By Kara Mae Adamo.
When I turned 29, I moved to Washington DC without knowing anybody and without having a job. I had some leads, but until they panned out (and one of them, thankfully, did), I snagged a job at a little brewery just walking distance from my apartment in Arlington called Sehkraft.
Unfortunately, while the staff comprised of wonderful people who’d grown up in the neighborhood and genuinely cared about their jobs, the owners themselves still managed to run it into the ground. Within six months of my start date, despite the efforts of the managers, brewers, and waitstaff, the place closed its doors.
What they lacked in business flair, however, they made up for in their ability to find and hire some of the most interesting local brewers around. One guy, Jack, was so talented he was immediately picked up by Ocelot brewing when the place took a turn.
I had just finished my wine book two years prior and then, a year after that, published a coloring book called Artimals. I was on a publishing and writing high and I suddenly had an insane amount of time on my hands, as my sister was frequently out of the state and I hadn’t really met anybody yet.
I’d been moderately interested in beer since I spent a brief stint living in Alaska, where they play with flavor profiles like chocolate and honey and coffee. Working at the brewery in Arlington offered me the unique opportunity to try any number of styles of beer (all hail the shift drink) and to watch, in piecemeal, the brewing process on a larger scale than the home-brewers I knew back in Florida and Alaska.
It wasn’t long until I’d started playing with an idea for a coloring book about beer. I wanted to do what I’d done with Fancy Grape Juice and break down the process and information into easily digestible portions, but I also wanted it fully illustrated and color-able.
Basically, I wanted to give drunk people something to do while they chill at a bar somewhere.
At first people were pretty skeptical about the idea: how interesting can it really be, coloring everything various shades of gold? But my plan was different. I pulled from some murals I’d seen at the brewery to create elves that could talk about the beer. I also thought back to my childhood favorite Christmas book: a beautifully illustrated book where elves walk you through Santa’s Workshop. I thought it would be neat if the Elves were creating the beer–tripping over themselves trying to carry grains and drinking at beer gardens.
I also drew out different types of glassware and the flavors you might find in various types of beer. The book has sections indicated with title pages that use a special font I crafted called HopArt, where the letters are made of hop vines. In it, you will find various quotes from famous and historical people regarding beer and even a portrait of my sister drawn up as a hop elf in one of the pages.
If you’re interested in a gift for the beer lover on your list, here is the link: Brews & Hues
Let me know what you think 🙂
Until next time: stay safe, wash your hands, and find something fun to drink.
Cheers.
Kara Adamo is a bartender, booze nerd, and booze writer. She is the author of Fancy Grape Juice: De-Snootifying the World’s Snootiest Beverage; Artimals: Coloring the Whimsical Wild; and Brews & Hues: A Coloring Book About Beer. Adamo currently lives in Washington DC. She teaches online mixology courses and is currently working on the 2nd edition of Fancy Grape Juice. Stay tuned for her Drunken Nomads podcast, set to be released in the fall of 2020.
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