The Marden-Kane Spotlight shines this month on Eric Grimm, our senior developer and resident beer expert.
Explain Your Role at MK:
I’m the senior applications developer here, which means I have a hand in most aspects of any online/tech-driven promotions we run. Essentially this entails finding the right tool for the job, be it a database- or website-driven promotion, or a handful of Python scripts to turn a monumental task into something more manageable.
Biggest Accomplishment at MK:
That would most likely be rebuilding our moderation and user-generated content (UGC) contest judging platform to handle the many qualified entry promotions we run. Or maybe building the Social Monitor, a tool for collecting sweepstakes and contest entries from social media sites, including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Both of these have opened up many opportunities for us as a company over the years.
Favorite Memory at MK:
That would probably be one of our holiday parties, from back when our offices were in Manhasset. I don’t recall where it was held, but Burt Young (Pauly from the Rocky movies) was patronizing the restaurant at the time. I don’t get star-struck, but that was still kind of neat. Or maybe it was the time in Garden City where we felt the building swaying and shaking from an earthquake down in Virginia. That was… interesting.
Something Most People Don’t Know About You:
I’m a homebrewer, and have been for very nearly 20 years. While I mostly make beers, I also occasionally make mead, cider and wine. I’ve entered many local, regional and national competitions over the years, and have won quite a few ribbons, medals and trophies. I’m also the president of Long Island’s longest-running homebrew club, Brewers East End Revival, or BEER for short. I’m a certified beer and mead judge, and have organized the largest and longest-running homebrew competition on Long Island for the past two years.
What Are Your 3 Favorite Things (Foods, books, movies, etc):
Grilling and smoking (meats, not cigarettes or the like). I love barbecue, and smoke some mean baby back ribs and succulent pulled pork. I also make some really excellent burgers. I enjoy many different types of music, from Tom Waits to Slayer to Modest Mouse to MC Chris, and so on in that fashion. I have a wife, a son, and two dogs. And while many of them are slowly bankrupting me, I love them all. Also my happy place – hanging out in my basement brewery, listening to brewing-related podcasts, and just cleaning, or reorganizing, or taking inventory, or any of the many other tasks homebrewing entails.
Your Proudest Moment:
This is a tough question, because I’m not particularly prideful or boastful in any way (and the irony of that statement is not lost on me). So instead of going on about “I’m really proud of myself for…” I’ll just say that my son, even though I give him a pretty hard time about a great many things, makes me proud. But more in a second-hand sort of way, such as when I hear about how polite and helpful he is when we (his parents) are not around to bear witness. Around us? Typical teenage boy.
Last Book You Read:
The last book I read was American Sour Beers by Michael Tonsmeire. This was my second time through that book, as I’m continuously evolving my sour beer program, and needed a refresher. I’ve also met the author a few times, at a local beer brunch and at the National Homebrewers’ Conference, and he’s a very nice, knowledgeable guy. The book I’m currently reading, though, is The Whites by Richard Price. I read quite a bit, however, so by the time this comes out I’ll certainly have finished it and gone through another book or two in the interim. And actually, that’s entirely the case, cause I finished The Whites (it was OK, that’s my short review), and now I’m reading 61 Hours by Lee Child. But I’m almost finished with that, so can someone please suggest a good book to read next? Thanks.
Want to ask Eric a question? Contact us.
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