The BR Beer Scene Year In Review

2010 is almost over folks... and that means I'm seeing 'year-end awards' and 'best of 2010' lists everywhere.  The Beer Buddha put out his "Beery Awards" for 2010.  Jay over at Bite And Booze recounted his 10 most memorable posts of the year.  Beernews.org released their top 10 craft beer stories of 2010, and I think it's a fantastic list of the most important craft beer stories.  They really did a good job with that one.  

For myself and the BR Beer Scene, 2010 was absolutely a great year... full of great beers, great travels, and great people.  I made another trip to Parish Brewery in Broussard, LA to taste even more of Andrew Godley's delicious creations.    I made several trips to the Avenue Pub in New Orleans with friends to various tastings and other beer events.  I was able to travel to places like Alaska, Seattle, and Gulf Shores and try the local beers and others I can't get in Baton Rouge. Tin Roof Brewery opened its doors in Baton Rouge, and all along the way I tasted and reviewed and wrote about scores of beers.  

I was planning on writing a post about my top 10 reviewed beers of 2010, but honestly, my new page on my favorite beers covers at least half of them, so that's kinda pointless.  I could talk about my favorite posts of the year, but really I just covered most of that in my paragraph above.  Instead, I'm going to look to the future of The BR Beer Scene and my beer journey, and make ten seven beer and blog resolutions for 2011.

Resolution #1:

Visit more breweries... let's make it at least 6 in 2011.  Some of these will be easy.  I'm way overdue for a trip back to the Parish Brewery, I'm sure I'll be checking in on the guys at Tin Roof, and who doesn't love a Spring weekend day spent drinking at Abita?  Saint Arnold is in some new digs over in Houston that I'd like to check out, but past that I'm going to have to go out of my way and find a few places to visit.  I'm up for the challenge though... bring it on!

Resolution #2:

Get published somewhere other than my own blog.  I can make this happen I'm sure... might not be anything major, but I can pull it off.

Resolution #3:

Keep home-brewing... Dustin Davis and I just started getting into it within the last month of 2010, and I want us to really put out some tasty and creative home-brews in 2011.  

Resolution #4:

Enter a home-brew contest.  This really goes hand in hand with #3, but by the end of the year I'd like us to be confident enough in a beer or two to see how it stacks up. I know our friends and family will enjoy our beer just about no matter what, but we'll need to know what our peers think.

Resolution #5:

Drink a beer stronger than I ever have before.  Right now the strongest beer I've tried and reviewed was Samichlaus at 14% abv.  I'm going to find one even bigger, there are plenty out there!

Resolution #6:

Continue to get in better shape and lose weight as I simultaneously continue to enjoy beer and write about it.  Since beer and diet don't go well together this is going to mostly mean more exercise, more running, and then enjoying beer maybe in a little more moderation.

Resolution #7:

There are 365 days in 2011... I think I should try 365 new beers.  This will be tough to work in with resolution #6, but I can do it.  I'm not going to be posting a review per day, probably more like 3 or 4 at a time with other posts mixed in about beer events, home-brewing, and maybe even how #6 is coming along.  I also might cheat a little and count a beer if I haven't had a chance to really review it and write about it the first time.  Or if I try new Parish beer that is an evolved recipe from what I've previously tasted.  At any rate, I'm looking forward to this... anyone want to join me?

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

-Eric