Maria and Brian, creators of TheRoamingPint, have been crisscrossing across the US in Stanley, their RV, and visiting breweries along the way and having awesome beer tasting sessions since August 2010. You can get a fairly good idea of their extensive travels here. About a year down their travels they realized that they were having so much fun and were accruing a lot of valuable information, like insider tips from the brewers, recommendation from locals etc., that had to be shared with the world at large and other beer lovers. Thus TheRoamingPint was born in August 2011. Here they document their journey and share their travel experiences with their readers.

They write about the brewery and its various beers and talk to the owners of the brewery or the brewers themselves. Occasionally they conduct video interviews with the owner/staff/other beer lovers at the location. All this adds up to theroamingpint being a veritable treasure trove of information on breweries with  the personal touch provided by Brian and Maria.



Theroamingpint also sports a online store where they sell a range of products like hand crafted up-cycled beer notebooks, attractive t-shirts whose artwork is drawn from the beer industry to affiliate marketing for other established sellers. This helps them to supplement the source of income for undertaking their journeys.

Their other source of income is what they earn as freelancer designers specializing in websites, graphic design, user experience and design strategy. If you are a serious beer lover then I would definitely recommend that you seriously peruse their replies to know more about beer and the brewing industry. Read the interview below:

Brian and Maria, please introduce yourself to our readers.

For the past year and a half, Brian and I have been traveling around the US in our 29' Class C Ford Jayco motorhome. We were at a point in our lives where we weren't interested in buying a home, having kids and continuing to climb the corporate ladder like we were "supposed" to be doing, so instead, we decided to sell most of our stuff, buy the RV (which only cost us $10,000) and discover new areas of the United States we had yet to explore.













































What was the inspiration behind starting The Roaming Pint (TRP)? Do you have a story to share with us?

When we set out on our trip we didn't plan on going to every brewery we crossed, but it just so happened our first state out of Kansas was Colorado. We spent so much time getting ready for the road, trying to prepare the RV, selling our stuff and learning how to live in a smaller space, that we didn't spend any time researching what we would actually do and seek out once we were on the road. Before we left for our trip we were living in Lawrence, KS and one of our favorite spots in town, Free State Brewing Co. was at least a weekly occasion for us. Once we got to Colorado we thought, maybe there is a brewery we could go to, which is a silly thought, because of course there was a brewery in Colorado, actually well over 100 that we could visit!

After the first week and a half of our trip we left Colorado having visited nearly 20 breweries and it only seemed appropriate to keep it going and visit a brewery in the next state, Wyoming, and the next one and the next one.

In our very first brewery trip we discovered that it was a great place to talk with locals and learn about what was good in the area all while sampling some of the best beers in the world. Breweries became our visitor center and we've discovered some really incredible places that we would have never known existed otherwise. We find that we typically have a lot in common with local people we meet at the breweries, whether it's the brewers, bartenders or others sitting around the bar with us.

After about 6 months of traveling and visiting breweries we decided we were getting so many incredible travel tips, that they were just too good not to share with others so The Roaming Pint was born.

 Our initial goal for the site is to map all the destinations we've been to, connect with other beer travelers and continue to spread the good word of craft beer. Our long-term goals include helping people new to the idea of craft beer explore new tastes, promote small, local businesses, and create a small revenue stream through the site to help pay for our beer travels.



How do you decide on which beer destinations to visit? Do you base your decisions a lot on word-of-mouth recommendations from other people?

We definitely look for other people to give us suggestions. We've found that the more we talk to locals and are ready to go wherever they suggest the more enjoyable our trip has been. To find breweries online we use a combination of resources such as Google, BreweryMap.com and their BreweryMap iPhone App. We also like to pick up the regional Brewing News newspaper. You can typically find it at breweries or you can go online and download their PDF maps.


Please enlighten our readers by telling us something about a beer tasting session. Also please tell us about the types of beer and on what parameters you gauge a beer?

Well this is a great question. There is a lot to the topic so to keep it brief I will say that the most important thing people need to realize is there are a lot of different types of beer. If you think you don't like beer, I'd suggest you try a few different samples to discover other styles that have different flavors. The light, domestic beer that dominates the US beer market is only one style of beer which tends to be light in color and flavor. The four ingredients in beer are water, hops, barley and yeast and all effect the flavor and outcome of the beer in different ways. Barley provides a malty flavor and depending on how they roast the grain it can effect the color and taste of your beer, light for a pale ale or pilsner versus a dark roast for something like a porter or a stout. Hops are typically associated with the bitter flavor in your beer, but depending on the hop variety chosen it can range anywhere from a very citrus, floral, sweet flavor to more piney and fresh, green flavor. You can tell how hoppy a beer is by the IBU, which is the International Bittering Unit. The higher the number the more bitter the beer. Typically anything from the 60-80 range is going to be pretty hoppy, some say you can't distinguish more of a bitter flavor above 80 IBUs, some beers might be up around 100 IBUs for example.


























According to you what is the one must-go-to beer destination you feel that a beer lover must go to.? Also, which is your favorite beer?

The one must-go-to beer destination a beer lover should go to is the one they love the most!! The great thing about craft beer today is all the variety and experimentation going on right now. With close to 2000 breweries there is no way to say there is a single best one you must go to. And the great thing is, no matter which one you go to you are supporting small, local businesses. One of the coolest parts about going to so many breweries all over the country is seeing the variety of setups and exploring the city around the brewery. We had an amazing time in Hood River, Oregon and Pacific City, OR has a beautiful brewery location, Stone is a phenomenal establishment, all the Pizza Ports served some of my favorite beers from the trip, Austin has a very interesting emerging craft beer scene and all of Colorado is a must see. We haven't even started exploring the East Coast yet, but are set to change that as we are in FL now heading north for the summer.

Picking a favorite beer is like picking one brewery, there are just too many great ones. I typically stick towards the maltier beers like ambers, red ales, scotch ales, porters and stouts. Brian likes to try more hoppier beers, pale ales and IPAs, but the great thing is we can try both!



































What is the sales model on TRP? Apart from selling products directly on your websites do you also work as an affiliate for people already selling on the web?

We take a four pronged approach to creating revenue streams from our site:

Products, services, affiliate links and advertising.

We sell products like our UpCycled Craft Beer Box Notebooks and Craft Beer Inspired T-shirts, setup affiliate accounts with sites like Commission Junction and Amazon for our Craft Beer Bookstore. We sell advertising space on the site directly to breweries and provide social sponsorships such as a Tweet mentioning: "Mile marker 24 of our trip through Maine is brought to you by Free State Brewing Co." or a picture of Brian filling up our gas tank posted to our Facebook page: "Special thanks to Bratt Brewing Co. for supporting the Let's Buy @TheRoamingPint Next Round of Gas Campaign. You guys rock!" We also help promote special events, feature interviews with brewers and occasionally have giveaways on our site.

































What activities do you enjoy apart from going to beer destinations and beer tasting?

We travel with Meet Our Dogs our two dogs, Ernie and Buddha, so when we aren't working/drinking we are walking them around or feeding them. Buddha eats a lot. I like to cook and we both love watching our Alma-mater Kansas Jayhawks play college basketball. We don't fully support our lifestyle from The Roaming Pint site, we also work as freelance designers specializing in websites, graphic design, user experience and design strategy which fills up the rest of our time.


What are your future plans for TRP?

This year we are focused on covering the East Coast craft beer scene for the first time. We will continue to add to our beer destinations and plan to add local guides for the places we have visited. The best part about our job is all the incredible people we get to meet along the way, you never know which way the road will take you when you allow plans to come from more than just yourself.


What advice would you like to give to travelers to make their travels more fruitful?

I would strongly encourage seeking out a local brewery along your travels. You can walk in, ask to sample a few beers before getting a whole pint, or get a sampler tray, maybe even take a tour of the brewery. Many breweries offer smaller samples of all their beers, usually around a 4oz pour for a great price. That way you can take time to enjoy each beer, discover new flavors, learn what you like and what you don't like and talk to other locals at the bar. Ask them what's good in the area or just trade stories of good times with good friends. Either way, you will have had a good night out, enjoying beer and meeting new people.