Launching a New Journey: The Brewery Log
My name is Sandy and I’m just your average beer geek…or maybe I’m not. I have a love of travel and a curiosity for finding beer at its source. I’ve visited over 100 breweries worldwide. While I enjoy sharing my brewery journeys with others, I’m often a solo traveler. I sometimes get curious comments when I’m sitting in a taproom by myself. Is it really that unusual for a woman to travel for beer? I don’t see why it should be. I’m here to open up the world of craft and microbreweries to you.
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| Proudly wearing my Ohio Craft Brewers Association beanie |
Credentials
What are my qualifications, you might ask? Well, I have two things on paper:
Certified Beer Server – Level 1 certification in the knowledge of beer styles, brewing basics, and the proper serving of beer. It means that I did some homework and passed an exam. My certificate was granted by the Cicerone© Certification Program, the same folks who accredit Certified Cicerones, Advanced Cicerones and Master Cicerones. These designations are the beer equivalents to the wine world’s sommelier.
Master of Tourism Administration (MTA) – Graduate-level degree during which I learned nothing specific about beer, but I did study forms of niche tourism, and Beer Tourism certainly qualifies as that. But primarily, my program covered travel marketing, event management and the socioeconomic aspects of tourism. So, not only do I love travel, but I have an in-depth knowledge of the industry. My degree was earned at the George Washington University in Washington DC.
But what do these credentials really mean to you, the reader? Simply, that I put both my head and my heart into things that I care about. I strive to always learn more and offer more.
Backstory
Like many of you, I started drinking beer in earnest in college. But at that time the offerings were pretty slim: boring light lagers or the occasional stout. For years, I thought of myself as more of a wine drinker. In my twenties my dad started home-brewing English bitters, so I got a taste of something different. But it wasn’t until the more recent craft brewing explosion that I really got into beer – and what a universe of beer there is! I like a little bit of every style, which makes for a great avocation of brewery hopping.
I’ve enjoyed breweries all across the United States as part of my travels, but I haven’t stopped there. I’ve been known to visit specific European cities just to drink the local beer. And there are plenty of great craft breweries in my own backyard (Columbus, Ohio, USA). I’ll cover my local favorites as well as far-flung breweries I visit during my travels. Even though he’s not alive to see all the amazing breweries and to sample the delicious craft beers, I like to think that my dad is there with me in the taprooms.