Who We Are - Chris' Story

People say that beer and alcohol are an acquired taste that one does not intrinsically like the first time they drink.  However, I can honestly say that I have loved the taste of beer since day one. Having said that, here is a short story of how I transitioned from someone who likes the taste of beer into becoming "thebeergeek".

In the late 80’s I was living in Oakland with my wife Merideth.  We were already moving away from the big beer conglomerates, but our taste for beer was not really refined. My first beer epiphany (second if you count my very first beer, a Budweiser, as my first) came at this time; a friend worked at Raleigh's in Berkeley and the I remember having my first Ironhorse Alt from Devil Mountain Brewery and being totally intrigued by the wonderful, incredible flavor.

Then in 1991, it came. . . a pub with nothing but microbrews right in our neighborhood.  The window had a sign, “Coming soon Barclay’s Pub with 28 taps”.  We waited and waited, anxiously watching for the day we saw an “open” sign. Months later, they finally opened!  And so, it all started there.  We joined the beer club and were introduced to beers we had never heard of before.  We became regulars.  Back then, the crowd was small and we got to know the owner Gene and all the waitresses.  At that time, it was a big deal to reach 100 beers in the beer club and I was the 12^th person to accomplish that great feat.  If you go to Barclay’s, look above the bar to see my name (first panel on the left, bottom of the second column).

At Barclays, we also met our good friend Rowdy who was one of the bartenders and later worked for the Sudwerk Brewery in Davis, CA. If there is a yoda in this story, it is Rowdy. It was his passion for beer and helpful industry connections that fueled some of our early beer adventures.

Before long, Merideth was a waitress at Barclays and my life was a beer heaven.  She started out working the Sunday afternoon shift and I started being a regular Sunday afternoon consumer of fine beers.  I would spend almost all of Merideth’s shift outside on the patio taking in all the people watching Rockridge had to offer.  All while drinking beer.  There is nothing finer than people watching with a good beer!

Our interest in beer was growing and Merideth had a personal philosophy that she should know about the beer she served.  We didn’t have much money and started small, but we planned day trips and weekend getaways to microbreweries.  This, of course, led to the keeping of a list of all the places we visited.  Soon, our goal was to see how many breweries we could fit into a single trip.  I think our record is 7 breweries in a weekend (Since surpassed by 8 in one day).  And, we couldn’t count the beer on our list (we have separate ones) unless we actually drank a full beer, not just tasters.

As our college days were getting further away in the past and we were becoming “adults”, our funds and aspirations grew.  We began expanding our trips from within driving distance of our house to out-of-state and international travel.  We still center our trips around beer and if we are traveling to an area for some other reason, I always search out what breweries we can hit.  My brewery list now includes over 460 breweries and Merideth is slightly behind me. She is catching up though. Whenever she goes on a trip without me, she is always on the lookout for breweries that I have not been.

In 2007, out of 7,800 applicants from 31 countries, I was a final four candidate for Four Points by Sheraton’s coveted position of Chief Beer Officer.

So that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. . .the birth of thebeergeek!

Chris can be reached at chris@thebeergeek.com