Sharing Houston Craft Beer

Whether you're a connoisseur that's deep into ticking and trading, or you're just dipping your toe into the craft, we hope to steer you in the right direction when it comes to Houston beer. A few of us work in the beer industry, others homebrew, and some are working on their cicerone certs. That's all to say that we don't know it all, but we're thirsty to learn more about beer and hungry to share it with you.

We love Houston and we love beer. We want to share it with the world honestly and creatively, without making our readers feel like they’re something lesser. We enjoy great beer from all around the world, though.

The last thing craft beer needs is more pretentious snobs, so rather than shunning a macro-drinker, we want to educate them on something better. When you have a friend just getting into craft beer in Houston, we aim to be their first stop along their journey.

The History of Beer Chronicle

After digging around for beer review sites in the spring of 2016, Chris Adams found himself having to look up words just to understand one of the reviews - as if they were written for some biochemist. A few others were terribly out of date while others were just downright useless.

*Lightbulb* Why not make my own?

Chris is a US Army veteran, so he did what he knew best. He decided to recruit a few of his friends, draw up a plan, and fix the problem. Chris reached out to his friend that knew how to build websites that same day.

It Started over Beer and Pizza

A couple of Saint Arnold Lawnmowers, a few slices of fresh pizza, and the gears started turning. (That day actually inspired this drawing that became a sticker and shirt.)

Chris' wife had a friend. Her friend had a husband. That husband was a graphic designer, beer lover, and he loved Houston as much as Chris. Anthony Gorrity. The irony is that their wives had been friends since middle school, but Chris and Anthony were just associates through their wives' friendship. That was, until Chris and his wife had a son.

Anthony called Chris to congratulate and encourage him. "Give me a shout if y'all need anything, anything at all." That was the gesture that forged Chris and Anthony's friendship - it was that phone call that would lay the foundation for what Beer Chronicle would be. Chris and Anthony's sons are now best of friends, share clothes, and refer to one another as brothers.

W H O L E S O M E.

Families gave these two a common ground, but beer and Houston gave them a common bond. Chris challenged Anthony to design a logo, a website, and a plan to make Beer Chronicle the leading voice on Houston beer. Together, the two called on other friends to make it happen.

Time for Reinforcements

Anthony and Chris made the mission of Beer Chronicle to share Houston beer. They set out to give, give, give back to Houston and the beer comunity.

Beer Chronicle was born in the Spring of 2016, but the site didn't officially launch until  7/13/2016. How appropriate.

Beer Chronicle grew quickly, attracting a handful of friends that wanted to contribute. Tam Pham and Nick Blaschke joined the team and began writing just as quickly as they could drink a beer. Sam Nichols and Hannah Richards soon followed. All four of them have moved on to other life achievements, but Beer Chronicle wouldn't be what it is without them.

It was at about this time that Josh Olalde discovered a camera for the first time. He started throwing, spilling, and making photos of beer like nobody in Houston had ever seen before, and he joined the team soon after. Brent Topa followed shortly after, adding a wealth of knowledge, wit, and esoteric hype beers to our monthly meetings. He was followed by Chris Barnett and his keen, wise, probing sense of curiosity.

Beer Chronicle and the Industry

As Josh joined the team and began snapping and filming his way through town, Anthony began flexing his graphic design chops for a few breweries in town.

The team began collaborating on beers with breweries that invited them, opened up an online shop to help fund the blog, and began eating and drinking their way through the world and documenting it.

Josh would go on to make photos and videos for half of Houston's breweries and many others around the country until he was hired full time by No Label Brewing and then Karbach. And Anthony's graphic design work grew to a handful of brewery projects including branding, labels, merch, websites, and other design needs.

A bunch of dorks that just loved beer have subtly shaped the narrative of Houston beer along with the visuals that communicate it. Never in a million years would we have anticipated having this sort of impact.

What is Beer Chronicle?

Beer Chronicle is a veteran and minority-owned beer blog. We LOVE Houston Beer.

But love is not a feeling. Love is a verb. Love means giving back, and it means doing so with a cheerful heart. "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:3-8

Not everyone on the team is a veteran or minority, but everybody here loves beer and loves sharing it. We have the largest online collection of original content dedicated to covering Houston beer culture. With hundreds of articles, hundreds-of-thousands of impressions online, and a diverse team, people have begun referring to us as the authority on Houston beer. We're probably not smart enough to be the authority on anything, but we'll take it!

We try to drink and review beer according to style guidelines and write it all down for you.

We also make notes on craft beer jargon, beer news, random knowledge, and most importantly the breweries that give us the beer to write about! We also sell some stuff every now and again. We are not journalists, although some people refer to us as such.

We focus mainly on craft breweries, but we also write about other breweries from around the world whenever we can.

We also visit a brewery every other month or so for an in-depth write up to help them share their stories, so they can focus on brewing great beer.

Since we all have various backgrounds and preferences, one person might love a beer and the other not so much, but that's the idea.

The Beer Chronicle Team

Our team is growing, and if you think you'd be a good fit, give us a shout here.