of a job or place to live.

Burnt out and needing an adventure, Shana Ray makes the spontaneous decision to book a flight to Florida and make the drive across country with Ashley. After hours of brainstorming, the ambitous pair create PROJECT Y-INE — the first social media expose focused on researching the beer & wine consumption behaviors of Generation Y.

After analyzing all possible routes across country, The Wench decides that the southern route would be the most ideal. She reaches out to her Twitter & beer blogger contacts in each city, setting up as many events allow the way as possible.

Even before the trip details are complete solidified, Ashley makes the spontaneous decision to plan a trip to the Midwest just days after her assumed arrival in California.

Shana flies in to Tampa on the 14th. Dolce Debbie hosts a bon-voyage dinner for The Wench at her favorite Tampa restaurant, Pellagia.

With tears in her eyes and a Starbucks gift card in hand, The Wench packs up her car, hugs her “parents” Debbie and Barry goodbye and embarks upon the cross country adventure of a lifetime.

First stop: New Orleans. The Wench meets up with fellow beer blogger, The Beer Buddha at The Avenue Pub. There she also meets Matt Austin and the entire team of NOLA Brewing Co. The first night took a turn for the more awesome (and worst in Shana’s case) when the ladies found themselves visiting the “exclusive” favorite watering hole of the NOLA locals — Snake and Jakes Christmas Club Lounge.

Day two in NOLA started out slow. The girls did not find themselves leaving the house until late afternoon. Matt Austin plays tour guide through the French Quarter. The Wench gets her palm read and buys the most kickass pirate hat. Dylan Lintern of NOLA Brewing Co. invites The Wench and posse to join him and his brother for a potluck beer tasting at their house — complete with a full L shaped bar, 6 taps and a digital karaoke machine. The tasting is epic. Events from that night inspire Matt to start writing his own beer blog: I’m Pouring.

Second stop: Houston, TX. The girls spend the night eating pizza and drinking local beer with Amy and Joe Power from Another Wine Blog. The night is capped off with chess, chocolate and vino. The next morning, the ladies find themselves visiting NASA.

Third stop: Austin. The girls almost never leave. Here they meet the most infamous @baconator from Twitter. He foolishly allows the girls to take over his house for 3 days. The trio of trouble makers then proceed to take Austin by storm. Local beer blogger, Chris Troutman of Beer Town Austin, organizes two beer events for The Wench: The Draught House Over A Pint Episode and Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que tour and tasting. Local food blogger, Jennie Chen of MisoHungry Makes it With Moonshine concocts some amazing beer desserts for the events.

The girls decide to stay in Austin and extra night and, as a result, spend 16 hours on the road driving to the Fourth stop: Phoenix. The Wench’s Uncle Terry Simpson hosts the girls for two nights.

Fifth stop: Los Angeles. Here The Wench meets up with fellow beer blogger, Chris Spradley of Breweries, Bars and Beer Food. Chris organizes a beer dinner at The Library Ale House which is followed by amazing beers at the Daily Pint. The next day, Chris hooks The Wench up with a video interview with Brian Lenzo at Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood. The ladies cap the L.A. experience with a wenchmade (Whole Foods style) dinner party with Twisted Oak wines for Chris and the lovely bloggers from Hipster Enology.

After a scenic drive up Highway 1, the girls finally end the trip with beers at the Russian River Brewpub in Santa Rosa. They are joined by several wine country celebrities, including Rick Bakas of St Supery, Hardy Wallace of Dirty South Wine and Josh Hershberger of Pinot Blogger.

Whereas August was legendary, September is monumental.

With barely two weeks of California sunshine under her belt, The Wench whisks off to the Midwest for a 10 day beer extravaganza. The trip begins in Chicago and then works it way up to Wisconsin for Milwaukee beer week, a few beer dinners and The Great Lakes Brew Fest — where The Wench serves as a “mini mascot” and gets to lead the Pirate Parade.

The trip ends in Chicago where The Wench has the opportunity of a lifetime to have dinner at The Hop Leaf with Ray Daniels of the Cicerone Certification Program. Right before she jets back to California, Ashley grabs a few beers and a pizza with a small group of dudes (who would ultimately come good friends) that call themselves the #gents. One #gent in presence was the one and only Mr. Ken Hunnemeder from HopCast.

After less than 3 days back in California, the jet-setting Wench finds herself on yet another plane — this time to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival. Over a 5 day span, The Wench drinks her body weight (and then some) in amazing American beer from all over the country. She is reunited with old friends as well as has the opportunity to meet many of her Twitter friends in real life.

It is in Denver where Ashley first meets for the first time in person one of her best friends and fellow beer bloggers, PJ Hoberman from Starting a Brewery. She also meets Tim Cigeleske of Draft Magazine’s blog The Beer Runner, Chipper Dave of Fermentedly Challenged, Larry McIntosh of Madhouse Larry, Stef Ferrari of Girls For The Advancement of Craft Beer, Sarah Huska and many many others.

In addition to meeting several bloggers and tweeters, Ashley is honored when she gets to meet industry celebrities such as Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, Rob Tod from Allagash, Vinnie & Natalie Chilurzo from Russian River, Greg Koch from Stone, Steve Parkes from the American Brewers Guild, Dan Del Grande from Bison Brewing, Joey Redner from Cigar City, Patrick Rue from The Bruery and so on and so forth.

October is the month of wine. Thanks to her amazing friends Thea Dwelle of Luscious Lushes and Shana Ray of Breathe Media, Ashley attends several wine blogger events all over Sonoma & Napa Counties. The wineries include, but are not limited to: KAZ Winery, Micheal Schlumberger, Benziger, BV Vineyards (where Ashley partakes in a grape stomping competition), Arista, Rubissow (where Ashley helps harvest grapes), Conn Creek, Bella, Rodney Strong, Papa Pietro Perry, ZD, Titus and several more.

Ashley even gets the honor of sitting in on an episode of Wine Biz Radio — where she is deemed “The Being of Pure Id” by its host Randy Hall.

Mid month, Hardy Wallace of Dirty South Wine hosts his annual Taco-Toberfest. Ashley also takes a trip into San Francisco where she attends a Tequila tasting for the U.S. launch of Don Roberto Tequilas.

Later in the month, Sondra Bernstein from the girl and the fig rolls out the red carpet for The Wench and posse at her restaurant. The group follows up an epic lunch by attending a book signing with Gary Vee from Wine Library TV. Ashley proceeds to drink lots of wine and molest Gary Vee with her rubber chicken — Don Quixote. Oddly enough, Gary Vee doesn’t seem to mind and, in fact, seems to like it.

After a few weeks choked full of wine and food events, The Wench finds herself back on a plane to the Midwest — this time for the Great Lakes Craft Brewers and Water Conservation Conference organized by Lucy Saunders of BeerCook.Com. There she gets to rub elbows with many brewers and beer industry movers and shakers.

October ends with a St Supery tweetup on The Napa Valley Wine Train. Costumes optional.

There is only one word for November — EPIC.

Hardy Wallace kicks off the month by hosting two of the finalists from Top Chef Season 6 — Eli Kershtien and Kevin Gillespie — for a few nights of food & wine debauchery in Sonoma County.

Early month, Ashley finally gets to meet her “big sister” from Twitter, Taylor Shaw aka The Art of Beer. This fateful meeting ultimately triggers Ashley to book a flight to San Diego for beer week.

On November 8th, Ashley experiences a major climax in her life as a beer writer while attending the Life & Limb Release Beer Dinner in San Francisco. At the dinner, Ashley gets the once in a lifetime opportunity to interview one of her greatest and most respected beer mentors, Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head. She also gets to spend some quality time with one of the most respected and successful craft brewers in the industry, Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada.

Mid month, The Wench finds herself jet setting yet again in the name of beer. She heads down to San Diego for some of the most epic beer events of her “young” life. In San Diego, she meets up with her big sister Taylor Shaw and new best friend PJ Hoberman as well as many of her other great Twitter friends such as Alex P Davis, Jordan & Renee Rounds, Kristen & Martin Emde and the super sexy team of boys from New Brew Thursday: Stephen Johnson, John Holzer, Brad Kohlenburg.

The event highlights of San Diego Beer Week include: Meeting Dr. Bill Sysak, the 10 year vertical tasting of Double Bastard at Stone World Bistro, Lost Abbey Art Show & Beer Tasting, Firestone Walker 13th Anniversary tapping at Stone World Bistro, special VIP Twitter dinner with Greg Koch at Suite and Tender, Green Flash 7th Anniversary Festival, a VIP tasting of rare beers from Dr. Bill’s collection at Stone World Bistro, Belgian Beer & Cheese Pairing at Stone World Bistro and the Lost Abbey Rare Beer Tasting & Dinner.

At the end of the month, Ashley is invited to spend Thanksgiving with two of her amazing wine maker friends: Alan Baker and Serena Lourie of Cartograph Wines. Thanksgiving is a tremendous gourmet feast complimented by a stellar lineup of wine and beer.

Times, they are a changing. REALLY REALLY fast.

First of the month, Ashley gets the opportunity to meet the one and only Shaun O’ Sullivan of 21st Amendment. He brings samples of his newly released Monk’s Blood.

On a whim, Ashley throws caution to the wind and takes the first level of the Cicerone Certification Program. Without studying or any preparation, The Wench passes the test and becomes an Certified Beer Server.

Early in the month, good friend Baconator visits Ashley & Shana for a week. Lots of wine, beer & food debauchery go down. Ashley gets the rare opportunity of a lifetime to have dinner at The French Laundry. Here she has the most intense food and beverage experience of her life. The Master Sommeler, Christopher Hoel, pairs 7 our of the 9 courses with both beer and wine. He chooses wine from her two most favorite regions in the world — Chateauneuf Du Pape and Piedmont — as well as two of her favorite beers of ALL time — Russian River’s Pliny the Elder and Consecration. That night will go down in history.

Drink With The Wench begins to heat up and gain momentum when Ashley decides to do a series of articles featuring interviews with fellow beer bloggers. The series is tremendously successful and will continue into the new year!

Things get really exciting around mid-month when Ashley’s “little brother” Brian Kropf of Mutineer Magazine visits from the East Coast on an Army leave. Taylor Shaw and Stephen Johnson travel up from Southern California to attend a series of beer events hosted in Brian’s honor. The group starts by reeking havoc on 21st Amendment on the 21st. They then take the North Bay by storm: Lunch at Russian River Brewing Company followed by a tour and tasting of Lagunitas Brewpub. Many “celebrity” beer writers come out for the Lagunitas event. They include: Shawn Paxton of The Home Brew Chef, Mario Rubio of Brewed For Thought and Jay Brooks of Brookston Bulletin.

After almost three months of “dating” a Berkeley Brewpub – Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse – Ashley finally gets an official offer on December 30th to become the new Assistant General Manager.

On New Years Eve, The Wench is officially moving to Berkeley. And on New Year’s Day, The Wench will officially kickoff her career as Assistant General Manager of Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse. As fate would have it, Ohio State is also playing in the Rose Bowl that day. January first is shaping up to be the most monumental launch to a new year in the life of The Beer Wench.

Special THANKS to my girl, Shana Ray. Without here, I might not be where I am at today. Our cross country trip was legendary. I’ve enjoyed every moment with her since then and look forward to more in the future! Cheers!

Also, big thanks to everyone who has made an impact in my life in 2009. I would not be the person I am today without meeting all of you — whether our friendship be in the virtual realm, the real world — or both. I love each and every person that has touched my life in some way shape or form. Thank you!

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: LEE WILLIAMS

Wenchie — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:29:04 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: LEE WILLIAMS

AUTHOR OF: HOPTOPIA

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Lee Norman Williams
Twitter handle: @Hoptopia (and) @LeeWilliams
Name of blog: Hoptopia
Current location: Brooklyn, NY

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

Bristol, England

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

Tennis and… is Super Nintendo a sport?

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

About 13 or 14, yes I was on the young side – a reminder that legal drinking age is 18 in the U.K.

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

I am pretty sure my first beer was a Kronenbourg (none of that fancy 1664.) My Dad always had lots of French beer on hand and I would occasionally steel them to try.

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 the University of West England, were I gained a BA in Media, Communications and Advertising. Is Sony PlayStation a sport?

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:

My first craft beer epiphany occurred in Philadelphia in the early 2000’s. Up to that point I had been drinking beer without paying much attention to what it was – mainly standard British and American pub ales – Boddingtons, Guinness, Budweiser, Newcastle Brown etc. – around that time in Philly though I started spending a lot of time in music venues, many of which happened to have decent bars, I forget exactly which venue it was, but someone handed me the first Sierra Nevada Pale Ale I’d ever had and literally within seconds it was as if my beer appreciating blinkers were torn from my face and all was revealed.

The Sierra was so fresh and different, it give me pause enough to contemplate that there might actually be a story, a brain and a process behind the ‘booze’ in my hand. From that point on I’ve paid attention to every single beer I’ve ordered. That little green labeled bottle of Sierra really birthed my appreciation of beer, though.

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

Hundreds, nay thousands! Far more than I can possibly do justice to. One recent beer epiphany has been my stumbling across Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project – their brews are incredible.

Pretty Things founder and brewer Dann Paquette has a phenomenal amount of brewing experience on both sides of the Atlantic and Pretty Things has the potential to be a huge and influential player in the craft beer world.

Beer Blog Background

1. How long have you been writing HOPTOPIA?

Since Halloween 2009.

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

I wanted to start funneling my obsession of sampling as many new beers as possible in a more tangible, productive and useful direction.

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

1.) I wanted something short and easy for people to remember.

2.) I wanted a name that basically conveyed the idea of ‘beer heaven.’

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

I believe all goals should be ambitious and my goal for Hoptopia is definitely ambitious. The primary goal is to create the most comprehensive, colorful and straightforward beer guide on the internet, a resource interesting to existing craft beer enthusiasts, but more importantly a resource that is approachable and useful to the millions of curious and often bewildered craft beer newbies out there.

The craft beer industry must continue to eat macro brew market share and it can only do so if a whole lot more people stop buying macro brews and switch to craft. I believe Hoptopia can play a role in encouraging more people to check out craft beer in a more active and dedicated way.

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

This interview is pretty darn cool, thanks for having me.

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

BeerNews.org is a brilliant resource. I love what Brad Chmielewski and Ken Hunnemeder are doing with Hopcast, their approach to craft beer is spot on. Life for us established beer nerds would be a lot more difficult without Beer Advocate, so that has to be my third choice.

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

Russian Imperial Stout, Saison, IPA

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Besides Pretty Things, I’d have to say 21st Amendment, Mikkeller, Nogne O

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

I’m not really interested in working for a brewery. I think I can serve a better purpose as a purveyor for the entire craft beer industry – I’m a great example for others as I didn’t discover craft beer until well into my twenties and after years of drinking only macro brews.

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

Homebrewers rule, I am not one.

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

Classrooms send me to sleep. Kudos if you do work towards these certifications though, that’s pretty awesome.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

There are many combos within this, but Dark Belgian ales with the right kind of pungent cheese is hard to beat.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I am the Assistant for the Creative department of an independent global PR firm called Edelman in New York City – it’s a very demanding, logistics heavy job that keeps me on my toes for 9-10 hours a day. I love the people I work with.

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 don’t worry too much about my next career steps. I’ve discovered that if you’re confident, work as hard as humanly possible – and I’m talking 18 hours a day hard, 7 days a week hard – and if you never bullshit people, doors and opportunities have a tendency to open up for you whenever you need them to. What this means for me in 2010 and beyond… well, we shall see, it’s always exciting and at the end of the day, that’s what really counts.

3. Are you married? Children?

I am not.

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

I love food and wine – I still have my training wheels on with both, but love learning about them. I also love the business of business, the ins and outs of building and managing businesses successfully… it fascinates and excites me.

Off The Beaten Path

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

Probably an IPA, because I’m fresh, can be abrasive and am always looking forward to the future by constantly evolving – think: Triple, Black and fusion IPA’s.

Oscar Blues Ten FIDY Imperial Stout. Why? Because however many cans you drink in a lifetime it’s never going to be enough – the stuff is amazing and puts a smile on my face.

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?

Oh boy, how about a Chili Mole Russian Imperial Stout, brewed with Roasted Black Mulato and Red Scotch Bonnet Chili Peppers, Hoja Santa, Peanuts, Cacoa Nibs, Clove, Cumin

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

I wouldn’t want superhuman powers, seems too much like cheating, I’d prefer manmade powers – like those of Iron Man / Tony Stark, he’s rich, suave, sarcastic, unapologetically obsessed with his passions… and he can fly! – I respect all of those traits…. especially the flying.

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

Immigrating to the U.S. is pretty damn crazy in the grand scheme of things – the word ‘adventure’ cannot even begin to describe saying goodbye to your family, leaving the place you grew up so you can create a new life for yourself half way around the world. It’s not for everyone.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

One word – ambrosia.

SPECIAL THANKS TO LEE FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: JEREMY LABADIE

Wenchie — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:48:01 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: JEREMY LABADIE

AUTHOR OF: THE BEER BUDDHA

Beer Blogger Interview

Full name: Jeremy Labadie
Twitter handle: @TheBeerBuddha
Name of blog: THE BEER BUDHA
Current location: Panama City Beach, Florida

Background “Snapshot”

1. Where did you grow up?

I was a military brat so I’ve lived in lots of places. Mostly grew up in Virginia though.

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

I played all sorts of sports growing up from football, basketball, baseball, soccer, wrestling, etc. Focused on football and baseball in high school and after a short stint playing football in college at Tulane decided on playing rugby instead.

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

4. If you can recall, what is the story of your first beer?

My friends and I just decided we wanted some beer so we had a Marine(we lived on base) take our money and buy us beer. He brought out Schlitz 40oz.

5. Where did you have it?

Basketball court on the base.

6. What style and brand was it?

Schlitz 40oz

7. Where, if applicable, did you go to college?

Tulane University.

8. What did you study?

Social Science

9. What additional activities, organizations, sports did you partake in during college?

Drinking heavily.

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 had just turned 21 (1996) and I decided I was going to stop drinking shitty beer since I could buy my own now. I went to the store and was walking the aisles when I saw this cool 22oz bottle that had a skeleton sitting on a barrel. I thought it was a cool bottle so I bought it and from then on I was always on the look out for new beer. It was Rogue Dead Guy.

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

Every new beer I try is an epiphany in one way or another.

Beer Blog Background

1. How long have you been writing THE BEER BUDDHA?

A little over a year.

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

I wanted to learn more so I felt writing about beer would help that along and no one else was blogging about beer in New Orleans.

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

I was at a party where I was talking about beer and a lady said that I was so into beer that I treated it like a religious experience. She looked at my svelt figure and said, ” You’re like the Buddha of beer.”

4. What are you personal goals for your blog?

I’d really like to become a better writer and maybe perhaps get into video blogging cause I think I really have a face for TV.

5. What do you hope to achieve with it?

I know I should write how I really want to become the next Michael Jackson and travel the world writing and teaching about beer but really I just want free beer.

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

I got free beer at McGuires because the brewer read my blog. That and meeting The Beer Wench.

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

Beeradvocate.com
Two Beer Queers
Drink With The Wench. NO really. It is.

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

Saisons, American Wild Ales, DIPAs

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Stone, NOLA, Saint Somewhere

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

I worked for NOLA already so maybe Stone because it just seems like a pretty fun and kick ass job.

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

I wish I had the time.

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

I’m working on hopefully getting the Cicerone thing. Maybe BJCP.

6. What is your favorite beer and food pairing?

Funny thing. I don’t like pairing my food with beer. I like each to be completely seperate. I know. Blasphemy.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I’m the Beer Operations Manager at Chan’s Wine World in Destin, Florida.

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 like to own my own beer store/beer bar.

3. Are you married? Children?

Yes on both.

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

I enjoy movies. I’m a horror movie freak. I also like long walks in the park, snuggling with my wife in our matching snuggies and taking long baths with aroma therapy candles all around the room.

Off The Beaten Path

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

Stout. Cause I’m fat.

Whatever the executioners favorite brew is because he might be a pretty cool cat and be all like hey man we gotta let this dude go. He’s awesome. Or something along those lines.

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?

American Wild Ale cause you are one wild chick!

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

Mind control powers.

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

Uh, I fell out the back of a truck once. I lived.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

It’s the cure for swine flu and an ingredient in Buddha’s Temptation at Avenue Pub in New Orleans.

SPECIAL THANKS TO JEREMY FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!

Featured Beer Blogger: JOSH D

Wenchie — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:00:39 +0000

DRINK WITH THE WENCH PRESENTS:

The Beer Blogger Interview Series

INTRODUCING: JOSHUA D

AUTHOR OF: LOST IN THE BEER AISLE

Full name: Joshua D
Internet nickname: Lost
Twitter handle: Lost_in_beer
Name of blog: Lost in the Beer Aisle
Current location: Westborough, MA

Background “Snapshot

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a small town in Vermont. 1500 people in this town. Unfortunately I don’t have fond memories of the place. My graduating class had 23 kids in it. Small numbers to pick friends from. I couldn’t leave for college quick enough!

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

Even though it was a small town, basketball was like religion. I played from 5th grade until I graduated high school. In 5th grade we were sat down by the couch and some parents and told how when we got to high school we were going to win the state championship or die trying. My junior and senior year we did just that…back to back. Ahhh…small town glory. I also played baseball and we sucked.

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

There is a picture showing my grandfather with a 3-year-old me on his lap. I have a Budweiser in my hand. I think the photo was for laughs, but I also think I took a sip. My first full beer wasn’t until freshman year in college probably!

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 may not have been the VERY first beer in college, but the one I most vividly remember was when we were partying at a friend’s house during a week long semester break. His dad bought us a 30 rack of Busch Light. The guy was a huge dude…hands like a bear. A “real” man. He tossed me the brew and I couldn’t let him down so we all chugged together.

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

Nashua, NH Computer Science. The only sport I partook in during college was drinking! After a couple solid years of boozing and making the best friends of my life I decided that I should probably get an education and I transferred to a college in Andover, MA.

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 happened earlier this year! I had recently moved and was checking out the local liquor store one day. I was blown away at their selection of beer. Over 1000 different types of beer. On top of that they let you buy individual bottles. I purchased a few different bottles that day and immediately decided I wanted to keep trying new stuff even though I didn’t have the first clue about tasting beer.

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

I actually can’t take credit for my second epiphany. My wife had the epiphany for me! That happens a lot in our relationship. The story goes that for a few months I was trying various beers, snapping photos of them, and posting them to my Facebook account. I was gradually adding more and more detail to the captions of these pictures until they started resembling beer reviews.

My wife encouraged me to start a blog. Her argument was that I was basically already doing the work via Facebook. After a few weeks of procrastinating I finally took her advice. That’s all history now. The website has really taken off since then. I’ve learned sooooo much about beer and I’m having a great time doing it.

Beer Blog Background

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

Since Spring 2009

2. What inspired you to start writing your blog?

See epiphanies above.

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

The idea behind my blog is that you don’t have to know a lot about beer to enjoy it. And what you don’t know, you can certainly learn. I had been to a lot of beer blogging sites that were nerdy and intimidating and I wanted to make my blog the exact opposite. The name was a collaborative effort. I polled a bunch of friends to get ideas. Someone came up with the word “Lost” to describe being confused. “in the beer aisle” came to me in a dream. OK, not really. It came to me while I was sitting at work on day goofing off. And there you have it…Lost in the Beer Aisle.

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

I hope I can continue to reach out to beer-newbies. I also hope to get more beer-newbies to come and do guest reviews on my site. If you’re reading this right now, that’s an open invitation! Ultimately, I hope I continue to blog in a way that is unintimidating for the beer-newb, but also interesting to those of you who know a thing or two about beer.

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

Nothing major to this point. Robert Wolaver posted a comment to my blog once. That was pretty neat. Unfortunately it was a review of a beer that I hated. The beer had gone bad, so it wasn’t Wolaver’s fault. The next coolest thing that happened was when I mentioned to the folks at Flying Dog (via twitter) that I couldn’t find Horn Dog at my liquor store. They immediately replied and asked for the name of my liquor store. I had 2 cases of Horn Dog waiting for me the next time I went booze shopping. Pretty cool…

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

That’s tough. I follow some ridiculous number of beer blogs via Google Reader (like 100-150). There isn’t a single one that I am particularly loyal to.

Beer Talk

1. What are your top 3 favorite beer styles?

If you asked me this before I started my blog, I could have answered. I was always a HUGE hefewiezen fan, followed by any other wheat beer. Since I started blogging, I’ve found that there is virtually nothing I dislike. I’m really getting tired of the monotony of IPAs, but that’s a rant for another time. Anyway, back to the question. Let’s say: Wheat beers, Imperial Stouts and (sweet) Barley Wines.

2. What are your top 3 favorite breweries?

Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, North Coast

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

Dogfish Head is incredibly intriguing. I value uniqueness over many other factors in a beer, and Dogfish has uniqueness down. Furthermore, they don’t sacrifice flavor to achieve this. I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall for just one day to see how they manage to come up with such wild, yet delicious brews. They are so far ahead of basically every brewery out there…how the heck are they consistently staying ahead?

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

Heck no. I have too much of EVERYONE ELSE’S beer to drink. I can’t think about brewing my own.

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?

Beer and nothing. Seriously…I do 90% of my drinking at night long after dinner.

The Personal Side

1. What is your current day job?

I’m a project manager in the IT industry.

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?

If that means that money is no object, I’d buy a golf course, hire a staff to take care of it, and spend my days playing golf. At night I’d spend my time reviewing beer. If you mean more down-to-earth, I honestly don’t know. I love my job. I work with awesome people and I would definitely miss that interaction. I don’t want to do my job forever, but for now I’m very happy.

3. Are you married? Children?

Married for 6+ years. No kids. I’m not having kids until I’m done being a kid!!!

Outside of beer and writing, what are some of your other hobbies? Golf, World War 2 history, Playstation 3

Off The Beaten Path

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

I’m a simple down-to-earth kinda guy, but I’m also slightly insane, so this is a tough choice. I guess I’ll say I’m a light beer that is slightly fruity. You know…that kind of beer that you know has fruit in there, but you can’t figure out what kind.

Something thick. Imperial Stout. No specific beer in mind. Just give me something I can milk for a little while.

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?

The term “Beer Wench” reminds me of lederhosen and Germany. The beer would have to be a lightish wheat beer. The kind that you can easily down. Lord knows you’re going to have to fill up your GIANT stein with the stuff 3-4 times.

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

I’ve had irritable bowel for 10 years. The 12-year old in me would insist that I have some superpowers surrounding that. Use your imagination.

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

Only dumb stuff fits into this category for me. The “best” one is when I totaled my car and walked away. Hint: Don’t go 80MPH in a torrential downpour. Your car WILL hydroplane. You might slam into a guardrail on one side of a 3-lane highway, shoot across two lanes and T-Bone a 30ft race car trailer, and then fly back across the lanes, stopping in the fast lane with large sections of your car missing.

6. What are your thoughts on bacon?

I’m a vegetarian. That said, back when I ate bacon it was DAMN yummy. It will slowly kill you, but delicious nonetheless. I frequently have fake bacon, which is (hopefully) less deadly.

SPECIAL THANKS TO JOSH FOR AN AWESOME INTERVIEW!

CHEERS!