World Champ Beer Blogger Jay Brooks
Why is Brookston on Beer such a darned good repository of beer information? Jay’s goals for his Bulletin (all met) pretty much sum up why his blog has become essential reading to so many who are committed to a healthy craft beer community:
1. I hope to keep track of Western breweries to help me with writing about this area for my freelance writing for the Celebrator Beer News, Ale Street News, and others.
Check!
2. I want to offer a forum for craft breweries to share information about what they’re doing, what they’re making and what events they’re hosting in order to create a repository for people to follow the craft beer scene.
When people want to share news, they contact Jay.
3. I want to support the craft beer industry and do whatever I can to help promote the culture of better beer.
That is eminently clear and it inspires trust.
4. I want to report on national beer and beer-related events that effect the industry as a whole.
Lest we curl up in our craft beer bubbles.
5. I did not set out with this goal in mind, but it appears inescapable to my way of thinking. I will also monitor the actions of the largest domestic and imported brewers and report on them, exposing what they’re doing where possible, especially when I believe those actions to be harmful to the craft beer industry or the beer industry as a whole.
He’s a watchdog. Maybe that is why certain DC lobbyists are known to be Brookston readers too.
Jay writes with authority about the West Coast Scene. He has been immersed in it since the late 80′s – in retail (as beer buyer for Beverages and More), as GM for the California Celebrator, and as Celebrator Tasting Panel Director. He has sampled and reviewed virtually every good beer that has made it to the West Coast in the last twenty years.
He has been blogging FOREVER: since 2004. The site is a great repository of beer knowledge. The organization of his site is meticulous. The range of “sidelight” topics covered is broad, quirky and delightful. Need beer quotes? Curious about beer holidays? Want to expand your knowledge about about beer and art, beer advertising since time immemorial your special interest? Seeking beer toasts? Eager to learn about “characters” in the industry? It is all here. No wonder Brookston on Beer is one of the most read beer blogs.
Jay is frank and funny and thoughtful. He hangs with the best in the business – professing to admire fellow beer writing guild colleagues Stan Hieronymous, Stephen Beaumont, and Lew Bryson – people whose perspectives and scruples we also value.
Jay love beer arcana. Here he is on the Bulletin “logo”:
“The most common misidentifications for it include showerhead and fishing rod. I found it trolling the Internet looking for something appropriate to adapt for a logo. It’s based on the symbol for the Babylonan god Marduk, who was a Sun God, though he eventually became the primary or chief diety in later Babylonian times. He was also associated with brewing and was a Beer-Brewing God who had many symbols and fifty names.
This one, believed to be the earliest symbol for beer and brewing, is a stylized tool used for spreading grain in the anicient brewing process. The rounded part was a handle and you spread the grain out to dry and evened it out using the flat blade at the upper left. And if you look closely you’ll see by initials, “B” and an upside down “J” so it’s seemed ideal for my purposes.”
Pretty cool, eh?
We were tickled pink to get ink on the blog for our company “birthday”. Jay’s birthday is, by the way, March 3rd. Hat’s off to one of the very keenest and kindest and fairest of observers of the Beer Scene. Honor knowing you, buddy!
If you haven’t read Jay’s blog, hurry up!
http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/about/
