Beer Audit

Here it is ... time for another month's "The Session" (aka Beer Blogging Friday).

This month's topic comes from Adam at Pints and Pubs. He wants us to take a Beer Audit of our beer cellars. What is in there? What does it tell us about our drinking habits?

I encourage you to read his post: The Session #73 Announcement: Beer Audit. for the nitty-gritty details around his topic. I'm sure I wouldn't do it justice if I tried.

Ok ... so if you are already familiar with this blog, you already know what a nerd I am. I hope those "first-timers" of you who might come across this blog post won't judge me too harshly. It is interesting to me that Adam says that he takes stock of his beer supply a couple times a year, because I know at all times more or less what beers I have in my "cellar". Of course, it sounds like I have less beers in mine than Adam has in his.

As a matter of fact, I share most of my beer inventory with the world. The vast majority of what I have in my house is home-brew, and I have that posted online at the SheppyBrew Beer Inventory web page. Yes, I'm a geek. Please don't judge me. Whenever my wife or I drink a bottle of home-brew we try to remember to update this inventory. In fact, one of the reasons my wife likes kegged beer is that she doesn't have to remember to update this inventory.

But, other than my nerdy compulsive behavior around keeping track of what beers I have available to me, what does an audit of my beer "cellar" say about me and my drinking habits?

Well, first off, my beer inventory says that I drink primarily local beers. As I mentioned before, I personally made most of the beers I currently have available in my home. You really can't get more "local" than that. Most of the beers I drink traveled from my back porch to my basement to my kitchen to my basement to my dining room. They didn't ever move off my property at any time in their existence. Even the commercial beers, though, are mostly Colorado beers. Currently, I own 2 12oz bottles of Sierra Nevada's 2012 Bigfoot Barely-wine. Other than those two bottles, every single beer I own was brewed in Colorado. This is not a coincidence. From time to time I will get a 6 pack or a bomber of an out-of-state beer, but I would say 90% (or more) of the beer I drink comes from my own home state. When it comes right down to it, I like to drink beers brewed local to where I drink them.

The second thing my little beer audit tells me about my drinking habits is that I am a very Promiscuous Drinker. At the moment, I have 20 distinctly different styles of beer. I have everything from a Blonde Ale to a Russian Imperial Stout. I have lagers and ales, hoppy and not. Cleanly fermented beers and funky Belgiums and even a couple of sour blends. Heck, I even have a few Blue Moon beers that my wife bought recently. I am a big fan of variety, and the beers I own reflect that.

Another thing my beer audit says is that I am not a fan of really high alcohol beers. Other than those 2 bottles of Bigfoot I mentioned above, the highest alcohol beer I currently have is my own Tweedle Beetle Imperial Stout at a 8.5 ABV. Most of my beers are in the 5 to 6 ABV range and it is very rare that I have anything too much above 7%. Granted, 6 and 7% beers are not small, but lots of beer geeks tend to go after and collect really big (over 10%) beers. I just won't go for those, because usually I don't like them. Plus, I don't want to get wasted on one bomber of any particular beer. For what it is worth, I don't own very many beers under 4.8 ABV either.

I suppose there are other things my inventory of beer says about me, but it is Friday the 1st, and I have to publish this blog post. I want to thank Adam at Pints and Pubs for a great topic. Go ahead and check out his page, look in the comments and see what others say about their beer cellars. And, PLEASE leave me a comment below and tell me what your personal collection of beer says about YOU.

Go Blackhawks!