Beer-a-Day Project: I did it!

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Now that I’ve done it I can hardly believe I made it through. It was harder and more different than I expected going in. When I first did some research to see if anyone had ever done anything like this I couldn’t believe how few had actually tried it, almost all failing to finish, with many quitting before getting even halfway.

By the time I got to the third month I understood why. This is hard! I mean, not only was I drinking more than I ever had in my life, but I had to make sure I did it each and every day. Things went best when I brought home my mixed case and photographed all the bottles before putting them in the fridge. Then I could fix up the photos and prepare the articles so that when I actually did drink the beer I needed to only add my impressions. Unfortunately I wasn’t always able to do that, so there were many days that were a bit of a scramble.

Never in my adult life did I ever think that I would say to myself  “Oh, damn. I have to drink a beer today. Nuts.”

In late November I was on the home stretch, confident that I would finish and feeling good about myself. Of course, that’s when I found out about Dale Van Wieren, who is now over 10,000 daily beers. I’d have to keep going for 24 or so years to catch up. It was rather disheartening to be sure. I consoled myself with a beer.

Many thanks to Ye Old Spirit Shop in Frederick, Maryland. If it wasn’t for their extensive selection and encouragement to buy single bottles I never could have done this. For the last third of the year, I had to go shopping with a list of beers that I’d already had as part of this project so I wouldn’t buy them again.

Thanks also to those Hop Talk readers who offered up enthusiasm and encouragement over the course of this past year.

And thanks most of all to my patient and understanding wife, who was not only the inspiration for this project but also my biggest fan. She helped me sample quite a few beers and reminded me more than once of my daily obligation.

Here’s the top 10 brands I sampled this year:

1. Samuel Adams – 20
2. Flying Dog  – 15 (19 if you include Wild Goose)
3. Saranac – 12
4. Brooklyn – 11
(tie) Dogfish Head – 11
(tie) Victory – 11
7. Great Divide – 10
8. Abita – 8
(tie) Samuel Smith – 8
(tie) Weyerbacher – 8

I didn’t try to rate the beer as I sampled them; I just tried to give my impressions. There were some surprises: Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout, and Flying Dog Raging Bitch are three I rather liked, but there were plenty more that I was glad I had.

As for ones I wasn’t so glad about, an awful lot of the European lagers in green bottles were lightstruck, which I suppose shouldn’t be a surprise. What is surprising is how many people still drink them and think that’s the way quality beer is supposed to taste. Back in July I had several American macro lagers. Of them, I found Miller Lite the best of the bunch, but, honestly, that’s not saying much. I did try to keep an open mind, though.

You can see the list of beers in order in each of the monthly recaps, but here’s an alphabetical list:

11 thoughts on “Beer-a-Day Project: I did it!”

  3. I just have to say congratulations on a job well done. I look forward to keeping up with your beer exploits in the future.

    I didn’t catch onto this until some time in June, but I’ve looked forward to this ever since.

    An aside, but possibly relevant… did you put on any weight this year that you think might be traceable back to the 35 gallons of beer you’ve ingested?

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  7. Haha! Well there’s some good empirical evidence for the effectiveness of beer for weight gain!

    Did you find yourself drinking less beer or other alcohols than normal during the last year, due to having to drink your one-a-day?

  8. Congrats on finishing the full year – and for putting Saranac in your list of top brewers this year! Hope you can make a trip to visit us at the brewery some time.

  9. Well, Ron lives up that way. I think I could work out a visit with Ron and a trip out to the brewery.

  10. Well Al, I think you are absolutely crazy for trying to do this… And my hero for accomplishing it. CONGRATS!

    The guy with 10,000 differents beers without missing a day? Bah.

    I’ve been dying to get you guys out for a tour of the Utica brewery. I roll my windows down when I drive by just to catch the smell.

    So, of you were going to pick you single favorite out of them all, which is it.

  11. I don’t think I could possibly pick a favorite. There were many where I said “that was really good and I’d love to have another”, but I had to move on to the next beer.

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