Among my interests, one which holds my profound attention is beer. I might say that I have a love affair with beer: not simply its tastes - as delicious, complex, and varied as they may be - but its history, science, lore, and evolving creation.

In the good beer trade since the early 1990s, I have been a brewer, a brewery manager, a brewpub owner, a brewery consultant, a restaurant manager, a beer writer and blogger, and a beer and wine salesman.

Beer may be my profession, but cask ale —the beauty of beer at its freshest— is my mission.

2008 - present: Select Wines, Inc.

The wines include an extensive selection from Bordeaux and Burgundy, Italy, Austria, Australia/New Zealand, Argentina, California, and elsewhere.

The beers include those of American craft breweries Abita, Allagash, Brooklyn, Clipper City, Flying Dog, Lancaster, Otter Creek/Wolavers, and Stoudts, as well as imports from Belgium, Germany, the U.K., and elsewhere.

Here's where I've been for 'good fermentables' this year: Adventures 2010.

2008 and Prior

From 2004 through July 2008, I was southeastern US Territory Manager for the Clipper City Brewing Company of Baltimore Maryland.

From 2001 through 2004, I was a representative for Legends, Limited, an importer of Scottish and British ales, and a distributor of beer and wine in Maryland.

In early November 2000, I purchased Sisson's, a venerable brewpub in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of a quartet of investors. As sometimes occurs, disagreements occurred. The brewpub no longer exists.

In a grand reach, I was the brewmaster (that is, the lead brewer and plant foreman) for Local Brewing Company, a brewing and bottling beer production facility in Westlake, OH, from its planning stages and construction in 1997, through operations from 1997 into late 1998. Begun with a potential of twenty thousand barrels per year, the brewery has since closed.

In 1996/1997, I was the original head brewer for the Manayunk Brewing Company, a brewpub in Philadelphia, PA.

From 1993 through November 1995, I was a brewer and then directed operations at the Oxford Brewing Company as its brewery manager. Founded in 1988 - then the British Brewing Company - it was the first post-Prohibition (and for a brief time - only) micro-brewery in Maryland.