An Intro to Thirsty for Thirty (#1 of 30)
Was it a sign that I was flooded with after-hours work emails when I sat down to write this? Yeah, most likely. Was it a sign that my laptop needed a one-hour restart when I finally got back from those emails? Yeah, probably. Did I have a little bit of free time on a Friday and decide it was justification to publicly commit to more writing than I’ve done since high school? Yeah, absolutely. Regardless, here we are, day one of 30 blogs in 30 days. I'm calling the effort "Thirsty for Thirty." Now is the time where I would add a lame throwaway joke, like "Please don't sue me ESPN," but if this website even gets a fraction of the clicks needed to get ESPN's attention, it'll be a huge success. But I digress. Regardless of the spontaneous and bumpy start, I'm excited about the next 30 days for a couple of reasons:
I stink at writing - You don’t need a medical degree to diagnose the word vomit that I have on a daily basis, and now you want me to put it in writing? I’ll be shocked if I crack 2 readers…so thanks if you are the other poor soul following along. Anyway, you don’t get better at stuff without some discomfort and some repetition (I think). So this will be a fun challenge that will hopefully help me grow a life skill that I neglected for years. I think it will help me in my real job too.
It will force me to learn about beer - If you know me on a personal level, you know I don’t claim any expertise in brewing. Honestly, once you have a few brew days under your belt, it is easy to go into cruise control. You can keep making middle of the road beer without really challenging yourself to dig deeper and learn more. A few of my posts will attempt to explore the intricacies of brew day. I hope this sparks the creative juices come brew day.
So what should you expect over the next 30 days? No master classes or dissertations here. Without naming every topic I have planned, I will say I have a few categories picked out:
Brewology - These posts will cover the nerdier side of brewing; ingredients, styles, yeast strands, food pairings, etc.
Brookmeade - These posts can overlap with Brewology but they are really more specific to what I am doing, or what I have planned for the brewery. You’ll most likely see these things on my Instagram page. A lot more personal anecdotes and opinions here too unfortunately.
Community - I like brewing my own stuff but I also like visiting real breweries and learning more about them. Much like “The Neighborhood” page, these topics will cover places to visit and things to do.
Alright, how would high school me wrap up a hastily-written paper I put off until the last minute…
In conclusion, I know this won't be easy, and I'm sure I'll stumble a few times along the way, but I'm excited to see what the next 30 days bring. I hope to grow my writing skills, learn more about brewing, and maybe even connect with a few fellow beer enthusiasts out there. So, if you're reading this, thank you for joining me on this journey, and I hope you stick around for the ride. Cheers to Thirsty for Thirty!
