Beer Blogger Gerard Walen and His Beer Blogs

Beer blogger Gerard Walen is a special case, from what I have seen. No, not that type of special case, although I am sure Gerard would have stories to back up those thoughts too. I mean that Gerard is special because he comes to blogging with some serious credentials.

Gerard used to work at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, as a Copy Editor, then News Editor, then Assistant Business Editor. So he has some serious journalistic and writing qualities that help him in his blogging.

I have also found that Gerard is good at the business side of blogging. He is one of the first to read our blog posts on this site and often leaves a comment. He responds to my emails quickly and has even helped when I needed a blogger to tell our English blogging friends what a beer bloggers conference entails. Gerard was even the first person to sign up for the first-ever Beer Bloggers Conference last year – pretty cool being a world’s first.

Gerard runs two beer blogs. The first, which he started only in early 2010, is called Road Trips for Beer and covers beer travel. The second, just started in January 2011, is a “blog local” style of blog called Beer in Florida.

Because of Gerard’s writing and editing skills and his business acumen – in addition to the necessary dose of passion – I find Gerard and his blogs to be worth following. Not all bloggers can or should have “old school” journalism backgrounds combined with a love of new media but, when we have one in our midst who does, it’s worth paying attention.