I met fellow hop-head Brian Yaeger at a local beer tasting about a year ago at San Francisco's world-famous Jug Shop because I overheard someone in his group say something about Isla Vista. "Did you say Isla Vista?"

You know how it goes, you're not paying any attention but all of a sudden you pick up a poignant word out of the background noise and your attention follows.  There is a real psychological term that describes the phenomenon, the Cocktail Party Effect; it was first coined in 1953 by Colin Cherry.  Anyways...

So, Isla Vista is this very-little town, for which I have very-fond memories of, and we both used to live there.  We got to talking, mostly about beer, but also his book, Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey.  He tells me that he traveled cross-country going to all these great micro-breweries and wrote a book about it.

If I remember correctly, I muttered something like, "You bastard!  That's so cool." - We have since sipped a slurry of suds together and I more recently asked him for an interview.  Here's what transpired:

Me: Let's get this straight, you wrote a book about beer?

Brian: Yes, I wrote a book and that book is about beer. Mostly.