What is the one thing you'd like to tell visitors to the Guild's website?
I’m the Brewers Association’s American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe and my role includes writing articles, organising events, conducting tastings, giving talks, judging beer both in the UK and internationally and spreading the word about American craft beer across Europe. I’m a Certified Cicerone® and accredited Beer Sommelier on a mission to get the world to drink more beer styles on more occasions, particularly with food.
What you can offer as a writer/beer lover?
An insight into the US craft brewing world and a comparison between craft beer culture in the States v the UK, including beer and food matching, market stats and export figures. I can provide access to resource and information at the Brewers Association.
What do you like most about being a Guild of Beer Writers member?
I like the camaraderie, the passion of fellow members and the whole UK beer culture that the Guild embodies. The events are great and I like knowing what’s going on in the beer world through the news updates.
Following a visit to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, to attend Paired, a beer and food event between 21 breweries and 21 different chefs in a two-night extravaganza of gastronomic delights, I wrote about the differences between the USA’s attitude to beer and food pairing and the UKs.
The article was published in full under my name on the Great British Chefs website.
I wrote this article for Fiona’s Beckett’s Matching Food and Wine site, after attending a beer and food matching dinner in Paris for the Brewers Association. There were five courses and ten beers and each beer had been especially chosen for the way it complemented the food dish. I tried to convey the amazing affinity beer has to food in my article.
I wrote about the Parisian beer scene for Bonjour Paris and talked about growth of interest in craft beer using a beer and food matching dinner as a hook to encourage French gastronomes to experiment more with beer as a meal accompaniment, as an alternative to wine.
Following my trip to the Great American Beer Festival, I wrote an account of how the US go about matching beer with food and the attitude towards it versus how it is viewed in the UK, for Restaurant Magazine. It was published verbatum on page 15.
There is no online version of the piece but it is my pinned tweet on Twitter