Stan Hieronymus

It's been more than 30 years since my wife, Daria Labinsky, and I left our previous jobs as newspaper editors to see the country and some of the world beyond. Writing about beer was not part of the plan. Neither was writing books, but here we are.

The four most popular - "For the Love of Hops," "Brewing with Wheat," "Brew Like a Monk" and "Brewing Local" - deal primarily with the how and why of brewing. As a journalist, I'm a bit obsessive about providing details not reported elsewhere and the most up-to-date thinking about whatever topic I am writing about.

New Glarus Brewing brewmaster Dan Carey once told me I was like the television detective Columbo, saying, "You are leaving, then there is always one more question."

Not all the answers I get make their way into books, so as well as writing for a variety of magazines I comment on the importance of the "beer from a place" at www.appellationbeer.com/blog.