PORTLAND, Maine — John Holl came to Portland this past weekend to attend what can fairly be called a niche event—the 2023 Craft Malt Conference presented by the Craft Maltsters Guild.
This is the type of gathering that Holl, the editor of “All About Beer” magazine and host of the “Drink Beer, Think Beer” podcast, routinely attends. Before you start salivating at the idea of being a professional beer journalist, keep in mind that these conferences feature sessions that might not live up to your hard-partying expectations.
No one was swinging from the chandeliers at the presentation on “Reevaluating Distillers’ Malt Specifications for the Optimization of Yield and Distillate Quality.”
For a beer journalist, the biggest challenge these days is simply trying to keep up with about 9,500 breweries in the U.S. When Holl started on the beat, the number was 1,200. “There’s just not enough hours in the day,” he says with a sigh.
Although writing about beer is often a delightful job, it is still a job. Since Holl has traveled far and wide for work (a few years ago he was “enthroned” by a venerable brewing group in Belgium, an accolade not unlike an honorary knighthood) and tasted thousands and thousands of different brews, I had a straightforward question for him: What makes you happy when drinking a beer?
“Who I’m with,” he says. Although the hoppiness of a new IPA or the richness of a well-made stout are qualities to be savored, what beer is really about for him is the pleasure of the company.
“I love that people get together, the sound of glasses clinking or laughter,” he says. “That for me is just a lot of fun. That’s what it should be about.”