ITH Beer Guide

All that recent reminiscing on twitter about Saint Arnold had me wondering something. I've had a a lot of their beers. Are they the brewery I've had the most unique check-ins from? Thanks to recently becoming an Untappd supporter, I could easily find out... And the answer is? Yes. Buuuut...not for long. I'm about to become primarily a NY beer drinker. Well at least according to Untappd. I don't religiously check in to beers. Sometimes I am better than others and probably moreso recently, but I do usually remember to check-in to a new beer. Mostly because I'm a beer nerd who likes seeing the numbers. Seeing my "unique" beers gives a nice revelation. Saint Arnold of Houston, TX is my top brewery for unique check-ins. Makes sense after living there for 5+years (although I was on Untappd for just under 4 of those). As of today, I have checked in to 53 different beers of theirs. However, they are soon to be dethroned. I'm now up to 52 unique check-ins f...

I recently re-read an October 2016 Beer Advocate article about breweries suffering from festival fatigue. There's so many festivals these days, which ones are worth and which ones aren't?  Here's a quote from the article that sturck me: "Meanwhile, Brewers of Pennsylvania’s LaBert says beer festivals must be more than, “just a transaction,” stressing that third-party-run festivals often have part-time personnel pouring beer with limited knowledge about the products. Leone agrees. (Note, that's  Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association) .   He takes a two-fold approach to his New York festivals, finding they must simultaneously market beer through consumer education and strategic lobbying while building a connection to the breweries. In his opinion, festivals that rely on random volunteers to pour samples, in essence, dupe the consumer into faulty ties to the beer." As it turns out, we had tickets to an upcoming beer festi...