In the past couple of years, I've done just about everything a girl can do in the realm of beer. I've become friends with my local brewers, joined a beer club, completed a Masters of Beer Appreciation at my local pub (getting my PhD on Jan 20th), went to my first GABF and even brewed my own (and won medals for them).

 

What's left?  What's a beer girl to do?

 

A few months ago a couple officers in my beer club (DB15 out of South Orange) were discussing a 'quest for 1,000'. The rules are simple. 1,000 different beers in a year. Bottles or draft, homebrew or commercial, in a flight or on a flight, just log 1,000 different beers within 365 days.

 

At first blush, the number cruncher in me did some quick calculations. 'That's insane', I thought to myself.  That's an average of 2.74 new beers per day.  (2.73 on a leap year.)  I mean, yes, there is A LOT of beer out there, but 1,000 is pretty hard to come by!

 

Then I went to my first GABF this year. 2000 + beers in one venue! And I thought to myself. . . 'maybe'.  Then I drank 160 of them in a weekend. I didn't record them, just tick marks to not slow down my fun.  But after counting those tick marks I thought to myself. . . 'plausible'

 

Then I looked at the MBA and PhD programs at my local - 105 beers total, and they seemed easy to do.  I thought of my friend Bill who casually did 6 MBAs (45 beer curriculum) in a year or so.  I thought of my beer club, 10 meeting a month, 10 new beers each give or take.  I thought of their annual trip to TAP NY, the new Central Jersey beer festival, my NJ passport weekend. . . and I thought to myself 'I can pull this off!'

 

So on 11/21/2009 I hope to pull off the once unthinkable and drink my 1,000th brew of the year.

 

I'll do some periodic updates up here as I go.  I chose 11/22 as a start date because I just came back from a vacation to Arizona and Las Vegas that should help me get rolling!

 

Wish me luck!!