How has BeerAdvocate impacted your life?

I've been looking at the BA site for the last year and a half and I've used it as a platform were I can go look up the craft beer's that I've bought..I know there's other places online that review beers, but BA has always stuck out to me as a place were I can drop in a get a good, accurate judgment of the beer that I'm drinking..

I've just recently joined the Forum to review beers myself, and I really like the setup/platform system on how this site/forum/ does its business..If anything I hope that I can give some positive input, and recieve some knowledge and engage in some good conversations on beer and the beer industry..Cheers.

 

Exactly. There are some clever fools with a huge world of experience crawling around here. I'm going to watch Midnight Run in honor of Charles Grodin. That is and was a superb dry deadpan and wit... RIP Monsieur Grodin! Real humor sometimes takes some work to see....

 

Took me a while to hit this thread, but just here to say ' appreciate ya BA ' as an anchor in an otherwise pretty crappy year +
Came here back in 2015 as I was exploring the new (new) (new?) world of craft and beer, learned a lot, and then COVID hit. It was my only public bar-stool for a while.
Grateful.
Now... cheers!

 

In the micro sense, I started utilizing this site to vet beers I was interested in trying (yes, I’m the guy in your local that’s staring at the beers on the shelf or in the cooler and furiously pecking away on my phone, trying to determine if I should pick up the latest “it” beer). For 12 years, I’ve not picked up a beer without checking here first.

In the macro sense, the NBW BIF events have been a game changer for my beer nerdery. In the 10 BIF’s I’ve participated in, I’ve sent beer all over the country, and received beer from all over the country - literally 200+ “new to me” beers that I would’ve never had the chance to otherwise experience.

The value of that is incalculable to this beer nerd.

And I’ve made some great friends along the way. They’re friends that have destroyed my porch and crushed my beer fridge, but they’re friends of the highest magnitude.

What a wonderful site this is. Thank you, @Todd, for making this all possible.

 

'Nerdery' huh? As old as I am I still learn a new word frequently, and this one happens to apply to me (hell, it applies to all of us). Thanks for the learning experience.

 

It gets me practicing my writing more often, that's for sure.

 

In the beginning (long long ago), it excited me to venture out and try all of the craft beers I could get my hands on and visit places that had good/great offerings. I did not live in an area that had much more than Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and common things like that. Although I enjoy those beers, I had a hunger for the beers that I read about on BA. It drove me to get out! My tastes have evolved over time and my 'goto' these days are the big stouts....but I still enjoy trying all kinds. Back in the day, I was very active on BA with the much smaller group of members, but these days, I generally just use it to look up beers.

I felt confident BA would explode like it has and happy for Todd & Jason and hope the successes are being enjoyed! Cheers!

 

For me, BA has been the ultimate resource for finding awesome beer places abroad!

 

Met a lot of cool people, went to a lot of cool places, and tried a lot of great brews, Great times at BA fests and events. I would not have discovered nearly the amount of really great styles if not for BA. (Styles which I now have to hunt for, never take what you can get locally for granted ever).

 

cool avatar, by the way...Spring 1990?

 

I can be a bit of a stress case. And I am sure I am not the only one that enjoys a beer to help relieve some of that stress.

Have a fairly stressful job, a loud house full of kids, and a loud wife. I am an introvert that finds peace in quiet. One of my 'escapes' is to take a day on the weekend to get out of the house and go for a drive. A long drive

A few years ago my wife suggested that I take a whole weekend away just for myself. Drive, go to a hotel. Whatever. So I decided to make a beer tour weekend for myself and went to Cleveland. I loved it, and have made it a bi-annual thing. Well up until 2020 because I cant get across the border yet. But I will re-start next year.

So far I have done
Cleveland
Chicago
Grand Rapids
Rochester
Asheville
Pittsburgh
Boston
Vermont

And I use Places extensively for my planning. So maybe BA hasnt changed my life, but I am thankful for the value it adds to something I have done to change my life.

 

I like to check the reviews on a beer I have not had yet to see if it's any good or not before dropping a dime.
I've been saved a few times.
I'm way over IPA's, sours, and flavor of the month beers, pastry beers, grocery beers, as well as casked everything, so finding a great beer is challenging.

 

Which city has your favorite beer scene, so far?

 

Best Beer - Vermont. But it also wins for most expensive trip (not even close)

But Best Beer scene - Asheville. everything is so close, people are friendly, hotels are reasonable. The only problem for me with Asheville is that its right on the edge of my 1 day drive rule. And even that was over the edge. Took 2 days there but drove right through home and it was 14hrs.

 

thanks for the tip...I've always wanted to go to Asheville. This gives me another reason!

 

Beeradvocate can be credited with propelling my beer industry journey. It's also guilty of providing me with some great friends.

I first got on BA when I was 22 while working at Village Bottle Shoppe while at Purdue. The manager at the time would share craft beers with us college kids and I became hooked. I had to chase down top rated beers and I started doing sensory reviews. Then I started trading. For graduation the manager gave me my first Westy 12. After graduating I moved back to Indy and got what I thought was a part time job at a liquor store. My hundreds of sensory reviews on here made it onto my resume. I was studying for an ACSM certification but couldn't get a job in a hospital so after a couple quick promotions the beer industry struck. Next thing you know I redid my entire beer set by region and put up BA tags on all of the top 150 beers. BA reviews for the store started to go up. Because of my presence at the store BAs from all across the country would come in and ask for me after reading reviews for the store on here. I'm in my big national trading group thanks to one of those people. I've made many friends out of those customers over the years and have even been to some of their weddings. They're some of my best friends.

Well now I'm a Certified Cicerone and beer industry professional, having worked for breweries for the past six years. I've traveled all over the country to visit some of the best breweries in the world and I wouldn't have done that without BA. It's been a great thirteen years in the industry thus far.

 

You can make a living drinking beer? Hooda thought!
just kidding: congratulations, you're one of the lucky few whose vocation = avocation.

 

Been a craft beer lover since the early 90's when everyone drank those amber microbrews. I started homebrewing in 1995. Information wasn't easy to come by. I mostly relied on books and word of mouth. In 2006 my old college friends invited me to attend Extreme Beer Fest. I was absolutely amazed. I created a login right after and have used the site to keep up on the latest beers. I subscribed to the magazine and read them from cover to cover. In 2008 while perusing the homebrew forum here I came across a link to The Brewing Network. I've been an avid listener to multiple shows over there since. The BN changed my homebrewing and vastly increased my knowledge of craft beer. I have BeerAdvocate to thank for that. Had I not joined this sight I might not have heard of the BN or found lots of other web sites dedicated to craft beer. I have multiple BA Tee's from over the years and proudly wear them even though most people who seem them don't really understand what it means.

I've attended EBF every year except 2013 the big blizzard (reschedule didn't work for me) and 2019 due to my sons travel hockey schedule. We were really stoked when EBF returned to the Cyclorama in 2020. Without EBF my college friends and I wouldn't get together like we do. It started with the fest as the focus but over the years it's been a reoccurring beer soaked weekend full of laughter and catching up with great friends. Thanks BA! Cheers to many more years of EBF and good times!

 

Of the various hobby boards I've been a member of over the years this place has the greatest camaraderie for our shared interest.

 

I joined 7 years ago to be able to see the next 10 reviews on beers becuase I always enjoyed reading them. I couldn't believe how deep people went into describing look,smell,taste and it helped me understand beer a little more. The complexities and nuances.

I didn't start posting until last week or so and it's been a great time. I'm the only person I know that geeks out over beer so this is a nice refuge.

Heres to more