Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference 2015 and Inspiration for Tomorrow

I love beer. And I relish the peace writing brings to my life. So why have I had such a difficult time putting these two things together the past few months? In the early days of this blog I felt like I could write three posts a week on the subject and read thirty others, but just like an IPA that sits on the shelf a little too long, slowly losing its’ hoppy potency, I’m not the blogger I once was.

I’m content with the change, but before I decided which direction to take on my blogging journey I decided to make a trip to Asheville, NC for the Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference hoping to discover anew that which made me want to write about beer in the first place.

Debates about Macro vs Craft, discussing metaphorical bubbles, tracking brewery growth…all of these things intrigue me in their own way, but they are dreadfully boring to talk about on a weekly basis and only serve to take me further away from what I truly love about beer. I found myself trying to write popular posts I’d find elsewhere on the web. You know the posts I’m talking about. The ever more popular amateur hour analysis of marketing in beer, artwork dissection of labels, or market saturation of certain beer styles (select IPA if you’re seeking out the hot take). And why not? It makes sense to insert myself in the hot and relevant conversations. I’m just a blogger looking for page views like the next guy or gal. However, focusing on the business side of things, I forgot what I loved about beer and began trying to fit my circle into the larger beer blogging square.

And you know what?  I can’t trick myself into having fun writing about these tangential topics and it shows in my work when I’ve tried. You guys deserve better than that and I owe it to myself to stay true to what makes me tick. Beer isn’t the label on the bottle, ingredients (okay, maybe it is), market share, or philosophical argument about the appropriate size of a company for me. Beer is the rocket ship that takes me to places I’ve yet to discover and helps me get to the places I want to go. I might have taken a trip to Germany once upon a time in hopes of finding Heaven at the bottom of a Helles, but sitting next to Lake Titisee in the Black Forest witnessing the world’s most perfect sunset is the experience I’ll never forget.  And yes, the Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference was filled with awesome trips to Oskar Blues and an Oktoberfest in July at Sierra Nevada. I could break down a brewery tour for you or describe the flavors in Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest, but it was furthering friendships and starting a few more that made the trip worth it in the end. The beer got me to Asheville. My friends will take me into tomorrow.

These are the things that matter to me and the stories I want to tell the most. I know that now thanks to the Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference. When you visit Baltimore Bistros & Beer in the future, you might not always walk away with a technical understanding of what beer is or where the industry could be going, but I hope that every once in a while you’ll find a story here that will help you slow down and remember why we all love beer in the first place.

Time to crack a beer and see where we’ll take off to next.

My Role in The Beer Scene as a Beer Blogger

Earlier this week I discussed a bit about how my relationship with beer has been affected by blogging. Today, I'm going to take the topic a little bit further and focus on where I see my blog fitting within the greater world of beer.

Baltimore Bistros & Beer didn't initially start off with a heavy focus on beer. I knew I wanted to work in that direction over time, but I wasn't quite sure how I should position myself as beer blogger. When I did start writing about beer I decided I wanted to use this space as a way to learn more about what was going on locally. If there was something going on with beer around Baltimore, I wanted to talk about it here. That was the only role I was looking for initially, mainly because it felt manageable.

But like most beer drinkers I drink a lot more than just local beer and found myself wanting to talk about beer made both far and wide. Opening my blog up like that led to me looking at not just beer the drink, but beer the industry and I started noticing a lot of things that grated on my nerves. And I wrote about those topics. I didn't want to be a cheerleader blogger, the kind that only says nice things so they can get retweets from the breweries they're glowing about. I wanted to use my voice to say "Hey, I see a problem. Let's fix that". I felt good about doing that and I thought that was going to be my role in beer as blogger going forward.

But you know what? That role wore me down. I started to see myself becoming very cynical about the beer scene and noticed that my eagerness to run to the keyboard to write was happening less and less. It even got to the point where I wondered if I should even blog about beer anymore. Why focus on something that annoys me to much?

The reason I continued writing about beer was the same reason that got me started. I really do love beer. I love talking, thinking, and drinking beer. Most of all, I appreciate the relationships beer and this blog has fostered over the past 2+ years. So where does that leave my role in blogging now and moving forward?

This blog exists for me. Blogs are meant to be personal. You can talk about other subjects, but if you're not exposing a little of your soul while you're writing then I don't want to read that. I'm not writing to better beer. I'm not writing to call out breweries for throwing candy into casks. I don't care about the incorrect labeling of beer styles. I want to talk about me, the beer, and the fun I've had drinking it along the way.

This post was put together for The Session. A once a month gathering of beer bloggers across the world discussing a common theme. 

Beer Blogging and My Relationship With Beer

Over the past few months when I haven't been blogging about beer, I have been thinking about blogging and beer. Specifically, I've been contemplating how the former affects my relationship with the latter. Is my relationship with beer better, worse, perhaps even unchanged now that I've been writing about lagers and ales these many months now? That's the question I've been toiling with. As with most questions, I've been looking for one easy to understand answer. And as with most questions (any question worth asking that is) I can only conclude multiple answers.

Blogging about beer has augmented my relationship with beer because how could it not? How could you not come to a better understanding of what beer is and what it means to you when you're spending most of your free time consumed by that very subject. And I don't simply mean that I can sniff out hops or taste different features of malt when I'm drinking a beer. That stuff is cool, but it's something I would have come around to learn with or without a blog. What I'm talking about is that mystical element of beer nobody can quite put their thumb on. At the most basic level beer is just a drink. But beyond the base I find a drink that eases my soul and takes me to places in my mind I might not have otherwise visited had it not been for the time I set aside to slow down, sip a beer, and breath in the world. And were I not a blogger looking to log my beery experiences for all the world to see, many of those introspective moments might have been lost forever

But blogging about beer has affected my relationship with beer in ways that aren't as positive. In fact, you might say blogging has ruffled my relationship with beer. There are a lot of things about this community that I find to be flat out irritating. Hive mind on the internet has nothing on certain niches of the craft community. If you don't hate what they hate or love what they love prepare to be berated. And details, you better know them all or you don't really love beer. Oh, you think you're into craft beer? Not if you can't walk into a courtroom and argue BJCP Guidelines with the same authority a lawyer argues tax law. These aren't the type of people I typically meet face to face, but if you've spent any amount of time reading about beer on the internet, as a blogger tends to do, it's easy to start questioning what type of scene you're actually apart of. With all of that in mind, I've decided to take what I see as a negative and go the opposite direction when it comes to the words I put out in the ether. The last thing I want is to serve as a source of annoyance for fans of craft beer and so you can expect my writing to shift towards the things I love about beer and less of me focusing on the little irritants that can wear me down by letting myself be overwhelmed.

On the whole, blogging has helped focus my relationship beer. When I got into this thing I inundated myself with as much information as possible. At one point I was checking somewhere between 20-30 websites a day hoping to pick up any new information I could about what was going on in the beer world. And it worked. I learned things about beer past, present and future and really got a feel for the nuts and bolts of the industry and the hops and malt of beer. Simply put, I became better informed and that was always the goal. But I also grew to appreciate the saying "ignorance is bliss" after questionable business practices within the industry started affecting how I thought about breweries and whether or not I could support them in the future. To put it in terms of a baseball fan, I couldn't go to the ballpark and enjoy the simple delights of witnessing a homerun because I was too worried about whether or not the players salary was reasonable. I got away from the game that I loved. But now, thanks to blogging, I know exactly which facets of the beer world I love and want to spend my time with. You won't find me lost in the the numbers and details of the craft beer industry anymore. Look for me in a bar hovering on a laugh shared between two friends over a beer.

This post is part of multiple essays from Mid-Atlantic beer bloggers focusing on how we feel blogging has impacted our relationship with beer. Make sure to check out these posts, too:

• Josh Short of Short On Beer
• Bryan Roth of This is Why I'm Drunk
• Jake Scholan of Hipster Brewfus
• Oliver Gray of Literature & Libation
• Liz Murphy of Naptown Pint

Thank you. Come again!

The rules are simple.  In ten minutes put together a list detailing as many things as can think of that you'd like to show thanks for. It sounds simple but when the pressure is on it’s harder than you’d imagine to come up with a list. So, without any further adieu, here are the beer and blogging related odds and ends I’m thankful for.

• My wife for trekking around with me from brewery to brewery always being willing to try something new.
• Belgium for creating some of the worlds most creative and tasty beers all inside one tiny little country.
• Germany for sticking to the Reinheitsgebot and making this Helles lover happy.
• Friends and Family who encourage me to write.
• Maryland breweries all too happy to welcome tiny bloggers inside their business for a closer look.
• Beers brewed to style.
• Brewers that say style be damned.
• CCMABBD (Continental Congress of Mid-Atlantic Beer Blogger Doctors) for being a great group of trusted beer bloggers and friends
• Oliver Gray for being a level headed thinker and wizards of words.
• Bryan Roth for looking to data to backup andecdotal claims and being the first blogger I noticed doing this thankful game.
• Jake Scholan aka Hipster Brewfus for being funny as hell and having the courage of his convictions.
• My brother Matt for brewing beer with me despite major shortcomings in my brew game. 
• My readers.  Because everyone likes an audience.
• Generous restaurants and breweries who help make doing a blog like this a little extra rewarding
• Union Craft Brewing Old Pro Gose
• Cask Ale without cookies

What are you thankful for? Your time....starts....now.

For more giving of the thanks check out these blogs:

• This Is Why I'm Drunk
• Hipster Brewfus
• Literature & Libation

What it's like to date a food/beer blogger

Welcome to what will hopefully be a semi-recurring featured blog post by none other than my lovely fiance, Deana. I mention her often, but I thought it might be nice to let her speak for herself and let you know exactly what it's like to date a food/beer blogger. 

A few days ago Douglas asked me to write down what it was like to date a beer blogger.  My first thought was “gosh, what’s it like to date Douglas… where do I start?” But the truth is there are quite a few advantages to dating someone who’s so dedicated to writing about places we’ve been in hopes that others can enjoy all the fun things Baltimore has to offer.

Do you know that conversation - the one that goes something like this: “what do you want to do tonight?” “I don’t know what do you want to do tonight?” “I don’t know what do you want to do tonight?”  Yeah, that annoying conversation only lasts about 10 seconds in our house before Douglas suggests a new place or event for the evening. Best of all, we very rarely go more than a week without having a new and awesome date night.  Douglas loves to try new places, especially when he can try new things like shark or rabbit.  I also appreciate that he really likes to plan dates where we have to get dressed up and act a little fancy.

I love hearing from people who read his blog and are interested in his opinions before going to trying a new restaurant.  It’s always nice to know that others are actually reading what he writes.  But inevitably, our conversation always ends with something like “you guys really drink a lot of beer”. We do go out often, but it is very rare that we ever order more than a beer or 2, and it’s always a little awkward when people seem to assume you are a bit of a lush.  Variety is the spice of life!

Another drawback to dating a food blogger is that it's sometimes awkward when we’re sitting at the bar or a table in a nice restaurant and Douglas is diligently taking notes and pictures for his next blog post.  He always gets a little upset when I start eating before he has a chance to take a picture. Geez, the sacrifices I make for the loyal readers of this blog.

Douglas is always searching for new events in the area for us to go to.  Things like a beer and bacon tasting, or a German festival, or a local brewery event. These are always fun things to do on the weekends and fun places to go with friends. Nobody likes to do the same thing all the time, but with Douglas leading the way that's never a problem. Then again, because we're always looking for something new, we don't always get to visit our favorite spots as much as I'd like.

Overall, I really enjoy the wide variety of places Douglas finds for us to go. It’s basically every girls dream to date a guy who is so enthusiastic about planning date night on a regular basis and always has a fun new idea of where to go! So, ladies out there. Find yourself a food blogger because they are as fun as they come.

--Deana

The Session #76: Examining Our Compulsion.

It's time for  Session #76 hosted by Glen Humphries who blogs at Beer is Your Friend. This month's topic is Compulsion and how it affects our life with beer. Or as Glen states down below

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?

When this month's Session was announced, it came at about the same time I decided to make some changes in the way I go about purchasing beer. In the past I've had up to three 5 gallon batches of homebrew bottled in the basement and a table full of craft brew I had acquired over the months. Some of those bottles I purchased myself and others were given to me as a gift. Either way, I had a lot of beer in my basement. Upstairs in the fridge I almost always had half of one shelf entirely dedicated to beer and many times that still wasn't enough for me. I'd pick up a 6 pack of something on a Friday or Saturday night and drink it over the weekend despite having a hundred different options already on site.

I was content to go on like that, just having a basement full of beer and adding to it whenever the spirit compelled me. However, I want to kick my homebrew game up to the next level and perfect my craft. The only way to do that is to brew more often. That creates a problem because I end up with a basement full of homebrew that is rather hard to drink through. I can give some away but there still ends up being a backlog of beers to drink and that's made even harder to deal with when I'm also spending beer drinking time on commercial stuff.

I was forced to make a decision. In order to to ensure that I can brew more often I had to make sure I was drinking through my batches in a proper amount of time. The only way I was going to be able to do that was to cut out the compulsory buys I had such a good time participating in during the past. I didn't want to give up buying commercial craft beer for my house altogether, so I decided that I would only purchase beers made in Maryland, Pennsylvania, DC, and Delaware. This way I was allowing myself some variation at home, but by keeping it local I significantly shortened the pot in which I was picking from. And when I was out and about the town I was free to drink any beer I wanted from anywhere in the world. Overall, it seemed like a fair trade off to me and I'm proud to say that I haven't added to my stockpile since my decision was made.

With all that said, to answer the original question why do I keep buying beer despite having a ton of beers in house, my answer is rather simple. Options. I might already have 50 different bottles to choose from but on any given night none of them might strike me as "the beer" I want to sit down with. If I add one more to the pile I'm that much more likely to be sitting down with the perfect beer on that specific night and for me that's what it's all about.