2021 - A Year in Beer

  

  746 beers reviewed.

  128 Breweries.

  1 long year in the books.

  

  2021 was another pandemically challenged year, providing some respite as the summer and fall almost felt like we were heading somewhere good before the current state of affairs occurred and Omicron wiped out any progress made in the last two years. While I'm not here to discuss public policy and government failures to protect and curb the worst of this time, I have to acknowledge that the experience of drinking a beer in a bar or taproom has certainly been curtailed and altered enough to be impactful on our perceptions of some things. So with that out of the way, lets take a look back at my favourite beers by style with some caveats...

1) No repeat winners, let's face it, I drink enough Headstock that it would always top my West Coast IPA chart and that's not really why we drink all these different beers, we want the variety and I want to be able to recognize that effort. 

2) If I do happen to repeat a winner from 3 or 4 years ago or even last year, I'mma let it go because who can remember that far back and I'm not wading through 5 years of posts for that info.

3) If I wasn't able to try more than 5 different options from any one style, I left it out for the most part unless I felt the beer in question was especially noteworthy.

4) Categories are fluid when it comes to IPAs, some labelled as NEIPAs were clearly not and some that were just slapped with an IPA sticker were sometimes NEIPAs...I'll not get into semantics, it is what it is and I'm okay with where it all fell out.

5) Everything I do is done with the knowledge that I don't really know much, but I know what I like and that's what this whole dang thing is about.

  

Before we get into it all, here's a breakdown of the top 20 Most Reviewed in 2021 by Brewery. They alone account for almost 65% of what I was talking about, being local matters, being loyal to Trusted Breweries matters even more,...

1	Collective Arts (Toronto)	59	7.91%
2	Great Lakes	45	6.03%
3	Nickel Brook	44	5.90%
4	Collective Arts	38	5.09%
5-t	Clifford	30	4.02%
5-t	Merit	30	4.02%
7-t	Fairweather	29	3.89%
7-t	Sawdust City	29	3.89%
9	Muskoka	19	2.55%
10-t	Wellington	18	2.41%
10-t	Gateway City	18	2.41%
12-t	Bellwoods	17	2.28%
12-t	Third Moon	17	2.28%
14	Grain & Grit	15	2.01%
15	Henderson	13	1.74%
16-t	Badlands	12	1.61%
16-t	Left Field	12	1.61%
18-t	People's Pint	11	1.47%
18-t	Spearhead	11	1.47%
18-t	Dominion City	11	1.47%

So, now lets get on with the gettin' on and showcase my favourite pints from 2021, listed by beer name, brewery and finally alphabetically by style. Also noted is the amount of times a particular brewery appears on this year's Polkies...

Here we go... 

Ol' Woody Alt	Sawdust City	Altbier
Lone Wine	Sawdust City (2)	Barleywine
Tennesse Imperial Porter	Clifford	Barrel Aged Porter
2021 Titania	Sawdust City (3)	Barrel Aged Stout
Duvel 666	Duvel	Belgian Blonde Ale
Chimay Grande Barrel Reserve	Chimay	Belgian Dark Ale
Heavy Draft	Red Barn	Belgian Golden Strong Ale
South Valley	Gateway City	Belgian IPA
Limnerlost Bruin	Sawdust City (4)	Biere de Garde
Reunion Tour	Sawdust City (5)	Black IPA
Black Jack	Great Lakes	Black Lager
Matter of Fact	Collective Arts	Blonde Ale
Beste Bock	Cameron's	Bock
Avian Prinicpality	Dominion City	Brown Ale
Brutalism	Great Lakes (2)	Brut IPA
Saturday Night	Stack	Cream Ale
Mountain King	Royal City	Dark Ale
Double High Grade	Fairweather	Double IPA
Double Sunsplit	Dominion City (2)	Double NEIPA
Zwei Zeugan	Great Lakes (3)	Dopplebock
Dead Now	Block Three	Dubbel
English IPA	Collective Arts (2)	English IPA
SPA	Wellington	English Pale Ale
Flapdoodle	Sawdust City (6)	ESB
Lief	Farm League	Farmhouse Ale
Rouge Cuvee	Meuse	Flanders Red
Grandma's Strawberry Rhubarb	Oast House	Fruited Ale
Roses are Red	Merit	Gose
Helles Island	People's Pint	Helles Lager
Uberhopfig	Great Lakes (4)	Hopfenweisse
Nanaimo Bar	Muskoka	Imperial Porter
Burn Barrel	Clifford (2)	Imperial Stout
Roman Candle	Bellwoods	IPA
Ever Nice	Merit (2)	Lager
Skipping Stones	Collective Arts (TO)	Lager - Mexican
Lighter	Spearhead	Light Lager
Autumn	Anderson Craft Ales	Marzen
Diamond Park	People's Pint (2)	Mild
Milskshark Banana	Bellwoods (2)	Milkshake IPA
Gordie Mortis	Third Moon/Great Lakes (5)	NEIPA
Pinion	Little Beasts	Pale Ale
Kils	Third Moon (2)	Pilsner - Czech
Time Traveller	Collective Arts  (TO) (2)	Pilsner - German
Hey You Guys	People's Pint (3)	Porter
ST. Arnoldus	New Limburg	Quad
Amber of the North	Spearhead (2)	Red Ale
Saison de la Meuse	Meuse (2)	Saison
Bells & Whistles	Clifford (3)	Session IPA
Mimosa Sour	Collective Arts (3)	Sour
O'Neill	Left Field	Stout
Team Tett	Collective Arts  (TO) (3)	Table Beer
Rube Goldbeer	Henderson Beer Co.	Tripel
Succession	WIllibald Farm	Triple IPA
Abzug	Collective Arts  (TO) (4)	Vienna Lager
Old Times	Collective Arts (TO) (5)/Great Lakes (6)	West Coast IPA
Obscured by Clouds	Clifford (4)/Muddy York	Wheat

  I used to write a thing about every beer on these lists, but that's a lot, even for me. Suffice it to say I had a lot of fun going over each post from last year, I actually read what I wrote about every beer to try and get a sense of it's impact on my memory and at the time I was drinking it. That's why I only post beers when I have them, I am trying to capture life as it happens, a snapshot of where I am when that first sip hits my lips every day. I take my own thoughts with a grain of salt too, taste is very personal and while I certainly have consumed enough beer to know a thing or two, I am just a drunk with a lot of words who enjoys a good beer or three. 

  Looking forward to 2022 and a whole lot of talking about beer, life and so much more that I cannot even imagine as this year unfolds. It's been a little more than 6 years since I started writing and while I may struggle to get it all out there at times, I'm gonna keep trying because when I do finally hit that "Publish" button, I feel better about myself and more comfortable in my own skin. See y'all around the internet for now and at a taproom near you....hopefully sooner and safer than we know it is now.

\Stay strong and thanks for following along all these years.

Polk