UNTAMED BEER – a beer blog featuring beer reviews, news and discussion

The results of the Beer City USA poll are out, and it has been declared a tie between Portland, OR and Asheville, NC. I think it’s pretty cool that a small, southern town has such a passionate beer community that it can compete with an entrenched stalwart such as Portland. Asheville actually led going into the final days. I guess Oregonians are big procrastinators. :P

I had the opportunity to visit Portland in the fall of 2007, and I must say that I was totally impressed with the people and the beer. There is so much competition and the bar has been set so high, it’s virtually impossible for a sub-par craft brewery to exist for long. You’ve got to bring the thunder to stick around.

At the same time, it’s exciting to see a new pocket of craft beer excellence is growing up just down the road from me. It is a rare time in our lives when we are at the cusp of something great, and we are aware of it while it’s happening. Look at Google, it toiled in obscurity for over 3 years before it exploded and took over the world. Who would have seen that coming in 1999? Not me. I was there, I remember. If I had, I would be a lot richer than I am today.

So congrats to Asheville and Portland. Both great beer towns that represent each coast well.

Anat Baron, the director and producer of Beer Wars, posted a response to “some” beer bloggers this afternoon. As expected, this movie caused quite a passionate reaction in the beer community, some positive, some very negative.

Believe it or not, I do have quite a few interests outside of beer. I’m an avid follower of the Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. A few weeks back on his podcast, he was on a kick talking with various guests about the newpaper industry and sports coverage in general. I remember he made a comment in one discussion that with all the noise and competition for attention, many bloggers turn to flaming and extreme criticism to drive traffic to their sites.

The lesson to be learned here is that if you want to be “famous” and put yourself out there, you have to have a thick skin. I don’t have a large enough presence for people care enough to have an extremely negative view of my work (yet), but I can imagine how difficult that must be. It still bothers me when I receive any criticism, even if it isn’t a personal attack.

We all want our work to be liked and respected. At the same time, you have to love what you do, and do it for those people you know enjoy what you do and get something positive out of it. You have to embrace that and separate your self-worth from any negativity that comes your way.

And believe me, there is a lot of negativity out there, even in the beer world.