We were lucky to catch up with PorterStout Beer God recently and have shared our conversation below.

PorterStout, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I came up with What a Rough Life after a long weekend. My business partner Waldo and I ate food from several different countries in Atlanta. In between those different restaurants we stopped at breweries, drinking flights of different styles of beer. When the weekend was finally over we had to sit down and rest. My family was laughing at the both of us and we let them know” eating food from all around the world and drinking top-notch craft beer from Atlanta is not easy. What a Rough Life.

PorterStout, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When the pandemic started all I did was watch Anthony Bourdain and wished that I could have a job like him. I replaced the word wish and started to network. People who like to try food from countries that they have never eaten from come to me,because I have tasted cuisine from all over the world and could guide them to something tasty. I also love to take people who think that they do not like beer and have them leaving my tour with a new outlook on craft beer. What sets me apart from other tours is the relationships that I’ve built with people in the food and beer industry. If you go Greenville South Carolina you can meet Isaac the head Brewer and Cam the owner. If you go to Queens New York City you can meet Shane and Will from Queue beer and Carmine Street beers. If you are in Atlanta you can meet and Jon and Will of Little Cottage. Those personal relationships that I have built with these top notch brands you are some of the perks of booking a tour with me.
I am most proud of the future of What a Rough Life. I enjoy being a bridge that connects people in the food and beer industry. I surround myself with good people and I love to help others so this isn’t even a job to me this is something that I do in my everyday life. Your network is your net worth.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My family would always call me and say, ” we don’t know what to eat tonight give us a place that you have been to”. I would tell them the names of the restaurants and what country it was from. They will call me back later and say ,”wow I never knew I would like food from places like Colombia or Singapore.” One time during the pandemic one of my Instagram followers was in Atlanta from Brazil. They contacted me and I took them to different restaurants in Atlanta as well as several breweries. When they were going back to Brazil each one gave me a couple hundred bucks. It was at that moment that a light went off in my head! Now the business has expanded to Greenville ,South Carolina, Long Island City Queens New York and now Louisville and Lexington Kentucky.

My favorite milestone happened this summer in New York. I look forward to partnering with Queue beer in Brooklyn, and connecting them with the great beer that we have down in Atlanta.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I feel like the most effective strategy for me is going out and meeting new people. The pandemic created a new group of hustlers and go-getters,and that is my motivation. Seeing the success of Get Rich ,my best friend Will’s clothing line. Bouncing ideas off of my business partner Waldo, instead of trying to do everything myself has been a key to success. As a result my clientele is steadily increasing each month.

Contact Info:

• Website: warlbeertour.com (Under construction)
• Instagram: What_a_rough_life
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/Rhe4CYKD7p0?si=IVlokDw_75OrU8UF

Image Credits
C. Thomas