I’m just back from an exhausting five-day whirlwind trip through our Nation’s Capital where unfortunately my beer-buying opportunities were limited. Mostly because many of the craft beer stores I visited all had one major flaw in common: they didn’t sell individual 12 ounce bottles.

While most of the stores I visited had very good selections of beer I can’t find here in Maine — saw lots of Bells, Troegs, Oskar Blues, etc. that I wanted — none of the stores would let me break up a six pack for an individual bottle or even to create my own mix-a-six.

When traveling, I like to buy as many different brands of craft brew as I can — especially ones I can’t find at home — so I can try new beers, styles, breweries, etc. With limited trunk and wallet space, I’m not about to go out and buy 10 different six-packs of beer just to try new things. I would, however, buy 10 or 12 individual bottles of different beers in a heartbeat.

So why wasn’t I able to? Most of the liquor stores I’ve been to throughout New England will let you buy individual 12 oz bottles of beer (or at least from some of their stock, if not all of it) but this didn’t seem to be the case in D.C. — is it a city law that you can’t break up six packs, or just a dumb business practice? Wouldn’t it make more sense, from a business standpoint, to sell a dozen individual bottles to the I’m sure many beer-savvy travelers who come through the city with the same sentiment as I had than to lose my business all together? I don’t get it.

It was exactly two years ago that I started BlogAboutBeer.com. At the time I knew almost nothing about beer and even less about blogging – since then my love for both has grown by leaps & bounds. I am still amazed on a nearly daily basis at all of the truly awesome opportunities writing this blog has afforded me — free beer, press passes, insider tours, interviews, helping to found a writers’ guild, multiple freelance writing opportunities and best of all: countless new friends and acquaintances.

Perhaps the most surprising, however, is that 515 posts later — some fun, some groundbreaking, most absolutely terrible — people are not only still reading what it is I have to say, but more and more people seem to be reading BlogAboutBeer.com on a daily basis. The RSS subscribers are up to nearly 400 and the number of unique visitors who come directly to the site every day is increasing each month, too.

What I began 2 years ago today on a wing and a prayer has definitely grown into a great hobby and I’ve had more fun doing it than I ever thought possible. Thank you so much to everyone who reads BlogAboutBeer.com and obviously tells your friends about it, because they seem to be stopping by, too. Keep reading, keep emailing me, keep commenting and keep telling your friends and I’ll keep writing. Here’s to two great years gone by and the many more yet to come. Cheers!

Sorry for the non-posting all week. I think I forgot to explicitly mention that I was in the process of moving — just across town — and that, of course, Time Warner is taking their sweet time in getting my new Internet and television hooked up (I’m borrowing some from one of my part-time jobs at the moment). Thus, no blogging.

All work and no Internet or Red Sox makes Luke a dull boy.

But fear not, I’ll be back with more sudsy goodness later this week. Thanks for sticking it out with me!

Cheers,
Luke

I know this blog is more about beer than it is personal commentary but let me go off-topic for a minute if you would, please, to make an announcement. After a lot of deliberation and careful consideration, I have decided to take a pretty enormous (although at least a little bit calculated) leap of faith and leave my cushy, full-time (plus benefits) job in college admissions and strike out on my own. I have wanted to work for myself, from the comfort of my own home, every day since the day I started working, so I decided it was finally time to go for it.

The transition, although pretty nerve wracking, isn’t without some security. I have lined up a part-time sales & marketing job (also working mostly from home) with some guaranteed income and some definite security, which is helping to keep me sane. Meanwhile, I will be using the rest of my weekly free time to do some freelance & magazine writing, and to build up and officially launch my own New Media firm, TookMedia; which will specialize in Internet marketing, social media branding & development, copywriting and content creation, blogging, and a few other bigger web ventures I have up my sleeves (which will undoubtedly be unveiled in the coming months).

Back to the Beer

The change will also allow me to put more time and energy into BlogAboutBeer.com, which I’m excited about. It should grant me enough free time that I’ll be able to get back to posting daily, rather than the two or three posts a week I had fallen to. So certainly be ready for lots more goings-on ’round here.

Lastly, if anyone in “the industry” happens to be reading this — I know some of you are — and wants to collaborate on your Internet marketing/branding initiatives, or if you need some freelance writing done, please don’t hesitate to give me a shout. Otherwise, grab my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and get ready for lots more to come. Cheers!

First off, I wanted to thank everyone for the generous outpouring of support after the loss of my mom. The letters of condolence I received here, on Facebook and via email were all very touching and very much appreciated. Needless to say, I have an awful lot of catching up to do — both online and in the real world. But, while I get back to scouring the Interwebs for the best in all-things-beer, I wanted to tide you over with some fun little nuggets I was able to pick up on over the last few days:

How does smokin’ hot actress Catherine Zeta Jones stay, well, smokin’ hot? With beer, of course. According to a recent interview with the thirty-nine year old actress, “I do condition my hair with honey and beer. I smell like the bottom of a beer barrel for days afterwards but it’s very good for the hair.” (via PerezHilton.com)

While not exactly beer, I’ve always thought of mead as sort of a tasty bi-partisan effort between beer and wine. So I  was excited to read a few days ago a post by Shannon Bryan on the local Portland Press Herald-owned MaineToday.com about Portland’s own brand new(ish) Maine Mead Works, located in a warehouse on Anderson Street in Bayside. According to Ms. Bryan, Maine Mead’s HoneyMaker Dry Mead is currently on the shelves at Whole Foods, Aurora Provisions, Rosemont, Old Port Wine Merchants and Maine Beer & Beverage. And HoneyMaker Semi Sweet Mead is expected to appear at those locations the first week of February. (via PortlandFoodMap.com)

And lastly, I received an email a few days ago from reader Helder who has a school assignment (I’ll just assume it’s college or grad school, since high school students shouldn’t know anything about beer) in which he was asked to discover why “consumers make a decision between Domestic or Imported/Craft Beer”? So, if you could help Helder out and leave a comment on this post with your response, he (and I) would greatly appreciate it!

Many thanks to Pike Brewing Company of Seatle for the two bottles of vintage Old Bawdy Barleywine, and Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. of Fort Worth, TX for the two bottles of Blind Salamander Pale Ale, all of which arrived on my doorstep yesterday. I will sample and review each as soon as possible (except maybe for the bottle of 2006 Old Bawdy, which might go straight to the cellar). If you represent a brewery and would like to send me a sample for review or news, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Thanks again and stay tuned; there’s plenty more where that came from…