Day 54 – Where The Hell Have I Been?

Whoa! How time flies, huh? It's been two weeks since I last blogged. Miss me? All two of you, I mean? My humble apologies...I have taken on a lot lately and the Beer Blog was the thing that went first. Not the beer quest, mind you, but the writing is time consuming and at the end of the day, I haven't had the creative energy to wax poetically about beer.

As Dennis Quaid said in Independence Day, "Hello boys! I'm baaaaaaccccckkkk!"

The last time I wrote I was concerned about reaching the end game (524 different beers). Well, the concern is still there, but I'm plunging bravely forward. I visited other stores in the Tucson area and found one that had a tad better selection than Total Wine, but not by much. At TW, I'm hitting the imports already and haven't hit the twenty percent mark yet. Still, I'm going to see how it goes as I move forward. Seasonals are always popping up and I haven't hit the brew pubs yet, so I'm not giving up hope yet. If I have to, I'll choke down some IPA's, assuming I get close enough to my goal to make it worth the effort.

The last time I wrote I had 74 beers sampled. I'm proud to say that I have hit the century mark. At Ratebeer.com, this is a significant milestone and I was rewarded with a video of Homer Simpson singing "When I Was Seventeen." Pretty funny and worth sampling 100 different beers just to see. Now I get a crown by my username on the site, one of thousands to have one. I feel so proud.

If you're keeping track (I am), I am just shy of 20% of the beer goal in 15% of the time. I only needed to have 78 beers sampled at this point, so I'm 23 ahead of schedule or more than two weeks. Cool.

So what good beers have I had? Hmm, 27 beers since I last wrote. Instead of a sentence or two about each, how about I just break them down in a list by Delicious, Acceptable, and Don't Bother.

Don't Bother

None! Avoiding the over-hopped beers and fruit juice-spiked ales, I've elevated my game, so to speak.

Acceptable

Acai Berry Wheat (Eel River Brewery), Single Track Copper Ale (Boulder Beer Co.), Fire Rock Pale Ale (Kona Brewing Co.), Blue Paddle Pilsner (New Belgium Brewing), Polestar Pilsner (Left Hand Brewing), Sam Adams Summer Ale (Boston Beer), Dundee Honey Brown Lager (High Falls Brewing), Czech Style Pilsner (Gordon Biersch), Shiner 101 Pilsner (Spoetzl Brewery), Sam Adams Imperial White (Boston Beer), Red Tail Ale (Mendocino Brewing), and 1888 Bock (Leinenkugal).

Delicious

Haywire Hefeweizen (Pyramid Breweries), Pass Time Pale Ale (Boulder Beer Co.), Bell's Amber Ale (Bells Brewery), Scrimshaw Pilsner (North Coast Brewing), Drop Top Amber Ale (Widmer Brothers Brewing), Blue Star Wheat Ale (North Coast Brewing), Tire Bite Golden Ale (Flying Dog Brewery), Alaskan Summer Ale (Alaskan Brewing), Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (Boston Beer), Yellowtail Pale Ale (Ballast Point Brewing), Konig Ludwig Weissbier (Konig Ludwig Schlossbrauerei), Hacker-Pschorr Weisse (Paulaner Brauerei), Ayinger Brau-Weisse (Brauerei Aying), and Downtown Brown Ale (Lost Coast Brewing).

Salud y amor y tiempo para disfrutarlo! (A tip o' the hat to my hispanic friends in honor of Cinco de Mayo).

Goal...............524.....365
Progress.........101.......54
Remaining.....423.....311