The Beer Retard - January: My Month of Beer

I'm not sure anyone will be interested in this. It's pretty obsessive, but I'm keeping track of every beer I drink in 2008. It's a challenge and I'm not sure I'm going to stick with it. But with January in the books, I figured I'd do a recap of the month complete with all sorts of useless stats and information. The bottom line is I drank a shit ton of beer last month. 86 beers to be exact, which is almost 3 a day. That's a lot, even for a beer geek like me. I drank at least one beer on all 31 days of January and one day I had 7 (spread out over an entire Saturday). For a more freakish OCD breakdown, please continue:

Draft beer:
Pints - 41
Cask pints - 8
Schooners/Goblets/Tulips/Snifters - 6

Bottled beer:
12 oz. - 23
22 oz. - 1
12 oz. or 330 ml split 2 ways - 1
22 oz. or 750 ml split 2 ways - 6

I tried 22 beers that were new to me. That includes seasonals I've had before but are essentially a new experience each year. Four of them are highly recommended and should be sought out immediately (although two are only available if you can get to Big Time in Seattle's U-District).

Big Time Lift Ticket Winter Ale - Hops rule the day here, but malt is big too. Like all of Big Time's hoppy beers, this one is a winner. Shame that it's too strong and full-bodied to drink more than one or two.

Big Time The Maine Thing - Collaboration between Big Time brewer Bill Jenkins and Kevin West (formerly of Far West brewing now at Stone Coast in Maine). It's a delicious and easy to drink (5.5%) hoppy pale ale with those Simcoes I love so much. The cask version of this was ridiculously good.

Deschutes The Abyss 2007 - A much-hyped beer that disappears from shelves the minute it arrives, but this one is actually worthy of the fuss. So roasty it almost has a burnt quality (in a good way), but this isn't all the beer has to offer. It's complex, with a lot of interesting flavors going on. It's strong but not too hot with the alcohol. A sipper, but a smooth one.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2008 - I've been staying away from barleywines since I'm going to get more than my share from mid-February through mid-March, but I had to grab a six of this when I saw it on sale. As usual, it's great. Maybe I'll get all snobby and "lay some down" and see what it tastes like in a year. Fuck...I can't believe I just said that.