Before we begin, here are previous years:
- Year in Review and 2012 Plans in Beer
- Year in Review and 2013 Plans in Beer
- Year in Review and 2015 Plans in Beer
- Year in Review and 2016 Plans in Beer
- Year in Review and 2017 Plans in Beer
- Year in Review and 2018 Plans in Beer
- Year in Review and 2020 Plans in Beer
- Year in Review and 2021 Plans in Beer
Every year, I say to myself that this will probably be the last time I do one of these but I continue to keep drinking beer so there’s always data to digest. This blog post is now made possible annually by Untappd.com. Their CSV export has been a godsend for compiling this data. They finally added a year-in-review page you can see and share. Mine is here – https://untappd.com/yearinbeer/share/3f55b8e8eb334efa1ee69f31a4d8689b Like most links, that one will probably die in a year or two.
The elephant in the room for me is the lack of any “Beer Haul” posts in 2021. For 2020, I just put everything into a single post. This year, I didn’t publish any photos of my ‘hauls’ nor did I post any photos from tastings. It was that sort of year where work and hobbies fought for my spare time and some hobbies had to go. I’m starting to drop some of the things like my podcast because of lack of free time. It’s tough doing it all while having 2 full time jobs. In 2021, I was not a member of any beer clubs. We dropped Bruery and Hill Farmstead dropped us. Schramm’s was gone from my list as was Eden Ice Ciders. I still drink all of those but I have so much that I’m not crying about saving some money. Truly, we still have a thousand bottles or more in the cellar that are continuing to age. When I buy fresh beer, it’s either because Hill Farmstead is releasing a beer I need to rate or I just buy Heady Topper for a fresh IPA.
I think it’s safe to say this will be the final ‘year in beer’ to this blog. It’s healthy to consume less alcohol and it’s financially a good idea to forget about the high end stuff. I don’t think 2021’s November trip to Chicago for Goose Island’s Black Friday release will be the last time we go but I’m less excited about it every year. I’ve done it for 6 years and we have TONS of BCS to drink.
So…this was a 10 year hobby? I guess so. I think you’ll witness a slight resurgence of my hobby here or Flickr or on RateBeer after my cellar is drank down. When I consume my last bottle of pre-2016 Lambic, I’ll need to replenish. I love the juice but I don’t need to buy 150 bottles of it a year and only open 10. That’s how you get to 1000.
This year, thanks to the pandemic and my motorcycling hobby, we took only one beer-cation and that was for Chicago and Black Friday. We brought back 25 bottles of Bourbon County Stout and we haven’t opened any of them yet because I am still drinking 2016 and 2015 BCS from our 5 gallon kegs. It’ll take me 3-4 years to get to 2021 BCS releases.
We visited Hill Farmstead on average, once a month and I did break down and buy one magnum this year, a Madness & Civilization 14 in addition to new ratings and a few 4-packs of cans. I was honored that Hill Farmstead provided us with 3 kegs for our wedding which took place in October. Shaun sold me kegs of Anna and Arthur 3 years ago and we kept those kegs in the cooler to slowly age. We finished the Anna but the Arthur is on our kegerator downstairs and it’s delicious! He also sold us a fresh Edward keg and everyone finished that in one day. Given the price of the saison kegs, I’m glad we got to bring those home.
I consumed the last of my pre-2019 Bruery beers this year. It was a lot of work drinking 750ML bottles of 20% imperial stouts but I got through it and put on a few pounds.
Here are a few more fun 2021 stats:
- I drank 28 bottles of Lambic (fruit/Gueuze). The oldest was 2008 and newest was 2017
- 70 beers from Bruery with an average ABV of 14%
- 113 beers were rom Hill Farmstead. The oldest as was 2013
- 141 of my beers were in the Stout category with 120 being ‘imperial’ as in a higher gravity
- Untappd says I had 415 beers in 2021 with 259 of those being unique. That’s impressive! 35% of my beers were new
- Country Breakdown of unique beers: 224 from USA, 30 from Belgium and the rest from elsewhere.
- State: Vermont in the lead at 87 followed by 70 for California, 27 from Illinois
- 8PM and Saturdays are my biggest time per day to drink and day of the week.
ABV Update for 2021:
- 2021: 9.275
- 2020: 9.05%
- 2019: 8.397
- 2018: 8.655
- 2017: 7.849
It’s still going up but like Heather said, I drink fewer beers and the ones I do drink are higher gravity so this makes sense.
For RateBeer, where I only log beers I’ve never had before, it was another decrease this year. I rated 126 beers in 2021 down from 170 in 2020 and way down from my high 1127 in 2016. That’s what happens when you find what beers & breweries you like and stick to them. It makes life much simpler.
Compared to 2020, my check-ins on Untapped are down. 2020 was 545 check ins of 330 unique beers and, as said above, 415 check ins with 259 of those being unique.
Final note for 2021, I did not do any beer trades in 2021 but a buddy in Mighican with my last case of Schramm’s has mailed me the mead from my 2019 membership.
—-
That’s that! And I think, since I didn’t post any beer tasting blog posts or beer haul images, it’s fitting that I officially conclude a 10 year tradition of publishing an annual year in beer. Clearly I have other priorities now but I will continue to check into beers on Untappd – https://untappd.com/user/AdamChandler and RateBeer so you can find me there and add me as a friend if you want to follow along in the journey. Thanks everyone and here’s to empty calories and liquid assets.
I’ll leave you with this. Here’s every beer I drank in 2021:
