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, guest speaker on beer, 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 and New Zealand, Argentina, California, Oregon, and elsewhere.

The beers include those of American craft breweries Abita, Allagash, Brooklyn, Heavy Seas [formerly know as Clipper City], Lancaster, Oliver Breweries, and Stoudt's, as well as imports from Belgium, Germany, the U.K., and elsewhere.

Here's where I've been for 'good fermentables' this year: Adventures 2011.

2008 and Prior

From 2004 through July 2008, I was southeastern US Territory Manager for the Clipper City Brewing Company of Baltimore, Maryland [as of 2010, known as Heavy Seas Brewing Company]

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 still thriving in Philadelphia, PA.

In November 1995, I lectured at the Smithsonian Institution on American beer styles. I continue to offer lectures on beer to numerous organizations.

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