I am rounding the homestretch of Dry January and I can hear a legion of followers counting down for me. In the meantime, hit week 395 of #beersaturday for beer from all the folks who I am drinking vicariously through this month.
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 in the final week of Dry January and the campaign has remained intact! How am I accomplishing such a feat? Read on...
This may not look like a PotW but it is social and beery! Those visiting my weekly Beerstravaganza on Hive for the first time may not know that I am part of a garage brewery operation. Not one where we sell to the public as the public could not afford to cover our hourly rate plus the materials it takes to brew a keg of our own beer. Strictly private and social consumption only.
What you are seeing is a couple of our smaller brewers with still heads on top of them doing the Dry January thing. What does that mean? Why it is effectively ruining perfectly good kegs of Sweet Golden Ale and our award-winning Amber by stilling the alcohol out of them. To end the month of abstinence strongly, we now have a keg of non-alcoholic light and dark beer to enjoy. Plus, a nice couple liters of ~30% grain liquor we will have to find a use for.
Before this stilling session, we had been enjoying a NA Golden ale which was not too bad, all things considered. It started out kinda rough before the carbonation set in but evened out nicely as the gas made its way into the beer and it turned out almost like a plain Labatts lager. Normally I would fart in the general direction of a Labbatt product but enjoying a couple beers on a Dry January will make you change your standards temporarily. We have uttered words like "I would drink this even when we are back to regular beer" but I believe that might just be January talking.
Back to the Advent Beer Calendar!
One last time, I am going to drink vicariously through December memories and the surprises found in my Beer Advent Calendar. This beauty was actually my contribution to the advent calendar as I was number 16. As a review, each of the 24 participants brought a case of beer, preferably not available outside of visiting the bottle shop at a craft brewery, individually wrapped & numbered, and then 1 of them each went into each of the 24 advent case of each of the exchange participants. I remember crushing a couple and shoddily wrapping mine the night before with the help of my daughter.
Of course I was going to visit one of our in-town craft breweries and hopefully find one of the limited edition one-off brews that were not part of their core rotation. My brewery of choice was Black Swan Brewing where I asked what was new and strange and unique. Their answer was a beer that was brewed in conjunction with the other awesome local craft brewery Jobsite Brewing, and featured hops from local hop farm Tavistock Hops Company. I said "SOLD" and took a case.
Seeing Double with Triple Hops is a wet-hopped New England IPA which is right up my alley too. So elusive, it is not on their beer list and I was happy to stuff an IPA into a case of ales and lagers! It had a little haze to it but was surprisingly clear and definitely tasty. For a beer boasting triple hops, 30 IBU is pretty low on the bitterness scale which might be because of the sweeter NEIPA style or the shitty local hops! Just kidding they are fine but don't quite do it for me and Pearl hops are not among my preferred IPA hops.
Still! Great little beer and I hope the rest of the beer exchange folks enjoyed a little slice of our small town.
Beer Number 20!
I guess I can skip ahead to number 20 seeing as I should have a whole host of new beers to share when Feb hits. Beer number 20 was wrapped up nicely in a little Christmas sock and they even went the extra mile and had a wooden token made with the number on it! Definitely more thought and effort than went into my number 16. Wonder what this little surprise will be!
Ah nice another one from Forefathers Brewing Co! Just this summer, we visited the brewery and I, in predictable style, stuck with their IPA. So, here is a chance to sample their Battlebuilt Rangers Cream Ale We have been brewing a cream ale for about a year but this one is branded with a local OHL hockey team from nearby Kitchener. I poured it agressively into my 600 ml glass to activate the flavour and have it foamy like an American ;).
I may have my palate ruined by IPAs and hop obsession but I can still enjoy a nice, creamy, beer flavoured beer. This is one of those with a touch of sweetness and a standard 5% ABV that our friend 
#BEERSaturday!
You may have to squint or look at the original to get the details on this one but it is amazing to learn which megabreweries own your favourite brands if you are not a craft beer nut like me.
Join me, 
I am almost 2/3 through Dry Januaryu and plan a big return in Feb so thanks for keeping me beer up through your #beersatturday exploits.
