Beer and Food Adventuring

So it looks like I'm finally getting round to starting a blog – after a couple of aborted attempts in the past, I finally came to the conclusion that I'd better just get on with it, for my own records and as an outlet for all the excitable thoughts that go round in my head.

Feeling full of beery enthusiasm I had been gearing up a while back to start writing stuff & documenting what ale exploits I'd been up to, when I happened to read Pete Brown's post in May 2010, musing that many bloggers were kinda pointlessly spouting out stuff that no-one really needed to read – this engendered a fair bit of debate and agreement with his overall point, and I have to say, did make me think – I'm sure I have nothing new to say, nothing different to add, no opinions that would be useful to anyone else. So not wanting to be just another pointless beer blogger creating an “online beer geek diary, a hi-tec glorified form of ticking”, I shelved the ideas and stuck to tweeting.

Prague beer exploring

But over the past year, I've read so much useful and provocative stuff in other people's blogs and used them widely when carrying out my own research for possible beer excursions, trips abroad, brewery visits, and for some general inspiration as to what ends up in my beer cupboard. I've found them useful when planning trips to faraway cities or some other endeavour, for those little nuggets of information – the out-of-the-way pub with a resident cat, what new brews to look out for in a particular country, tips and encouragement to get homebrewing, what's happening in the ingredients & restaurant world. And over the past few years, I feel I'm always adventuring into new beer and food territory myself – new to me, that is – but a sense of continuously exploring.

So I've decided that as much for my own records as anything else, but in hope it might help someone like me who might be planning a overseas trip with a beery slant, trying to work out what to do with the sobrasada they brought back from hols, or wondering where has the best beer in Birmingham right now, I'm just going to go ahead and write. If someone else finds usefulness in it, great – if not, at least I'll have an online record of everything of note that I've munched on and slurped up!

Japanese food adventures in Osaka

So there is deliberately no purpose and no agenda to this blog – not as I start out anyway – it's just a collection of thoughts on things broadly beer and food related, as I delve in and make the most of looking for adventure, or whatever comes my way...