Beer Around Town

Derek Arent is an avid beer writer and connoisseur of craft beers from around the globe.  His blog Beer Around Town features local Oregon beer and a plethora of other interesting beer culture topics.  Arent is a prolific writer with extensive notes on thousands of beers.  I often look to his opinions on RateBeer.com to learn about new and worthwhile brews. “I homebrewed in college for a few years then decided to pursue brewing when I graduated” says Arent. “Interning and apprenticing at a few places left me knowing that brewing wasn’t my calling yet, so I took up other work to make a bit more money to finance my other hobbies.”  Arent can be found at stellar beer bars around the Rose City deeply appreciating a malty treat.  I ran into him and picked his zymurgilogical mind for what beers made his beer pendulum swing.

What sparked your interest in craft beer?

DA: Living on Nantucket, MA we had Cisco Brewers, but not much else.  It was when I moved to Eugene to attend University of Oregon that I got into my craft beer geekdomness.  A friend and I discovered the local Market of Choice that had about 1000 beers, so we decided to try them all. Two years later we had a beer wall of about 800 bottles, since then I’ve been hooked.

If trapped on a dessert island with just one tap line, what beer would you choose to drink (yeah that’s a tough one)?

DA: Easy, De Ranke XX, the hoppy, crisp saison-ish character of this beer could get me through the hot days, and the higher ABV (alcohol by volume) could get me through the cold nights. Bud Chelada runs a close second if I was looking to end it all, makes drowning seem fun.

Similarly, if you could have just one last beer, what would that be?

DA: Probably Orkney Skullsplitter, one of my first craft beers and still one of my favorites.

Name five of your favorite brews (won’t hold you to these).

DA: Orkney Skullsplitter, De Ranke XX, Lost Abbey Yellow Bus, Russian River Supplication, Hair of the Dog Adam

Are there any beers out there that you would like to try that you haven’t yet?

DA: Way to many to list, lots of stuff from Russian River, Midnight Sun, Southampton, lots from overseas… why? are you offering? hehe.

Name one or more of your favorite food pairings?

DA: The two best that I can remember: Belgian mussels and Leffe Blonde in Brussels and a Czech Tmavy(I don’t recall the name) and wild game goulash in Prague, both were heavenly.

Wow, he’s even got them paired with the cities.  Nice, work, Derek!

Check out Derek’s blog Beer Around Town at http://beeraroundtown.blogspot.com/