Beer Blogs I Like

While I try to make a point of checking out the fantastic beer blog aggregator RSBS (Really Simple Beer Syndication) on a daily basis, I sometimes find it hard to keep up with the new posts from the 100+ blogs that are featured there. So there are several beer & drink blogs that I keep track of more directly via my RSS reader, and I wanted to give a shout-out to a few of them:

A Good Beer Blog
Written (mostly) by Alan McLeod who lives at the other end of Lake Ontario from me, AGBB was the first beer blog I discovered a couple of years ago, and I've been a loyal reader ever since. Part of my loyalty lies in the fact that he's also in Ontario, which means that I can relate to his occasional complaints about the LCBO. He often makes me jealous with his frequent trips south of the border to buy lots of the good stuff, and I'm also jealous of all the beer books he gets sent to review, although given the number of promo CDs I got during my years as a DJ and music writer, I can't complain too much. Anyway, I hope it won't make Alan's head get too big when I say that AGBB was one of the main inspirations for me to start this blog. So depending on how you feel about BB&B, you've got Alan to thank or blame.

Lyke 2 Drink
While it's not exclusively devoted to beer, this blog from long-time drinks journalist Rick Lyke is a well-distilled (pardon the pun) digest of news from the worlds of beer, wine and spirits. Unlike similar blogs that just cut & paste press releases and articles from other sources, Rick often adds his own observations to the news content, and has also featured reports from beer festivals and other events. And since he was a published writer well before he was a blogger, his posts are well written and judiciously edited. If you have any interest at all in the behind-the-scenes comings and goings in the beer industry, you really should be reading Lyke 2 Drink.

On The House
As with Lyke 2 Drink, this is not a beer-only blog, and it's also unique in being a group blog that features around a dozen beverage industry "insiders" posting about various topics related to beer, wine, spirits, cocktails, and the hospitality industry in general. My main reason for reason for reading it is to check out the posts from Stephen Beaumont, who writes mainly about beer as you might expect, but there are some other great writers there as well. It's also worth mentioning that in addition to his posts to On The House and the monthly updates at his World Of Beer website, Beaumont also writes a solo beer blog for the "entertaining + drink ideas" website That's The Spirit, although since it lacks an RSS feed, I don't check it as often as I should.

Brookston Beer Bulletin
When I see that there's a new post up at the Brookston Beer Bulletin, I usually wait to read it until I have a half-hour or so to spare, as writer Jay Brooks generally has a lot to say about the topics he tackles. He also writes with such style and passion that I don't mind setting aside a bit of time to digest his words. His longest and most entertaining rants are usually directed towards sloppy and uninformed beer articles from the mainstream press, as well as restrictive beer & alcohol regulations and the "Neo-Prohibitionists" who are usually behind them. If every beer lover had even half the passion that Jay does, we could take over the frickin' world, or at least make it easier to get a decent beer in every corner of it.

If you have any favourite beer blogs you'd like to share, or a blog of your own to hype, please leave a comment!