almost february

as my self-imposed month of cleansing comes to a close i have some thoughts on trying to be a beer person and live without beer for 31 days

first off, let me admit that i didn't make it to 31 days
i chose to have drinks on the 14th and the 15th, then tried to go back on the wagon for the rest of the month
but alas, once you open that darned pandora's box, it's soooo darned easy to find another good reason to drink!

my motives for drinking on the 14th and 15th were pure
the ones since then have not been

on the 14th i went to an about-to-open brewery and tried a sample of each of their beers
this was an opportunity that i didn't feel i could miss out on
that i would be cutting off my nose to spite my face if i was to be stubborn and refuse the time-sensitive offer just because it was january
i had quite a bit of internal debate about the matter
it was not an easy decision to make
in the end, i went with my gut and drank the beers
two weeks later, i have no regrets that i did so

on the 15th breakside brewing was in town with a bunch of sours
i felt i had to go to portland craft and sample them as this opportunity wouldn't come around again at a more morally convenient time
also no regrets on that decision

i did manage to get back on the wagon for a while after that
(and kept to the rest of the dietary restrictions of the cleanse throughout - i didn't allow drinking beer to give me carte blanche to cheat away)
but i fear that the damage to my willpower had been done
i allowed my rubber arm to be twisted a couple of other times for beers i could easily have waited until february to have
for that i do have regret

which leads me to why i don't think i'll be giving up beer for a whole month next year
it is noble to treat one's body as a temple for a month
but it is not practical for someone trying to be the best a beer geek can be
also, i miss the hops
maybe i'm fooling myself, but when i drink hoppy beers my head is happy
as happy as when i take it for a run
and as we all know, drinking hoppy beer is waaay more convenient than going for a run
(not that i plan to quit running, i swear!)

sooooo...
you heard it first here folks!
after many dry januaries i plan to scale back to a 10 day cleanse next year
and enjoy every beer tasting opportunity that comes my way!
i believe that's what a real beer geek does

oh, and i'll see you saturday at the yaletown ipa cask festival
because ipa casks!