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Saturday, January 9, 2010

I'll be your Tourguide

Disclaimer: Some of the information in this post may have been stated in earlier posts. Read it anyway and enjoy the ride.

In August of 2008, I started this blog "Good Burp" as a way to speak my mind. A God given gift that I have honed and crafted over the years. Sometime I use my gift for good, and other times, well, you know.

Over time, I began to write less about everything else, while writing more and more about my love of beer. I slowly realized that I really enjoyed writing, and that beer was a subject that I could drink and enjoy and express to everyone around the world.

Before I knew it, people from all over the country were reading my thoughts about beer. Then more people stopped by for a read, and eventually most of the world was reading what I had to say. The amazing thing is that they kept coming back, and wanting more.

Before I knew it, I was attending beerfests, going to breweries, and making what seems like daily visits to BevMo, Total Wine, and just about any other place I could find the next new beer. It became a passion. And it was all in the interest of writing my opinions about my new discoveries.

Things were moving along at a steady pace. I became friends with other beer bloggers and carved out my little piece in the beer world. We all wrote and shared ideas and opinions. It's been great fun. Eventually, my readership was growing at a pace I never thought it would. Each month, more stopped by than the month before.

Then it happened. I showed up on the radar. Before I knew it, I began to be contacted. As hard as I tried to stay anonymous, people were still able to track me down. Albeit, a difficult task, but nonetheless, they did it. Still today, I am dumbfounded by the results from such contacts.

The next I know, fellow bloggers, breweries, brew masters, distributors, brewery owners, and even CEO's were sending me messages and other "goodies". This was shocking to say the least. I honestly didn't know how to react to it.

After some soul searching, and a lot of deliberating with the special few who knew who I was, I decided it was time to go mainstream. It was time to go PUBLIC!

So without further adieu, here we go.

My name is Brandon. I live in Phoenix Arizona, and I like beer.

All together now, "Hello Brandon"

My love affair with beer started in 2007 after spending time in Europe. I fell in love with the English Ales being served in the Pubs of London. It was such a drastically different style of beer. Nothing like the typical American style lagers I was used to. It was better! I wrote about it in my second post. Go ahead and read it. It's a good post.

When I arrived home, I had a new found love of beer. But not just any beer, good beer. I wanted to try as many beers as I could. And you know what, I have tried many great beers. Even today, I am drinking a new, great beer from Bootlegger's Brewery in Fullerton California.

So what does all this mean for Good Burp? I don't know exactly, but I do hope it is positive. I will continue to attend beerfests and report my findings. And I will still attempt to try as many new and different beers as possible and write about my adventures with beer.

But in my attempt to take Good Burp to the next level, I plan on posting interviews with some of todays newest and brightest breweries, playing in Sam Calagione's Bocce Ball tournement, and hitting as many breweries as I can. In addition, I'm planning a 5 city, 3 country tour of northern Europe (yes Belgium is on that list) this fall. And before I go, I will have a list of breweries, beer, and pubs to try along the way. What I am willing to do for all of you, my fans.

In the meantime, I want to thank all of you who have stopped by, read my posts, commented, and become friends. Without all of you, Good Burp would have amounted to one of the millions of failed blogs sitting out there in cyberspace.

-Cheers.

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