For today’s episode of the Let’s Meet For a Beer Podcast, I met up with Scott Messenger to discuss his new book “Tapping The West – How Alberta’s Craft Beer Industry Bubbled Out Of An Economy Gone Flat”.
Scott’s journey as a beer writer* started in 2016 with his blog entitled “One Year of Alberta Beer”. His goal was to drink a unique Alberta-based beer everyday for a beer! Spoiler alert – he didn’t achieve his goal – which is probably a good thing for both his liver and his family life. After the attempt, he realized that there was a really cool story to tell about the beer community and decided to write his book.
Scott does a great job explaining the beer industry and how we arrived at this point in our history. What makes the book really interesting though is the conversations with people who have helped to build the industry, allowing the reader inside access to the human side of our community.
I asked him about his plans for the future and he said he might have another book about beer in him! That’s assuming that his wife and kids let him write it. The “research” involved in writing beer-related books makes it hard to hold down a full-time job and maintain a happy family life.
Tapping The West is a great book and I was grateful that Scott took the time to meet up and discuss it on the podcast – I hope you enjoy the conversation.
*Scott doesn’t consider himself a beer writer – but I would say the fact that he literally wrote a book on beer qualifies him as one!
Alberta Beer Festivals: website | twitter | instagram
Scott Messenger: website | twitter | instagram | buy the book
