What Keeps Beer Bloggers Going?

Either in a post on this blog or on my Twitter account, I'm constantly observing the small time that this blog has existed and how it continues to grow. I just mentioned in Monday's post how I intend to have a themed post for each Monday in the future.

I'm always on the lookout to see how I can craft a new type of post other than simply posting beer review after beer review. Yesterday I came across something interesting from another beer blog I frequent (Brewpublic). Apparently there has been an entire type of post that I've been missing out on.

It looks as if there's something called "The Session" in the beer blogging community in which a certain blog hosts the event comes up with a certain topic and later discusses some of the posts by other bloggers. For the month of April the topic is "What Drives Beer Bloggers?" I figured that a tad of input from me wouldn't hurt. It's also very fitting since I completed my 100th post on this blog on Tuesday.

Why Am I Here?


I've been part of the blogging community since I was half-way through middle school. My very first blog was a compilation of designs I came up with myself for baseball and football stadiums. From there I spent plenty of time sports blogging until the animalistic attitudes of assorted fans stressed me to the point that arguing and debating sports was no longer in my blood.

I needed something more relaxing. So, I asked myself what relaxed me as I desperately wanted to write about something again. I decided to record a good portion of my beer and bar adventures. In my group of friends I was always the oddball when it came to drinking.

I was always the one that drank the estranged beers that had exotic names. Thus, I began writing this blog as of September of 2011 and haven't looked back. As I've cruised around the web and explored different accounts on Twitter I'm amazed at the amount craft beer folk that exists out there. This is truly a craft beer revolution and I can arrogantly say that I'm a small portion of it.

My mission has been to simply share my thoughts on different beers and cool places to consume said beers. I've also tried to grow in terms of sharing and spreading as much information as I can find pertaining to craft beer.

For the first few months I felt like I was writing without an audience nor did I care. I was happy writing about an obsessive hobby of mine. This changed one day while at a bar on Pittsburgh's South Side and Tweeting about the lack of one of my favorite beers on tap. That's when a guy two stools down from me turns to me and asks if I'm the Pittsburgh Beer Snob. He was reading the very Tweet I sent out seconds earlier.

I've written for my school paper, but I've never posted something onto one of my numerous blogs and found out that what I posted was somewhat important and is beneficial to others.

What Drives Us?


I think it's safe to say that it's pretty obvious that there has been a boom in the craft beer revolution just as there has been with people that have joined in on it as well as others staring a beer blog.

From what I've noticed, a lot of criticism has been poured down on some of these "beer geeks." I don't really understand why. You'd think that the old timers in the craft beer world would be happy that their movement is growing rapidly and has increasing excitement. In my opinion, I think the outcries have just come from people that didn't get their batch of Pliny the Elder or Kentucky Breakfast Stout this year due to the increasing demand.

Collectively most of us are an eccentric group of people. We never were among that group when we were growing up that needed to "pregame" before everyone went out to the local hole in the wall on Thirsty Thursdays. We didn't need to slug down eight Bud Lite's because it was on special. We drank what we thought was damn good beer and stuck to it for most of the time that we've been of legal age.

Some of us are interested in social media, web design and in some cases writing. Because of one or more of these interests we post our adventures and thoughts on our beer blogs.

Most of us are a unique brand of people. A good number of us are somewhat eccentric and have interesting yet complex personalities. I know I definitely am. I can't even count how many times I've purchased a pint of beer and spent the first few moments with said beer taking pictures of it. Sure members of my family make fun of how I drink a beer or sit there admiring the story on the label and a few friends call me a beer yuppie, but I pretty much take it as a compliment to my personality. Some beers just have a certain beauty to them. In some cases searching for that perfect beer is like finding that elusive mate. I think that in the end, that's what drives the lot of us.