Again, welcome to MNBeer.com. The site is really only in its first week of existence, so please be patient as things come together. As I’ve said before, this site is by, for and about Minnesota beer. If you have suggestions for additions, edits, changes, whatever, please feel free to contact me.

I decided to start this site some time ago with the hope of creating a centralized place to find information about all of the great beer-related things in Minnesota. I also thought it would be great to have access to what’s on tap at local brewpubs all in one place. With everyone’s help, we’ll make that happen soon. As luck would have it, my company closed rather abruptly a few weeks ago. I’m a graphic designer and I found myself a little short on portfolio-quality work to show in interviews. I had a little extra time and the concept was in place, so I figured that this was the perfect time to launch MNBeer. So here it is!

Enough about me, let’s talk about me… I’m 30 years old, married and living in St. Louis Park, MN with my wife, hyperactive puppy Yoshi and anti-social cat, Martini. I’ve been a graphic designer for about five years and am currently looking for gainful employment due to my pervious employer going kaput. I’ve been homebrewing for about a year and have about fourteen 5-gallon extract batches under my belt. My wife thinks I’m obsessed, and she may be correct… I’ve built a small kegerator, a keggle and a handful of other gadgets and am gearing up to do my first all-grain batch sometime this fall.

I grew up in Fergus Falls, MN and stole sips of my parents’ beer on occasion. I liked it. When I was eight, my friend and I found four cans of cheap beer under a railway bridge on our way to the public library. We shook up three cans, threw them at the tracks and watched them spray. We shared the third because we could. I waited eight years before having another beer and in retrospect, I probably should have waited longer as it was a Keystone.

Fast-forward to my third year in college at Moorhead State. That year I discovered “dark” beer and stepped up to Samual Adams, Summit, Anchor, Guinness and a variety of other good beers and really haven’t looked back. That year, on my 21st birthday, I had my first beer at a brewpub, The Great Northern, in Fargo, ND. It was a stout and I remember thinking that it was great. Of course I negated that with all of the other drinks I had later that evening at the now-defunct Ralph’s Corner in Moorhead, MN, but I haven’t yet forgot the tasty stout I had that night.

Since that time, I transferred to St. Cloud State University, grabbed a BFA in Graphic Design, relocated to the Twin Cities, got married, bought a house, brewed some beer and started MNBeer. During that time, I’ve tried as much of Minnesota’s beer as possible and am always willing to try more. When I’m not tasting beer, working or hanging out with my little family, I’m involved with a music-related website, Yahtzeen.com where I’m an “editor” (heh) and assembled the Fargo Band Family Tree, a massive historical documentation of the Fargo/Moorhead area music scene in the form of a Wiki. I also put some time into my church and lefty political issues though MNBeer is purely secular and bi-partisian! 🙂

Anyway, that’s enough about me. Thanks for the kind words and support!