Hopulist Issue 7

Give us a brief overview of
your experience and work in
beer writing?
Total Ales was where it all started,
and it was the first time I’d started
a blog that people seemed to be
interested in reading! With that
impetus acting as motivation,
I started actively promoting
my work through social media,
and building a little audience
on the way. I’m also pretty
argumentative, and not afraid to
stick my oar in if I don’t agree
with things, so this started plenty
of conversations — and still does.
About 18 months after I started
my blog I was contacted by my
now very good friend Chris Hall,
as he was looking for someone
to collaborate on a project called
100 Best Breweries In The World
for Future Publishing. That was
published in March 2014 and
things started to snowball from
there. I was picked up by the
emergent Ferment Magazine
which I’ve now contributed
towards for over four years. My
friends Jen Ferguson and Glenn
Williams opened a cool shop
called Hop Burns & Black and
hired me to write their beer
column, and a pub local to me
called The Duke’s Head hired
me to run beer events for them
(which, sadly, I no longer do —
but I do events with plenty of
other folks).
At this point my beer writing
had become a little part-time job
on top of my then full time job in
musical instrument distribution
I’M IMMENSELY
PROUD OF THE
AWARDS I’VE
RECEIVED FOR
MY WORK
FROM BOTH
THE BRITISH
AND AMERICAN
GUILDS OF
BEER WRITERS.
TROUBLE IS
THEY’VE JUST
MADE ME
HUNGRY FOR
MORE!
(which was very boring for me).
I wanted to do more and more
beer work, and in July 2015 I was
offered the opportunity to work
for Chicago-based beer site Good
Beer Hunting (GBH). Things
shifted fast after that, I felt I was
finally beginning to cut my teeth
as a professional writer. So, after a
lot of thought and a little saving,
I quit my job and went freelance
in Feburary 2016. I carried on
working for several publications,
eventually being made an Editor at
GBH in late 2017. This year though
I made the decision to concentrate
on my freelance career and get
my byline out there, so parted
ways with GBH. I’m still writing
for plenty of other folks though,
and always hunting for new and
interesting commissions. It’s a really
exciting time to be a beer writer!
How did you carve your niche
as a way of helping beer brands
say what they want to say in a
better way?
I don’t do a huge amount of
consultancy if I’m being honest but
it’s something I want to do more
of as I expand my repertoire. But
when I do, it’s always a brewery
that’s really keen to hear my insight
into their business or the industry
as a whole, and conversations
over a pint can blossom into a
little work, typically helping them
getting their voice heard by a wider,
or more specific audience. It came
about very organically, it feels like a
natural extension of my writing and
photography.