Wow, it’s towards the end of January and this is the first post I’ve had in a month. Ouch. I’ve been slacking.

Well, to be honest my excitement for writing about beer definitely has been in a slump for me since I’ve started to make some changes to my health.

Starting at the end of November I’ve been meeting with a CrossFit personal trainer 3 times a week and changing my eating habits.

My whole life I haven’t adopted much of a regular exercise routine and I ended up as a lazy out-of-shape slob who was in need of a new wardrobe since my clothes no longer fit.

Sitting in front of a computer 10+ hours a day and drinking 2-3 beers a day (along with eating pretty much anything I wanted all the time) sure didn’t help my waistline. While there are a lot of health benefits with beer, there is no denying the fact that there is a lot of calories in each bottle. Without exercise and proper eating the inevitable beer belly start to develop when you drink a lot.

So with this is mind I decided enough was enough. I was tired of having little energy and feeling bloated all the time and I made some changes in my life.

Part of the changes is that I significantly cut back on the amount of beer I drink. I’ve made a rule for myself that I can only drink on days when I’ve exercised, and I don’t have to drink everyday (although I really want to).

I’ve cut out most grains from my diet (with the exception of beer) and over the past month and a half I have so much more energy. I’m down 16 pounds (still about 10 to go) and am getting strong and stronger every week.

I feel great!

So with the limited amount of beer I’ve been drinking, my excitement for writing about it has decreased.

However, it is just a temporary slump while I turn my body into a fat burning machine and figure out a proper balance.

Craft beer is still a huge passion of mine and I plan on stepping things up and making this blog one of the best on the web.

I’m currently working on my 2012 goals and plans for this blog, let me know in the comments below what you would like to see here?

Thanks for your patience over the past month and heres to a great 2012!

Cheers!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in The U.S. which means a whole nation stuffing their faces with some great food. Along with the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and the rest of the usual food, many people pair wine with their holiday dinner.

While I really enjoy wine, a nicely paired beer is definitely my preferred beverage of choice (both while stuffing my face and watching some football).

Looking through old posts on this site, I quickly realized that there are some amazing Thanksgiving day posts which share some great beer pairings and suggestions for your holiday that were too good to get lost in the sea of blog posts.

I figured this Thanksgiving we will take a look at the past to give you some good ideas on what to pair with your Turkey.

Great Thanksgiving Posts To Check Out

• Beers To Try (And Why) This Thanksgiving
• Don’t Forget the Beer this Thanksgiving
• Beers to Bring to the Table this Holiday Season
• Beers at the Table this Holiday Season

Whatever beer you choose this Thanksgiving, I hope you have a great time with friends and family and remember to stop and think of all that you are thankful for.

What beer(s) are you pairing your Thanksgiving day feast with?

For those of you wondering if I’m still alive, I sure am. I took a few weeks off of posting on here mainly because I’ve been swamped in my business and had to put Blog About Beer on the back burner for a few weeks.

The good news is that I’m back and ready to start taking this blog to the next level.

50 Beer Challenge Update

For those of you who have followed my 50 beer challenge, I didn’t quite make it but I’m still not giving up.

I realized it is a lot harder to get beers from other parts of the country without spending a lot. I did do a few beer trades, but shipping was like $10-$20 each package which adds up quickly so I had to stop.

I still have 18 more states to obtain and hope to get my challenge complete by the end of the year.

What I’m Brewing

While I am nowhere near an advanced home brewer, I still enjoy brewing good beer. My brewing partner and I just brewed a Pumpkin Spice Ale and an IPA. They are going to be delicious.

My goal for the next year is to step up my homebrewing game and brew a lot more. Brewing is by far the greatest hobby in the world.

What Do You Want From Blog About Beer?

While I enjoy doing beer reviews, I want to make sure the content on this site is useful to you the beer drinker. Through my challenge 90% of the content was reviews and I want a little more diversity in the future.

My goal with this site is to not just be another beer review blog, but a place that has some great content for fans of beer.

So my question to you is what do you want out of this blog? Product reviews? Videos? Brewery News? How To’s? Beer Education? Interviews? Or something completely different.

Please enter your thoughts in the comments section below so I can make sure this site is relevant and useful to fans of beer.

If you’ve been following my blog over the past two months, you’ve most likely noticed that I’ve been spending quite a bit of time reviewing beers in an attempt to achieve my goal of drinking 1 beer from each of the 50 states in 50 days. Read the details here.

The deadline I originally set for myself was July 5, 2011 and unfortunately I was only able to complete 28 out of the 50 beers in that time frame. However that deadline was a little aggressive so I’m deciding to keep trying to reach my goal and extend the deadline another 50 days.

There were a few main reasons why I wasn’t able to accomplish the goal in the first 50 days and I’m fine with them:

• It’s really hard to find beers from the East Coast since I live on the west coast.
• Shipping beer is expensive and I maxed out my budget. I did a few beer trades and ordered a few online. With shipping as much as $20 each, it adds up pretty quickly.
• It’s the summer and I’ve been travelling. It’s hard to write reviews everyday when I’m on the road.
• Sometimes I just want to drink a local beer, especially if I’m going out to eat.

I still am excited to keep on going and working towards my goal and will have it reached by August 24, 2011.

If you’re able to help me at all, you can check out the contact page for my shipping address to send beers from the states I still need.

The states I’ve been unable to get so far are:

• Alabama
• Arizona
  
• Arkansas
  
• Connecticut
  
• Indiana
  
• Iowa
  
• Kansas
  
• Nebraska
  
• Nevada
  
• New Hampshire
  
• New Jersey
  
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
  
• South Dakota
  
• Tennessee
  
• Texas
• Vermont
  
• Virginia
• West Virginia
  
• Wisconsin

Next Monday starts the beginning of American Craft Beer Week and to celebrate I am starting a new challenge. Starting Monday, I will be attempting to drink and review 50 beers in 50 days from each of the 50 states.

Basically I am going to try and find a craft beer to try from every state in the country.  You can read more about the challenge here along with my updates and the rules.

I know it might be tough finding beer from a few states, but that will be part of the challenge. I may have to go shopping online.  I know Brewforia has a lot of west coast beers and might have a few things my local shops won’t.

Are you in?

Is anyone interested in doing it with me?  Just find a beer from each state starting May 16th and drink and review all 50 by July 5th.  Either post the reviews on your blog, or if you don’t have one, I can help you get setup.

Just write in the comments below if your up for the challenge.

I just wanted to take a few minutes and wish you a happy 2011.  Thinking back over 2010 it has been a pretty big year for me (I became a dad) and I’m looking forward to what next year brings.

I’m also excited for all of the new beer that I get to try this next year.  Over Christmas I think I got over 30 different beers that I haven’t had before, so get ready for some new reviews over the next few weeks.  It will be interesting to see what the craft beer scene looks like in this coming year and to see what new trends arise.

What are you looking forward to the most in 2011 as far as craft beer goes?

Happy new year!

Last week my wife had a brilliant idea. When I say a brilliant idea, you could almost say it was a life changing idea. For years one of America’s favorite camping treats, the s’more, has consisted of a graham cracker, chocolate, and a roasted marshmallow or two.

Well my friends, the time has come to add a 4th ingredient to make the classic s’more so much better.  You may have already guessed what it is.  What makes everything better? BACON!!!

So Friday night after my wife came up with the idea (I’m sure others have came up with idea before, but it was a first for us), we decided to try it out.  Let me tell you it was simply amazing. The first one we tried had 1 strip of bacon which was good. We decided to add 2 strips of bacon to the second one and it was as good as the first time you crack open a bottle of a new homebrew and realize that it is the best you’ve ever brewed.

To me, s’mores will never be the same.  Without the layer or two of bacon, it’s like going back to drinking mediocre beer once you’ve tasted the best.  It just isn’t the same.

I know this isn’t really a beer related post, but it was so good that it would have been a crime not to post about them. Plus my brewing buddy Sean and his wife came over to try them out with us while we drank for the first time the amber we brewed (way over carbonated, but that’s a whole different story).

Before you say gross to the bacon s’mores, try it out.  Once you’ve tried it, you may never go back.

And if you’re looking for something to wash it down, what better to drink than a bacon flavored soda? I would say bacon flavored beer but haven’t had a chance to try any bacon beers.

What are your thoughts?

Blog About Beer Redesign

The new site design for Blog About Beer is now live (in case you haven’t noticed). It was designed to give a nice and clean look to the site as well as speed up page load time. You might also notice that I added a new Blog About Beer logo to further brand the blog.

Along with the new look I added 3 ways that you can connect and stay informed with what’s going on around the craft beer industry and Blog About Beer.

1. Twitter
   If you’re on Twitter, follow me at @blogaboutbeer.   I love social media and love connecting with other beer fans in 140 characters or less.
2. Facebook
   Most people are on Facebook these days so I created a Facebook page for Blog About Beer where you can “like” this blog and connect with other visitors of this site.
3. Newsletter
   Signup for the newsletter and I’ll send an email once a month with top posts for the previous month, coupons and specials from beer related sponsors, and additional content not found on this site.  Also, for signing up to the newsletter you can download a free eBook of over 500 home brewing recipes.  To sign up just fill out the form on the right sidebar of the site.

Let me know what you think about the new design and if you run across any errors or problems.

I know I haven’t updated this site a ton since I took it over the beginning of this month, however I’ve been working on a few things and will start blogging close to daily come the middle of August. Until then, I’m in the middle of doing a nice redesign of this site, new logo, and adding more content.

One of the recent additions I’ve made was to create a mobile version of the blog, so now you can read Blog About Beer from your iPhone, Android, or most mobile devices.  A nice feature is that you don’t need to remember any specific URL, as you just have to go to blogaboutbeer.com and it will automatically detect your device and redirect you to the mobile site.

It is beer fest season in Oregon with the Portland International Beer Festival this weekend and the Oregon Brew Fest next weekend, so I’ll be a busy guy for the next week.

Have a great weekend.

Hey everyone, I just want to wish you a happy and safe 4th of July.  Hopefully you are taking some time out to hang with family and friends as well as get a chance to drink a nice beer or two.

As for me, it’s my wifes birthday as well so there is two reasons to party.  Happy birthday Renee and America!

Since it’s summer and BBQ time, here is my beer lineup for the weekend.

• Widmer Sunburn
• Buffalo Bill’s Orange Blossom
• Henry Weinhards Summer Ale
• Widmer Drifter
• My Own Northwest Pale Ale (probably the best beer I’ve brewed to date, so delicious)

So what are you drinking this 4th of July weekend?