Finally, a Brews and Books Logo!

…and a (beta) swag shop.

As much as I like the rotating beer and book pictures I’ve built into the header of this site, I’ve thought for a while about the need for an actual logo for Brews and Books.  After some time playing around with logo ideas, I decided to go to local designer Josh Fisher to get some professional design help.  Fisher’s work came highly recommended and I approached the project with high hopes, and Josh still blew me away with his final design.

The logo incorporates everything I wanted for this site – equal billing for good books and good beer, and a fun, personality-driven spirit.  Plus, I know just enough Photoshop to play around with colors and designs a bit more if I need to.

So, if you’re a fan of the site, here’s you chance to boost Brews and Books.  While I don’t have a robust hosted storefront quite yet, I do have some merch for sale in a customized Cafe Press shop.  Hopefully, the future will bring a more streamlined, prettier shop with some more unique offerings.  Until that time, think of this store as my beta – my unedited manuscript or my unrefined homebrew recipe, if you will.

One of the products I’m dying to offer is Brews and Books pint glasses.  While pint glasses end up being pretty cheap to produce – only a buck or two a pop – the startup cost is a bit higher and there are usually minimum order sizes to get them made.  If you’re interested in getting a glass or two, shoot me a message at contact@brewsandbooks.com.  If I’m confident that enough people are interested in getting some glassware, it’ll be that much easier to produce a few dozen with the logo to sell on the site.

If you’d like to get something with the Brews and Books logo on it that isn’t yet in the shop, or want something with a different color scheme, please contact me and we’ll work something out.  Comments, critiques and suggestions would also, as always, be a huge help.

In the meantime, I suggest getting some coasters.

New Job, Same as the Old Job

I’m happy to announce that, starting next Wednesday Wednesday the 18th, I’ll be writing a weekly column for the front page of RateBeer: The Ultimate Source for All Things Beer!

RateBeer is a community-driven beer site, and in less than a decade has become one of the largest and most popular beer websites in the world.  Along with a community of thousands that posts reviews of beer and beer bars, RateBeer boasts regular features on beer culture and industry events, weekly beer-related editorials, and an internationally recognized, semi-annual “RateBeer Best” competition.  Oh, and they also have some absolutely awesome forums that have saved me from mistakes on many homebrews.

RateBeer is in the process of revamping their main page and blogging platform, and one of the biggest changes is inviting a handful of beer bloggers to contribute featured columns every week.  This grand experiment starts on Monday, and I’ll have a post this (and every) Wednesday for your reading enjoyment.

So, what does this mean for Brews + Books?  Hopefully, it won’t be too much a change for you, dear reader.  I’ll still be aiming for four or five articles a week – you’ll just have to click through a link to get to my (still totally free) RateBeer column once a week.  Other than that, this site will still be a total labor of love, a look at both beer and books, and a thought-provoking and fun discussion of both niches.

On the plus side, the increased traffic will mean some new people participating in discussions in the comments, some improvement in the quality of the writing, and some cool opportunities to write about more brewers, beer and beer books.  Again, there won’t be less updates – one will just be in a different, easily-accessed place every week.

Finally, thanks to everyone that takes a minute or two to check BrewsAndBooks.com every day, or week, or month.  The best part of the blog is the feedback from and discussions with readers, not to mention meeting all you awesome folks!  The site (with the help of the awesome writers and guest posters, of course) has a lot of potential, and I’m glad to have you here with me.

Seven Things…

Like pretty much everyone else on the web, I’ve finally been tagged in the “Seven Things” meme that is going around.  It shouldn’t be too hard to come up with seven things that you don’t know about me, since I’m not sure how many of my close friends read this.  Still, I’ll try and make the points interesting.  If you don’t find at least one interesting, I’ll give you a full refund.

1.  Since my freshman year in high school, I’ve been certain I’m meant to have a career in a never-ending parade of fields.  The earliest I can remember is law, then photography, politics, the ski industry, public policy, nonprofit management, law again, brewing, radio, pub ownership, bookselling and publishing.  I’ve been lucky enough to at least dip my toes in most of these vocations.  Professionally, I’ve gotten to work as an intern in the ski industry and spend my days now as a bookseller.  I’ve developed serious chops (I hope) in photography and brewing as hobbies, and I was a student DJ in college.  I feel like I have one of the best jobs in the world right now, though an increase in prestige or pay wouldn’t get any complaints from me.  Still, with my interests being so varied I wonder what I’ll be doing years down the road, and where.