Happy New Year?

2011 isn't quite off with the bang I was hoping for. A sleepless week has made the most basic of life's tasks seem overwhelming and the normally overwhelming tasks impossible. So six days into the new year my motivation to start a blog seemed to be decreasing as rapidly as my desire to drink beer was increasing. But motivated by the knowledge that the more I drank, the longer that first blog post would have to be (and the less likely it was to ever happen), I decided it was time to get things going.

So here goes.

In an odd twist of fate, my year of beer began at the mercy of my grandmother's fridge. First beer of the year was Ballantine XXX Ale. Any excitement I had to start the year with a beer I hadn't tried before was immediately negated by intense skepticism of any beer that comes in a green bottle. While it was better than I expected, I was a little bit bummed that this was how I was going to start my year. That is, until my cousin made the connection between the Ballantine label and the symbols on Led Zeppelin's 4th album. Apparently Ballantine was John Bonham's beverage of choice. Cool. After a brief argument with my grandmother's husband about whether or not this is the best beer ever (I was in the "not the best beer ever" camp, if you were wondering),  I decided that this was on okay way to start my year after all, if only for story value.

Out of the same fridge, beers two and three were Stella Artois and Blue Moon Belgian White, two forgettable beers that people seem to love. (Why?)

Things got better the next day, with my own fridge at my disposal. Beer number four was a Great Divide Hibernation Ale. Big and malty with a nice balance of hops and tones of chocolate and coffee, this beer brings a lot of flavor. This was a stark contrast to when malts go wrong with next day's beer, Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale, which was just overwhelmingly sweet. Seriously, who puts caramel AND toffee in a beer?

Still something was missing. I love hops and 2011 needed them. Badly. Three days into the new year, Bear Republic Racer 5 delivered. The next day, Dogfish Head Burton Baton Imperial IPA brought things to a new level with flavors of hops, citrus, oak... and 10% ABV. The folks at Dogfish are beer geniuses, and I expect this won't be the last we hear of them in this blog.

Today, Green Flash West Coast IPA brings us to beer number eight. This is one of my all time favorites. It's super hoppy and delicious, and just might have given me enough motivation to get this blog off the ground.

Beers Down: 8
Beers To Go: 357