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Good beer enhances
almost any pursuit, be it enjoying something new or old.
Christmas would be incomplete without a few winter seasonals to enjoy
while decorating the house and wrapping gifts.
Can you imagine summer without a wheat beer or fall without a maerzen?
Should anyone have to endure February without at least one good old ale or
barleywine? Beer is never a necessity to enjoy
life but it certainly adds an extra touch. In the past year, I
visited 39 new brewpubs and breweries
in 9 states and 3 foreign countries. I sampled 198 new draught beers at the various brewpubs and breweries visited.
In addition, I tasted 176 new
bottled beers from 17 states and 10 foreign countries.
This number represents only beer labels saved during the year. No attempt was made to track beers sampled at various
festivals throughout the year. In
total, I have visited 207 breweries and brewpubs in 24 states and 5 foreign
countries. In
December, 1999, I made my annual beer-shopping trip for big winter beers.
The trip took me to brewpubs in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and
Delaware with a stop in the District of Columbia beer store, Chevy Chase
Liquors. The final day of the trip
I attended the Brooklyn Brewery Beer Dinner at Tyler's Restaurant and Taproom
in Durham, NC, with Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver.
I also began serving on the planning committee for the 7th Annual
Southeastern Microbrewers' Invitational to be held in March, 2000. January,
2000, found me on the road again for an 18-hour round-trip to pick up a case
of World Wide Stout, an 18% ABV Imperial stout from the Dogfish Head brewery
in
Lewes, DE. One week later I
traveled to Denver, CO, to compete in the final finals for the 2000 Beerdrinker
of the Year title at Wynkoop Brewing Company.
After a devastating loss, I went on a western Colorado brewpub tour with
my beer partner, Ray, and a former Beerdrinker of the Year, Bobby Bush.
I was also elected Vice-President of the Winston-Salem Wort Hawgs
homebrew club. Cold
and boring February found me at home reading Beer
in America: The Early Years - 1587-1840 by Gregg Smith.
I also discovered I had a "quaff quote" on February 27 in the 365
bottles of Beer for the Year 2000 calendar.
The quote was "I don't drink beer like a girl." I
began March by attending the formal attire "Roasting of Michael Jackson" at
the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
The next day I toured several Philadelphia bars on the Golden Age of Beer
Tour with beer writer Lew Bryson. Two
weeks later I was in Washington, DC, to attend the first St. Patrick's Day
Beer Fest. The next week I worked
at the 7th Annual Southeastern Microbrewers' Invitational in
Durham, NC. April
found me first in Los Angeles for a quick brewpub visit with Jim Robertson of The
Beer Log and former Beerdrinker of the Year.
From Los Angeles it was on to New Zealand's South Island where I
visited six brewpubs and breweries while experiencing the fabulous countryside,
a helitour with glacier landing, a canyon jet-boat ride, and llama packing in
a
wildlife park. It was on to
Australia after New Zealand with visits to four brewpubs, a guitar festival, a
drive along the Great Ocean Road, an outback 4WD tour, a stay at the Lord Nelson
Brewery Hotel in Sydney, and a play at the Sydney Opera House. May
was somewhat more sedate with a quick trip to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival with its' ever disappointing beer selection. The highlight of the month was the adoption of two wonderful
Persian kittens that I named Fuggles and Crystal. I
was back on the road in June, attending the 2nd Annual Governor's
Crossing Brewer's Festival in Seveirville, TN.
I also attended the first "Monster Mash", a homebrew event for the
Winston-Salem Wort Hawgs with several batches brewed and featuring Brooklyn
Monster barleywine on tap. July
started with a bang. As a birthday
present, my beer partner arranged for us to be in Philadelphia for the opening
ceremonies celebrating American Beer Month.
We started with lunch at McGillin's Olde Ale House and then moved on to
a rally on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. After the rally, we took an
exhilarating ride with Lew Bryson out to the Grey Lodge Pub to sample
Perkuno's Hammer (a Baltic porter he helped brew at Heavyweight Brewing
Company) followed by more pubbing around the Philadelphia area with other beer
fiends from around the country. In
July I also worked as a "beer cart girl" at the 1st North
Carolina Taproom Golf Challenge co-sponsored by the Southeastern Microbrewers' Association. In
August I was a
winner in the monthly quiz at www.globalbeer.com
and received a Wittekerke T-shirt. I
worked at three beer events in September: the
4th Great Smokies Brewgrass Festival in Asheville, NC; the World Beer
Festival in Durham, NC; and, the first Southeastern Microbrewers' Association
Anniversary Party. I also began serving on the planning committee for the 2nd
Holiday Craft Beer Festival to be held in Durham, NC, in December. October
started with a private birthday party/Oktoberfest in Westminster, MD.
The trip included a stop to tour Old Dominion Brewing Company in Ashburn,
VA, given by the owner, Jerry Bailey. The
next week found me in Belgium attending 18 of the 24 Hours of Specialty Beers
Festival in Antwerp. I also
attended my first CAMRA social in Brussels that week.
The trip included stops at many Belgian beer cafes, a brewery tour, a
few
museum tours, and learning to use Belgium's mass transit (trains, subways,
busses, and taxis). The last
weekend in October, I co-hosted the 2nd Wort Hawgs Monster Mash with
four beers on tap from 3:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. American Homebrewers
Association Beermaster's Tasting
Society CAMRA (Lifetime
Member) Winston-Salem Wort
Hawgs Homebrew Club Southeastern
Microbrewer's Association Piedmont Institute of
Suds Sippers Homebrew Club International
Association of Rogues ·
Over 1380 beer labels from 43
states, the District of Columbia, and 40 countries ·
Several hundred beer coasters
acquired at brewpubs, breweries, and festivals ·
Hundreds of beer glasses from
various breweries worldwide ·
Various posters from breweries and
festivals ·
Many screen-printed growlers and
bottles ·
Several pub towels from American
and foreign breweries and brewpubs Beery
Highlights from Years Past Beer
Studies I subscribe to and
read the following magazines and brewspapers: ·
Celebrator Beer News ·
All About Beer ·
What's Brewing ·
Ale Street News ·
Zymurgy ·
Beer Passion ·
Malt Advocate ·
Mid-Atlantic Brew News Some
of the books I have enjoyed reading are: ·
The
Ale Trail by Roger Protz ·
The
Great Beers of Belgium by Michael
Jackson ·
A
Taste for Beer by Stephen Beaumont ·
The
Secret Life of Beer by Alan D. Eames ·
The
Bedside Book of Beer edited by Barrie
Pepper ·
99
Ways to Open A Beer Bottle Without
a Bottle Opener by Brett Stern ·
Buzz:
The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine
by Stephen Braun ·
Beer
in America: The Early Years
1587-1840 by Gregg Smith Our beer library consists of
other books by authors Tim Reed, Randy Mosher, Charlie Papazian, Bill Yenne,
James D. Robertson, Michael Jackson, Pierre Rajotte, Fred Eckhardt, Leslie
Dunkling and Stuart Kallen. The
collection also includes Michael Jackson's The Beer Hunter video collection,
Beer & Ale: A Video Guide by the St. Clair Production Company, Michael
Jackson's World Beer Hunter CD-ROM and the 1.4.u Beers from Belgium CD-ROM. T-shirt:
XX-Large to allow for alterations |
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