 |
| Gerard Walen of Roadtrips4Beer! |
Name: Gerard Walen
Hometown: Clermont, Florida. Born and raised in Tampa.
Favorite Beer: It’s easier to name my favorite child because I only have one of those. As far as “go to” beers, there’s Cigar City Jai Alai IPA and the standby Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I enjoy a lot of seasonals, and love big imperial stouts.
Hometown: Clermont, Florida. Born and raised in Tampa.
Favorite Beer: It’s easier to name my favorite child because I only have one of those. As far as “go to” beers, there’s Cigar City Jai Alai IPA and the standby Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I enjoy a lot of seasonals, and love big imperial stouts.
Favorite
Beer Haunt: Another tough one because I live in a craft beer bar
desert, so I don’t really have a “haunt.” However, within an hour’s
driving distance from my home, I’ll give a nod to Redlight Redlight in
Orlando. If I want to make it a day trip, I’ll head to Sarasota and hit
the Cock & Bull, a favorite haunt when I lived there.
What was the first craft brew you ever tried? What did you think? After
a long time being a friend of A-B followed by an extended dalliance
with Corona Light, a friend turned me on to an import: Young’s Ramrod
Ale. It had taste! It had character! Thus began my craft-beer journey.
Do you homebrew? Yes,
I just started last year. I’ve only made three batches, but hope to amp
that up in 2012. All of them turned out decent and drinkable, so that’s
encouraging.
How’d you hear about the pdxbeergeeks? I
was aware of the group through the Twitter hashtag, but then got to
meet some of you in person at the 2011 Beer Bloggers Conference. Great
folks and enthusiastic craft beer advocates.
What does being a beer geek mean to you? The macrobrew offerings are monochromatic in that there is little to no difference between them in taste, appearance or brewing techniques.
The big brewers’ attempts at tapping the craft beer market – Shock Top, Blue Moon, Killians, etc. – introduce shades of gray and pale pastels to the spectrum, in that the beer drinker will find slightly more taste and variety, but the range is still limited.
Craft
beer, though, is like Dorothy opening the front door in “The Wizard of
Oz.” Suddenly, there is a colorful rainbow of tastes and styles, each
different from the other, that opens up a seemingly infinite number of
choices on what to put in your glass. Being a beer geek means immersing
oneself in that glorious rainbow and being open to new taste experiences
and adventures. No one will like all of it, but there is something
there for everybody.
If you could change one thing about beer culture in the US, what would it be? Just
one thing? I’d like to see more mainstream acceptance, I suppose, such
as more craft beer offerings at restaurants, availability at more hotel
bars and on airplane flights, more shelf space at grocery stores, etc.
What do you love about Portland’s Craft Beer scene? Though
some outside the area may think there is an air of smugness or
superiority among Portland beer geeks, it is not at all true. The people
and venues of Portland’s craft beer scene opened their arms wide to
welcome all of us who attended BBC11, and that impressed me immensely.
This is not exclusive to Portland, though; I’ve seen it nearly
everywhere I travel, but perhaps I did not expect such a high level of
enthusiasm from folks eager to educate us out-of-towners on what
Portland has to offer. I wish I could have stayed longer.
Where can we find you on the web?
I have two beer sites, so here’s the info for each.
Road Trips for Beer
Email: Gerard@RoadTripsForBeer.com
Twitter: @roadtrips4beer (note the numeral!)
Beer in Florida
Email: trips4beer@gmail.com
Twitter: @BeerInFlorida
