Happy New Beer! – Janee’s 2015 “Year In Beer”

It’s that time again. Another year has come and gone! What a great year it was! Let’s check it out!

I set a goal last year to become a Certified Cicerone by the end of this year… And I did it! (Just in case you didn’t hear. On my Twitter. Or on my Instagram. Or on my blog posts. Or on Facebook. Or via me shouting from the rooftops. So… if you didn’t hear, you were living under a rock.)

Mission. Fucking. Accomplished.

But what did the rest of this year in beer look like for me?

For starters, my husband became a Certified Cicerone, too! (Not as cool as me becoming one. But, you know… Noteworthy. 😉 )

And in other big beer news, I work in the beer industry now! I’m crazy busy, but I’m loving it. This is definitely where I belong. Where else can you have a cool job title like “Craft Adventure Coordinator”? Thanks, Devils Backbone!

Last year, I had set out to visit 52 breweries (one a week, essentially) in a year. I more than doubled that last year hitting 106. This year, I didn’t set a goal for visiting a set number of new breweries. But I actually visited 55 breweries! (I exceeded last year’s goal without even trying. Way to set the bar low, 2014 Janee.)

Note that my overall brewery count technically started when I started my blog in January 2014. (I never documented my brewery visits before then. But you’d better believe I’ve been to 2015’s number 17 visit, Karl Strauss, in Sorrento Mesa before, despite its presence on this year’s list! I got married there in November 2013, right before I started my blog.)

And here are my new brewery visits from 2015:
1. Gibb’s Hundred, Greensboro, NC – 1/3
2. Right Proper, Washington, D.C. – 1/14
3. Capitol City, Washington, D.C. – 1/15
4. Sugar Creek, Charlotte, NC – 1/17
5. The Olde Mecklenburg, Charlotte, NC – 1/17
6. Unknown Brewing, Charlotte, NC – 1/17
7. Mystery Brewing, Hilsborough, NC – 2/25
8. Anderson Valley, Boonville, CA 3/27
9. Bear Republic, Healdsburg, CA – 3/27
10. Russian River, Santa Rosa, CA – 3/27
11. Magnolia Pub & Brewery, San Francisco, CA – 3/28
12. The Rare Barrel, Berkeley, CA – 3/28
13. Cellarmaker Brewing, San Francisco, CA – 3/28
14. The Bruery, Placentia, CA – 3/29
15. Noble Ale Works, Anaheim, CA – 3/29
16. Pizza Port, Carlsbad, CA – 3/29
17. Karl Strauss (Sorrento Mesa location), San Diego, CA – 3/30
18. Alesmith Brewing, San Diego, CA – 3/30
19. Ballast Point, San Diego, CA – 3/30
20. Societe Brewing, San Diego, CA – 3/30
21. Port Brewing Co./The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA – 3/30
22. Goose Island (Clyborn), Chicago, IL – 4/27
23. Dry Hop Brewers, Chicago, IL – 4/27
24. Half Acre, Chicago, IL – 4/28
25. Begyle, Chicago, IL – 4/28
26. Revolution Brewing, Chicago, IL – 4/28
27. Four Saints, Asheboro, NC – 5/17
28. Big Boss, Raleigh, NC – 5/30
29. Blackjack, Raleigh, NC – 5/30
30. Strangeways, Richmond, VA – 6/5
31. Pizza Boy, Enola, PA – 6/6
32. Wild Wolf, Nellysford, VA – 6/6
33. Foothills (Production Brewery), Winston-Salem, NC – 6/19
34. Bull Durham Beer Company, Durham, NC – 6/20
35. Preyer Brewing, Greensboro, NC – 7/3
36. James River Brewery, Scottsville, VA – 7/7
37. Devils Backbone (Outpost), Lexington, VA – 7/9
38. Green Man, Asheville, NC – 7/17
39. Altamont Brewing, Asheville, NC – 7/18
40. Catawba, Morganton, NC – 7/19
41. Clouds Brewing, Raleigh, NC – 7/21
42. Wooden Robot, Charlotte, NC – 8/1
43. Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Boone, NC – 9/3
44. Lost Province, Boone, NC – 9/3
45. American Honor Ale House, Hickory, NC – 9/10
46. Primal Brewery, Huntersville, NC – 9/18
47. Howard Brewing, Lenoir, NC – 9/22
48. Olde Hickory, Hickory, NC – 9/23
49. Flytrap, Wilmington, NC – 10/7
50. The Answer, Richmond, VA – 10/31
51. Ardent Craft Ales, Richmond, VA – 10/31
52. Hardywood Park, Richmond, VA – 10/31
53. Pale Fire Brewing, Harrisonburg, VA – 11/14
54. Newgrass, Shelby, NC – 11/20
55. Parkway Brewing, Salem, VA – 12/19

This brings my grand total of brewery visits to 161.

In 2015, I visited new breweries in 5 states and the District of Columbia.

Now. Let’s check out some stats!!! And just for fun, let’s compare them to last year’s stats!

Total Beers in 2015: 1433 (That’s 244 MORE beers than last year.)

Total Unique Beers in 2015: 1018 (That’s 116 MORE beers than last year.)
***”Unique Beers” are the total number of beers I tried for the first time in 2015.

New Beer Ratio: 71% (I’m down 5% from last year. I expected this due to the fact that I now work for a brewery and attend lots of events where I’m drinking more of our beers more often.)

Average Beers Per Day: 4 (This is up one from last year. Don’t tell my doctor! Keep in mind that I attend lots of bottle shares and festivals where a pour of beer may only be 2 ounces.)

11/14 was my most painful day of 2015 with a grand total of 44 beers checked in that day! It was at a bottle share in Virginia.

Long gone are my college days of drinking crap beer to get drunk, kids. This is your friendly P.S.A. from yours truly reminding you to be responsible. If something makes you inexplicably happy, and doesn’t hurt you or others, go for it! Craft beer does that for me.

My Top Venue: (aside from my home) Haw River Farmhouse Ales!
Called it! My home away from home. 🙂 I was actually there today and the owner, Ben, walked into the tap room and said he was happy to see a bunch of his favorite people there today.

And My Most Consumed Beer for 2015: Major Arcana from Haw River!
This makes my little beer-filled heart so happy! If I had to drink one beer for the rest of my life, that would be it! Sadly, it was a limited quantity barrel aged beer that’s no longer around. I hope another batch will appear some time down the road, but it takes over a year to make! I actually was at the brewery when the very last keg ran out, and I actually got the very last pour. My husband was with me and wasn’t too happy about that! #sorryimnotsorry