Hometown: New York, New York
Favorite Beer: Orval
Favorite Beer Haunt: Higgins, I moved to Portland in 1996 and for many years Higgins had the best on-site beer selection. Of course the food has always been fantastic.
What was the first Craft Beer you ever tried? What did you think? As a college student in Eugene in the early 1990s I starting drinking Rogue ales, I enjoyed the Dead Guy Ale. I thought the craft beers were expensive but worth it, even to a college kid. I was definitely tired of drinking Rainer pounders all the time!
Do you Homebrew? Favorite? I have not homebrewed in several years. I did enjoy trying to make the least expensive good tasting pale ale when I did do it. I plan on using the guys at Portland U-Brew to help me get back into it.
How did you hear about pdxbeergeeks? Through Emily and Chris
What does being a beer geek mean to you? Learning about my favorite hobby drinking and serving beer. There is so much to learn and the more geekey (is that a word?) you get about beer the more enjoyable it is.
If you could change one thing about beer culture in the US, what would it be? More education about the wide variety of beer styles. It is great that we have so many beer festivals and beer weeks but so many of these events are staffed by volunteers and therefore it is not a place to learn about beer. The wine world has for years offered many tasting classes and beer seems behind the times in this area. We have had some folks in town start beer class series and I hope that trend continues.
What do you love about Portland's Craft Beer scene? The opportunity to meet and hang out with real brewers both professional and amateur. We have so many small brewers with small batch production so we get to try unique beers every week and find out how and why they were made. Some of the best beers I have had this year were made by amateurs including a Saison Dupont clone that was incredible. Good beer can be made in a factory but great beer is made in small batches by hand.
Where can we find you on the web?
www.thebeermongers.com
Facebook: John Beermonger
Twitter: thebeermongers
