Tag: beer bloggers

Posted on

Session # 80

session_logo_all_text_300-246x300

From Derek Harrison’s Beer Blog, It’s Not Just the Alcohol Talking, we get another hot topic in the beer world. Will the bubble deflate or is their a bubble at all. The bubble not being housing or internet stocks but our beloved craft beer. From checking out Harrison’s blog and reading his post for Session # 79, it should be a well moderated debate and not just provocative for the pleasure some take in “keepin’ it real.”

Here is the assignment:

Session #80 – Is Craft Beer a Bubble?

It’s a good time to be in the craft beer industry. The big brewers are watching their market share get chipped away by the purveyors of well-made lagers and ales. Craft breweries are popping up like weeds.

This growth begs the question: is craft beer a bubble? Many in the industry are starting to wonder when, and more importantly how, the growth is going to stop. Is craft beer going to reach equilibrium and stabilize, or is the bubble just going to keep growing until it bursts?

You hear the tone and see the head shake and you know you are in the presence of a fatalist. We have all run into the guy who says that we have too many breweries. It is unsustainable for the customer base. So on, ad infinitum.  Why would someone be negative when we are living in a golden age of great beer?

Me, I see the pint glass as more than half full though. I am not so naive as to expect double digit growth forever, in fact, I expect a shakeout or two in the next few years but nothing on the scale of the microbrewery implosion that we have already bounced back from remarkably.

I base my non bursting bubble assumption on the fact that there are states in America still playing catch up to craft beer and many countries around the world yet to enter the game too.

The southern states are just now easing laws on brewing. Texas is a big and only partially tapped market. Same with my current city, Los Angeles. We are just now getting a head of steam going in the new brewery department. There is room to grow.  It may not be in markets like Portland or Denver but even those cities are creating more beer each year.

Spain, Greece and the Scandanavian countries could easily enter the game as well. Not to mention China and its current wine buying binge that could translate into beer too. Just think if it became cool in China to buy up Black Tuesday from The Bruery.  It might end of up $100 a bottle.

Another aspect that craft beer has going for it is that the customer base is strong, vocal and entrenched. Poor quality beer will not be bought out of pity, so some places will have to change or go bye-bye. Just like in any niche market And it means, also, that current craft consumers ain’t gonna buy Bud-Miller-Coors ever again.  So even if the momentum completely shudders to a stop everywhere and at once, we will be in a 10% to 15% craft market depending on which stats you want to believe.

And some pundits may mark a certain percentage as the end of the line or the bottlecap ceiling but that says they can tell you that the market will top off at point A is only making a guess.  Whose to say that the market isn’t 25% or 30%?  I see the Big Brewers losing market share and I don’t see them making craft beer so I see potential in the 85% of America that doesn’t buy it yet.  I was just at a bar in North Hollywood that has a good set of regular non-rotating handles.  They do occasional special nights but nothing fancy to make a beer snobs heart pitter patter.  But two of the bartenders admitted that they drank crap before and that they can’t now.  These little leaks of customers will continue as far as I can see.

In the end my slightly educated guess is that craft beer will keep growing.

Posted on

Session # 78

session_logo_all_text_300-246x300

This month we have a writing “test” from BeerBarBand….

What better way to test our writing skills and remind ourselves of why we do this than to post your elevator pitch for beer.

“Elevator pitch” is a term used by marketers, sales people, film/tv makers and the like. It’s the delivery of a short but powerful summary that will sell their idea or concept to the listener in one swift hit.

Here’s the scenario:

You walk into an elevator and hit the button for your destination level. Already in the elevator is someone holding a beer…and it’s a beer that annoys you because, in your view, it represents all that is bad with the current state of beer.

You can’t help but say something, so you confront your lift passenger with the reason why their beer choice is bad.

30 seconds is all you have to sell your pitch for better beer, before the lift reaches the destination floor. There’s no time, space or words to waste. You must capture and persuade the person’s attention as quickly as possible. When that person walks out of the elevator, you want them to be convinced that you have the right angle on how to make a better beer world.

Here’s the rules:

  1. In less than 250 words or 30 seconds of multimedia content, write/record/create your elevator pitch for beer in which you argue you case, hoping to covert the listener to your beer cause.

So here goes……

Tell me about your thought process when you purchased the beer that is in your hand.  When you were staring at the shelves of beer choices, what was it about that particular beer that called to you? I ask because if you deliberately chose that beer, I want to know why. I will understand if faced with the dizzying array of craft available you are overwhelmed or if you are “slumming”.  But I want to know, if you know, about all the choices you have. 

Because you do have choice, you could drink a different beer every day for a year and still have some new beers to try in the next (and the next after).  And choice is good, it means that there are no excuses to NOT have a craft beer. 

You CANNOT say that you don’t like craft beer.  You CAN say that you have not found one you like but that means that you are wasting time with that one in your hand. You CANNOT say that you can’t find good beer.  It has invaded every town and city.  You just wanted to grab the closest or cheapest. 

Would you eat the same meal, night after night? Even the most lazy among us don’t do that. But it is what you are doing by buying that one beer over and over.

Once this elevator door opens, I want you to do some homework and find a better beer.  Craft beer is waiting for you.

Posted on

Session # 76

session_logo_all_text_300-246x300
Here is the June topic from Beer is your Friend:

“I want you to write me a blog post on the subject of compulsion as it relates to beer. The idea for this Session topic partially arose from the Beer Audit session Adam at Pints and Pubs hosted a few months ago. In my effort and those of a few other bloggers, idea of buying more beer than we need was touched on. Writing about buying heaps of beer got me thinking about just what it is that compels me to keep buying beer.

Like most beer fans, I tend to buy way more beer than I can drink. I can have a fridge full, plus a few boxes of bottles, plus homebrew and still I’ll walk into a shop and buy some more. Or order some more online. Or do both in the space of a few days.

Why do we do stuff like this? Obviously we’re not just buying stuff to drink because, if we were, wouldn’t we just wait until we were running low and then stock up? What so many of us do is stock up, even though we’re already stocked up. Perhaps we’re expecting the zombie apocalypse to happen soon and don’t want to go through that sober.

Is buying heaps of beer something you worry about? Do you look at your Aladdin’s Cave of beer and feel even a smidge of guilt about how much it all cost you? Or do you just rub your hands together, cackle with glee and say ‘‘it’s mine! All mine!’’.

What lengths do you go to to hide this compulsion? For instance, do you try and sneak beer into the house so your other half doesn’t see it? (Not saying that I’ve done this. Oh, okay, I have done this).

Before my wife and I moved to our current abode, I could not seriously collect beer. Our old and strangely green ‘fridge was too small and constantly needed to be de-iced. And due to the omnipresent heat in Los Angeles and a lack of a cool, dark cellaring area, all I could “hoard” was five to six bottles at any one time.

But did that hinder my buying? Not a bit. There was still plenty of sticker shock when the credit card bill came once a month. I would buy a bomber – drink a bomber. Or in accounting terminology, first in – first out.

But despite the lack of storage and with no rich uncle or aunt, I still kept shopping and buying a tenth of what I wanted in my cart. So you can imagine that once I had a bigger ‘fridge with a dedicated beer spot and a small plot of land in the garage for a cellar, that the acquisition pace would accelerate.

And it did. Partially due to the fact that L.A. started to provide more beer shoppes for me to frequent. But until this topic cropped up, I hadn’t really thought of the why behind the drive to purchase.
I could go with the Everest-ian excuse of “Because, it’s there.” But practically any book, movie and/or piece of Trailblazer basketball memorabilia is available at the drop of a hat thanks to the non-stop shop that is the interwebs. And it is not that I have lost all control and buy stuff by the case. I hunt and peck and price compare where I can and get single bottles (or cans) instead of full sixers. If your bottle is over $15, then I think long and hard before it goes into my shopping cart.

I am also not “hoarding” in the classic sense. Yes, there are untouchable bottles in my cellar but that is primarily because I only have one bottle of a rare item. If a beer geek came over and demanded to open one, I probably would with some hesitation.
So what psychological desire is compelling me to always check the beer aisle at Whole Foods or Trader Joes. And what I keep coming back to is that I really enjoy the thrill of finding that new beer or that beer that I have heard about but not tasted or to see a beer that is newly distributed in SoCal. There is a hit of excitement each time I smile and pick up a craft beer.

And the only thing more potent than that initial rush is when the cap is pried off or the cork popped and that first aroma drifts upward.

Posted on

Session # 75

session_logo_all_text_300-246x300

The May Session is hosted by allbrews from the San Francisco Bay area.  And here is the topic…..

“Like sandlot baseball players or schoolyard basketball junkies, many amateur brewers, including some beer-brewing bloggers, harbor a secret dream: They aspire to some day “go pro.” They compare their beer with commercial brews poured in their local pubs and convince themselves that they’ve got the brewing chops it takes to play in the Bigs. Some of them even make it, fueling the dream that flutters in the hearts of many other home brewers yearning to see their beer bottles on the shelves at City Beer or their kegs poured from the taps at Toronado.

Creating a commercial brewery consists of much more than making great beer, of course. It requires meticulous planning, careful study and a whole different set of skills from brewing beer. And even then, the best plan can still be torpedoed by unexpected obstacles. Making beer is the easy part, building a successful business is hard.

In this Session, I’d like to invite comments and observations from bloggers and others who have first-hand knowledge of the complexities and pitfalls of starting a commercial brewery. What were the prescient decisions that saved the day or the errors of omission or commission that caused an otherwise promising enterprise to careen tragically off the rails?”

Full Disclosure: I have ZERO, NONE, experience with starting a commercial brewery.  That being said, I have noticed what separates the successful from the less so.

Of course sucess can be attributed to many factors. A flagship beer that flies off the shelves. Location: both the physical building and the proximity to willing customers. Great branding and marketing. Loud and obnoxious marketing. The beer quality can (and does) vary from great to better than Bud.

But failure, from my safe perch of blogging, primarily comes from being disconnected from your customers.  And a brewery has many customers.  Their distributor, bar owners, beer drinkers to name the three biggest.

A brewery casually disregards any of them at their own peril.  A perfect example of this disconnection is on the crowdfunding website, Kickstarter.

Breweries have been especially drawn to this method for raising funding for equipment, ingredients and other big ticket items. And it provides a case study in how to create and maintain and engage a fan base.  All items that I believe are very important to long term success.

Fully funded Kickstarters share fully engaged creators/brewers who do the following:

1. Set a reachable goal

Some projects have set dollar amounts that even a casual / occasional backer can see won’t be reached.  It is much better to start small and reach “stretch” goals.  Otherwise your backers will lose interest when they see that the percentage towards the goal is inching forward and not running.

2. Do events

Even if you do not have beer to sell, get out and either support the bars that will hopefully be buying your beers.  Hand out bumper stickers or pass out questionnaires.  If nothing else, spread the word about the brewery.

3. Meet the press

Talk to your local newspaper, the big newspaper in town and then hit up any and all beer bloggers in the area.  Give interviews at any opportunity.  Post progress on the social media sites that work best for you. 

4. Explain your beers

Make sure that your pre-conceived line-up of beers is thoroughly explained on your Kickstarter page and your website and blog and Facebook because in the end it is about the beer.

Then drink a lot of coffee and soda because you will be on the ground running for the duration.  Which is great practice for the actual brewery too!

Posted on

Session # 73

session_logo_all_text_300-246x300

Here is the topic for March courtesy of Pints and Pubs: The Beer audit

“Once or twice a year I take a beer audit. I open cupboards and boxes and just have a good look at what’s there. Some beers get moved about, some make it from a box into the fridge, others get pushed further to the back of the cupboard for another day. Often I just stare at the bottles for a while and think about when I’ll drink them. Apart from the enjoyment of just looking at a hoard of beer, It tells me something about my drinking habits.

I store too many bottles – over 150 at the last count, which would keep me in beer for over a month, compared to less than a week’s worth of food – but evidently that’s still not enough bottles as I return with more every time I leave the house.

I have a tendency to hoard strong, dark beers – great for a winter evening, not so great when a lazy sunny afternoon starts with a 9% imperial stout and then gets stronger.

My cellaring could be improved. I found three beers from breweries that closed last year. I found these, not hidden away in a box under the stairs, but in the fridge. The fridge!!!

My attempts to age beer usually just result in beer that’s past its best

The oldest beer in my cupboard is probably an infant compared to the aged beers people must have in their cellars

So, I’m interested to know if you take stock of the beers you have, what’s in your cellar, and what does it tell you about your drinking habits. This could inlcude a mention of the oldest, strongest, wildest beers you have stored away, the ratio of dark to light, strong to sessionable, or musings on your beer buying habits and the results of your cellaring.”

After reading the topic, the first thing I did was update my excel spreadsheet that has the relevant details on my “collection” of 50+ beers and then I added a new column.

That column is “better drink by”. And it is an addition that I should have started tracking from purchased for the cellar, bottle #1. And I now believe it is the third most important piece of cellaring technique behind storage and picking beers that can actually age.

From my experience, beer geeks have no qualms about popping the cork or cap of cellar beers. We love showing off either the width or breadth of our collections. The stories of epic bottle shares are legion. But we don’t always do it in a methodical way. If we could sort our beer lists by “fast approaching past their prime”, then we could choose from those first instead of letting our hearts and palates choose in a different direction. (Which admittedly may be just as good.)

That may sound a little too much like accounting and less fun and spontaneous but it might save people from skipping over a beer that was at its peak for one that could have chilled longer. And all it requires is a little extra research and some Excel spreadsheet sorting skills.

And it doesn’t even have to be a spreadsheet. You don’t have to hire an accountant to do it. It could be a handwritten piece of paper taped to the box. It could be an app on your iPad if you prefer to do everything on the cloud.

Heck, maybe you hire a friend (or me) to do the cataloging with the promise of opening one as payment.

IMG_3734

Posted on

Session # 70 – Don’t Believe the Hype


Here is the December topic courtesy of Good Morning….
“Back in the summer, I shared a bottle of Westvleteren 12 with my brother and my father. Whilst I was aware of it’s reputation as “best beer in the world”, they were not. Whilst we all enjoyed it, we all agreed that we much preferred the other beer we had that night. The question that came into my head was this…

If I had told them it was the best beer in the world, would their perceptions have changed?

How much does hype have an effect? Are we much better off knowing nothing about a beer, or is it better to have the knowledge as to what the best beers are?

Which beers do you think have been overhyped? How do you feel when a beer doesn’t live up to it’s hype.

Is hype a good or bad thing for beer? Tell me what you think. I’m looking forward to seeing what the general consensus is.”

Hype, in and of itself, is neither correct, incorrect, good or bad. It is simply the blowing up of something that heretofore was unknown.

That means, to me, that any beer that is considered a “let down” after you have tasted it is not the fault of the hype but of the beer itself. Because, if you then say that the hype was exaggerated or over the top then you are basically saying that you believe what other people say and not what your palate is telling you.

But it seems, if you look at the top beers on the various craft focused websites, that a lot of people are either parroting back what has been told to them because they fear writing down their true reactions or it isn’t hype and the beer is just that damn good.

I believe it is a bit from both column A and column B. I used to check out the “scores” and “ratings” of beers before prying off the crown cap. I used to strain to locate the faint notes of pineapple and/or caramel in a certain beer and I realized that I wasn’t paying attention to the actual beer that was in my glass. Not to say that I am not overtaken by certain beers with reputations that precede them but I pour it into my glass and swirl as if it were the beer before and the beer after. If it astonishes then I am in agreement with the crowd. But if I pull back and think of what needs to better the beer then I know that my taste buds are not in alignment.

For an example, I recently lucked into trying Heady Topper from the Alchemist. Barring me winning the lottery and traveling the beer world with my winnings. I probably was not going to sample this beer. So I read about it. Perused some reviews and put it into my wish list. When the can was handed to me, I smiled and profusely thanked the person who brought it and tasted it. But I didn’t taste it like it was heaven sent. I didn’t taste it like I was part of some BeerAdvocate clique. I simply tasted it as a lover of craft beer.

Heady was indeed up to snuff and then some. One of the best beers that I imbibed in 2012. So, to me it is not overhyped. But to you or the person next to you it might be. And that is not a bad thing, or a good thing or correct or incorrect. It is just we all have different reactions. And some reactions are more passionate than others.

Posted on

Session # 68


99 Pours is hosting the October Session and the theme: Novelty Beers

“With the onslaught of even weirder beards…erm…beers…than before, I can’t help but wonder if novelty beers are going too far. Or maybe not far enough? LOL! As a merchant of beer, I can see the place for novelty beers, as I am choosing for some customers who say, “I want the strangest beer you have.” We’ve even seen some novelty beers in our top-sellers. But beer traditionalists sometimes frown on these new and bizarre concoctions. And I can’t help but wonder if Martyn Cornell will participate, sharing bizarre but notable historic brews.

And what better time for novelty, than the month that holds Halloween?

What novelty beer comes to mind when you think: Is this beer just to strange to stay around? Why in the world would they choose ingredients most beer drinkers have never heard of …what the heck is a qatar fruit? If it’s okay for beer to taste like tea or coffee, why not pizza? If wild yeasts are allowed to ferment beer, then why not beard yeast? If oysters, why not bacon? If pumpkin’s good enough for pie, why not beer? Since hops are flowers, why not brew with actual flowers?”

I am all for stretching the box. Breaking through the box. Heck, even making the box a circle when it comes to beer. I have had beer that has organic fennel in it, L.A. Beer Week’s “Top Chef” style ingredient for 2012 was the prickly pear and I just read about an Oregon beer made with golden raspberries. I lived part of my life with only industrial water lagers to drink and I am certainly not going back to just corn as a base ingredient.

And if I think of the past, some of those beers that I thought were extra hoppy or too roasty would be considered XPA or a light porter in 2012. Today’s “weird” may be “boring” in a few years time but it could also just as easily be today’s fad that does not last until the keg is dry or tomorrow (whichever comes first). And I think that the truly great “novelty” beers should be called Beer from a novel approach because it must be about the beer first. The inspiration can come from Halloween and you can devise a way to add black licorice to a beer (Ladyface Ales did it this year) but if the beer is just black licorice roughly grafted onto any old beer then it won’t take. It has to be which beer would match with black licorice to add an extra dimension to the beer.

Another point to consider. If a consumer tastes a wacky beer and it goes down all wrong then what are the chances that the person picks up another beer from that brewery? Or on the flip side, if that same beer becomes the next “whale” that becomes the first thing that people think about when they think about the brewery and/or the beer is a mess to brew. Either way you need to have established a loyal consumer base that will still drink all the “other” beers in your portfolio.

The third wrinkle that novelty beers bring to the pint glass is that they take up valuable space in a fermenter. Is your local nano working overtime and then some to keep up with the demand for their flagship ale? Then they turn around and throw chipotle peppers into it? I am not saying that it is wrong or bad or an affront to the beer gods but it is something to consider.

Novelty beers to me are like a basketball player who launches an off kilter half-court shot when there is still 24 seconds on the shot clock. You know the coach will yank that player before seeing if the ball goes into the hoop. If it goes in, you get applauded and put on ESPN. If it doesn’t you end up riding the pine watching the game.

Posted on

The Firkin for September 2012


Pete Brown author of the upcoming Shakespeare’s Local amongst other great beer books posed the question, “How Many Beer Bloggers Does it Take to Screw in a Lightbulb?” It was good for some laughs. My favorite one-liner was “Is it an artisan produced bulb, or mass produced yellow fizz of light?”

Despite the fact that tongue was firmly in cheek for many responses it got me to pondering why beer blogging has a less than stellar reputation. I know that blogging in general is considered less noble pursuit and more navel gazing. But why is everyone who blogs about beer painted with the same brush of disdain?

Granted, since I blog about beer and have gone to two of three beer blogger conventions and am part of the Los Angeles blogger group makes me a little touchy on the subject because I am being stereotyped along with everyone else. I have the mentality of a newspaper that publishes something slightly anti-Republican and gets slapped with the “lamestream” media tag.

Part of the problem lies with people who think that beer snobs and beer bloggers are one in the same. Whereas in my interactions with bloggers most are of the geeky Comic-Con variety and not the beer whale hunting, non pilsner drinking up turned nose stripe. So that is an issue that beer bloggers are going to have to tackle in the future. How to tell the origin story of beer bloggers and show that we are a fun lot to have a beer with.

Another part of the puzzle is an inherited problem from doing blogs. They are not a business. They are a passion. And usually a one person passion at that. Imagine writing a newspaper article or magazine piece without any editorial assistance. Of course errors are going to happen. There are probably enough grammatical issues on my blog alone to raise E.B. White from the dead and then put him back in his coffin. Until there is a HuffPost of craft beer, this will remain. Again, we bloggers need to either ‘fess up to our literary shortcomings or sell it as what makes our blog a personal and honest stop on the ale trail.

The one thing that I think will really break the logjam is that if a really wide variety of people start, continue or change the focus of their blogs to topics dear to their heart. Be it beer cocktails, women and beer, beer in out of way spots in the U.S., sports and beer or writing just about Belgian beers. This will break the mold and force readers and commenters to re-think what a beer blog is supposed to be.

Even if nothing changed, there are a wide variety of beer blogs out there today that need to be critiqued on a blog by blog basis and not just rejected out of hand. You wouldn’t review a movie you hadn’t seen and the same applies to craft beer blogs.

Posted on

Session # 66


This month is hosted by DrinkDrank and here is the topic with apologies to Gollum.
“We all have our favorite brews—even if you say you don’t; deep,deep down we all do. From IPAs to Pilsners, Steam Beers to Steinbiers, something out there floats your boat. What if we look that to another level? What if you were to design the perfect brew—a Tolkien-esque One Beer to Rule Them All. The perfect beer for you, personally. Would it be hoppy and dark or strong and light? Is it augmented with exotic ingredients or traditionally crafted? Would your One Beer be a historic recreation or something never before dreamt of? The sky is the limit on this one. If you need to travel back in time to brew at Belgian farm during the 1870s, go right ahead—just say hi to Doc Brown and the Delorean for me. Maybe you’ll need to mount a expedition to the treacherous Amazonian rain forest to bring back some chicha, to spike your brew with; or perhaps, you’ll just dust off that old Brown Ale homebrew recipe, tweak it a bit, and call it an evening.

I’d suspect that most of you out there probably have a good understanding about the brewing process—but if you don’t, no sweat, just wing it. This exercise isn’t about making sure you’ve checked all the right boxes for the BJCP or some homebrew competition. This Session is all about imagining the possibilities—no matter how ridiculous! Feel free to create a recipe, right down to the aplha acid in your hops or conjure up a review just like you’d do for any other beer. However you want to come at this, it’s your ultimate beer, your One Beer to Rule Them All!

One small caveat, however, you do need to name your concoction—no imaginary super beer would be complete without some glorified moniker to seal the proverbial deal!”

The hardest part of this “mythic” beer challenge was the right sounding name. I wanted some history, I wanted to convey fun and I wanted to make sure the beer style was incorporated in there as well. I rejected more before I could finish typing them. But I guess I should go back to the beginning of this session.

What would be my perfect pint? I had to set parameters. I wanted something hoppy but not double or imperial. I wanted to pick up ingredients and elements of some of my favorite beers and re-jigger them into a brand new configuration. I also wanted something light (or dare I say, sessionable) because here in Los Angeles, there are more hot days than not and as good as Double IPA or Russian Imperial Stout can be, they are not easy to drink in the heat of August. (I know this is an imaginary beer that could be drunk anywhere at anytime but I want to stay somewhat tethered to reality.)

Without further ado, here is what I want in my glass. I want a hopped up Helles with a touch of sage in it. This fills my self-imposed parameters. I want this beer to be a bit fizzy but with a pronounced hop aroma from one of the hip New Zealand / Australian hops like Motueka with it’s lemon and lime burst followed by a background of tropical fruit or Rakau with it’s tropical fruit aromas of passionfruit and peach. Then just to add a secondary burst of flavor add some locally grown sage to add a bit more zing to the proceedings.

This recipe would hit a few more points of interest for me. I want to see more pilsners and helles’ on tap and it will showcase the diversity of hop styles and be a bit worldly and less West Coast-centric and the sage addition comes from my enjoyment of Farmer’s Markets that are all over the SoCal area.

This is also a nod to some beers that I have had that in the past like the Sand Dune Sage Pale Ale from El Segundo Brewing and the Saison du Buff from the collaborative efforts of Stone, Dogfish Head and Victory and to the excellent helles made by Hangar 24 in Redlands, California.

That being typed, the name of this lovely summer sipper is The Helles Reclamation Project # 1 – NZ Sage. That’s right. I am thinking about a whole series of new flavors for Helles. Now I just need to think of what I would add to # 2.

Since time machine’s were invoked, how about making sure it is in my hand before I finish this post?

Posted on

Session # 65 – So Lonely

Here is this month’s topic courtesy of Booze, Beats and Bites….
“Speaking of fun, going to the pub with a bunch of mates is great… you have a few beers and a laugh, generally a fun time and all.

I love going to the pub with mates but sometimes I go to a pub alone and I enjoy it.

Other people say I’m weird for this as there seems to be a stigma attached to being in the pub alone – alcoholism.

There are many reasons why I go to the pub alone.

Sometimes I just want to spend some quality time alone that isn’t at home.

Sometimes I’m walking home and fancy a pit-stop.

Sometimes my mates are all busy with their girlfriends/wives/children and I want a pint.

Sometimes I just fancy going to the pub and observing the bizarre people around me.

Sometimes I want to sit down and write blogs on my tableaux while having a pint.

Sometimes I just want to play angry birds while having a pint.

Sometimes I just want to prop myself at the bar and discuss beer with the bartender.

Sometimes I want to explore pubs that I’ve never been to before but my mates don’t want to.

Sometimes I’m just a miserable bastard and don’t want to socialise but want a nice pint.

The way I see it is that I love beer and pubs and I don’t see why I should only go to the pub when I’m with other people.

Am I weird for going to the pub alone?

How do you feel about going to the pub alone? Do you feel it’s necessary to be around friends to spend time in a pub?”

NO, NO a thousand times NO. It is NEVER weird to go alone for a pint. Just like it isn’t weird to see a movie by yourself or to have dinner by yourself or practically anything, solo.

Before our world became wired and we could check in at a place, check in to a specific beer and take a photo of the beer that looks vaguely sepia toned within seconds of walking in the door, you couldn’t always reach the people that you would like to have a beer with. Now because of phones, Twitter and Untappd (name your social media poison), it is almost expected that we stay in 24 hour contact with not only close friends but slight acquaintances and people we have never met.

But if we are always in constant contact how can we possibly get to know ourselves and slightly less importantly, how do we get to know the beer?

If I am out with friends, I may have drunk 3/4’s of my beer without really tasting it because I may be talking or listening or taking mental notes or laughing. All well and good. Beer isn’t always about maximizing flavor and aroma appreciation. But there are times, important to me, where I crack open a bottle and it’s just me, what’s in the glass and the sky above and I can really look at the beer, take a good whiff of the hops and take a good drink and linger.

We all need a fair share of all types of beer experiences. Too much of one without the other and we lose touch with all that is right about craft beer. It would be akin to always having one style or one breweries beer. Your life wouldn’t be as filled and you would probably begin to take it for granted or long for what’s on the other side. I am not overly fond of bars with multiple TV’s but occasionally I want to watch the NBA or Euro 2012 with an accompanying pint.

That is why I go to many different bars and breweries. That is why I stock my ‘fridge with a changing roster of bottles. That is why sometimes, I sit alone and drink my beer. The only common denominator is that in any scenario, I have a smile on my face.

So be a weird, miserable, Angry Bird playing, blog writing craft beer drinker. I raise my pint to you from a different location where I am doing the same.