Beer Coaster Mike (East Coast)

A guy from the East coast that has grown to love craft beer. I believe my first introduction to craft beer was Harpoon's IPA. I took one sip and said, "What the hell is this?" Bold and bitter, (the beer, not me) This was completely different from anything I've had in the past and made me realize that "micro breweries" (which is what we called any independent breweries back then) had a lot more flavor and a larger variety of beer styles to offer than the "flavorless corn/rice water" from the big three breweries out there. I've spent the past 7 years or more in San Diego, California where I met Chris and Toby. We have since moved to different States across the country and thought, "It would be cool to sit down once a week a have a beer or two together don't you think?" That was the beginning of the BeerCoastersPodcast.

Beer Coaster Chris (Everywhere in between)

A guy with a beard

Beer Coaster Toby (West Coast)

    I never really drank beer for anything more than to get drunk – until  I back-packed through Europe in the summer of 1998.  I discovered the wonderful beers Great Britain had to offer along with Germany and Austria to name a few.  The one beer that stood out from that trip was Guinness.  Not only the flavor of the beer, but the entire experience that came with it.  Returning home to Southern California, it still took me a few years to really appreciate and get hooked on the craft beer scene.  And what better place to do it than San Diego, right?.  My love for craft beer really came home when my wife and I purchased a kegerator for our tiny 1 bedroom apartment.  Looking for kegerator advice, I found Beer Advocate, one of, if not the best website for information on beer.  Also, meeting Mike and hanging out with him and Chris at such bars as O’Brien’s in San Diego and attending the Stone Annual Beer Festvals, pushed me further in the craft beer direction.  I am now obsessed with craft beer and it has easily become one of my passions, along with film and music.  I do not consider myself a beer snob, but more of a beer geek.  I do not judge people based on the beers that they choose to partake in, instead I sometimes try to convince “fizzy yellow beer” drinkers to try something different.  Hey, if you like it and truly think it’s a good beer, then it must be good.  But why not drink something that’s been hand crafted with quality ingredients?