Jay R. Brooks

Jay R. Brooks has been writing about beer over 20 years, and is the former GM of the Celebrator Beer News and was the chain beer buyer for Beverages & more. He is currently a syndicated newspaper columnist for the Bay Area News Group with his bi-weekly column, "Brooks On Beer," which appears in at least half-a-dozen papers, including the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times. He contributes to most major beer periodicals, and general circulation magazines such as Playboy and Reason. He has appeared on both television and radio talking about beer. Mr. Brooks studied brewing at U.C. Davis and has judged at the Great American Beer Festival, the Great British Beer Festival, the World Beer Cup and many other competitions, both local and international. He's the author of "California Breweries North, published September 1, 2013 by Stackpole Books and contributed to the "Oxford Companion to Beer," "1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die," "The Pocket Guide to Beer," and several others. He co-founded SF Beer Week, the North American Guild of Beer Writers (for which he's currently its co-President), and also started the Bay Area Beer Bloggers. He also writes about beer online for a variety of websites, including his own Brookston Beer Bulletin (BrookstonBeerBulletin.com).