I am really excited to this week debut the first of what will hopefully be many Hugging the Bar Q&A’s that also come to you in podcast form. This really captures how I’ve always envisioned this newsletter, which is a sort of virtual bar—a third place, where we can all come together and chat about the fun stuff and discuss the important stuff.
For all of these Q&A’s after this first one, it will work like this: Patreon patrons will get first access. For one week, the link to the podcast episode will live only on Patreon, behind a paywall. The following week in the newsletter, I’ll include a link to the episode that everyone can access right here on Substack. But don’t miss that instant gratification, baby; become a patron!
I’m thrilled that I get to roll this out with a writer I so admire, Ruvani De Silva. Don’t worry, you’ll hear—and/or read, in the transcript below—me gush over Ruvani at Ruvani plenty in our interview. I say it in the Q&A and I’ll say it here, too: I really do see Ruvani as a bright spot in the craft beer industry. She is beautifully honest in her writing, and that voice is so powerful when it comes to visibility, representation, and even simple, valuable relatability. You can find her work covering various fascinating pockets of the craft beer industry, as well as important topics like identity, places like Good Beer Hunting, Porch Drinking, VinePair, and Beer Is For Everyone, just to name a few. You can also learn more about Ruvani’s approach to writing about identity and culture in this video chat for the North American Guild of Beer Writers’ blog, Reporter’s Notebook, and get to know her on this episode of Natalya Watson’s podcast, Beer with Nat. Ruvani’s work is collected at her website (also a great resource if you’re looking to explore craft beer in Texas), like her piece on spent grain for CAMRA. Find her on Twitter and Instagram at @Amethyst_Heels.
Enjoy!
1. Hugging the Bar with Ruvani De Silva