Friendliest Beer Steward in Town
|If you are involved with the Portland craft beer scene in some capacity, chances are you know Jeff Faraday. Jeff is the friendly beer and wine steward at Seven Corners New Season Market. His passion for people and beer are obvious and his knowledge is vast. We stopped by our local grocery whose mantra is “Friendliest Store in Town” and again realized this is bolstered by Mr. Faraday. We caught up with him for this brief Q & A session…
How long have you been working as the beer guy at New Seasons?
Jeff Faraday: Since the summer of 2004. Before then, I was just “the beer guy” at my friends houses.
What sparked your interest in craft beer?
JF: I think the first time I thought about beer as a craft good was with Saranac, from Upstate New York. Their Black & Tan was better than anything I had ever drank from a bottle. I also remember J.W. Dundee’s Honey Brown as being one of the first beers to change my mind about what beer could be.
What are some of your favorite beers?
JF: I think that US craft breweries are at the cutting edge of the beer blade. From Roots Organic Chocolate Habanero Stout to Dogfish Head’s Raison d’Extra, we have old Gambrinus by the balls over here.
Still, I am a sucker for all beers Belgian. I think it’s great that so many domestic brewers are taking an interest in brewing with spicy Belgian yeasts. Sour ales from Jolly Pumpkin and New Belgium have been pretty good lately. Classic styles of lambic and trappist tripels will probably always be some of my faves. I even wrote a haiku about my love for Belgian golden ales:
your light effervescence
lends a brilliant lacing
to line my goblet
I also work with wine at my job, and people often ask me if I prefer one over the other. That is a really hard question. They both have a different place in my life. Both go great with food, but only beer is food. I often try to dispel rumors about wine being full of snobbish attitudes. I think you can find that in the beer world too. Wine is amazing to me because it comes from one ingredient, grapes, and changes completely from place to place. But beer gives folks the opportunity to get really creative. You can brew with anything in the world. You can even import ice from Antarctica or use barley grown on a space station. I even saw a recipe in a homebrew book for a beer brewed with a chicken carcass. I think I’ll pass on that last one. In the meantime, I’m going back to my snifter of Southern Tier “Chokolat.”
note italics on “beer IS food”
Great introspective insights on beer, Jeff. However, we suggest you don’t haiku and drink. It throws off one’s syllable count.
Jeff is the anchor of my beer tastings, i dont think he has missed one.
However I must disagree about the Chicken ale.
Homebrewers might have heard about this, it was published in Papazian’s The Joy Of Homebrewing and he was referencing from a reallly old cooking book.
This beer needs to be made now. After all didnt Jeff just say beer IS food?
I am putting the pressure on Roots to make this happen, or maybe Upright Brewing, eh Alex? It’s the logical next step in Extreme Brewing!
Well, I’d have to say my vote goes to Justin at Beaumont Market.
I was at 7 corners a while back on the way to a barbecue and was looking to get a bottle of Vinho Verde. I’d tried, and didn’t much like, the one they had then so I asked him if they carried anything else. He replied, rather snidely, “Why? That one isn’t good enough for you.”
Not so friendly, I’d say.
Probably just had a bad day though.
Well good thing this is a beer website 🙂
jmatt: That guy is always totally friendly, I can only think he was making a joke (or like you said, maybe a bad day).
yeah, Jeff is the man despite his distaste for Chicken Beer.
Definitely the best around, except for myself of course.