Behind The Travelling Pint
Tiffany Martin shares her beer journey.
Maichina Veri, December 12, 2022 // Brantford, Ontario
Tiff Martin in conversation with BTOWN. Photo credit Geoff Fitzgerald.
In a comfortable corner at the rustic yet modern Flux Brewing Company in Scotland sits Tiffany Martin – or Tiff, as her friends call her. After warm introductions while greeting staff, including award-winning brewmaster Kelsey Desnoyers, Tiff, who loves a platform to talk, speaks to BTOWN about her many projects and, you guessed it, beer.
Tiff is a woman who wears many hats. A few of her undertakings include being the “brewery wrangler” for I ♥ Beer festivals, working on the creative side of All Day Breakfast, hosting Brantford’s Best Game Show and running the blog The Travelling Pint.
Since 2015, Tiff has been the voice behind The Travelling Pint. Born from the loves of travelling to new places and drinking craft beers, the blog began in a fun and unpretentious fashion when Tiff started posting YouTube videos of her opinions on different beers while exploring a self-made beer Advent calendar. She explained the process as such, “I would literally just open the beer – I knew nothing about it – and I would do these short little videos of being like, ‘Oh, this tastes like…’ but I didn’t know anything!”
Tiff enjoying the Flux Brewing Company scenery. Photo credit Geoff Fitzgerald.
Tiff laughs at how “green” she was when she began her blog. Now, she has beer education under her belt and can speak to the nuances of the beverage, but that shouldn’t stop someone from talking about or enjoying beer. “If you like the beer, drink the beer,” she says. Further to that, it didn’t matter to Tiff what anyone thought of her first videos because she was just sharing her experiences and trying to make a welcoming space.
When Tiff initiated her endeavour in blogging, things were different then than they are now. There were fewer beer-based blogs and apps where people tracked their beer journey. Over the years, breweries have changed, too, by increasing the caliber of their menus and offering activities, in effect becoming tourist destinations. As breweries developed, The Travelling Pint took on tourism and was able to highlight the amazing things they began to offer aside from beer, in addition to the things surrounding their space.
Pouring a drink at Flux Brewing Company. Photo credit Geoff Fitzgerald.
Given the nature of her work, Tiff has found herself in many breweries. So, what makes one stand out to her? The place needs to have a welcoming atmosphere with a unique ambience, with regulars and caring owners who are not only present, but also give back to the community. And, of course, beer. The best breweries have cornered a niche market in beer styles, and that beer has to be good. “Beer is the heart of it – good beer,” Tiff emphasizes.
With her passion for beer, Tiff has worked on collaborations with breweries and says that “brew day smell is the best thing in the world.” Despite this, she has never considered becoming a brewer herself. Even though she’s not brewing, she’s still a pro in the beer world, and is able to speak to trends she’s seeing – and says things are “levelling out.” Tiff is not the biggest fan of kettle sours, “triple hazy, chew-down-your-beer-as-hops-burn-your-face” IPAs and says that “seltzers are dead to me.” She thinks it’s “fantastic” that pilsners and lagers are making a comeback because “they’re so clean, I think they’re very hard to make a good one of and they are suitable for any season, any time, any day.”
Tiff enjoying her time at Flux. Photo credit Geoff Fitzgerald.
The future for The Travelling Pint is wide open. Tiff would like to work on more beer collaborations, expand her travels to Europe and would “love” to collaborate on diabetes awareness. As a person living with Type 1 diabetes, Tiff would like to share more of this part of her story with people (perhaps in a future article). “I’m always open for someone to say, ‘Let’s do a collab!’” she says.
Though Tiff’s initial answer to the must-ask question, “Why beer?” is an automatic, “It’s delicious,” beer is so much more than a drink to her. Tiff comes from a family of beer drinkers and “truly fell in love” with the history, the beer-making process, food pairings and the whole community surrounding beer. In conclusion she says, “I just like beer.”
To learn more about Tiff’s beer journey, or to collaborate with her, visit her blog HERE.
For more information on her other projects, click the links below.
Brantford’s Best Game Show | All Day Breakfast | I ♥ Beer
To learn more about our host Flux Brewing Company click HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maichina Veri is a writer based in Brantford, Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Montreal’s Concordia University and has a background in Journalism – Print from Niagara College.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Geoff Fitzgerald is an award winning freelance photographer, second season beekeeper, passionate pet dad to an Olde English Bulldogge, two cats and two rats. With an incredible drive and desire for compelling stories and intimate portraits he focuses his skills mainly on the editorial and advertising/commercial world of photography.
