NAME:
Jason Poffley

Blog:
Brews and Bacon

Established:
August 2013

Why do you do it?
I originally started the blog as a means to chronicle my journey into good beer. I was fresh into the beer scene in Brisbane and felt putting my thoughts to keyboard was a good way to introduce myself to all that was around me. I was also about to embark on a four-month round-the-world trip and thought it would be a good time to start one up.

Its main purpose now is to help promote good beer and venues in Queensland as well as educate and help out the more uninitiated.

What else have you got going on in your life?
I’ve made the decision to go back to university last year, so I’m currently slogging through a Mechatronic Engineering degree. The hope is to one day make robots, preferably beer-making robots.

To pay the bills, I’ve been working at a GPS retailer casually and just recently started working at the new venue, Fitz & Potts, just behind the bar.

What makes you keep writing if you’re not getting paid for it?

What’s one of your blog posts that you like the most?
I’ve had a heap of fun with my collaborative posts with Chasing Ale and our “Blind Leading the Blind” posts. We blind taste five beers within a style, which is enjoyable enough as it is, but doing it with a good mate makes it that much more fun.

One tip about beer blogging that you’d like to share?
Consistency is key. If you can keep some regularity in your posts, you’ll see a good amount of success. I tend to not practice what I preach, though.

What’s been most successful for me is to get involved in the community. Meet your local brewers, bar owners, reps, and punters. Aside from bringing up your profile with the locals, it opens the door for collaborations and some fun experiences.

The phrase ‘‘craft beer’’ – love it or hate it?
I’m coming back around to it, but I’ve hated it for the longest. I still prefer to use the term “good beer” over “craft” beer, as I find that to be a much easier phrase to define. “Craft” means different things to different people; to some it’s about taste, to others it’s about small-scale/small-batch, and to another group it could refer to local, independent brewers. I try and avoid the confusion and just say good beer. I find it also takes away any pretentiousness that comes with the term craft.

It can be a good catch-all phrase though, and is easier to use in conversation more than anything else.

One thing that still surprises you about the beer scene?
I’m in awe with how much it’s grown, but am continually amazed with how much we still have to go. We have new bars popping up all the time with great, fresh beer on tap, yet the general population is still pretty green.

I’m also taken aback with the level of generosity. Here in Brisbane, there are a ton of charity events going on, including All Inn’s monthly drives, and Newstead’s big events to help various causes. When asked, most will help roll up their sleeves or donate their time, taps, or a keg or two to further a worthy endeavor.

And one thing you hate about it?
Petty in-fighting BS. Plain and simple. Brisbane has been fairly immune from it, but recently, you can see a bit of rivalry spilling over into mean-spirited territory. Maybe it’s a sign that we have grown big enough for it to occur, but it’s a horrible by-product of the growth.

Beer snobs are also a pet peeve of mine. If someone prefers to drink a macro lager from one of the big boys, and they enjoy it, don’t berate them for it. Try and challenge them with an alternative, but don’t belittle them if they don’t jump on the wagon. That kind of attitude is counter-productive to what we are actually trying to do here, which is educating. Being a dick about it is just going to turn people off and make the rest of us look like pretentious prats.