My Art is Beer.

I write about beer not for the glory, as it were, nor the accolades. I write not for free beer or swag, although I have indeed received both and hope to receive more in the future because free beer is always a lovely thing. No, my friends, I write about beer for my very survival and that is what we are here for today.
  This whole thing started long before social media became full of people touting this beer and that, staging great shots or trying to be the voice of beer. I signed up as Robby Bacon Strips (my favourite food), a simple Instagram account that morphed into talking about beer, fate then gave me the Drunk Polkaroo and now it has become so much more than I could have imagined. Unlike most of the beer focused accounts you see today, I began as a fat guy sharing his very not interesting life with some of his work and outside pals, watched it grow as the beer pictures took over more and more of what I was doing and finishing today with a blog, videos, Facebook and Twitter where my words go out to thousands of people I've never met. But it was not, nor is it my intention to be anything but who I am and that guy is hanging on by the very words he writes every day.
  My beer reviews seem much like anyone else's, maybe a little wordier or the fact that I still give a score to every beer makes them slightly different. My pics still fun, but there are people out there killing it in the staging department. I see events and brewery meet ups that I don't go to and smile at my friends having a good time even though I cannot or am unable to join them. I am not a good organiser, my work schedule leaves me just enough time and energy to split between my beer and my small family. So I will not be the man who creates a tour or an event but I may join you on yours if I can get my anxiety to shut up or my depression to let me out of the house.
  It is through my beer that I can communicate with the world. It is in the reviews, the videos, the Tweets and Facebook posts that I live my life while struggling to come face to face with the loneliness that depression has given me. Leaving the house for anything but work can be difficult at times, so my lifeline to sanity is through craft beer and the wonderful people I encounter. There have been a few negative and destructive people along the way, but I simply block them, deleting their very existence from my world and I move on. I have little time for angry people or those who attack others, they have no place in our community. Dialogue and proper discussion, even heated disagreements can and do happen, but respect is always our watchword. Being critical of a beer can be done without being an asshole and the same is true of each other.
  I am never sure of what I will write every day when I sit down at the computer or with a beer. It is the people I know and the liquid I encounter that inspires me to do what I do and I want to thank everyone I've met along the way for their encouragement, kind words and friendship, virtual or in real life. Someday I will find a way to repay all of your kindness but for now I will keep my words flowing and fight the good fight with you against crappy beer. It is an honour every time someone tells me they loved what I wrote or takes the time to look at anything I've created. I am only a regular guy but having a way to express myself, even if no one is watching gives me hope that I am doing something right.


Cheers!


Polk