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| Jeff interviewing Head Brewer Steve Barrett at Samuel Smith's in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire |
Jeff got his first job writing about beer when he landed the job as columnist for Portland's alt-weekly Willamette Week all the way back in 1997. He wrote "The Mash" for several years and did freelance work for other newspapers and magazines. In the 2000s, his writing shifted to politics and among other writing, he cofounded the political blog BlueOregon, which for a time was a key organ of thought and organizing for Oregon liberals. As a break from politics, he returned to beer, starting his blog Beervana in 2006.
From 1996 until 2010, Jeff worked as a researcher at Portland State University in the Graduate School of Social Work. When his federal study ended in 2010, Jeff decided to become a full-time freelancer. In 2011, he landed a contract for his first book, The Beer Bible, and has been writing since. His work has appeared in a number of outlets, and he was a regular columnist for All About Beer until its demise several years back (it has since been resurrected), and is currently a columnist for Craft Beer & Brewing. You can find his work at the links.
Jeff's books have twice been cited by the North American Guild of Beer Writers as Best Book, and in 2016 The Beer Bible
was named best wine, spirits, or beer book by the International
Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). In addition to his books,
since 2015 his peers in the NAGBW have awarded his short work fifteen
times for excellence.