First, sorry for the big gap in writing. My social calendar has been a might full and the opportunity to write has not been good. Hell, I didn't even have a beer yesterday!
Second, I'm a tad worried about my quest. Oh yeah, sure, I'm way ahead of schedule and my motivation is still quite high, but my latest visit to Total Wine has me a bit concerned. You see, I had some difficulty picking out 12 new beers. Okay, the single shelves were a bit...how shall we say it...under-represented. They weren't as full as I've seen.
Still, I'm not even 20% of the way home and I'm already running into difficulty? My decision to stick to beer styles I like, while still the correct one, is coming back to haunt me. There are a large number of IPAs and other hoppy styles that I'm avoiding, limiting my choices. Out of the 443 American micro-brews TW purports to carry in single quantities, I'm guessing that there may be as many as half I don't want to try. If true, I shouldn't be having any difficulty now when I haven't even hit the century mark yet...but I am.
Go figure.
I always knew I would have to open the door to imported brands. Even if I tried all 443 American micro-brews, that would still leave me a tad short of the mark. But, heck, TW only has 222 imported beers listed in single quantities, so even if I was willing to try all 222 imports (unlikely), I still need to sample over 300 American micro-brews.
Can you say 'dilemma?' I knew that you could.
That's not to say I'm giving up. Not by a long shot. There are other beverage stores here in Tucson and a host of bars and brewpubs, not to mention the possibility of opening up the styles a bit. I may be a little too restrictive right now. So there is still hope.
But....
Well, this is making the challenge all the more difficult. To perk up my spirits (figuratively speaking, of course) I'm going to visit some other stores this weekend and check out their selection.
Hopefully that light at the end of the tunnel isn't the one over the operating room table.
Good news, I will make my quota tomorrow in spite of the full social calendar interfering with my quest (all they had was BMC Light!). So what have I had since my last blog?
Well, first, I cheated. I had a Bells Oberon, a great wheat ale from my old stomping grounds in Michigan, which wasn't new for me, only for the purposes of the quest. I had a nut brown ale from Oak Creek Brewing (not bad, not great), an amber ale from Boulder Beer called Sundance (not bad, not great) and an unusual amber ale from Eel River that was great, but different. It seemed to have a hint of melon in it, which really added to the appeal (pardon the pun). I had a Blond Doppelbock from Capital Brewery (decent) and a Rising Moon Spring Ale from the Blue Moon label of Coors that I really enjoyed.
Alright, call me crazy, but I really like the off brands from Coors like Blue Moon and Killians.
So, let's see what the weekend brings.
Gezuar! (That's Albanian for whatever it means in Albania, but is supposed to be similar to Cheers).
Goal...............524.....365
Progress...........74.......41
Remaining......450.....324
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