Name: Pia Poynton
Blog: girl+beer
Established: April 2012

Why do you do it?
My standard line is to say it’s so my mum can say her daughter is a ‘‘writer’’ not an ‘‘alcoholic’’ but the honest answer is because I love beer, I love the stories behind the beers, the people and the breweries and they are stories that will help people fall in love with beer.

What else have you got going on in your life?
My partner and I just bought a house so we are currently living a life that involves multiple Bunnings trips on the weekends – thank God for sausage sizzles. I also work for a big corporation and go through phases of ‘‘getting fit’’. We also have a kelpie who features pretty strongly on my Instagram feed.

What makes you keep writing if you’re not getting paid for it?
The love of beer and telling the stories and it’s more entertaining than stamp collecting.

What’s one of your blog posts that you like the most?
‘‘The article I would have liked to have seen’’ – I wrote this in November 2013 and it’s one of the most shared, liked and read posts I’ve ever written. It was a response to an article in the paper that made me kinda mad but what started as a rant changed into a fun and positive post.

One tip about beer blogging that you’d like to share?
Write in your own style, don’t try to write how you think you should write.

The phrase ‘‘craft beer’’ – love it or hate it?
I’m a fence sitter. In fact I sit on the fence happily sipping on a craft beer and, perhaps naively, look at both sides and wonder what all the fuss is about. It’s all about the beer to me, as long as we don’t start calling it ‘‘unicorn juice’’ I don’t think it will make or break the industry.

One thing that still surprises you about the beer scene?
The generosity of the people.

And one thing you hate about it?
Hate is strong but the worst thing about the beer industry are the snobs, I hate the term ‘‘beer snob’’ and I dislike seeing beer snobbery in action.