What's Your "Beer Calendar"?

I like what you did here. I'm not sure I could pick a month by month beer. I may still be to new to this craft brew stuff.

 

Nice list. My calender would just include a bunch of stouts or dark ales because that's what I like to drink... though I would throw in Pumking and Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin for October. I haven't had a chance to try Warlock yet, but it's on my to do list!

 

Try new beers - all year long.

 

Nice post. I too, am very much a seasonal drinker. My 'beer seasons' are affected not just by the Weather but by the Holidays, Baseball season and my pool being open. The underlying theme though, is that I drink dark, malty beers when it is cold, light, pale, slightly hoppy beers during the heat of Summer and in between I drink English Bitters.

 

This is mine too, but I have always looked forward to Spring Nugget Nectar (I know it is earlier nowadays)

 

I don't know if I could do a calendar, but my major seasonal purchases are-
Bigfoot
Nugget Nectar
Sunshine Pils
Southern Tier Harvest
the best pale Marzen I can find (this year was Weihenstephaner)
Founders Harvest Ale
Celebration
Southern Tier 2XMAS

(and, sadly, RIP Victory Moonglow- it was fun while it lasted.)

 

You mean in bottles right? Had some on tap last week.

 

I'm one of the weird ones where the weather outside has no effect on what beer I want to drink.

Also the mood I'm in has no effect on what music I want to listen to. The majority of people seem to have very situational aesthetics, but whether it's beer or anything else I want the same range of things no matter what.

But in the winter I definitely load up on imperial stouts, particularly clown shoes and founders, spring and summer I load up on belgian yeasts and wheats, and fall I load up on pumpkins just because that happens to be the thing I like that's easiest to find at that time of year.

 

I don't have a set calendar, per se, but what I do like to do is make sure I have plenty of fridge room for my favorite seasonals when they come out. Celebration, Sucks, NN have been in the recent rotation. Right now I have about a case of Sucks left, in addition to maybe another case of other [1/2 of them aging] beers, and my goal is to finish the Sucks before the NN comes out in Feb. Shouldn't be difficult, but when you like to diversify your drinking, it gets interesting. Also read HopSlam will be available in NY but I only plan to buy a 4 or 6 pack for the time being. Bigfoot gets bought and held. I know there are more seasonals I enjoy but it's not the season for them so - out of sight and out of mind.

 

Yeah- my understanding is that we wouldn't be seeing it in bottles anymore. Did you get it on draught in NY? I also didn't think that it was getting distributed very much outside of the Philly area lately.

 

FWIW, Hopslam will be on shelves this week...at least in Ohio.

 

It's on in NYC in at least two places right now. I noticed it at an additional place not too long ago. The draught only Victory beers (fortunately) appear a lot in NYC.

 

I'll keep an eye out for them. Thanks.

 

Nice thread. Being a stout lover (and the reason I became a craft beer fan) I drink them all year round. Even the hottest day of the summer! But I will add Sucks to my anytime list now that I've tried it!

 

I just try to get my hands on any new/limited releases, and whatever comes out seasonally from brewers - but beyond that, and for the most part, I'm just looking to drink good beer of any style at any time.

 

I look for Hopslam and Sucaba in Jan/Feb, New Glarus Thumbprints every 2 months (I usually buy a few 4 packs in the first week or two, and then impatiently wait the next 1.5 months for a new release), April will have me chasing KBS (I've never had it, so I want to give it a try), Parabola in March, Velvet Merkin in Sept., Bourbon County in November, Stone's one-off beers whenever they come out, and GI's Sisters the same. I'll note that New Glarus' Thumbprint IIPA is also a must-have every year it's released (more so even than the rest of their Thumbprints), but I don't know when they're releasing it (I'm hoping March).

Edit: Anytime Goose Island releases Cthulhu or a Cthulhu variant, I will also chase that down.

 

Sadly I plan on giving up beer over the next couple months. Well, I plan on having a sixer of Hopslam, then that's it until after March 15th. Don't think I really have a set schedule by month, just a handful of annually-released beers that I must obtain.

 

Replying to edit: Celebration Ale from Sierra Nevada in December. Don't know how I left that one out!