730 Days

181 Different Kinds of Beer

Averaging Roughly 1.5 Beers a Day
(Assuming all of those were Sixers)

Nearly 2 years ago to this day I made a pact to myself. I promised myself that I would not purchase beer in a liquor store twice for as long as I could. I would go without repeating a beer for at least a year. I tracked my progress by saving the bottle caps.

Last September, the first Year of Beer successfully concluded and I decided there was plenty of beer left out there for me to do at least another year. Around June or July, however, I really began to grow weary of the Years of Beers. The beer left on the shelves was either extremely expensive or all the kinds I had been avoiding for the last 2 years. I had exhausted the stock of at least 2 of the 5 liquor stores near me. I got sick of being forever concious of how I opened a bottle of beer, ensuring that I got at least one undented cap for the sixer. I got sick of getting excited when I saw a new sixer on the shelf, only to find out that it had a plain black bottle cap, which I had already collected and thus couldn't drink. I got sick of being forced to drink a beer that I wasn't in the mood for, but it was all that was left.

And I could go on....

But, ladies and gentlemen, tonight marks the last night in the 2nd Year of Beer. I am consuming the last bottle of beer that represents the last bottle cap on my last board of bottle caps. The journey is complete. Tomorrow I will buy my first sixer in 2 years that is purely "just because I wanted to," not because I hadn't consumed it yet. I'm still going to collect beer bottle caps of kinds I haven't yet had, but I won't be nearly as a Nazi about it.

Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll get the last string of bottle caps affixed to the board, and take a picture of it for you, and post it alongside last year's collection of beers. Tonight is a good night.

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What I'm Drinking: Cold Spring's Pale Ale. Considering this is made in Cold Spring, MN, it's surprisingly good. Other than Summit, most Minnesota beers are kind of "meh." I would highly recommend the Pale Ale, though. It's nicely hoppy and has good finish. I'm not completly "With it" on the beer brewing terminology, but it's a Craft Brew, not a Micro-Brew. If that means something to you, then there ya go.