We are the bmore brew crew
Lately I have been asked the same question over and over again when I am out and about. “Who are you?”, “Why are you doing this?”, “What are you trying to accomplish?”, “What is the BMore Brew Crew?” Could the answer be as simple as, "I'm just a guy that likes a nice cold beer from a local brewery and wants to start a really cool social drinking group."? I guess. But I don't feel like that would give me or the BMore Brew Crew any sort of purpose or meaning. I suppose to really answer these questions I’ll need to dig a little deeper. One sec…let me go find my shovel.
Who am I? I’m just a guy that likes a nice cold beer from a local brewery. But I am also a father, a husband and a friend. These aforementioned things define who I really am. Am I a beer expert? Nope. Brewer? Nah. Do I spend the majority of my time drinking and hanging out in bars and breweries? Not at all. I wish I got out more, but life gets in the way. When I go out, I enjoy my conversations with friends, family and the great folks you meet at the local watering hole. The people you meet along the way and the lessons they can teach you are a real reason why I love this Maryland Craft Brew scene. I love craft beer. I have a passion for the industry. I want to visit ALL THE SPOTS. When I do have free time you can often find me enjoying a cold one at Red Brick Station, my local pub up the street that I like to call home. But you will also see me out and about at a great number of the fantastic breweries here in Maryland. I love sampling new beers and get excited to tell all my friends and family about them. And that is how this whole thing started.
I had this crazy little fun idea one day. “Hey guys, lets get a couple of beers and do some reviews down in my basement. We can put them on Youtube or something!” My friends probably thought I was nuts, but we did it, and we had fun. If you ever go back and watch Beer Review #1 with my friend Chris and I, it is so very cringe, but we had a blast. As we continued, more and more friends joined in on the fun. Neighbor James, Tim the Gardner, Andrew, Mike, Ryan and so many others. You know who you are. So for a year or so, that is what we did….beer reviews in my basement that a handful of people watched. Then I met Adam “The man with two first names” John. A home brewer with similar interests who immediately wanted to get involved with the reviews. He became a great friend and a member of our tight little group. Early in 2024 he came up with the bright idea to take the group online to see if we could locate some similar like minded folks. I wasn’t even on social media and had no clue what that would entail, but I thought it could be a great opportunity to spread awareness and do something positive. Because I was so green with social media, when I went to setup my account, I naively thought, “I guess I should make my name BMore Brew Crew???” Little did I know this wouldn’t actually start a group page and I just created a random account with BMore Brew Crew as my name. (My real name is Sean by the way) I’m such a dork, but I guess it worked. People seemed to enjoy the group and what we were doing….and away we went.
Shortly after I took the BMore Brew Crew online, someone whom I’d never met made quite a disparaging post about me on one of the most prominent local beer drinker Facebook pages. I’m sure you know the one. (Let it be known I think that group is pretty awesome by the way) This person called me a few choice names, which I thought was interesting since we’d never met, nor did we share any mutual friends. But what stood out to me in this post was the fact that they said that I was not a part of the community and I came out of nowhere. Before I continue any further, let me set the record straight. I guess you could say my drinking career began in 2001. And to be honest, in the early days I didn’t like beer all that much. As many of us know, it is an aquired taste and it took many a Corona and Miller Lite for me to start appreciating the finer brews as they started coming my way. Enter McHenry Lager which I used to enjoy sitting on the outside deck of Hooters down at the Inner Harbor watching tourists stroll by below on their way to the aquarium with my cousin Charlie. Today I openly consider myself a snobby drinker who will easily turn down anything I perceive to be below a Sam Adams. Anyway, I digress. I have been an active member of the Maryland Brewery scene since the early 2000’s, but believe it or not, I do not like to bring attention to myself. My friends and I would visit a brewery, quietly have a beer or two and leave. No fuss. No drama. Maybe we would strike up a conversation with a local patron or two, but we mostly stayed to ourselves. If staying to myself during that 20 year stretch disqualified me from being a member of the community, I guess I am guilty as charged.
Enough about me. Let’s talk about the BMore Brew Crew. The real reason you are here and reading this blog. (I guess I’m officially a blogger now?) The next question I am asked quite frequently is, “Why are you doing this?” Well to put it simply, I want people to succeed. People work hard to achieve their goals in life and try to fulfill their dreams. Let’s be honest. People take a leap of faith when they open a brewery. They know they can brew a solid beer, but will people flood through those doors when they open? Will people even know they exist? Will word of mouth spread and catch on like a wild fire? Will the brewery be sustainable? Who knows. Thus, the leap of faith. Very simply, I was tired of seeing great spots close. Good people have their dreams slip through their fingers. So I want people to succeed. If there is anything I can do to help someone accomplish what they set out to do, then why not do it? If the BMore Brew Crew can get a few new feet into a few new doors, then I have done my job, and that makes me happy. Let me be perfectly clear right now. I am not doing this to become popular or famous in any way. I am certainly not doing this to become rich….in fact, I am probably in the red at least a few thousand bucks or so. I am doing this to try to help others around the area have fun, meet new people, and for those that took the leap of faith, help get them a few new customers. Will it make a difference, who knows…but it cant hurt.
That brings us to, “What are you trying to accomplish?” Well, quite simply, I want to start one of the coolest social drinking groups of all time. Not only that, but a group that supports and grows the local craft brewing community and is a positive influence in our great state of Maryland. I want to have fun serving others. I want to raise money for charity. I want us to come together and volunteer and be role models for others. I want to show people that there are some awesome folks who frequent breweries week in and week out. I want to shed the negative stereotypes. I want to drink a few cold beers with friends. I want to help others succeed. That is what I want to accomplish. You wanna join me for the ride? Well buckle up and lets go.
Finally, people want to know, “What is the BMore Brew Crew?” To me, that is the easiest one to answer. We are a group of Maryland craft beer enthusiasts that like to have a good time at some of our favorite breweries around town. We look forward to enjoying an ice cold beer with friends around a fire pit. We cheer on the birds of Baltimore. We enjoy pub food while listening to some of our favorite local bands on the weekends. We have a fondness for craft beer. We are friends, we are family and we are co-workers. We are people that work in the beer industry and we are people that occasionally have a beer at a happy hour. We are a group that will work together to promote our friends that have taken the leap of faith. In short….WE ARE THE BMORE BREW CREW.
Myself, Andrew, Chris and Adam. Just a few of the amazing OG Brew Crew guys that got the BMore Brew Crew off the ground.
