Your Year In Beer (2018)

WOW!! That's gotta' be a 'first' for any WVA store.

 

I bought more six packs than ever, drank a lot less beer than usual in 2018, but picked up a bourbon habit. Also, I got a bunch of fresh juice bombs from NE and found 2 sours that I didn’t spit out (Founders Green Zebra and High Wire Gose)

 

My best beer experience of the year was Bourbon County Vanilla. I've had about ten so far and never imagined a beverage could be so heavenly, whether alcoholic or non-alcoholic. (As you might guess, I have a sweet tooth.)

And the crappy liquor store by my house, where no craft-beer drinker would be caught dead, still has them, along with most of the other variants! (I go there to buy my weekly Powerball tickets.)

This may be frowned upon, but I like to move the bottle from the fridge to the freezer, where I let it sit for 45 minutes. I then savor it over a two-hour period while it progressively gets more and more flavorful as it warms. I take tiny sips and hold them in my mouth for a minute or two before swallowing, swishing the beer around so every single tastebud gets to join the fun.

I cannot imagine ever enjoying a beer more than this one.

Happy New Year to all!

 

That bourbon habit sneaks up on you. I blame all those bourbon barrel brews that are our there. I am drinking one right now . . . Ommegang's Adoration.

 

-Went on a beer tour of New York City
-Trip to Phoenix and had a lot of different beers (and got to experience Spring Training for the first time).
-Took time off brewery visits in the spring and summer to focus on my baseball umpiring
-More active in my local beer group starting in the fall
-Experienced San Antonio Beer Scene
-A few more breweries here and there, and many more in Maryland

 

Towards the tail end of 2018, I'm starting to tire of NEIPA and Pastry stouts and finding myself getting more excited for more classic styles like pale ales, English and German lighter ales and lagers. Especially rare/hard to find styles add excitement.

Good year for brewery visits outside my area as well...hit up Lagunitas, Rare Barrel and Russian River on work trip to Berkeley and did a vacay down to Asheville and hit up Sierra Nevada, Funkatorium, Burial and Zillicoah. Went on vacay to Charleston SC and went to Westbrook and a few others.

 

this has been my first full year both on here and being into beer at all. i've slowly taken over this website and made some good and/or weird memories around malt bombs. gained some weight from the stout problem.
i appreciate you guys.

 

My focus this year, regarding beer, has been on my homebrewing.

I set out with two goals at the start of 2018:

1. Make the jump to all-grain brewing

2. Brew more and better beer

I achieved both of those goals. In 2019, I hope to explore new styles, challenging myself along the way, and to continue to improve my brewing overall. Id like to brew my first lager and my first sour in the coming year.

In terms of commercial beer, I purchased and consumed less this year, mainly because I had more homebrew on hand. I visited fewer breweries and made fewer beer-focused trips. One trend I noticed in my own habits as the year went on is that I'm gravitating towards familiar, reliable, reasonably priced options and passing up the newer, hyped, more expensive ones. I don't need the $20+ 4 packs. Cant beat some SNPA alongside a couple homebrews.

My favorite brewery visits were Civil Life and 2nd Shift.

My favorite (semi) local brewery continues to be Dry Ground.

Cheers and have a great 2019!

 

Reintroduced myself to IPA's of all shapes, sizes, and acronyms after years of avoiding them