We have a new columnist for the blog. His first submission is below. Enjoy!

Drunken Traveler here.

I awoke this morning from a long nap on a westward bound airplane in the city of Portland, Oregon. The first thing I did was look at Mr. Wikipedia for Portland, OR. A tear came to my eye when the search revealed. “Portland: The center of the beer universe.”

This business trip is going to much more fun than I had initially hoped! Unfortunately, I only have a few days and I will be working most of the time.

As I dragged in my luggage and checked into my hotel, the concierge and I struck up a conversation, “Is there anything I can get for you, or get directions…” he asked ( not knowing what he stepped into).

“Yes,” I chirped, “The names and addresses of all Craft Beer Pubs and Breweries in the area.”

Within 20 seconds I had a 15 page brochure in my hand, which contained listings for hundreds of craft and micro breweries. It was tantalizing, mesmerizing. It was like I was just been handed the only remaining copy of the U.S. Constitution.

It’s only 11:00 AM, I still have to work today and all I can think about is beer! I’m not going to make it just knowing there is all this great beer around me, calling my name, beckoning like sirens, teasing the synapses of my beer-loving brain.

So, off to work I go. I’ll try, difficult as it may be, to put these treasures out of my mind for now. But, soon my lovelies, soon you will be mine!

A few notable Breweries on the list:

The oldest and best hefeweizen brewer in the United States; Widmer Brothers. http://www.widmer.com

Bridgeport, nearly every beer they put out has won awards.

A more famous local is Rogue.
http://www.rogue.com

But, I can get these nearly anywhere.

As I was setting up for my job — I do television broadcasting for sports, but that’s a another story — I struck up a conversation with one of the gentlemen from our scoring provider. Now this worldly traveler happens to be one of a bunch of German guys. As I talked about having a beer later at a local brewery, he chucked and said, “We are German, we have good German beer whenever we want!”

Quickly I responded, “But this is Portland, the Beer Capital of the World! This isn’t no cheap, tasteless, white American lager, this is real craft beer made by beer lovers!”

His eyes opened a bit wider, not much but just enough that I could tell they were interested. “We do want to try this American hefeweizen you mentioned,” he allowed.

Finally, quitting time! Now that I’ve worked a few hours, it’ll be time to crack open my concierge resource once I get back to the hotel. Let’s see what kinds of hoppy goodness I can get into tonight!