Pat is a National BJCP Judge with mead certification. Pat grew up in Midland Michigan. He has been drinking beer for half a century and from the start he pursued small local and regional brands and anything he hadn't seen before. He brewed his first home brew in the mid 60's - a complete flop and then dabbled a little during the 70s. A three month trip to England (2 weeks) and Amsterdam (2 1/2 months) in the early 70s was an eyeopener to the world of beer. He followed that up with 4 years in Toronto during grad school in the 70s when the major Canadian brewers there produced a much broader range of brands and he drank every one of them. At the end of the decade, a trip to Portland introduced him to the first vestiges of craft beer.
 
Settling into Minneapolis in 1979 the lack of beer diversity rekindled his interest in Homebrewing and he brewed around 300 batches between 1980 and 1990. By 1990 craft beer had spread enough where he could feed his craft beer habit without spending the entire weekend in his basement. During the 90s frequent road tips through Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan were at times required to ensure sufficient diversity in beer but by the dawn of the new century it required far less travel to find good craft beer.
 
Pat publishes a monthly newsletter Romancing the Foam about the enjoyment of good beer and has just launched a website at www.romancingthefoam.com. If you do not see him biking around Minneapolis to the various craft breweries and excellent craft beer bars, he is either in his garden sampling craft beer or siting on his computer adding to his website. It is a great time to love beer.