New Year Resolutions For Beer People

I posted something earlier in the week about resolutions, but it was more fun than helpful to my fellow beer drinkers. Most resolutions are negative and vague devices of self-loathing. While we all need to lose a little weight, stop our unhealthy habits and keep from annoying the hell out of people by picking our teeth in public, that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with beer along the way. Here are some New Year’s Resolutions for beer drinkers in 2010.

- Try (insert number you’re comfortable with) New Beers Every Month.

For some, this is no problem and their number will be faily high. For others, they’ll struggle to get one after the first month or so. Face it, some people are always searching and others are creatures of habit. Both personalities are welcome as beer drinkers, but both should be pushing themselves to expand their horizon during a concentrated period of time.

Note – trying a 12oz can of Coors vs a 24oz can doesn’t count as trying a new beer.

- Take More Time To Drink Your Beer

This one, once again, needs to be tailored to your style, but the basic principal is simple – savoring beer will help you understand it better. With food you can condition yourself to count how many times you chew to keep from taking down “chokeable chunks” one after another, but with beer, it’s more difficult. Imagine there’s a weight at the end of your glass that makes it very difficult to hold up for more than one second at a time. That’s a pretty good length for a short sip. Multiple sips or fill your whole mouth with beer gulps will make it impossible to keep your glass full for more than a few minutes.

- Focus on a Style (1 per month)

As you can see, I’m big on breaking down resolutions into month long goals. This one is both challenging and fun. The idea is that even with all the various styles, there’s still an incredible amount of variation among each style. If for one month you were to focus on Porters, you might end that month with a pretty good idea of the porter landscape. Do this for an entire year and I think you might be quite interesting to talk to at a dinner party.

Here’s a chart to help you understand the different styles of beer out there. Some are more prevalent than others (when is the last time you saw multiple taps of Kolsch?)

Here’s a chart with some real life examples.

- Start Searching For Your Birthday Beer

Regardless of whether your birthday is in February or in December, you should start thinking about each beer as a potential candidate to be the official sponsor of your birthday. Sure, it’s a little silly, but I like to have something special, that’s just for me, on my birthday. Why not spend a good portion of the year savoring every beer, evaluating it’s worth and searching for something that tastes special enough to have on days that are special.

- Visit Two Breweries in 2010

Breweries are always great. Unfortunately, they never offer consistent access to, you know, the people who actually make the beer. Sometimes you are able to learn a ton from a charismatic, well informed, tour guide, but there’s just something missing there. Ok, let’s face it, what I’m really trying to say is that I want all brewery tours to be like Willy Wonkas and I’m still disappointed Jim Koch didn’t dance around in a top hat and let us drink out of his river of beer. Either way, beer has gotten to the point that no matter where you are reading this, there are two breweries within a feasible distance from you. Make a day of it. Make a weekend of it. Just go – and don’t forget to buy things directly from them if they make beer you particularly want to support.