2019 Beer Goals + Year in Review

Beer Talk
21

familiar suspects

at least you’ve taken down Worcestershire

Pencil in a day at the GBBF this year … you’ll take down 4 if not all 5

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22

I had a beer brewed by an Isle of Wright brewery, but for a brewery in another county. Was pretty bummed not to get that elusive one of as well.

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This IoW beer turns up in farm shops/garden centres which stock The Garlic Farm products:

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/the-garlic-farm-black-garlic-beer/137892/414177/

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24

For East Yorkshire, Asda stock some Atom.

For Northumberland, Waitrose stock Allendale.

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:heavy_check_mark: I’ve rated 1903 Spanish beers thanks to my last beer session two days ago

:heavy_check_mark: Done!! reaching 5110 beer ratings

:heavy_check_mark: Done!! with 108 countries rated and thanks to some trades

:x: Failed. Trades with UK Rbeerians should have been the solution

:x: Failed. Only 16. I should drink more different countries…

:x: Failed. With two sons is still complicated

:heavy_check_mark: Done with 9 trades: 2 x :es:, 1 x :finland:, 1 x :de:, 1 x :ru: (IP), 1 x :switzerland: , 1 x :uk:, 1 x :netherlands: and 1 x :sweden:

2019 Beer Goals:

  1. Rate 2200 Spanish beers. Actually I have 1903
  2. Reach 5600 ratings. Today I have 5110
  3. Reach 115 different countries. Today I have 108
  4. Reach 500 beers from :belgium: and :us:. Actually I have 479 and 405, respectively
  5. Complete 20 beer styles with +100 ratings. Today I have 14
  6. Reach 20 countries with almost 50 ratings (same as 2018 beer goals). Actually I have 16. Drink more from :poland:, :estonia:, :slovakia:, :czech_republic:, :israel:, :ireland:, :jp:, should be solution
  7. Attend to an European Beer festival (same as 2018 beer goals). I could attend to a Caminha beer festival in :portugal:
  8. Reach 90 different regions rated (same as 2018 beer goals). Actually I have 81
  9. Reach 230 places rated
  10. I’ll try to drink less than 2018
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2018 goals:
1. Get to 170 unique Countries. I’m currently at 150 with 5 new ones coming and two more very likely.
Status: Failed, but close. I’m at 165 with four new country ticks in my kitchen I haven’t ticked yet and another couple in the mail.
New goal for 2019: 185 countries. Shouldn’t be too difficult with all the trades I have in the works. I also want to finish ticking all the regions that have beer.

  1. Get to 20K beers.
    Status: Failed. I slowed down considerably this year. I only really tick during my weekly bottle share and visit a brewery maybe once or twice a month.
    New goal for 2019: Get to 20K beers

  2. Get to 2,500 Unique Breweries.
    Status: Achieved. No new goal for 2019

  3. Get Traditional Ale, Baltic Porter and Amber Lager over 100 rates.
    Get six new styles over 80 rates.
    Get nine new styles over 60 rates.
    Get nine new styles over 50 rates.
    Status: Mixed. I got Traditional Ale and Baltic Porter over the line. Not Amber Lager. I didn’t check the other lesser ones. I don’t care enough about this anymore, plus I don’t go to enough breweries to make this plausible.

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Rearview mirror:

1. Get as close to 1000 as possible - min. 850.

:ballot_box_with_check: Way past that. Wow. Kind of unexpected, but (2) has helped with this immensely.

2. Visit at least two festivals.

:ballot_box_with_check: Went to three festivals, met some more RBians from Austria.

3. Have at least 1 tick of each beer style + half of the Sake styles.

:negative_squared_cross_mark: Still haven’t really done this, but I prefer to get to it slowly, and not by just ticking. I do have two more styles lined up though. Sake was disregarded.

4. Get up to 50 countries.

:negative_squared_cross_mark: Similar to the above. I figured out that just ticking for the sake of it doesn’t do anything for me. I’d much rather get there naturally.

5. Get as many of the Austria Top 50 as possible.

:ballot_box_with_check: Wow, that’s not very specific. I’d say I managed to get there though. Have more than half, and some stronger entries are in my cellar. Gonna breeze by 40 this year.

6. Get as many of the Austrian Zwickel/Keller/Landbier as possible

:negative_squared_cross_mark: Didn’t manage to do this really. Lost track of it a little and just want to get there naturally, but a good ZKL is still something I seek out whenever I can.

3/6. Okay-ish, I guess? That I don’t really care about the ones I haven’t really fulfilled only kind of showed me that I need to set different goals.

So - what’s up in 2019?
My goals for 2019 will be a little different. As I don’t much care for reaching certain numbers just for the sake of it, I have decided on the following things I want to do:

  1. Visit more than two festivals this year and meet as many RBians as possible.
    I don’t like going to a festival and just tick like a crazy person, but I like trying new stuff and seeing what’s out there. For that, festivals visited with friends are great. And also meeting new friends at festivals! So I have at least three or four lined up - Craft Bier Fest Vienna once or twice, Bevog Who cares for beer Festival, Budapest Beer Week 2019. I’d love to share a glass whenever any of you are around!

  2. Do at least six trades, including Local Swaps and Secret Santas.
    I almost managed a trade each month of the year 2018. That’s wild and explains why my fridge and cellar are quite packed. Trades are lovely. The generosity of you folks can be almost too much, and I love it. I want to trade with at least three or four people I’ve already traded with in the last few years, but also get to meet new people and dive deeper into countries I’ve only touched lightly - or never - up until now.

  3. Get down to 100 beers in house - do more tastings! Host or visit at least six tastings this year.
    I currently have around 180 beers sitting here. That’s not good. I don’t want to have the pressure of having to open beers to do them and the people who traded them justice. I want to enjoy this, the subtle differences and big range of aromas, tastes and mouth feels, and not consume in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable. On the other hand, I also want to keep trading regularly and keep up with the new releases from the local scene.
    How do we go about this? More tastings. I’ve slowly met more and more lovely people who I feel comfortable with sharing an evening at home, talking beer and life. It’s lovely, helps manage stock and opens up whole new friendships. Sounds like a good idea, I’d say.

  4. Stay on top of the local scene and help connecting local beer people - do an event or two in the next year.
    I really want to get more involved with the rather fragmented local scene and help connecting the great people I’ve gotten to know a bit more. I’ve started doing social media stuff, but in the next months, this will translate into me hosting an event or two over the course of the year.

  5. Enjoy getting to 2000 - or not.
    Seriously, it would be great to get to taste as much lovely stuff as possible. There’s no point in forcing this though, and it’s alcoholic beverages. So I’ll pace myself, enjoy the ride, and hope to continue doing this with you.

Cheers to a good New Year, friends.

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2018 Goals

:ballot_box_with_check: Smashed this easily with over 1300

:negative_squared_cross_mark: Got 5 of them done but to be honest I lost interest in this. Still missing Surrey and Rutland. Surrey is doable but no idea what to do for Rutland other than actually going there.

:ballot_box_with_check: Completed this last week with Denmark at exactly 100. Which means I drank 45 Danish beers in 2018, almost entirely thanks to Mikkeller and To Øl and their perennial availability in the UK. Sweden and Norway were stretch goals for this one but I didn’t put any effort into them, they’re at 83 and 70 respectively so I suspect I’ll get these two done in 2019.

:negative_squared_cross_mark: I got all except Scottish Ale. This was another goal I lost interest in. Also my Sahti rates are questionable. One is a “Sahti inspired pale ale” which I guess counts, but the other is a Traditional Ale mistakenly categorised as a Sahti. I submitted multiple corrections for this but it’s still not been fixed so fuck it I give up.

:ballot_box_with_check: I didn’t set a specific number but I got three more so now at 71. Thanks to @herrklemann for all 3 of those via a trade. 2 of those I ended up getting myself later in the year anyway.

2019 Goals
The ongoing frustration with this site, and the lack of response from joet on many issues/bugs people have, has caused a huge decline in interest for me, so I don’t really know what to put here other than some personal stuff.

  1. Buy less beer.
    I love being able to get all the latest releases from my favourite breweries from local and online bottleshops, but doing this on a very regular basis is all too easy and it’s costing me a fortune. I need to be a lot more picky about what I drink and need to ignore the FOMO.
  2. Drink less beer
    due to the above I’m constantly hovering around 200+ beers at home at any given time. I’m drinking on a daily basis to get through them but inevitably this doesn’t really make a dent as new releases come just as fast as I can drink them. I dread to think of the damage I did to my liver in 2018 trying to keep up.
  3. I dunno, maybe I’ll come back and add more here if things improve but like I said, at the moment Ratebeer is killing my interest in using Ratebeer.
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Link to 1/2 year check: 1/2 year 2018 beer goals check?!

  1. A white month in Jan, started! - 1/2 Done! – Full Year = OK :joy:
  2. 11 new countries, currently at 169 so 180 1/2, 177 so close. Have a package on the way to me so soon at 179.Full year 177, sitting duck on 2, so 179 theoretically :skull:
  3. 30 new Swedish breweries, currently 284.
    -1/2, 298, so half way there, will be issues with this one, not many local are popping up. .Full year 323 = OK (+39) :joy:
  4. Drink less low rated beers, current average 3,24 - 1/2. 3.25 in the right direction;)
    Full = 3.26 :joy:
  5. H-index for countries up to 30, sitting at 24 now. Tough target and probably many bad beers. - 1/2 have done great efforts the last couple of days, will reach 25 today. Hope to reach 26, by next fortnight vs going to Croatia.
    Have a friend over to Iceland week 26 - so 27 by week 27. How to reach cpl targets, no clues? Full year = 27 :skull:
  6. Fix the 10 of each style, now -unblended lambic: eight German Kristall: seven, Faro: five - 1/2 Unb. Lambic - 9. Faro - five! Probably will not happen.
    Full = all at 10 except Faro still at 5 ;(, Need to go to Brussells!:skull:
  7. H- index for styles up to 50, at 45 now - 1/2. 46, 47 with in a fortnight.
    Ending with 48, very hard to achieve! :skull:
  8. Improve on regions 103 to 110. -1/2, currently 105, box that are on its way and will improve this significantly. 107 = NOK :wink:, box didn’t arrive yet::skull:

3/8 need to improve my stats

A. A white month in Jan, started it again so 1/31 part done!
B. 185 countries, currently at 177
C. 355 Swedish breweries currently at 323
D. Average from 3,26 to 3,27
E. H index for countries from 27 to 32
F. H index for styles from 48 to 53
G. Go to Brussels and Fix the Faros up to 10 – hard
H. Regions from 107 to 115

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2018 Goals:

  1. Reach 200 total ratings for 6 countries: Spain (196 to 315) :ballot_box_with_check:, USA (157 to 327) :ballot_box_with_check:, Denmark (158 to 207) :ballot_box_with_check:, Netherlands (155 to 226) :ballot_box_with_check:, Germany (142 to 239) :ballot_box_with_check: and England (103 to 246) :ballot_box_with_check:

  2. Reach 50 Portuguese Breweries and 100 portuguese beers: Currently at 41 breweries and 98 beers. :negative_squared_cross_mark:

  3. Going to more beer venues and festivals Maybe going to RBESG…Not RBESG this 2018 but I went to Manchester Beer & Cider Festival, Barcelona Beer Festival, MBCC, Caminha Artbeerfest, Mash Beer Festival. I´m happy with that number of festivals :ballot_box_with_check:

  4. Rate Gibraltar and Isle of Man: Gibraltar :ballot_box_with_check:, Isle of Man :negative_squared_cross_mark:

  5. Don´t drink Mikkeller beer: Last Mikkeller beer was tasted on the 14/07/2017. Ok, I tried some beers from Mikkeller NYC, Mikkeller San Diego, Mikkeller Baghaven, People Like Us and Warpigs…:ballot_box_with_check:

2019 GOALS

  1. Hit Top 7 in Portugal and 50 Portuguese Breweries. I think I will need around 60 new Portuguese beers. Might be doable, but depending on the number of visits to Portugal.

  2. Up to 40 English Counties and 150 English Breweries Currently at 32 Counties and 105 breweries.

  3. Complete all the 17 spanish regions: 2 Left (Murcia and Canary Islands)

  4. Meet new Ratebeerians and do more tastings I live in an area with 0 local scene so…is difficult because 95% of the time I drink alone. But I become a ticker when I travel.

  5. Visit at least one new country Currently at 16 countries. I have already planned 3 beer trips for 2019 but all 3 in my comfort zone (England, Portugal and Denmark). A friend of mine is living in Canada now but I think it would be a long travel for my 2 year old son and wife will kill me if i do it alone :rofl:.

  6. Drink less commercial lager Sorry Estrella de Galicia and Mahou.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all of you!!!

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My Goals for 2019:

  1. Get to 900 place rates. I’m on 773, so this means I’d need 127 or just over 10 per month. I doubt I’m going to be able to do it, but I’m going to set this goal and see what happens…

  2. Further to the above, gain place rates in at least 2 new UK counties and at least one new country.

  3. Do Bermondsey, Manchester and Liverpool (again) this year.

  4. But also, really dig out some new places that are less well advertised on RateBeer. I need to get to the smaller towns that have undiscovered gems rather than rating quite so many tried and true urban craft beer monoliths.

  5. Drink beer from 6 new countries, taking my total to 70, and get 1 more region from USA/Canada/Germany each.

  6. Try 100 new breweries, at last 75 from the UK.

  7. Get my top 5 most rated breweries to be craft/micro only. Try to push breweries such as Greene King out of the top 10.

  8. Stop drinking so many goddamn golden beers.

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32

I’ll modify that. I won’t get to 2000 this year anyway, and I don’t really aspire to do it. But I really want to do something else: reading my backlog showed me that while listing descriptors of aromas is sort of helpful, I have often stuck with descriptions like “Lightly sweet, tart, medium bitter.” for taste. Looking back, that is so plain and descriptive, it doesn’t really tell me anything about how I found the beer. That won’t really be possible at festivals, but for stuff at home or in a pub I want to invest more time to write something up that is packed with more information and better to read. So I’ll change this and say: 5. Enjoy getting closer to 2k and work on my written reviews.

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You should have no problem with 4. Everytime I go on Twitter or such like I spot places which have not been added to Ratebeer. Every day a brewery seems to open up some sort of tap space and tonnes are not on here or are unrated. Just need the time to do it.

The UKCBF South Coast Chapter on Facebook are having a meet up in Gosport and Portsmouth. Of the 10 places on the itinerary, 4 have not been added and one has zero rates.

Obviously the fact only admins can add places does not help.

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I regurarly add a new place when I spot one and I am not an admin. Not even a premium member.

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Do’h. That was a brain fart. I meant to state ‘edit places’

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My ASDA does not carry Atom beers. Did get the one you recommended from Waitrose tho.

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I don’t remember making goals for 2018, so basically I achieved all I expected to do, but for 2019 I have a few

  1. I have 18 USA States left to do, I want to knock these down a little. I have a beer from Virginia in the pipe line. Some trickier States to manage.

  2. I have already knocked up 2 new Countries this year, a couple more would be nice.

  3. I would like to get a 10th Country through 100 ratings. Denmark is currently on 91 so would be favourite.

  4. Surrey and Northumberland through 100 ratings, hopefully I can do one of them.

  5. I’d like to get to 1500 Place Ratings.

  6. I have had a plan for quite a while now of project 20 in 2020 (20k ratings by the end 2020) I’m on plan but need to get within striking range this year.

Happy 2019 everyone. Glen

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I have a few rather unspectacular cans from Montana if you need that state … happy to hold off on one that isn’t hoppy if you are planning on Cotts Convention this year.

Montana isn’t in the most difficult 5 states … which I’d say were both the Dakotas, Arkansas, West Virginia and Kansas but it’s in that next group of 5.

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Some online bottleshops carry Atom from time to time. BeerMerchants currently has some if you can’t find them anywhere else near you: https://www.beermerchants.com/browse/brewery/atom/
Neutron Star is particularly highly rated.

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2018 Goals:
15000 ratings.
Got it! Barely. Ticked #15k with @hershiser2 and @somenumbers1234 on the last day of the year!

850 place ratings.
Blew this one out of the water. Was @ 888 at the end of the year. #850 was Ridgeview Liquor in Green Bay, which I hit way back in March. Looks like this was too conservative a goal.

1000 Wisconsin ratings.
Easy. At 1164 now. 1000 was on July 1st with New Glarus R&D Vintage 2016.

2700 Virginia ratings.
Blew this one out of the water too. Another goal that needed to be more aggressive. Hit #2700 on January 4th with Basic City Circa 1869.

97 Countries (currently 94).
FAILED! @94 at the end of the year. BUT I’ve ticked a new country (Bahamas) last week!

5 from every style (need 1 sahti, 2 polotmavy, 2 faro).
Mixed. Still need 2 polotmavy and 2 faro, but got the sahti (now up to 6).

Rate a place in a new state. Candidates are AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, FL, HI, ID, KS, LA, MS, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY
Failed. I had a trip to North Dakota planned at one point but had to cancel it for financial reasons.

2019 GOALS
-17000 ratings (currently 15,090).
-950 place ratings (currently 895).
-1500 Wisconsin ratings (currently 1164).
-3000 Virginia ratings (currently 2828).
-1000 North Carolina ratings (currently 900).
-97 Countries (currently 95).
-5 from every style (2 polotmavy, 2 faro).
-At least one from every style after the RateBeer style makeover–if that ever actually happens.
-Rate a place in a new state. See above list.
-Rate 150 Wisconsin breweries (currently 113).
-Rate 130 Virginia Breweries (currently 110).
-More sake ratings (currently 27).

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