A NIGHT WITH THE HOPS

Though today is typically the spot for a rundown of the beer news for the week, I think there is one story out there that deserves an entire post focused on it.  Now what might that exclusive story for the beer news this week be?  Oh yes . . .

Today marks the one year anniversary of me starting this site!

I actually had to go back and do a little research because the date stamp on the very first post is a few days off what I remember it being (there were some issues early on).  After posting something on this site every day for the entire year, today marks the first day of the second year.  Since I enjoy it and am still having fun, I hope to continue my consecutive days posting streak throughout this year as well.

This will make sense after you read on.

In looking back over the last year I noticed a few things that I might not have guessed would happen going in:

• Home brewing became a bit of an obsession.  After failing miserably with my first batch, I was able to successfully brew 12 different beers.  That is not as many as I might have liked to brew, but still something I am quite pleased with.
• 113 beer reviews were posted on this site over the course of the year.  That is an impressive number to me, though I could have done more as I have 41 (yes I counted) still sitting in my binder ready to post.  Those numbers also don’t account for the ones consumed for a side project and those I never bothered formally evaluating at all.
• Though I might have neglected to write about a few of them, I have been to a fair number of breweries, participated (on both sides of the table) in beer festivals, and have done quite a bit of travelling as well over the last year.
• I walked away from my cubicle life to pursue other interests and possibilities.  That just might be the most shocking of all to me.

So you might ask how one celebrates a blogiversary (or you might ask if that is an actual word).  Well, The Wife made a trio of desserts for enjoyment this evening (and beyond) using my home brewed beer as an ingredient in each.  How awesome is that?!  You can check out the recipes here, then drool over . . .

A beer cake with bourbon-soaked raisins that is now my breakfast for the near future.

She even got me a candle.

A stout ice cream that is incredibly tasty.

Perhaps to serve with/on the cake?

The sweet and salty goodness of pale ale pretzel caramels.

Very addicting

If you don’t hear from me for a while, it will be because I am in sugar and butter shock.

In the excitement of finishing up the first year, I have come up worth a few things I would like to do for the next year on this site.  I reserve the right to add to this list, but I would be very happy if I just got to all of these.  This list is site specific as I will surely continue with the festival and brewery visits anyway and would, of course, enjoy having some steady employment again sometime soon .

Here we go and in no particular order . . .

1. As hinted at a few days ago I would like to start doing my beer evaluations closer to the BJCP guidelines.  I already use their beer score sheet to keep my notes on and use their style guidelines as reference, so it is time to start grading by points and leave the letter grading behind.  Letter grades were a fine way to start for me, but using their grading system will allow more specific evaluation and will certainly help me prepare to take the BJCP exam someday.  I might even revisit some of the beers that I have already evaluated using the new method.
2. It would be pretty neat to write something that will be published elsewhere.  I will start with guest posting on another site or sites and go from there.  Getting others to guest post on my site is another effort that I would like to make.
3. Evolve from mini/partial mash to all grain brewing.  Surely The Wife is excited to hear this one as it would take my brewing operation (almost entirely) out of the kitchen.  I have an excellent reference in my friend Mike and I think it is a very realistic brewing goal.  Of course I would like very much to have a kegging and draft set up to limit my future bottling efforts as well.  That will likely be first, but I want to do both.  It would also be great to get one of my friends hooked on brewing, at least so I have an extra set of hands for my all grain efforts!
4. Do many, many more videos (reviews and otherwise) for the site.  I have the equipment to do so and if I keep practicing I might actually become competent at editing what I shoot.  I can start by posting some of the video footage that I have already.
5. Focus on beer and food pairing if only because the relationship is interesting to me.  That topic will be on my mind all year and it would be nice to host some sort of beer pairing themed type event (desserts, cheeses, etc.) at our house before the next anniversary comes.

Five is probably a good number to stop at for now, though I also have ambitions to do more giveaways this year and to better utilize/organize/evolve my site among other things.  I did say that I would likely add to the list in the future and it probably will not take me long to do so.

Bourbon soaked raisins leaves raisin infused bourbon.

In closing, I would like to thank The Wife for her support and an infinite list of other things, my various content contributors across the country, the people who have been keeping up with me since the beginning, and those who have just started to follow along.  You are all entitled to have a good beer tonight (as if you needed my go ahead) in celebration.

Cheers to a great last year and to an even better year to come!