Fully Updated And Moving Forward

I know I posted last week that I had fully back posted and brought everything up to scratch with my beer blog for 2011. Unfortunately that was not entire true, as I had a few reviews on my netbook that was not in possession at the time. Additionally, I had a few beers to double check the names of, etcetera, etcetera. Anyway, those are all now fully completed and the final tally of 2011 is 74-76 beers (74 are listed either in reviews or here).

That said, the main reason I wanted to write this post is to mention some exciting new things going forward. First of all, this blog will be changing it's focus specifically from beer reviews to beer-related things in general. I started this blog a little over a year ago to teach myself how to think about beer and I've had a blast, but that has also become a bit dry (no pun intended) for me. In the last few days of 2011, I wrote one post about buying/drinking beer and I had a blast writing that, and so I think that is a direction I will be trying to explore more in the coming months.

Additionally, I am well aware of how boring straight text is and I was planning on having photographs to accompany my beer reviews for the past few months. The worst part is that I even took that photographs, just due to technical difficulties (okay, I'll come clean, laziness) I never posted them. Then, when I finally got together enough gumption to do it, my pro flickr account (where I host my photos) was suspended because I forgot to pay my bill. Anyway, henceforth, there will be photos to accompany all my posts, which will hopefully add some spice to my otherwise, kind of staid blog.

Finally, I will be trying to get my site more out there on the intarwebs. As such, I will now be posting new entries to my tumblr and maybe rolling out some other stuff soon too. I won't be, however, doing "Adsense" or any monetization at the moment, so don't worry about that.

p.s.

thanks for reading,
Danley

How did I do?

Well, It is January 1st again, one year on since I started this blog. My big resolution for this year was to blog more and I majorly whimped out on the entire thing. I was going to start and maintain an art blog, resume my food blog, and review a beer every week for this entire year on this blog.

Unfortunately none of this really materialised. The art blog stagnated, the food blog hasn't been touched since Dec. 2009, and while I did review some beers this year, I did them all long hand and so they were mostly back-posted and so this blog, for all intensive purposes, also kind sucked.

That said, before I get any more self-depreciating, let's see how I matched up with my goals:

Over the course of 2011: 25 beer reviews were posted (but some still need to be transcribed)

in addition: I drank at least 37 other beers

total: I drank 62 different varieties of beer (give or take 5, I think)

So yeah, I didn't make it, but I think as someone who has never tried one of these do "X" number of things in one year things, I did pretty decently. I got about halfway to my goal, something that, given my blogging track record is not something to scoff at.

But what does this mean for next year, you say?

Well, I guess I am just going to have to try harder. A beer a week is pretty ambitious I think, so maybe one every other week, (for a total of 26 over the year) is more realistic, so that is what I will aim for in 2012. Especially given the fact that I will probably be moving in the next few months 2012 will be a big year for me, but if there is one thing I've learned from this past year is that if shit gets rough, you can always crack a beer and relax.

Anyway, looks like I get another 365 more days ahead of and 26 reviews to crank out. Here's looking at you, 2012, or as the Dutch say:

"Proost"

Beers of the Year 2011

Over the course of 2011, my first year of being able to drink legally in the United States, I took it upon myself to take full advantage of my new (re)found freedoms and decided to drink a lot of beer. Below is a list of the beers that I drank but did not review over the past year. It should be noted that it is not an exhaustive list, but pretty damn close (give or take five beers I think).

Anyway this is mostly for my own OCD-ness in recording things, but enjoy

USA

(generic)

Miller: High Life

Pabst: Blue Ribbon

(California)

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

(Illinois)
Goose Island: Pepe Nero*

(Michigan)
Bell's: Third Coast Old Ale
Bell's: Oberon Ale

(Massachusetts)

Sam Adams: Harvest Pumpkin Ale

Sam Adams: Bonfire Rauchbier

Sam Adams: Octoberfest

Sam Adams: Cherry Wheat

Sam Adams: Irish Red

(New York)

Brooklyn Brewery: Local 1

Brooklyn Brewery: Brooklyn Summer Ale

Brooklyn Brewery: Brooklyn Pilsner

Brooklyn Brewery: Brooklyn Pennant Ale
Brooklyn Brewery: Brooklyn Lager

(Ohio)

Great Lakes Brewery: Dortmunder Gold

Great Lakes Brewery: Christmas Ale

Great Lakes Brewery: Eliot Ness

(Texas)
Ranger Creek: Oatmeal Pale

Saint Arnold: Brown Ale

Saint Arnold: Centenni-Ale (Blonde)
Southern Star: Buried Hatchet Strong Stout
512: Pecan Porter

(Washington)

Fish Brewing: Leavenworth Black Lager

Rogue: Morimoto Soba Ale

Rogue: Dead Guy Ale

CANADA

Big Rock Brewery: Traditional Ale

Big Rock Brewery: Rock Creek Dry Cider

Labatt Blue

Okanagen Spring Brewery: 1516

Okanagen Spring Brewery: Black Lager

Phillips Beer: Longboat Chocolate Porter

CZECH REPUBLIC

Pilsner Urqiel

GERMANY

Spaten: Premium Lager

IRELAND

Killian's Irish Red

Guinness: Draft (in UK)
Guinness: Draught

Guinness: Foreign Extra

UNITED KINGDOM

Newcastle: Brown Ale

Wells Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Samuel Smith: Oatmeal Stout

Samuel Smith: Imperial Porter

JAPAN

Sapporo Brewery: Sapporo Premium

...and beers I tried, but couldn't bring myself to finish

Dos Equis

Budweiser

Natural (Natty) Ice

Some non-alcoholic beer that I can't remember but I couldn't get past one sip

*This beer was phenomenal and I can't say enough about it. Unfortunately I lost the review that I wrote and it is really difficult beer to get a hold of so, check it out here, and then go out and buy it!

Formatting Change

After these first few months, in which I have been drinking a lot but not reviewing enough, I have decided to change my strategy. Based on the fact that the style of reviews I was doing before required a lot of research and writing (two things that I scamper from when I get busy) I will be changing to a more information-bulletin-point-style format.

This, I hope will mean that I am able to review more beers than I have thus far.

Here it goes again!

Birth of a Blog

So this is it. I'm starting a beer blog.

Basically the reason is that I have spent so much time trying to defend the right of the beer connoisseur to be as snobby as a wine drinker, in theory, but I feel the next logical step is for me to then actually do it.

So here it begins. With some experience "drinking" wine as an "enthusiast" (thank you, living in Europe) but none at all drinking beer than way, I will attempt to review one beer a week (that is 52 beers total) over the next 365 days and post their reviews here.

Well, wish me luck, and here goes nothing...