Had to dig real deep into my inbox to figure out when I’d started doing this work. Adam Nason from BeerPulse, who I had worked with while running the RateBeer Weekly newsletter, had put me in touch with Kris Calef here at the Rare Beer Club, and things just went from there. I couldn’t find the exact month I’d first started sending in notes, but it would’ve been around December of 2012—almost ten years ago! That’s longer than I’ve done just about anything ever.
I stuck around with this job for a number of reasons. I really liked working with all the folks here—Kris, Lindsay, Brett, Kristina, Gina, and Tony. I’d always really enjoyed the beers and was impressed by how consistent the club’s tasting panel was at choosing good options; even though my tastes had shifted more to lagers and IPAs in recent years, it was fun to get to try world-class Belgian strong ales and barrel-aged imperial stouts—or whatever out-there RBC collab Kris and company had cooked up for the club. For a lot of our exclusive beers, I was one of the first people on the planet to get a taste of these new releases—sometimes before the actual brewers did! It’s a weird, wonderful job. And I’ve tried hard to do my best with it. Getting samples to land on time was the hardest part. Pretty sure we were never more than a few days late with notes in the past 9+ years. I’m proud of that, and wow, that was not easy.
Where am I headed? I opened up an online art store about a year ago (kenweaver.com/shop) focusing on watercolor-and-ink art inspired by Sonoma County. And I picked up a part-time job doing technical writing and editing work in the clean-energy industry. Going to miss this gig, you folks, and the people I’ve gotten to work with at Rare Beer Club. Say hi if you catch me at a beer or art event anytime in the future. Wish you all the best, and thanks for reading!
