The Story of Just Beer Blog (JBB)
Dug · July 11, 2026
The year was 2008 and craft brews from all over the country and world were having a renaissance in the Seattle area. Back then, local craft beer stores like Malt & Vine in Redmond, WA were THE place to go for large selections and browsing while you tasted. The community was fun and small and my friend Simon (Po on the blog) and I were ruminating one day about how we needed to start writing down our experiences and tasting. This was before Untappd and in the era of BeerAdvocate and RateBeer (RIP). We wanted to keep it real, so we said to hell with it and started our wordpress blog, justbeer.wordpress.com. What started as a small blog turned into over 650 posts and 485,000 page views between 2008 and 2014 when we stopped writing new content.
Those years were a labor of love and hit to the wallet. A new beer almost every night. Afternoons combing the aisles of beer stores and select grocers that provided massive selections like Haggen and PCC. I was also into photography at the time, so the blog combined great pictures, 'interesting' writing, and information for those just finding their own beer paths. In fact, one of the highest viewed articles of all time was the 'Where to Buy Beer' article, which is ironic in today's day and age where even your corner gas station could have 100 different varieties.
Yet we loved it. It was communal, adventurous, exciting, and fun, which kept the labor going. Going enough, in fact, that the crawlers started noticing us and driving traffic our way. Once that started happening, the brewery marketing teams started catching on and a new bonus was unlocked… influencer marketing (although we didn't know what that was at the time). The first time I received free beer and beer ware (Oh Happy Day #1), I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Free beer! Never had I ever. That elevated things and we started getting invites to all sorts of events, bringing our cast of characters along for the ride. Redhook tasting, Bevmo soft launches, and more. It was a golden era.
Ahhh but life. Six years was a long time and the lustre started to wear thin for some reason. I can't pinpoint it exactly, but I just stopped posting. It was a lot of work and life and family and kids were picking up (2014 = a 15 year old, 10 year old, and 8 year old) plus my wife and I were 4 years into owning a dance studio, so it just ended. Sort of abruptly. I missed it and regretted it (my apology post, 'Been a long time…') but I didn't have the space. If I would have known then, what I know now about influencers, marketing, and that combination, who knows, but woulda, coulda, shoulda, and here we are.
And so, as I embark on this new journey of online content, programs, vibe coding, blogging, etc. with The Sac Life, I hearken back to those good ol' days and what could have been. To bridge that content, I have a selection of the top 100 or so posts here on The Sac Life for my nostalgia and perhaps some others' reading pleasure. Onward!!