Generally, I guess, I’m a wine girl. I like to open a bottle on Sunday evenings when I sit down to watch football and finish it off throughout the week (don’t worry; I have a vacuum sealer). But, I don’t know, January just felt like a beer month. Maybe it’s the depressing cold and the heft of grey days. Maybe just a craving for something new and different.
The three-day weekend brought about by MLK day seemed like a good opportunity to get some work done on this goal, so I stopped by the “build your own six pack” display at a local grocery store and had some fun. I’m relatively indiscriminate when it comes to new beers; I’ll try pretty much anything that looks interesting (though I tend to steer away from fruit-flavored beers. A Cherry Wheat Sam Adams taught me a lesson there). Here’s what I got:
It occurred to me that all this trying would be for naught if I didn’t find some way to keep track of what I liked. I downloaded the BrewGene app on my iPhone which made it really easy to pull up each beer (with a photo!) from a directory, tag it, and rate it. It also has a handy “recommendations” feature which uses your ratings to recommend beers you might like. There’s also lots of social features that I’ll probably never use (does the world need to know that I’m drinking a RedHook ESB right now? Unlikely.).
This, the Mother’s Brewing Company Winter Grind, was, without a doubt, my favorite. It’s been a week and I’m still thinking about it. I mean, coffee & beer? Together? Talk about killing two of my favorite birds with one stone.
the lucy show 
If you want to try new beers, check out my blog for great recommendations.