The book: Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution
Your reviews and writing are frequently funny – you note that one beer gets better with age, “like Joseph Gordon-Levitt.” How important is it to you to use humor in your beer writing?
One of the greatest things about craft beer is that it’s fun. Oftentimes, this gets lost in the mix when people focus on the minutiae: ABVs and IBUs, wild yeasts and bourbon barrels. Look, I love this stuff as much as the next beer geek, but beer should enable conversation, not be the sole topic of conversation.
Thus, I tried to interject the subject matter with humor and, hopefully, a fun, engaging voice. For seven years, I wrote a weekly column for the New York Press, where I was able to develop an idiosyncratic writing voice.
This is how I feel about wine. Wine, beer, if not all beverages should be fun. Not only that, it should be about the people, it should have context:
I wouldn’t say that the beer is secondary in Brewed Awakening, but the focus seems to be much more on the people behind the suds. Why did you choose to focus on the brewers rather than the brews?
As I mentioned earlier, the heart of the craft-brewing movement is the brewers and bar owners that are flying in the face of common sense. The industry is made up of a million David-vs.-Goliath stories. To me, these tales are the most engaging component of the craft beer revolution. Yes, that pint tastes terrific, but what was its journey from the brewer’s head to the kettle?
Please read the whole interview here: Hop Press: East » Q+A with Josh Bernstein, author of BREWED AWAKENING. I think you’ll like it.
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