About

Back in 2010 I was just beginning to establish myself as a freelance journalist after almost 10 years of staff jobs. At the time fellow journos often asked me what I specialised in writing about and I realised that having one or two pet subjects probably wasn’t a bad idea. Someone suggested beer. I’d been drinking the stuff for more than two decades and was pretty particular about what I liked (and disliked) so why not write about something I enjoyed.

Good plan. Except I’d never really written anything about beer before apart from an article about The Great British Pub when I was at university. Someone (thanks Phil) suggested I set up a beer blog as a way of getting started and also that I joined the British Guild of Beer Writers. Less than two months after taking his advice I was commissioned to write my first paid piece of beer writing for The Times. Since then I’ve also written about beer for The Guardian, for industry and specialist press and for regional magazinesand my little blog, set up just so I could prove I was a beer writer, is now apparently followed by more than 500 600 readers and is getting monthly page views in the hundreds.

Better than that though, it has given me an excuse to try countless beers I’ve never come across before; to revisit old favourites and taste them from a new perspective; to meet and learn from some amazing brewers, other beer experts and fellow beer writers along with being in the privileged position of encouraging and influencing others to love The Best Drink in the World as much as I do.

So I think I’ll keep doing it.

If you’re one of my regular readers, thanks for reading – your support means a great deal to me. If this is your first visit, welcome, stick around and I’ll endeavour to write a few things you’ll enjoy reading.

Cheers!

Soph

May 2012

 

**My new blog header pic (new from Nov 2012) is by photographer Toby Weller - www.tobyweller.co.uk. **