Hi, I’m Kris

Beer and maps- and endless exploration.

TravelSips is about traveling solo around the world searching for beverages and their stories.  I’ve had some fun experiences- like judging a beer competition in Italy, working the bottling line at a brewery in Switzerland, collaborating on a beer for a cartography conference in Copenhagen, meeting up with a Japanese brewer at a beer bar in Tokyo over fried hop flowers, stumbling into and joining the Beijing Homebrew Society. That was all before I started to write about my adventures. It was winning an essay competition where I proposed bringing French culture to the US through beer that prompted this site- and is the first series post here.

Below I am officially joining the John Snow Society at the John Snow Pub in London, summer 2021. Long story; happy ending.

My home base is Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. My father’s Bloody Mary was so loved that I sent the recipe with the thank you notes after his funeral. My grandfather always drank a martini on the first tee- out of a proper glass. My mother is game to try anything I hand her, but prefers Coors and espresso martinis. Sigh.

The Cambridge Center for Adult Education allows me to teach a variety of beer courses- my favorites are Cartography of Beer and Beer & Art History. I’m working on a Beer & History series, which will include a new class about British Drink Maps- sign up for the next one on March 26, 2023! Or come hear about my latest Drink Map research at the University of British Columbia on March 16 (Vancouver, Canada) or at the International Conference on Food and Drink Studies May 31-June 2 in Tours, France.

In 2018 I gave a talk and curated an exhibit at the Harvard Map Collection called Hang a Left at Prohibition Park: The Intersection of Beer and Cartography; in July 2019 I presented my temperance map research at the International Conference on the History of Cartography in Amsterdam, and in February 2020 I gave a talk about English Drink Maps at the Boston Public Library. The Drink Map Book: British Temperance Maps of the 1800s is due out in spring 2024 by Bodleian Library Publishing. 

My personal Instagram is @KrisButler6; the Twitter associated with this site is @TravelSips; Twitter associated with the now defunct (but social media lives on) Boston Map Society is @BosMapSociety; Instagram associated with the Boston Map Society is @boston_map_society. The Drink Map Book has an Instagram and Twitter identity too, but will not be active until I have pre-order information. (both @DrinkMapBook)