#Beersaturday - three beers that lead to 10,000 beers.

I have been on Untappd for a long time, in fact a couple of weeks ago they reminded me that it has in fact been 13 years. A lot has happened in those 13 years, there have been many beer festivals, many overseas trips, visits to around about 100 breweries and, and this is the point of today's post - 10,000 check-ins of beers.

Now for those who don't know, Untappd allows you to check-in to a beer, i.e. what it is who brews it, where you drunk it and what you thought of it. If like me you check-in all the beers you drink. Now I'm not really one to celebrate volume of beer drunk, I'm chasing quality, but 10,000 beers drunk seems like a lot. Untappd people we will like 'Yeah but how many unqiues' and the answer is almost 6,000 - I'm going on holiday next week and there is a fair chance I'll hit the 6,000 uniques whilst there - but that's for another post.

The importance of the local bar cannot be overstated in - I've drunk about 25% of all my the beers in the last 13 years in 10 venues (not counting my own house, or in fact in that time two houses). Alehouse Project (may it rest in peace, closing in 2022) is still my most drunk at venue, with 593 beers, then the GABs festival (which is impressive given it's a once a year festival) with 516 and then Benchwarmer with 297 beers, which is impressive for a only opened in 2020. Okay it's like 150 metres from my house, so maybe it's not that impressive.

But it seemed an apt place to have my 10,000th check-in so when I noticed I was close that became our Friday night plan, But what would be my 10,000th? Well before that had to come 9,998 and 9,999 which were in order.

Amigo Sorbet Sour from One Drop Brewing, who are from Sydney and one of my favourite brewers (and one of those breweries I'm visited) It was a great beer, sweet without being too sweet, great apricot flavour coming through, fancy without being too gimmicky.
 

This would be a good time to point out that a look of my beers are small or shared with my partner, I don't want you to do the maths of 10000/13 years and realising thats 769 beers a year or 2.1 every day - I'm not that unhealthy

At the back of that shot is Imperial Stout by Bojak Brewery (local in Melbourne, but I haven't visited) it weighs in a 9.5% and should have been really good, but it was just okay, I guess they can't all be winners.

But that brings us to the magical 10,000 th check-in. I wanted it to be something a little special, something that represented something of my journey. I stared in the fridges...there were all sorts of interesting things, including a new range of Japanese Craft beers - Now I love Japan (which is part of the reason I love Benchies, as it's a Izakaya and has amazing Japanese craft beer on tap and in cans as the owner is also a importer of Japanese beers) and I love Japanese craft, in fact I've had 170 of them over the journey. So I was a little taken by them and I selected one.

Can and two glasses in hand I returned to my partner and explained. I couldn't decide on a style so I got all of them. Stick with me here this is a Sour Double IPA with Apple Pie, because maybe that is a style of beer now. I mean it certainly wasn't 13 years ago, but it is now. The Beer is called Hauntology and It is by a brewery called Teenage Brewing, Now I would like to tell you that I selected it because I was a Untappd teenager but I didn't I only realised how brilliant that would have been after I poured it.

Luckily this would was very nice - it was complex and layered as the best Japanese crat beers are. It genuinely does taste like apple pie, particularly cinnamon it doesn’t taste like an Double IPA, in the sense that I'm not getting any hops, I guess what is is doing is that it means it's not not sweet, it’s wonderfully balanced.

Also - it's a little hard to see on this photo, but I'm wondering if this is the first beer I've had with matching music choices.

I had a quick listen to a couple of tracks - it's pretty much what you would expect Japenese Breakfast was more my scene.

Anyway - I figure I should hit my 20,000th check in some time in 2037 - so I guess I'll see you then.