Have tasting glass, will travel

It seems to have taken forever but I finally got round to creating the ALL BEER Blog:
FLAVOUR . DISCOVERY . CHOICE blog. Welcome to one and all.

Expect plenty of posts from now on, some completely original and some that hark back to brewery visits I've made and brewers I've talked to over the last year or so. They will include, in no particular order: Harveys of Lewes, Sierra Nevada, Guinness, Stone, Dark Star, Anchor, Russian River and Lagunitas. If that sounds good, watch this space... they will include pictures and Head Brewer interviews too, if I can work out how to post them!

My main incentive in setting the blog up now was to cover my upcoming trip to Chicago. I know I'll never live it down, but I'm leaving the family during the Easter hiolidays to attend next weeks American Craft Brewers Conference and to judge the World Beer Cup. As a frequent judge at UK beer awards such as SIBA and CAMRA I'm well used to the way we do it over here, but am genuinely excited to be invited over to judge at WBC. It's a mega-event with statistics that demonstrate its scale:

• 3500 beers entered
• from 60 countries
  
• 90 judging categories
• 137 judges
• from 29 nations

As if that's not enough I've arranged to visit 2 breweries before I start and am looking forward to visiting Goose Island for a beer and food event too. I'll be doing my best to post as I go along. I welcome your feedback, comments and ideas too. Cheers!