How on earth can we do #beersaturday during a whole dry January? Read on and behold! Also, hit 392 of #beersaturday and showcase your beer adventure while you are at it.
I have come to find, being The Blockchain Beerologist definitely has its perks, including but not limited to getting paid to tour breweries and sample new beers! When I am not globetrotting or brewing my own beer, my fridge looks like a colorful mosaic of regional craft beer I enjoy sharing with the #beersaturday alliance of #beer bloggers on #hive.
This week, I am leaning into a January without alcohol of any sort and have come up with a devious way to still participate in Beer Saturday!
I will get to why a #beerologist would volunteer to do a month without beer after I tell you about the last Pint of the Week I enjoyed. This is the last PotW I enjoyed before settling in for a month of abstinence. Well, a pint and a quarter as I needed to sample the Great Lakes Brewing Imperial Black IPA and Eggnog White Stout when visiting my favourite brewery. While I appreciate the ABV and different taste of the Black IPA, I would probably not buy it again as the big malt, big hops and big ABV make it more like a barley wine for me. The eggnog stout was on nitro, had only subtle eggnog sweetness and was damn fine. I doubt I will ever see this on the shelves so maybe that was just a one of a kind treat.
Why Dry January?!
You might be expecting some sort of introspective, earth-moving reason but the real one is "WTF not?" I have kegs full of beer at the office, a bottom shelf of the fridge waiting for Feb, and I took back the wall of empties for a $30 refund. For the record, I am fairly certain I have never gone 30 days without beer since I started drinking it decades ago. Never felt the need and I limit myself enough so that it is not a real problem....or so I would think. That being the case, if I have my raging alcoholism under control, solidarity with a couple friends doing the same should be a piece of cake and maybe even come with some benefits. Not cramming a couple pints in my gut every night for a month might even help me slim up a little!
That, being the case, as the Blockchain #Beerologist, I have a responsibility for #beersaturday to uphold. How? Read on...
Memories of December
Even recent followers will recall the Beer Advent Calendar I acquired last month. 24 different, numbered and individually wrapped craft beers is surely enough to carry me posts for 3 months! Don't worry, I will be back in Feb.
Each an individual surprise with a nice photogenic wrapping which is perfect for a blog!
Turns out they are not all from this Ontario region, rich with craft breweries. This neat one is actually from Arizona and Huss Brewing Company. Any Arizona peeps among my beer network here?
While I am partial to hoppy IPAs, my roots of enjoyment come from the malty and I enjoy a change from the norm. This blond Koffee Kolsch was smooth, sweet and flavourful! A nice surprise and one of many I can share this month!
Brewing!
I have a few other beers up my sleeve for content this month and one of them is in the brewing! It is known we brew approximately 60 litres per week of our own beer. Mainly IPA but also amber, cream ale and golden ale to share with those whom are not addicted to hops like me. We have a batch on now and will probably brew a couple more in a week or so in order to have full kegs upon my return to glory.
In the meantime, we have good non alcoholic options like Guinness and Heineken if the itch needs to be scratched. I have abstained from those so far but we also created some of our own NA beer. We stilled the alcohol out of a keg of a recent batch of Golden Ale and are carbing it now. Most NA beer tastes like ass and this might well also but when beer is off the menu, perhaps the occasional fizzy lightly malted NA we have on tap will suffice. It has also left us with a growler of ~60% abv grain liquor that tasted a little like moonshine but smoother.
So we have that going for us!
#BEERSaturday!
Trust me, just join Hive and #beersaturday and your alcoholism is instantly turned into a trendy beer blog that PAYS!
Join me, 