I’m not a beer reviewer. I’m not a foodie nor a food critic. I’m just a guy who’s scratching the surface in photography and enjoys sharing his favorite experiences with beer and food through the lens.

I live in the Capital Region of Upstate New York, where drink and food scene has gradually gotten better since I’ve started this blog and continues to improve. I spend my weekends and days off in my turbodiesel VW wagon with my Shiba Inu, Kuma, looking for the best breweries, bars and restaurants traveling the Northeast has to offer. In an ideal world, someday we’ll have a vintage trailer and travel the whole country doing the same.

On Beer
I love craft beer, but I’m not looking to try every single beer in the world, nor do I buy into the detailed scored review of beer. Everyone’s palate is different and I don’t suspect you’ll have the same opinion, or taste the same things as I do in a beer. I’m looking to try the best ones breweries have to offer, and I’ll drive a good 4 hours for the right beer, too.

I’m not as active as I used to be on the beer forums. I still go to some of the smaller BeerAdvocate events and will occasionally offer some advice on local beer travels when I feel I can help out. I’ve stopped all trading and haven’t been involved in a BIF in quite sometime. Bottles shares still happen at Chez Fuj, but more often than not it’s just about the meal and the communing as it is the beer.

I started my craft beer life with typical the Magic Hat and Long Trail mix packs, then moved on to swinging nuts from Ommegang and any other style of Belgian beer I could get my hands on. After that was stouts and porters, then barrel aged beers and next finding the biggest, palate-wrecking DIPAS available in the Northeast. Now I’m on a sour kick and who knows where I’ll go from here.

I’m not a homebrewer and most homebrew has too many flaws for me. That said, I’m currently a Cicerone Certified Beer Server, am looking to mature my palate where I can become a BJCP judge and give homebrewers a fair shot.

I promise to never use the word “imbibe” on this blog.

On Food
I’m a carnivore at heart. I eat just about any kind of meat you throw on my plate (even the weird ones) and I absolutely love it. I don’t get vegans or vegetarianism, and I go out of my way to not support businesses that serve only vegan and vegetarian dishes. That may seem odd or rude to you, but I look at it this way: I wouldn’t go to a bar that only serves Bud and Coors, why would I go to a restaurant that only serves fake meat? No thanks.

That said, on the extreme opposite side of things bacon does not belong on everything. There plenty of other great things you can do with pork belly and there are plenty of other cuts from the pig that are just as delicious.

I’m a chili head, to an extent. I’m not going out of my way to eat a Trinidad Moruga Scorpion or anything, but I enjoy a nice burn and am definitely satisfied when a meal leaves me with a bead of sweat on my forehead, a runny nose and shedding a few tears.

As I said earlier, I am not a foodie and I’m not a food critic. I am not going to criticize a meal just because it doesn’t hit the current foodie buzz words. And I think that 99% of the people on Yelp have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. I will eat a McRib just as easily as I’ll sit down to a $100 a plate dinner.

So what’s the point?
I don’t have an agenda. I’m not trying to change the world. I intend for this to be a beer, food, and travel guide for those of you readers that are as excited about great beer and delicious foods as I am and are looking for just the right place to find it.