I’m an avid “logger” on the social beer app UNTAPPD. And so, every year I like to take a quick review of my “past year in beer.”

Here’s a quick look at it.

pastyearinbeer

Though I try NOT to check in the same beer twice, I will sometimes check in a beer again if I’d like to change my rating or if I’m wanting to connect a beer with a particular locale. So I will have some duplicates, as you see above.

In 2016 I tried 899 unique beers. Not a bad year, overall for beer adventuring, which means that I averaged trying about 2.45 new/different/unique beers per day. There are obviously some days (most likely when I’m at a beer fest or am visiting a brewery and end up trying lots of different samples, that skews the number up higher)

Taking a look at the map, you can see the blips where Liz and I were visiting San Diego (in July), on a camping/beering road trip (August), visiting Ottawa/Hull (in Sept) and hitting the mecca of craft beer in Portland hard in October. (And yet we STILL didn’t even manage to do more than put a small dent in the breweries in that city)

I enjoyed beers at 184 different venues this past year, 146 unique ones. The most visited places I tried beers were, The Winking Judge (Hamilton, ON), The Ship (Hamilton, ON) and Base Camp Brewing (Portland, OR)

The lowest rating I gave to any beer this past year was a 1.25 out of 5 rating that I gave to a Glutton-free beer. Sorry, but, even though I HAVE had a few glutton-free beers that tasted okay, they tend to, by default, be taste-free . . .

Of the beers that I gave either a 4.75 or a 5 to, they are listed in the chart below.

BEER NAME BREWERY BEER TYPE
Old North Mocha Porter: 6.5% Version (Fall 2015-present) Lake of Bays Brewing Company Porter – Other
Death By Coconut Oskar Blues Brewery Porter – Other
Ultra Gnar Gnar Base Camp Brewing Company IPA – American
Coffee Stout Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Stout – Other
Bring Out Your Dead (2015) Bellwoods Brewery Stout – American Imperial / Double
Six Killer Stout (Coffee Stout) Ironfire Brewing Company Stout – Other
Peanut Butter Milk Stout Belching Beaver Brewery Stout – Milk / Sweet
Ain’t Got No Soul Hard Ginger Acoustic Ales Brewing Experiment Ginger Beer
Hard Root Beer Mission Brewery Root Beer
Péché Mortel Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! Stout – American Imperial / Double
Boo Koo Mother Earth Brew Co. (California) IPA – American
Pumpkin Patch Ale Rogue Ales & Spirits Pumpkin / Yam Beer
Ultra Gnar Gnar Base Camp Brewing Company IPA – American
Toasted Coconut Chocolate Porter Caldera Brewing Company Porter – American
Wobbly Wheel TWB Cooperative Brewing IPA – American

In 2016 I drank beers at venues in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and France and I had beers from 19 different nations.

I used Untappd and my love of beer to meet so many new people this past year and make many new friends — that’s one thing Liz and I adore – talking to bartenders, talking to other beer aficionados, enjoying the local ambiance and setting and people.

In all, 2016 was a great year for trying new beers, mostly because Liz and I took a good number of trips in which we planned out a strategy for ensuring we could enjoy a number of those locations together.

And, though we don’t always agree on our favourites from the different locations, (although there are a few we both adored – such as the “Death by Coconut” from Oskar), one thing that we are both in passionate agreement upon is the desire to continue to try new places and new beers.