On February 1 ITasteYourBeer.com celebrated its official launch and its creator, Hagan Blount, is now poised to do exactly as his site promises. That’s right, he’ll taste your beer. This is no ordinary beer site. Blount endeavors to bring an element of impartiality to his posts. It’s just the facts ma’am.
Hagan sat down to answer a few questions for The Good Beer Seal about his new site.
What was the impetus for I Taste Your Beer?
In 2008, I was laid off. I went to Costa Rica for what I said was research to start a business, but it turned out to be a motorcycle tour of the entirety of Central America (I don’t really like Costa Rica that much – it’s too Americanized). When I was there, I decided that what I really wanted to do was drink great beer and talk about it and see if I could get paid to do it. I arrived back in America and was stumped. There were so many beer blogs doing a beer a day, I didn’t know what I could do to define myself from the pack. I ended up starting a food blog instead, learning a lot about photography, videography, and online marketing. After doing that for a year, I realized that there is no one doing beer porn. Food porn is commonplace, but beer porn… there is no one truly capturing the beauty and movement of beer out there online every day. It was then that I decided I could create beer porn and get paid for it by marketing craft beer.
How does I Taste Your Beer Work?
Brewers sponsor days where I give people the facts about their beer. It’s not a review or recommendation, It’s just the beer information. Each day, a new beer is profiled. Also, bars pay me to shoot in their locations and talk about beer – it’s a great way to get inexpensive, exclusive content for a beer bar. Events can also sponsor days – I am emceeing Get Real NY for the weekend and Ustreaming interviews live. I’ll be doing the same at the Craft Brewers Conference the week after Get Real. Basically, when you start thinking of promoting a beer, beer bar, or beer-related product or event, I Taste Your Beer gets the word out.
What can your readers expect from your site?
Information on beer presented with a level of quality, care, and attention to detail that you won’t see anywhere else in beer online.
Your site makes an effort not to review the beers, but present the beers as they are with an impartial view. As a beer fan, do you find that balance difficult to achieve?
Most of the promotions are impartial, and I want this to be the case because I want people to know they can trust the information about the beer, but sometimes I just can’t do it. I just did an Allagash White post. I’ve been drinking this beer since I was 16. I just couldn’t possibly be impartial there – I love this beer. Sometimes I taste a beer for the first time on camera and my face will light up because I like the flavor. What am I going to do? I’m pumped to be tasting beer for a living!
Since you’ve launched this project, have you been introduced to any beers you have not had the opportunity/inclination to taste before?
It’s only been a week or so but I’m a huge fan of Weihenstephan beers. I can say whatever I want in interviews, so Weihenstephan rocks. Everything I’ve had of theirs is amazing. Go buy Weihenstephan. I love it and you should too. Weihenstephan, Weihenstephan, Weihenstephan!
Are there any upcoming events that you’d like our readers to know about?
Get Real NY on March 19th and 20th! There will be over 100 cask beers tapped, and I’ll be there interviewing all the beer-erati, brewers, bar owners, and beer enthusiasts for each of the days of the festivals. I don’t even know if tickets are still available, but if they are, you’ll get to try a lot of beers you’ll never get to try again. This alone should encourage you to get yourself a ticket. It’s going to be a ton of fun!