My LOVE for craft beer: Born May 5th, 2012.

On the recommendation of a good friend, whom I had previously mocked for his enthusiasm regarding these new and emerging beer styles, I ventured outside of my comfort zone of macro brews and eased into some approachable styles of craft beer. My first beer that wasn’t “the fizzy yellow stuff” was a Sleeman Honey Brown Lager. Simple and only a small step away from the mainstream but I tried it and thought, “Okay..not too bad.” It stands as the gateway drug to my addiction…PASSION for craft beer! Greg was a big fan of craft beer and had been using the Untapped app to track and rate the beers that he drank so I thought, “What the heck, I might as well join the fun” and I haven’t looked back since. I now currently find myself closing in on 1100 unique beer check-ins. That’s a lot of damn good beer!

My name is Tim and I live in a town called Walnut Grove, a suburb of Langley City, about 40 minutes outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. I have worked in the restaurant industry as a manager for over 20 years and have always enjoyed the fact that when I get off work, unlike many other professions, I’m already at the bar! Being in the hospitality industry has given me a great opportunity to have access to craft beer suppliers and attend many large-scale cask events but it’s been the craft beer community outside of the industry that I have truly enjoyed. I started a twitter account under the handle @LangleyBeerDude and began following craft breweries around BC and connecting with other local twitter folks that shared the same fanaticism for craft beer that I have. Its kinda like a virtual book club, only we don’t read books. We drink a beer and then we share our thoughts on it and see where the conversation goes. (Craft beer now accounts for 20% of the marketshare in the beer segment in BC and the total number of craft breweries in the province is now well over 100)

As my love for craft beer blossomed, I began to make it a priority to scope out cool places to drink it whenever I dine out and when I went south on my annual winter get away. My wife and I are big believers in the popular philosophy of “Collect Experiences Not Things” So when we are away, we live it up! Being from the Vancouver area we are spoiled with a plethora of spectacular hiking trails to choose. We have had the chance to enjoy many of them throughout our lives but the “good hiking weather” doesn’t last long here on the WEsT Coast so we always make it a top priority to get out and experience the natural beauty of the places that we travel to. Once the hike is done for the day, it’s time to either hit up a popular happy hour or settle in on a beach with a great selection of local craft beer favorites while we watch the sun go down!

These are the adventures that I plan to share with you. I hope you will enjoy them!