Day 14 – Is the Beer Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

I try to be a positive, optimistic person as much as I can and, for the most part, I think I am. However, sometimes life can present challenges that initially seem bigger than they actually are. It is only after you begin to tackle the challenge before you realize that it isn’t as bad as you had originally thought.

Such was the case for me last week. Mounting professional and social commitments made their presence felt and, unfortunately, I blogged about them when they felt at their heaviest. The next day, however, I began addressing the professional commitments and made better than expected progress, alleviating some of the stress I felt the night before.

The social commitments, though, were still present and made me blog about the possibility I might not make my quota of ten different beers this week. Oh ye of little faith! Don’t you know that where there’s a will, there’s a way? Hey, when the going gets tough, the tough get going! Pressure makes diamonds, as Patton used to say.

Why, yes, I did make my quota this week. In fact, I exceeded it, though I cheated a bit - twice.

Two days ago, I managed to try one new beer, Red Rocket Ale, which was so hoppy I couldn’t finish it. Of course, the Ratebeerians loved it, making me wonder if the only ones who rate hoppy beers are hopheads themselves. Makes sense, I suppose, and I can see a time down the road where I elect not to try certain beer styles because I know I won’t like them. For now, though, I’m going to continue to spread the wealth, so to speak, and try the whole gamut of styles, if I can. I’d hate to make a judgment call like that based on just one or two brands. A representative sample of four to six would be more indicative of the style, making a decision like that more objective.

Yesterday I managed to try another one, a really good stout called Black Hawk Stout. Smooth and balanced…made me wish I had bought a few more of those. I will definitely have some of that again down the road. That brought me up to 8 for the week with one day to go.

Today I tried three more, bringing my total for the week to 11 (hallelujah!) and the grand total to 23. The first was Redhook ESB, which touts itself as a Premium Bitter, but was actually very balanced with just a slight bitterness to it. It had a beautiful copper color to it when poured and I really liked it.

The second was an IPA (India Pale Ale) from Sierra Nevada called Torpedo Extra IPA. It sure torpedoed me. Like the Red Rocket Ale, it was very bitter. Actually this was the worst beer I've ever tasted. It smelled like pine cones and tasted like it, too. And like RRA, the Ratebeerians loved it. We're just never going to see eye to eye on this type of beer. I literally poured it out after two sips, the second just to make sure the first was really as bad as it seemed (it was; worst, maybe).

Since I didn't really drink the second, I tried a third called Easy Street Wheat. It was okay...not great, but not bad, either. I drank it all and enjoyed it, though I didn't love it.

So do you know what the moral of the story is? The beer glass may be half empty with a really good witbier or half full with a very hoppy ale or IPA, which is another way of saying that life isn’t all good or all bad. When your glass appears half full, you might still encounter a bitter swallow occasionally and when it appears half empty, there are still some good things left to enjoy. My wife understands and embraces this philosophy better than I do (which I admire her greatly for), but it is a level to which I continually strive to reach. Obviously I'm not there yet.

Really, this quest is pretty interesting and a lot of fun. I’m learning and experiencing new things and not just about beer, either, as you can see. I know I need to lighten up on that whole results-oriented thing that Type A personalities like mine possess. It is a trait that makes us successful at nearly everything we attempt, but it also makes us lose sight sometimes of the original purpose of the goal. My wife is quick to remind me of that and I appreciate the reality check. It’s that “up to your ass in alligators” thing that occasionally gets in the way. If the only thing I get out of this experience is the ability to select which alligators to fend off and which to ignore while I’m draining the swamp, then it will be well worth the effort.

So, Week Two (2?) is in the bag and the way looks clear for another successful week. I have another 12-pack of different, interesting brews from Total Wine that I’m excited to try. My weekend is free to do whatever I want, such as watch Michigan State again in the Final Four (Go Spartans!). Chances are good that I will exceed the quota for the third time in three weeks. The glass is half-full again.

Any IPA in that 12-pack?

Two down and fifty to go!

Goal...............524.....365
Progress...........23.......14
Remaining......501.....351

Day 11 - Good News, Bad News...You Decide

Due to work and social commitments, I didn't blog yesterday. That's okay, though, because I didn't drink anything new. I had the opportunity when my wife and I stopped by a local grill with some new friends to have a libation or two before heading home, but I chose the familiar over the unexplored.

Due to work and social commitments, I won't be blogging tomorrow or the next day, either. That's okay, though, because I probably won't have much chance to drink something new those days as well.

So how does that affect my quest? Well, it's too early to say, of course, but that great start of the first week has turned into a bit of a stumble the second week. Sort of like a sophomore jinx after a notable freshman year. However, I also discovered that I had miscounted my tally on Day Nine (oh, you noticed I switched to numerals? Had to sometime...) so that I actually had tried three new beers instead of two as reported.

Today was a good day, however. I tried three new beers and they were all good to very good. First up was a witbier from Avery Brewing called White Rascal. Very good, classical witbier just a shade under Blue Moon for color and taste. The next was a very nice brown ale from Left Hand Brewing called Deep Color Brown Ale. Malty with just a trace of hops, just the way I like a brown ale. The last was called Old Scratch Amber Lager from Flying Dog Brewery. Very nice lager with a rich color and smooth finish.

With the three new beers today, that gives me six for the week with three days to go, though two of those days are doubtful for anything new. Not unlikely or impossible, but there's reason to think I might not. Thus my standard weekly quota of ten is in jeopardy and this is only Week 2 (Two?).

On the other hand, my total tally now stands at 18, only two shy of the 20 I need to have in by the end of Week Two (2?). I don't see any reason why I can't reach the 20 mark, so my good start of Week 1 (One?) will cover the stumble of Week Two (2?). And if I can work in a new beer tomorrow or the next day, I might even reach my quota for the week.

This challenge is enough to drive a man to drink. Oh, wait, that's the whole purpose, isn't it?


Goal...............524.....365
Progress...........18.......11
Remaining.....506.....354

Day Nine - It's A Good Thing I Drink

A couple of days ago I mentioned weaving interpersonal stories in with this adventure. I also mentioned the challenge of this quest and the ability to write a blog on a continuous basis. How soon our prophecies come true...

I started a new job about six weeks ago, an important job (that's good), but a challenge all the same because, even though the job is hard enough with a lot of office politics involved, I feel the added pressure to prove they made the right choice. To that add my wife, whom I love with all my heart and would do anything for, who made a big sacrifice so that I could accept this new job and rightfully needs assurance she made the right choice, resulting in stress in my personal life. On top of that add this quest, which not only requires commitment, but creativity and time I do not feel I have. And for the cherry on top, add that I've been in leadership training the past two day, which not only showed I could use some improvement there, but also took me away from my desk where urgent items await me.

It's a good thing I drink.

Speaking of which, another one for twofer today. Kona Longboard Island Lager was outstanding, smooth and balanced, the best island lager I've had, but the Deschutes Great Lakes Organic Ale was very hoppy, a characteristic I am not a fan of. Of course, the majority of raters on Ratebeer.com are hopheads, which is not a criticism, but an attribute. The majority of them found the latter a great beer and rated it highly. I thought it sucked and wouldn't drink again. Is it me or them, I wonder? Am I a lightweight among the experts or just possessing of a different palate?

It's a good thing I drink.

Speaking of which, my wife mentioned someone with an alcohol problem yesterday and I wondered if she was thinking of me. I drink almost daily, after all, though never to excess. Just in case I was fooling myself, however, I looked up the signs of alcoholism tonight. Thankfully I do not exhibit any of the symptoms. I may have a couple of beers a night on average, but I never drink to excess, my behavior doesn't change when I consume alcohol, and I can go days without having any alcoholic beverages at all and not experience any withdrawals or cravings. It's not a compulsion, then, but a desire...like Girl Scout cookies or ice cream.

It's a good thing I drink.

So, tomorrow I have a long list of priority activities I have to complete at work before I have to leave early to participate in a choral performance with my wife, and Sunday we're going to Phoenix to visit friends and attend a concert (Paul McCartney...how awesome!). Oh yeah, while you're at it, drink a few beers, rate them on Ratebeer.com, and write a blog.

It's a good thing I drink.

I know, I could drop a few things and focus on what is important. Well, let's see...my wife is very important to me, so I can't drop anything that concerns her. And the job is important because I'm not independently wealthy or in a position to retire, so I can't neglect my responsibilities there. And this quest and this blog is important to me because it's something just for me, something I don't have a lot of in my life right now.

It's a good thing I drink.

So...what can I drop? Reading books...damn, I just got "Tasting Beer" by Randy Mosher, which I believe will help me on my quest. I can't drop that. Okay, then, just regular books I'll stop reading. Oh, wait, what about that expensive business book I bought along with the certification course I paid a thousand dollars to take. Nope, can't drop that, either. Watching movies...damn, I only watch one movie a week as it is. Do I stop watching all movies completely? Man, that's one of my favorite escapes. TV? Hell, I barely watch a fraction of what I'd like now. Mad Marchness is on and I've seen maybe a game or two. So where is my breaking point?

It's a good thing I drink.

Maybe a week from now things will calm down and I'll feel differently, but right now I feel a lot of pressure from a variety of places and I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight with everything I have on my mind.

It's a good thing I drink.

By the way, I'm going to start keeping a running tally at the end of the blog. It's as much for me as for my one follower. How am I doing?

It's a good thing I drink.

Goal.............524...365
Progress.........14......9
Remaining....510...356

Day Eight - One Down, Fifty One to Go

I’m referring, of course, to weeks in my quest, not pounds of weight. I have hinted that my waistline is not what it was twenty years ago (who’s is?), but I failed to mention that I am an active (I use that word loosely) member of a well-known organization that promotes a healthy lifestyle. I’ll give you a hint: it starts with “W” and ends with an “r.” No, it’s not Whataburger.

Now you might be thinking, “What kind of moron would undertake a beer quest while trying to lose weight?” That would be, um, me. In my defense, I would say that the goals are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Yes, in the past week, I did consume 2,000 empty, yet very satisfying, calories from beer alone. But that doesn't make weight loss unattainable.

If Weight Watchers teaches you anything, it is that they promote a lifestyle instead of a diet. Nothing is off limits, but make your choices with some care and consideration. Everything in moderation. Limit the bad things and focus on the good things and good things will happen. The contrary is also true. Simple enough in concept, but like many people with free will, I exercise (I use that word loosely) it a little too strenuously from time to time.

The point, however, is that I can drink beer and lose weight, as long as I make good choices elsewhere. And that is really to the heart of WW’s message. It’s not a diet. You don’t have to give up the things you love. You just have to manage what you love within the scope of a healthy lifestyle.

I do that by eating low-fat, high-fiber at virtually every meal. Whole grains for breakfast, healthy salad and fruit for lunch, lean proteins and vegetables for dinner, water for fluid intake (when I’m not drinking beer). The end result: I lost one pound since last Wednesday.

So tonight I celebrated by having a Blue Moon Belgian White. Good stuff, brewed by my good friends in Colorado where a very nice Irish Red is made. Of course, to my point yesterday, I'm running out of standard brews to order in a restaurant, but I was able to get one in tonight even though I didn't get home until later.

So just because I'm trying to lose weight doesn’t mean I’m giving up my quest. I have a whole bunch of new selections that I’m anxious to try, from pale ales to stouts and some lagers thrown in for good measure. Total Wine had their single-serving shelves loaded to the brim, so I was like a kid in a candy store filling up six-pack cartons. I'm good for at least the next week or so.

Next week's headlines: two down, fifty to go.

Day Seven - On the Sixth Day, He Rested

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, so why not get it over with? If you’re looking for Day Six, there isn’t one. Blog, I mean, not that the world skipped a day. I may be good, but I'm not omniscient or all-powerful.

Mondays are not good days for me time-wise. Between work and social commitments, I don’t get home until after ten o’clock at night, which leaves little time to blog. Hell, I’m lucky if I get a beer in.

I did manage to do that. My wife and I had been meaning to try a local brewpub and so we did. BJ's Harvest Hefeweizen was very good, but their Grand Cru, which was a limited edition Belgian-style Strong Ale, was, well, “an acquired taste” as they say. I haven’t acquired it yet. The brew was so dominant in its use of malts and spices that whatever hops they added got lost in the shuffle, making it seem very sweet. Unfortunately they didn’t have the two brews I really wanted to try – their Oasis Seasonal and their Jeremiah Red – so I had to try something else and the Grand Cru was it.

The other unfortunate thing was that we didn’t get home until very late, which meant that not only didn’t I blog, I also didn’t rate the beers on Ratebeer.com. Thus, tonight, I’m playing catch up.

Honestly, I’ve never followed a blog, so I don’t know if bloggers skip a day every now and then or not. If not, then they obviously have no life because (1) it is not unusual for me to have a full day away from the computer and (B) I don’t think I have enough interesting topics in me to write 365 blogs over the next year. Quality, not quantity, is my motto.

What? Either would be fine? Smart ass. I’m trying to be as entertaining as I can be here. Cut me some slack, will ya?

Actually, I’m beginning to get a real appreciation for columnists. Having to come up with a topic on a regular basis to wax philosophically and/or wittily is not easy. I really don’t want this blog to deteriorate into a running commentary on the beers I’m sampling. My vision is to report on the adventure itself rather than the specific products. To be sure, I’m going to mention what I tried on any given day and what that was like, but to copy what I write in Ratebeer.com and paste it here is more than redundant. It is unimaginative. And to a writer, nothing is worse than trying to craft uninspired prose.

I want to weave interpersonal stories, observations, and insights into the common thread of my quest. I want to enlighten as much as entertain, if I can. If nothing else, writing about such things helps me sort out what I think and how I feel about them. The journey is solitary, of course, and if no one deigns to follow along, that’s fine. I don’t think of myself as one who is fully clued into the mysteries of life. I have thoughts and opinions and I’m willing to share them, but I also have no illusions about the profundity of my eruditions. I’m just a guy with a computer, just like anyone else.

Well, a guy with a computer who is on pace to sample 524 different beers over the next 365 days, that is! Today I sampled Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, a slightly hoppy, but very nice brown ale that finished well.

So, if you’re keeping track – and I am – that is 12 different beers in the last (first?) 7 days. That is quota plus two. A good start, to be sure, but whether that is sustainable is another question. My motivation is high right now, so you should expect me to do well in the very beginning. But what happens four months from now when the novelty has worn off and I’ve got other things going on in my life?

Comparing this quest to a marathon is very apropos. Anyone can sprint out of the starting gate and set a torrid pace, but can that be maintained? What happens at the 10-mile mark when the crowd thins and your sides ache? You’re not even at the halfway point when you begin to wonder if you can really pull this off.

The same, I’m certain, will happen to me. It’s easy to think that ten different beers in seven days is an easily achievable goal, but doing that fifty two times in a row is a bit more challenging. Not from the consumption standpoint – simple math tells me I drink more than 524 servings of beer annually – but from the discipline it will take to track and purchase and blog and rate and record 524 different beers over the course of the next year.

Right now practically anything I buy in a store or restaurant or bar will be something different from a quest perspective even if it is a brand I’ve consumed before. But what about twenty weeks from now? All of the “low hanging fruit” will be gone because I will have sampled over 200 different beers by that point. “What haven’t I tried?” will be a difficult question to answer then. I’ll have to carry a list with me to check against lest the purchase not count towards the goal. And I won’t even be halfway there.

This, then, is ultimately a test of my ability to commit to a quest and stick with it. Regardless of how frivolous it might seem on the surface, I have put my reputation on the line publicly. If I fail, I will do so publicly…all one of you will know that I did not fulfill my quest. Right, honey?

So, if I skip a day here or there with the blogging, give me the benefit of the doubt. In return, I promise to write at least one final blog conceding defeat if I ever decide to throw in the towel.

Heck, even God took a day off.

Day Five - Be Fruitful

True story. The first time I met my wife's extended family was at an outdoor barbeque hosted by her brother. I showed up with a couple of six packs of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat with the intention of sharing some of this nice brew like the good guy that I am. I'm sure to make a good impression, right?

(Cue up sound of 'wrong answer' buzzer)

As I was soon to discover, this was strictly a Bud Light kind of crowd, so absolutely no one wanted to have anything to do with some girly man fruity drink. Fine...more for me, then. But it was my first lesson in that not everyone is as adventurous as I am when it comes to beer.

So today there is a fruit theme going on. Because I like Cherry Wheat, I had picked up a couple of fruit-style beers on my last trip to Total Wine. The first was Sea Dog Raspberry Wheat, which was pretty good. It reminded me quite a bit of the Cherry Wheat, which is why I liked it. Somewhat of an aftertaste that wore on me, but overall a nice beer.

Next up was Wild Blue, which labeled itself as a blueberry lager. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be a positive experience because the manager at Total Wine called the beer "interesting." That's like your best friend telling you that the girl he set you up with "has a nice personality." Ugh...run for the hills time.

When I poured it into the glass it looked like grape juice. The aroma smelled like grape juice. And the taste was like grape-flavored cough syrup. With 8% by volume alcohol content, you could drink Dimetapp and get the same effect.

Where the hell is the blueberry? It was grape lager(?), I think, which is another name for cheap wine, in my estimation. In fact, my wife thought it was a grape wine cooler, not a beer. So, was this concoction made by Mogen David? Is this Ripple relabeled as Wild Blue?

Well, surprise, surprise, the brewer, well hidden behind another name, is none other than A-B.

Now, just in case you still think I have something against the BMC machine, I tasted and rated this beer(?) before I learned it was brewed(?) by A-B. This beer(?) has to be intended for the Pink Lady crowd because no self-respecting beer drinker is going to consume this offering more than once. I'm just glad I didn't show up to that outdoor barbeque with this beer(?). I'd have been laughed right out of my brother-in-law's backyard.

After all, no guy wants to be known as a lightweight when it comes to drinking beer. Or clueless when it comes to bad beer. So, I scored the Raspberry Wheat higher than the Ratebeerian average, but scored Wild Blue lower than the Ratebeerian average. So what does that mean to me?

There's hope for me yet.

Day Four - Good for Wheat Ales You

They say that good things come to those who wait and that is usually true more often than not. Right, honey? Today, however, was sort of a mixed bag for me beer-wise. I've had seven new beers just waiting to be sampled for about a week now, but have held off while I worked my way through "leftovers." Today, though, was the day I could begin sampling the new stuff.

Can I get a hallelujah?

First up was a wheat beer from Sam Adams called Coastal Wheat. Now, I am a big Sam Adams fan and this beer did not disappoint me...sort of. Don't get me wrong. It was a good wheat beer - fine color, nice aroma, smooth taste - and I would buy it again. It's just that it was made with lemons, which was, well, different. Not bad different, just not what I expected. It seemed more like a lager to me than a wheat beer because the citrus partly masked the wheat taste. Personally I like their Cherry Wheat better. So the beer was good, but my expectations were so high that it almost seemed like a disappointment.

The second beer did not disappoint in the least, though admittedly I've never had anything from Sierra Nevada, so I didn't have any expectations at all. Their Kellerweis Hefeweizen is a traditional unfiltered wheat beer made right here in the good ol' US of A and it was really good. Nice color with a taste that really appealed to my wheat-oriented palate, so it received my highest rating so far on Ratebeer.com.

So, things are looking up. A good wheat beer followed by a really good wheat beer...the next was going to be killer...right?

My final beer was Full Sail Amber Ale. The brewery is from the Pacific Northwest, which doesn't mean anything to me because I'm from Michigan. Never heard of Full Sail, though I'm sure many people from that area have never heard of Bell's, either. As with Sierra Nevada, I didn't know what to expect. The appearance, though, reminded me of Killian's - dark amber to red, which greatly appeals to me. Things are really looking up now!

Then...reality set in. The aroma seemed...subdued, shall we say? And the taste? Well, the taste was sort of...hoppy to me.

Beer, of course, is made with malted grains, which contain sugars, which causes fermentation in the presence of yeast, yada yada yada. Right? So brewers add hops, which are bitter, to offset the sweetness. That's good as long as there is a balance. Since our palates are all different, though, balance is in the taste buds of the beholder. Mine tends to be on the less bitter side, which explains why I like ales better than lagers. Ales tend to be sweeter than lagers.

This beer seemed kind of on the hoppy side to me, so I didn't care for it as much as the other two. Ratebeerians, however, liked it just fine. Which brings to the forefront the one nagging fear I've had ever since I decided to undertake this quest.

What if my palate is not discerning enough?

Allow me to give you an example of what I mean. I had the opportunity last year to sit in on a wine tasting contest. My opinion didn't count, but I was allowed to sample the entries and then compare my score with the three judges I was assigned to. I did okay with the whites, but I don't drink that much red wine, to be honest with you. Merlot is about as dry as I like. So when we got to the cabs and their ilk, I thought they all tasted like crap. My lips would pucker just from sniffing this...stuff. I'm looking at my score card to see if they have a category labeled 'horse pee.'

Of course the judges are praising the entries like they were ambrosia sent down from heaven! Double Gold!, they proclaimed of one paint thinner product. Are you fricking kidding me? I wouldn't give this...wine, I think they called it...to my worst enemy lest he shoot my dog in retaliation. Double Gold? Are you fricking kidding me? Let me cleanse my palate with a well-used urinal tablet to get the taste out of my mouth!

I'm exaggerating, of course...sort of. But my point is this...what if the same thing happens to me with beer? What if the experts love Horse Pee Lager and I hate it? What if I sample 524 beers and I only like 24 of them? This next year could be pretty long if that ended up being the case.

Take a look at Ratebeer.com. I'm sure other sites are similar, but there are people who have sampled thousands of beers. Thousands! In some cases, tens of thousands! I've sampled...I don't know, I've never kept track, but...fifty? More? Less? More or less? I've drunk enough beer to know that the BMC flagship brands aren't good, but have I drunk enough to know that Horse Pee Lager is supposed to be good? Maybe I drink Killian's and Shock Top because that is as sophisticated as my palate gets.

I have stated numerous times that I am no expert, that I am no beer connoisseur, but I have hinted that I am more than a novice. Will this quest expose me as a poseur? I hope not, but that is the risk I take, isn't it? I'm kind of putting myself out there with this quest.

I guess only time will tell, huh?

I decided to hedge my bets, however. I purchased a book called "Tasting Beer" by Randy Mosher. I'm hoping the education combined with the experience I'm gaining will help me with my quest. At least, help me avoid embarrassment on a large-scale. A small-scale would be good, too.

So, today, I had one good wheat beer, one really good wheat beer, and one...okay amber ale. I could drink the Full Sail Amber Ale again (unlike that cabernet sauvignon, which I think is French for "septic tank effluence"), but it would never be a regular brew for me. I'd take my Killian's over this any day, since the coloring was the same, but the Killian's is smoother and less bitter.

I have four more new beers to sample from now until Tuesday. I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day. Randy's book won't show up until mid-next week, so I'm just going to have to fake it for the time being.

Until then...salud!

Day Three - Leftovers in the Refrigerator, Part 2

Friday…the end of the work week and the last of the “leftovers” – beers I had in the refrigerator before I decided to do this quest. The good news is that they count toward the 524 goal, but the anticipation of trying new beers has been on hold while I take care of these first. Starting tomorrow, I have seven new brews to try over the next four days and I’m really looking forward to it. Nearly all of them are ales.

For the uninitiated, a short lesson. There are basically two types of beers – lagers and ales. Lagers are fermented at lower temperatures and, since they undergo a secondary fermentation after storage (lager comes from the German word meaning “to store”), the result is a clearer, cleaner tasting beer. It’s the most popular type of beer. All of the BMC flagship brands are lagers.

Ales are fermented at higher temperatures, which means they ferment faster, and tend to have a fuller body than a lager. Stouts, lambics, and wheat beers are types of ales. I prefer ales to lagers, as evidenced in my Day Zero blog when I mentioned some of my favorite beers. Pelican Brown Ale, Bass Ale, Guinness Stout, Cherry and Golden Wheat, Belgium White…all ales.

But wait, you might say. You mentioned Killian’s Irish Red as your regular brand, which is classified as a dark lager. And this week, you had a couple of different pale lagers. So what’s up with the ale preference?

Good question. It’s sort of like asking a guy why he continues to date blonde cheerleader types when he says he's really looking for a smart brunette. Yeah, right, as if. Guys are such pigs, aren't we? But my answer is even simpler – I’ve always thought of Killian’s as more of an ale due to the darker color and relative fullness. By the latter, I mean that I can pound down a six-pack of Landshark while watching Mad Marchness far easier than I can the same number of Killian’s. So even though I knew it was a lager, I never really thought of my regular brand in those terms. The island-style lagers I consume from time to time are just a way of providing a bit of variety in my beer drinking.

My preference is ales. And I have a feeling that this quest is going to present a sea change in my beer purchasing habits. Instead of looking at a product and thinking “oh hey, haven’t had that in while, sounds good,” I think I’m going to be more conscious of the style of beer I’m buying. I also think I’m going to find new favorites and so will be purchasing them more frequently.

In other words, my financial support of BMC will probably drop and may even become nonexistent. Now you might be tempted to ask me what I have against BMC anyway. You sure are nosy today, but...

Alright, fair question. Actually I don’t have anything against them per se. They produce beer that appeals to the masses and they do that well. And, as it turns out, most of the beer I’ve been buying is from BMC. But there is a David and Goliath thing at play here as well, the tendency to root for the underdog. Buying craft brews instead of BMC brands is like supporting the local mom-and-pop store instead of shopping at Wal-Mart. There is a variety and quality evidenced in craft brews that isn’t available in the BMC stable of products. That all goes away if there isn’t enough support. And that would be a sad thing for a serious beer drinker like me. It’s just something I wasn’t really conscious of until I started this quest.

I keep saying how excited I am by this undertaking. The reason I am is very fundamental. This is nothing less than transformational for me. I’m looking at something that is important to me in a new light. I’m forcing myself to step outside my comfort zone, to turn away from the familiar, to expand my horizons and explore new realms, without really knowing where it all will lead. How cool is that?

You might be tempted to denigrate this a bit by saying something like “heck, it’s just beer,” but you would be missing the bigger picture. Undertaking a commitment of any kind has implications well beyond the obvious. There’s a sense of purpose in the doing, accomplishment in the achieving, and revelation hidden within the process. Who knows what the future holds as a result of this quest, what new paths my life will take?

Just look at Julie Powell, not just how her life was changed by blogging her way through Julia Childs’ book, but how it could have changed. She might have been extended a full scholarship to Le Cordon Bleu and became the next Food Network Star. She might have established a close personal relationship with Julia Childs, someone she greatly admired. But even if Julie hadn’t become a famous author and had her life cast upon the big screen for all to see, I’d be willing to bet Julie would have told you just how transformational the experience was for her.

How often do we get the chance to experience that? My wife and I took a chance and discovered true love. My wife and I took another chance and discovered how difficult it was to be a retail store owner (note to self: don't do that again - ever!). We took a third chance and wound up here in Tucson, Arizona (so far, so good). My point is that, good, bad, or indifferent, you grow when you invite change into your life. By remaining cocooned inside the womb, what adventures and self-discovery are you missing out on?

So, who knows what’s in store for me as the result of this quest? Maybe something, maybe nothing, but the joy is in the journey…and consuming a whole lot of new brews!

Cheers!

Day Two - Leftovers in the Refrigerator, Part I

I am, by nature, a decisive, action-oriented person, a trait that serves me well in my profession. What do I do? Oh, well, I’m a US Congressman, of course. What profession could be more decisive and action-oriented than that?

Okay, that was a cheap shot, even if it is true that Congress is positively glacial in the way it goes about the business of running this country. This, however, is a blog about my beer quest, not a political diatribe. It’s just that they are such an easy target and I simply couldn’t resist the barb.

Actually, since you’re asking, I’m an old-school project manager who is used to facing problems on a daily basis and having to act on them sooner rather than later. Driving to deadlines with a diverse cast is not for the timid or unsure. So when the idea to undertake this quest was floated out there for consideration, I thought about it, contemplated the mechanics of how this would work in sufficient detail to make an informed decision, and then put the plan in motion, all within the span of a couple of days.

Of course, this happened after I was set for beer for the week. I had some Killian’s Irish Red in the refrigerator, I had some Shock Top Belgium White in there, I had some Landshark Lager in there…

(Speaking of which, did you know that LL is a product of A-B? I just found that out and it Shock Topped the hell out of me. That makes three A-B products I drink from time to time…it’s almost like BMC is trying to pull a fast one on us unsuspecting beer drinkers…but I digress.)

…and I had bought a six-pack of Sam Adams Coastal Wheat, a brew I hadn’t had the pleasure of sampling yet, from Total Wine the day before. All of these brands appear on Total Wine’s American Micro Brews list. Great, I thought, after I had decided to do this. At least I have four of the first ten to get started. So I went back to Total Wine (can I get a hallelujah!) and bought six different, untried beers. Yes, you can purchase practically every brand sold there individually, which dramatically cuts the cost of my beer quest.

Is this a great country (in spite of Congress) or what?

But, as anxious as I am to get to these new beers, I still have a collection of beers I’ve had before in the refrigerator! We all have our crosses to bear, don’t we? Anyway, I decided to get these beers out of the way before I start on the new ones. I viewed it as a trial run of sorts, a way to become familiar with the rating process with beers I’m already familiar with.

Yesterday, it was the Killian’s. Today, it was Shock Top. Tomorrow, Landshark. Then it’s clear sailing into uncharted waters.

Kind of puts a lump in your throat, doesn’t it?

Day One - Slainte!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It is the first day of my beer quest and I’m looking forward to the journey ahead. I feel like the marathon runner who’s been training for this event all his life and the starter’s gun is about to go off. I can't wait to begin. It's sort of like the movie "Run Fatboy Run!" Kind of brings tears to your eyes, huh?

As I mentioned yesterday, the first beer up is my favorite - Killian's Irish Red. One could argue, I suppose, about whether the Killian’s should count toward the goal, since I drink it on a regular basis, but I would counter that the quest is 524 different beers, not never tasted beers. Thus, I can only claim the Killian’s once even if I drink another one before the 365 days have expired (a sure bet I will). I'm sure you'll keep me honest, but you won't have to. It wouldn't be a hollow victory if I cheated. It wouldn't be a victory at all.

Funny, but last night after posting the Day Zero blog, I actually calculated approximately how many calories and carbs 524 beers would contain. The total comes to more than 80,000 empty calories and 8,000 unflattering carbohydrates! It’s a good thing I already look like a guy shoplifting a bowling ball out of a sporting goods store because my boyish figure would disappear in a hurry if I didn’t. But, hey, what serious beer drinker doesn’t resemble a pear?

Speaking of “serious beer drinker,” I want to be sure I explain what I mean by that. It occurred to me that someone might translate that to mean “he who drinks like a fish.” In foodie terms, someone like that would be labeled a glutton, not a gourmand. I’m more the latter. I drink every day, but not to excess. In other words, I drink for enjoyment, not to get hammered. I truly love the taste of a good beer.

Which is why I was surprised when I rated the Killian's. Other people on Ratebeer.com were less than kind to the brand, which is fine and fair, particularly since they probably have a wider range of experience than I do. As I've mentioned before, I don't claim to be an expert. But I knew going in that, since this was my brand, my score would be higher as I was predisposed to give it one.

It was, but not that much higher, which was the surprise. I did want to be as objective as I could by applying the tasting guidelines as fairly as I could, and the end result was a lower score than I had anticipated. This isn't to say that I'm going to change my regular brand any time soon, but my quasi-objective scoring showed me that there is plenty of room for other quality beers to score higher.

You might think I would be disappointed by the relatively low score (for me, not others), but I find it is quite the opposite. I'm actually excited even more by the prospect of exploring new beers and perhaps finding better ones. Using a rating system like the one on Ratebeer.com forces you to take a good look at a brew from multiple angles (appearance, aroma, taste, palate, and overall). I think it's easy to overlook some faults when you like a beer or focus only on a fault when you don't. The rating system attempts to keep you from doing that, forcing you to be more objective than subjective, which is what happened tonight.

Both times.

No, I didn't have a second Killian's (I wish I had), but I did have a second beer tonight. My better half and I went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant (they have a couple of them here in Tucson, believe it or not), and so in the spirit of the atmosphere, I ordered a draft Dos Equis XX Lager. I have never had this brand before, but I have had Corona, so I thought I'd see how they compared. Same difference, to my way of thinking. They're okay, providing you add the lime they serve with it to mask the slightly off flavor, but there are better pale lagers out there.

So, I've got my first two beers and ratings in the bag and I'm feeling pretty good...no, not from the alcohol! From having begun the long marathon. You know...Run Fatboy Run? I'm off to a good start and I am very optimistic that I can do this. I've got a couple more "repeats" ahead of me...don't want to reveal too much too soon...but after that it is a wide open field. I've got a bunch of new beers to try and I'm looking forward to seeing where they land.

Slainte!

Day Zero (or What's a Nice Guy Like Me...)

I have a confession to make. I am a beer drinker. I am a beer drinker of some sophistication, as opposed to the millions of people who find the popular flagship brands produced in massive quantities by the big breweries affectionately referred to in some circles as BMC (BudMillerCoors) as palatable. I say this not from an elitist position, but to provide context to this blog.

For example, I know that beer comes in more types than regular, light, and "that fancy stuff." I know that Cherry Wheat is not a fruity drink women order on a girls night out. And I know that "ice cold" shouldn't be the primary adjective by which one describes their beer.

Of course, I say these things in jest...sort of. Virtually all of my family and friends who drink beer are devout BMC consumers. My wife is a BMC drinker when she's in the mood for a "cold one" (a rare occasion, but not nonexistent), so I have to be careful what I say lest I find myself sleeping on the couch tonight. But I do want to make this point - I consider myself a serious beer drinker.

How serious? Well, I am the kind of beer enthusiast who would and has declined to drink socially when BMC is the only thing available. We all have our standards, after all. To avoid those situations, I bring my own beer to social engagements whenever possible, even when I'm told that "beer is provided." The definition has some leeway, I've found.

I also bring along my own pub glass so that I can drink my beer from a proper pour instead of from a can in a coozy. While I may not be a connoisseur, I am certainly no heathen.

Okay, I'm joking...sort of. I will drink beer straight from the bottle if a glass isn't available, but I avoid canned beer like the plague. It's like wine in a box for me, you know? So...pretentious snob or serious devotee? I think the difference between the two is whether a person acts that way in everyday life even when no one is around. Since I do, I believe the consistency saves me from the dreaded label, but ultimately I concede it is a matter of viewpoint. Right, honey?

By the way, Dad and Don, I apologize for calling Bud Light "swill." That was rude of me and I really didn't mean it...sort of.

In fairness and the interest of full disclosure, however, I must confess that my favorite beer, the one I consume on a regular basis, is Killian's Irish Red, courtesy of my friends in Golden, Colorado (no, it is not an import, in spite of it being listed that way on many a restaurant menu). If that tells you something about me as a beer drinker, either positively or negatively, then so be it. To reinforce that impression, I will tell you that I have also been known to occasionally quaff down a Shock Top Belgium White or Bud Light Golden Wheat, both products of A-B (gasp!). They may not be as good as Bell's Oberon or Sam Adams Light, but they're certainly acceptable as far as I'm concerned. You at least have to give BMC some credit for trying to cater to the more sophisticated palate.

In spite of my apparent capitulation to BMC's "lesser" brands, I do enjoy experimenting with micro brews of all shapes and sizes. I mentioned Bell's and Sam Adams above, two craft breweries that take immense pride in the quality of their product, but there are hundreds more just like them, if not thousands. I particularly love to visit brewpubs to sample their wares. One of my all-time favorite beers is Rock Bottom Brewery's Pelican Brown Ale. I think they call it something else now, but that is an excellent brown ale.

Another favorite of mine is a drink called a Black and Tan, which traditionally is Harp's or Bass Ale with Guinness Stout added by slowing pouring it over the back of a spoon. The ale and stout complement each other perfectly and presents this beautiful lava lamp picture of black and amber in a glass (kind of poetic, don't you think?). Either of them alone is great, but together? Whoa...nectar of the Gods there. Right Mom?

I've also been a member of the Beers of the World Club where you get a case of different beers from various countries every month, but I had to cancel my membership after only one year. Perhaps it was my American palate, but I seemed to get more stinky beer than good. None of the brands were anything you’ve ever heard of, which I guess was the point, but you also have to wonder if you’ve never heard of them precisely because they were brewed in someone's toilet. When a buyer from the Beers of the World Club came sniffing around...yeah, buddy, I got something for you (snicker). Something to ponder, I guess, over a Pelican Brown Ale or a perfectly poured Black and Tan.

The point I’m trying to make here is that I am as adventurous when it comes to beer as I am serious about drinking it. I enjoy sampling a wide variety of craft beers whenever I can and savoring the nuances of each. I do have my favorite styles, of course, but I’m not reticent about trying something new or different when the opportunity arises. My only problem is that, like most people, I tend to order or purchase what I know. I’m not disciplined enough to make a regular habit of broadening my horizons brew-wise.

Until now.

A perfect storm of events has led me to this quest and this blog. The first was that I recently watched the movie “Julie and Julia,” the screen adaptation partly of Julie Powell’s true chronicle of her journey through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Great movie, by the way. I highly recommend it. Anyway, Julie cooked all 524 recipes contained within the book in 365 days and wrote a blog about it, a feat that later led to her becoming a published author (remember that...there will be a quiz later). The concept was intriguing, but not something I wanted to replicate. Still…

The second was my discovery of a great beverage shop here in Tucson called Total Wine, one of a chain of stores in several states. I prefer to think of it as Nirvana for the Alcohol Inclined. I swore I heard a chorus of angels singing upon crossing the threshold, but that could have been Muzak, I suppose, though I can’t explain the ethereal light. Still…

Total Wine, as you would expect from the name, has wines from all over the world at all price points nicely organized and presented, a complete selection of spirits, and…BEER! LOTS of beer. Over a thousand different kinds, with 443 of them, give or take a few, listed within the category called American Micro Brews.

Is this a great country or what? I almost feel like singing "America The Beautiful." You know the phrase...amber waves of grain? Sort of brings tears to the eyes, doesn't it?

The third and final event was the Tucson Festival of Books, a two-day event of workshops and presentations by noted authors, editors, and agents in the book publishing world (ring any bells for you?). Since I am a budding author (surprise, surprise, surprise!) with one manuscript completed and another in progress, I attended several workshops on getting published. All of the presenters had the same advice – establish yourself. All included blogging as a way of doing that, a means to display one’s writing skills and commitment.

(Pop quiz: What famous author began as a blogger before moving on to a publishing career and whose life was part of an Academy Award-nominated picture? Uh, uh, uh...no fair peeking.)

Great! I’ve never blogged before, never even read one, but how hard can it be? I’m a writer, after all. Well, in spirit anyway. But hey! I should be able to pontificate upon any subject…right? So I’ll start a blog and write about…what? Hmmm, let’s see. Politics? Well, like most Americans, I have an opinion, but it’s largely uninformed, so…oh, yeah, good point. That hasn’t stopped Rush Limbaugh, has it? Still…

As a wise man once said "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." Thus, if I do this, I need to stick to something I know well or, at the very least, something I have a lot of experience with. Something like, say…drinking beer?

Okay, so now the light bulb goes off, courtesy of my wife. What if I set out to sample all 443 American Micro Brews that Total Wine sells in the next 365 days and write about my experience in a blog? That would be fun, even if no one followed my adventure. I can see it now…zero followers, 443 different beers. Better than the other way around, to my way of thinking.

I mean, let’s face it, nothing about this idea is original. It’s simply a clone of Julie’s blog, substituting beer drinking for French cooking (some would say an improvement), and who knows if she copied the idea from someone else. Maybe she read a blog by someone who drank a different beer every day and a light bulb went off in her head. It wasn’t in the movie, but hey, stranger things have happened. Circle of Life thing, you know?

Really, though, just like book plots, all the original stuff has already been taken in the blogosphere. After all, a blog exists for every subject known to man, from beer drinking to underwater basket weaving…although…there may not be one about weaving baskets underwater while drinking beer, but I’ll save that for another day. Still…

No, I’m sticking to my wife’s original suggestion. It is the perfect result of the perfect storm, a combination of a specific quest in a prescribed nugget of time, a disciplined approach to sampling a wide variety of craft beers, and the forum to exercise my writing skills for public consumption. Yeah, okay, good point…better to have the beer available for public consumption than my writing, but what can I say? Go find your own Total Wine store. Just ignore the bright light and angelic singing when you first walk in…it goes away after you’ve been there a while.

There were a couple of details, however, that I needed to clear up before I began. The first was the number of beers on Total Wine’s American Micro Brews list. See, Julie had the benefit of a firm goal in the number of recipes. Not that it made her quest any easier, mind you, but the number wasn’t going to change over the course of a year unless she bought new editions of the book.

In my case, though, due to inventory variability (discontinued or new offerings) and availability (seasonal brews, out of stock items), I couldn’t be sure of the exact number of beers I could sample at any point over the course of a year. And if I couldn’t be sure, then how could I track how well I was doing? Would 441 different beers in a year be a failure or close enough? Other variables included brewpub visits and the desire to try some imported craft beers Total Wine offered. Since they weren’t part of the American Micro Brews list, would they count or not? Thus, it seemed more reasonable to simply use a number as a goal instead of a list.

So I have chosen 524 different beers over the course of the next year, the same number of beers to drink as Julie had recipes to cook. It's sort of poetic, don’t you think? That means I have to sample 10 different beers a week for the next 52 weeks with an additional four to squeeze in somewhere along the line. Not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, but not an easy target, either, just like Julie Powell's quest.

The other detail was more fundamental. As I have stated already, I’m no expert when it comes to beer tasting, just an aficionado like so many others, so how was I going to write about my experience with any clarity or consistency? I don’t want to appear pretentious, but at the same time, I feel like I should approach the sampling process with some degree of conformity. Saying something like “tried Stinky Tire today; aptly named” doesn’t sound nearly as erudite as “burnt appearance with strong overtones of petroleum.”

So how does one go about evaluating a beer properly? Fortunately there are several websites that provide guidance as well as a means for recording one’s reviews. The one I chose is called Ratebeer.com. They are arguably the most popular site and encourage ratings that are based on how well you like or dislike a beer regardless of style (the site features a great analogy of this philosophy in relation to a dog show). Thus Ratebeer.com provides the framework for executing this type of tasting approach, which is in line with how I would rate a beer anyway. It also has a side benefit of recognizing individuals by the number of ratings submitted, starting at 100. Wow! All this and an icon by my username, too!

Is this a great country or what?

So now I have a defined structure for my blogging adventure and the first ten beers already in hand. I just have to pick the starting date for the one-year countdown and as luck would have it, St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow. What better day to kick off a year-long tastefest than that? And I know just the beer to start with – Killian’s Irish Red. Granted, it’s not considered an Irish beer any longer, but my quest is mainly American Micro Brews anyway and, believe it or not, Killian’s is on the list. Contact Total Wine with your objections, not me. I think their number is 1-800-WHOCARES. Still…it does seem poetic to start my quest with an Irish Red on St. Patrick’s Day, don’t you think?

By the way, do you think Total Wine will give me a free liver transplant if I complete my beer quest successfully? Or perhaps a discount? Maybe not, but still...