One month down, 325 beers to go...

One month into my beer quest/journey/challenge, and here are some stats and thoughts:

41 unique (as in "different," as they weren't all "unique" in the other sense) brews. They came from 9 different states in the US (California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Texas), plus 7 foreign countries (Germany, Jamaica, Scotland, Mexico, Netherlands, Australia, and England). I am 10 beers ahead of schedule with 325 beers left and 335 days left in the year (but I don't anticipate keeping up that pace for the rest of the year).

Lowest ABV 3.5 (Amstel Light), highest 11 (Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 10), with an average of approximately 6.36 (two unknowns). Mostly bottles at home; a few on draft or from the growler; only two were from cans so far.

I'm liking a lot of these beers that I've never tried before, as well as some of those old favorites that I've revisited. However, I'm increasingly aware of how bad some of the beer is that I used to drink and that so many of my friends drink. Oh well...more good beer for me!

So I know I'm crazy...

If you know me, you know I like beer. In recent years, I've made the transition from drinking beer in quantity (hello, college!) to drinking quality beer. I try to be a beer nerd rather than a beer snob, but I've been accused of both. And that's OK with me.

So this year, I've decided to do something productive with my drinking. It's not quite a New Year's Resolution, but more of a goal: I'm going to try to drink 366 beers this year.

Why? Well, to paraphrase what Sir Edmund Hillary said of Everest, "Because they're there."



So here are my self-made rules for this project. First, I can count each different beer only once. That is, I can have any given kind of beer more than once, but it only counts once toward the project. Second, It has to be more than just a taste--it has to be at least 10 ounces to count toward the total. Third, I'm not going to be obsessive about this. It is supposed to be fun...for me, that is. I'm going to keep a tally of the beers I drink, including the name, style, ABV, and origin of the beer. Oh yeah, Sambo challenged me to include in my efforts a beer from every state. So I may need help in finding beer from some of the more remote states!

Six days in, I've had 9 beers, from 5 states and one foreign country. I think I'll enjoy this journey. But who knows? I may get burned out on beer...but I'll have fun finding out!