popsonhops publisher/owner, Michael Lawson

Michael Lawson has been interested in everything beer since he was in his early teens. It began in 1976 with a beer can collection. He would torture his father by having him buy and drink the worst beer possible just for the can. In his twenties, he was a home brewer. At least he was until his new wife put the kibosh on brewing indoors. It seems that she didn’t like that the sweet smell of freshly brewed beer permeated all the upholstered furniture and drapes.

For a short time, Lawson detoured from craft beer and ventured into the snobby world of wine. During this era, he was known to friends as “Obi-Wine Kenobi.” However, the second wave of craft beer in the mid to late 90’s successfully put him back into the world of craft beer.

Like a lot of bad ideas, popsonhops began over a few too many beers. The original idea was born at the Cloverleaf Tavern on MBA night (Master of Beer Appreciation). The plan was that three craft beer loving friends, John, Craig, and Lawson would swap beer each month. Each would write their opinion and in no time they’d have people sending them free beer.

The name was easy as they were all fathers of young children and a play on words made sense. Besides, the name was available as a URL. The name hop daddies was also considered.

While John and Craig opted out of writing, Lawson continues to enjoy writing about his experiences. Since he has a short memory, it also helps him avoid duplicating the same beer buying mistakes.

Thanks to readers like you, popsonhops.com has exceeded 2,000,000 page views in a recent 12 month period. If only Google would pay more than a couple pennies per thousand page views.