New Years Resolution & Beer Prices

So I realized that I didn't inform many people about my New Years resolution. Yes I try to do the same things everyone else does.. exercise more, eat better, watch my weight, but I did another this year that I really am going to try to uphold. My goal at the beginning of year was to not buy any beer but to only buy ingredients for me to brew, with a few exceptions.

The exceptions are the following:

• Going out to a bar, restaurant, state fair, vacation, etc. 
• Going to a party or throwing our own party. As much as I love supplying my own beer, sometimes I can't afford to drain all 3 kegs. Not that it's the cost that hurts, it's the 5+ hours of brewing to replace what's in there that hurts.
• If something new comes out from one of the commercial brewers that I want to try. Example: Summit's unchained series. BTW the new Gold Sovereign is amazing. Go buy it if you're in the Twin Cities area. 

So, with that said something new came out that I wanted to buy to drink while having my impromptu Friday brew session (which I'll blog about once I get the pictures from Tony).  Stone Brewing out of Escondido, CA just started distributing here in Minnesota. I've had their beer before when I've gone to Washington. I was pretty excited to try their beer again. After contacting my local liquor store to insure they had some, I went down there to pick up a few 6 packs. This was the first time I had bought beer since christmas time. Holy sweet mother of god that beer wasn't cheap. They only had two of their beers, IPA and their Levitation ale. At $10.99 + tax a 6 pack, I bit the bullet and bought one six pack of each, but even I hesitated to spend that sort of cash on a quality product. I can really understand why people might be turned off from going outside of their save beer zone to try something different. Now granted that's cheaper then the $7.75 I paid the next night for a pint of Stone Arrogant Bastard at the bar I went to, but if you end up not liking the beer, that's a lot of cash to figure that out. I really do enjoy the places that allow for the build your own 6-pack. Reflecting on this now did make me just think that everytime I brew, I'm taking a gamble I might not like it also. Only problem is at that point I've dropped close to $30, 5 hours of my time, and I have 5 gallons of it. Lucky for me I typically have suckers friends I can pawn off offer up my beer to.

To close this, I still really encourage you all to continue to support your local brewer or another craft brewer, even if they are "larger" now such as the Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) or New Belgium Brewing (Fat Tire). These companies are still locally owned and put a lot of pride in what they produce. If your name is Drea and I see you drinking another Bud Lite I will give you the finger, just like I promised at the Ginger Hop on Saturday night. Remember, it's not that I hate lite beer, it's just that I hate Anheuser Busch (which now own Goose Island... damnit!)

Prost!

-Ryan