The name “The Biking Brewer” conjures up images of someone who pedals for their pints. Exercises for the love of beer. Sweats in order to savor a Belgian Pale at the end of a ride. Travels on asphalt, cobblestones, and dirt paths to reach the end destination: destination “beer”.
Jeffrey Michael is the man behind “The Biking Brewer” and he makes beer destinations and biking to them almost a full-time gig. In between being a brewer, financial & brewing operations manager, and the founder of a new brewery in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, which came full circle after, you guessed it, traveling from NY to Mexico by bike.
The Biking Brewer is attending the American Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference in Asheville, NC this July AND the European conference in Brussels in August and is using pedal power to get to Belgium. We had a chance to catch up with Jeffrey, recently, via a Google Hangout on Air. He relays his passion for beer, biking, international travel, and why he’s excited to attend both Beer Bloggers & Writers Conferences this year.
Watch the Interview with the Biking Brewer
Highlights of our catch up with Jeffrey:
You have to go to the source to really understand food, wine, beer
– Jeffrey Michael
Q: Did biking come before beer or did beer come before biking for Jeffrey? A: The passion for biking developed after college and via a backpacking friend who used it as a mode of transportation in his travels. Jeffrey’s friend influenced him to start traveling this way and, voilá! So began the reward of sipping on a cold pint at the end of every travel day.
- Attending the European Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference, originally (in Leeds, England) afforded him the opportunity to meet the writers he had been following for a long time.
Q: Has attending the Beer Blogger & Writers Conference helped him develop professionally in the world of beer? A: Jeffrey relays that anytime one is exposed to many different types of beer there is something big to learn. Attending the European Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference some years ago exposed him to the different brewing practices, both mechanical and cultural, in different countries and also the difference in how brands market their beers. Also, the blogosphere is where Jeffrey stays on tops of trends and interacting with the bloggers at the conferences allows him to be the most informed.
- Jeffrey is taking a couple of weeks to bike from Munich to Brussels for the 2015 EBBC and *may* be attempting to visit all 6 Trappiste breweries in Belgium while intaking nothing but the beer made by the monks!
- Jeffrey is really excited to taste the many, many different types of beer at this year’s #EBBC15 because he is interested in making a Belgian style strong ale in Mexico in the future.
- In the end, Jeffrey relays he will come away with lots of new experiences but what really will stick is tasting all the different beers and applying this knowledge to his future, professional endeavours.
