Polk the Truth 2021 - Spring into April or something wittier

   

After 4 months of daily beer tracking, I must say I'm feeling a little over the whole thing. I'm beginning to remember why I stopped using Untappd in the first place and the mere act of having to put every damn pint into it is beginning to feel like a second job. I mean, I've written a daily beer review on Instagram for almost 2000 days in a row...wait is that right...yep, 1997 and counting...there's a post in there I'm sure that will get somebody angry at me or something, but that's not what this is about. I gotta keep on, keepin' on

  I persist because that is what I do, always.

  So let's get into the numbers and what we've learned this month, the very first one to average less than 4 beers a day...albeit at 118 check-ins in 30 days it comes in at 3.93, so just barely. Honestly on the 30th I was gonna have a couple more beers but when I saw that number I kinda wanted to hold it down just to say I did it. Overall I liked the direction the month took, more than half the days were under 3 beers a day, especially pleased that on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (typically work nights for me), that average was 2 beers or less, something I actively worked on. The struggle remains those evenings when there is no work the next day or the ones where I let my stress and anxiety get the better of me or just want to blow off a little steam with a couple extra pints.

 I'm trying to quantify the hard to quantify here, so I also don't want to come off as glib or dismissive of my life or how I live it. I like to drink beer and talk about what's going on in my world while I do it, so I'm trying to find the right balance in the whole thing and I hope this is helping somehow...

First 15 days rolled in with a solid 60% of the 56 beers to pour in my glass unique entries, a good indicator that this was part of trying to focus on talking about different beers and not just pounding a couple of go-to pints just because. There are still a couple days well over what I consider to be the upper, normal limit, but with the weather warming, I feel like this is an indicator of where we could be heading despite more than half the days being 2 or less.

The back half of April had some real work stress giving my ability to stay on that under 4 line a run for it's money. Toss in some real patio worthy afternoons and you can see that 33 of 63 beers were just for enjoying and not so much about the writing or discussing flavour profiles and the like. It felt like there were some days I wanted to just chuck this whole thing onto the waste bin of bad ideas, but I still think there is some merit to keeping myself honest and real, regardless of whether I like the numbers or what they say about me and my self control...or lack thereof.

    Perhaps I have just become bored by this or that the numbers seem to be relatively the same and constant. around 4 beers a day with a good smattering of single beer days coupled together with some nights of 8 plus pints seems to be the story every month. I am not sure it does much good, although I do enjoy breaking the information down, it gives me an inside look at things I already suspected were true. I do have a lot of free time away from work, I don't really have hobbies or people to distract me, I drink some beers, write about it and then go read a book or watch something to distract me from the dwindling hours of freedom left before bed time. I know this is a self indulgent look at a tiny slice of life that I dare share with the world. I am not pretty or tied up in a bow and presentable to an audience. I basically am as I seem, leaning into a life lived at full speed for a long time, now idling and waiting for the light to change. What's next isn't really on my mind as much as why? Why do we do this stuff? Why do we feel compelled to share our beer online or take time to write and photograph this fraction of who we are? Why are their people invested in what I do when I could care less myself? It's become an inward looking, outward facing 6 year experiment in examining my life using craft beer as a backdrop. I am compelled to tell stories and wander through the vague and never changing landscape that is my rather sedentary world.

  I re-read this last part and it seems a little maudlin. I could delete it, but let's leave it in for the sake of argument when we get to the end of the year and look back at each month. April was a stress filled slog at work and while I did get my first dose of vaccine, there were a lot of days I struggled to get motivated enough to get out of bed and head in for my ten-plus hour shifts. I feel better now, but something about last month was just off. Lucky for me I have beer to drink and talk about, pints to be inspired by and words to try and help me explain myself to you all out there doing you're very best at the same time. I'll put this out there now, May is off to a bit of a roaring start, so I'll see you in 3 weeks or so and examine what the hell that all turned out to be.

Stay safe.

Polk

Now for the raw numbers, nerd Polk approved...

Beers by the day 

Sunday -  13 (3.25 per day)

Monday - 5 (1.25)

Tuesday - 6 (1.50)

Wednesday - 22 (5.50)

Thursday - 23 (4.60)

Friday - 25 (5.00)

Saturday - 24 (6.00)

Unique Beers - 63/118 (53.4%)

Beers by Brewery

Collective Arts Brewing - 8 unique beers

Nickel Brook Brewing - 6

Fairweather Brewing - 6

Badlands Brewing - 5

Great Lakes Brewery - 5

Grain & Grit Beer Co - 5

Overflow Brewing - 5

Beers

Nickel Brook Brewing Headstock IPA - 8 times

Collective Arts English IPA - 4

Wellington Brewery Faces DIPA - 3

Fairweather Brewing Menagerie Motueka 3

Merit Brewing Young Rival IPA - 3

 

Polk the Truth 2021 - March : In like a lamb, out like a Lion.

 Three months into the very real numbers of what I drink and I am finding a pattern and comfort in my ability to use the data I am generating to have conversations with myself and the people I trust to help me navigate this life I lead. Honesty and openness has long been my benchmark and while I won't sugar-coat anything, I do feel like this is helping me get a better understanding and perhaps even a plan of action as I move forward. The raw and emotional response some have to what I do with my life does not go unnoticed and while I appreciate the concern so many have shown, I am doing much better in terms of mental health and self worth as the year has progressed. There is something soothing and sobering about confronting the numbers as they occur and that is part of what I had hoped to achieve. Not knowing what the next months will bring, I endeavour to continue to shine the light on myself and hope it does more than just help me understand my own motivations, that perhaps other people will look at their own consumption with a more honest eye.

Onward to looking back on the month that was March, 2021.

The month of vacation was a good one

 The entire month boils down to three real distinct parts as this month includes our annual vacation, albeit the stay-at-home version (times 2) of my beloved Polkapolooza tour of Ontario. As with last year, we did not travel the province, visiting upwards of 50 different breweries as it was not advisable to do so during the pandemic, we made a couple of close to home stops at local breweries and contented ourselves with a staycation at Casa de Polk. The early part of March found me a little more focused on getting to that vacation and I was really cutting back on the pints at night mainly due to working a whole lot. The first 11 days (we started vacay on the 12th) saw only 30 beers consumed or 2.72 per day, a serious drop and more in line with where I'd like to be as we move on in this year. Even better, 20 of those were unique check-ins and that meant that the "beer for just drinkin" beers were way down as a percentage of what I poured in my glass. A 28% drop from the first 11 days of February and a whopping 47% drop from the same time frame in January. I was much more aware of every beer I was drinking and I think it had a deep impact on whether or not I grabbed a go-to beer or not most nights.

More of this going forward

  The vacation beers were another story, but to be honest, it isn't a big deal a to me overall because I enjoyed my time off and cutting loose a little during a pandemic might be an okay salve on this wounded year that saw me celebrating my second locked down birthday at home, away from friends and family. There was no real surprise then that in the 9 days we were off and relaxing' my beer total was a little higher than normal. All in, I was at 52 total beers for the time off, although 34 were unique, a rate of 68% and that's a 20% difference from the ratio the rest of the month. We picked up or had delivered a whole lot of different breweries, so there were many options and I took advantage of that to enjoy them all. A daily average of 5.77 is about 43% higher than my normal average for the rest of the days in March and 24% higher than the overall average for the year. I had a good time, we enjoyed some fine beers at home and then went back to work with an eye to continue what we had begun earlier in the month.

It's good to relax on vacation

  The last eleven days of March were a little more the first 11. A sandwich of moderate consumption surrounding a 9 day stretch of a little more indulgence skewed the progress made this month and I feel like the stretch after vacation reflects that I am still a work in progress. Despite increased stress at work and the world feeling a little more pandemically challenged around me, the numbers came in with a drop of 26% from the holiday stretch with 47 beers for an average of 4.27 per day. Looking to bring that down below three as we move into April and better weather will be the next challenge but as we ended the month down 5% from January and even with February, I am encouraged by my progress using this approach to really dig deep into the why's of my not so subtle beer drinking.

The last third of the month was a little bit of a struggle

 The biggest challenge remains those evenings where there is no work the next day, primarily Saturdays and Wednesday, where I had 43% of all my beers. I wasn't really intending to end the month with a bang, but that negative Covid test gave me a reason to celebrate and here we are with that little 7 beer party skewing things a little bit, in my humble opinion.  I am trying to find a way to enjoy writing about beer while simultaneously cutting back to just the single new beers without giving up a few nights of enjoying some old and go-to faves just because. It's a work in progress and I'd be lying if I said it would be much easier to just drink the beers and not bother documenting it all, but I want to know, I want to learn and I want to change.

Thanks again for indulging my numbers and my thought process as I navigate this year and my own relationship with myself and beer. I am working on being a better person in a lot of ways and this is just the most visible one. I encourage anyone who comes to the realization that they need help to get it and while I may make a lot of jokes about getting real hammered on Twitter, I am more than the memes I use to try and lighten the mood in a dark world.

Stay safe, see you again in May.

Polk

Now for the raw numbers, nerd Polk approved...

Beers by the day 

Sunday -  15 (3.75 per day)

Monday - 7 (1.40)

Tuesday - 18 (3.6)

Wednesday - 31 (6.20)

Thursday - 16 (4.00)

Friday - 15 (3.75)

Saturday - 27 (6.75)

Unique Beers - 73/129 (56.5%)

Beers by Brewery

Nickel Brook Brewing - 11

Collective Arts Brewing - 10

Great Lakes Brewery - 6

Gateway City Brewing - 6

People's Pint Brewing - 4

Merit Brewing - 4

Spearhead Brewing - 4

Beers

Nickel Brook Brewing Headstock IPA - 13 times

Collective Arts Good Monster DIPA - 3

Collective Arts IPA No 16 - 3

Nickel Brook Brewing What we Brew in the Shadows Hazy N.Z. IPA - 3

Merit Brewing Young Rival IPA - 3

Niagara Oast House Brewers Haymaker DIPA - 3

Polk the Truth 2021 - February : 28 Days Later

                                           

  The year of truth in beer rolls on through the shortest month and the 28 days of February were full of lessons and insights into my beer drinking ways. Let's take a look at what the last 4 weeks taught me...

Good month, need to up that new beer ratio

  Now I don't have a format planned out for each month, more of a let's look at the data and let it tell the story, but I do like looking at the month in halves for context of what seems to change as the beers roll in. February was much like January in that the first 2 weeks were much heavier than the last 2, perhaps more of that observation changing the outcome theory that I postulated last month. It seems to play out and time will tell as March begins if it is indeed a theory worth following. 60 check-ins on UnTappd in the first fourteen days was a heavy 4.57 pints a day and that included a 4 day weekend party for one that saw 29 beers consumed in 96 hours. Maybe not the herculean totals of my 20's and 30's, but at 7+ beers a day, those 4 days drove the bus on the rise in numbers at the beginning of the month. Zoom beers and celebrating GLB's birthday on that weekend were what gave me license to let go a little and while it isn't a frequent thing anymore, it certainly gave me pause when looking at the second half of the month.

A heavy start to February...

  The whole purpose of documenting every beer that passes through my glass this year is to examine more closely when and why I drink, can I be honest with myself and by being accountable to whoever follows along, can I change a behaviour I find to be less than desirable? It feels like it is having an impact already, I find myself pausing before grabbing the 4th beer of a random day and wondering if I really want a beer or am I just doing it out of habit or boredom. I have begun to do other things instead of just mindlessly pouring another one and while I have no intention of giving up my daily pint, I do feel like the "bender" evenings or weekends should be less of a regular occurrence and more of  a black swan thing.

...a little better on the back end of the month.

  Swinging into the second half of the month, I did see a significant decrease in consumption from the first 14 days at 52 check-ins and only 3.71 pints per day. That drop amounts to an almost 20% (18.75% to be precise) reduction and reflects once again that by making every beer a known quantity, I changed my behaviour to match the vague and movable goals I set on a daily and weekly basis. While I don't have a particular number in mind for a daily average or monthly total, I am feeling like when I have fewer beers on a given day, I feel better about myself the next day. Piling one on top of another beer just to drink to pass the time has become less appealing over the last 59 days and I am encouraged by the trend I see and the attitude I am adjusting inside my own mind. 

  I know some people find this whole thing odd or that I am encouraging or enabling any sort of over drinking by myself or other people and I get what those folks are saying. I have an incredibly complicated relationship with myself and my past, my alcohol consumption and my own inability to control my impulses from time to time. I enjoy the 2 beer buzz a lot and I continue to advocate for all things in moderation, including letting myself enjoy an extra pint or three once in a while. But it also has become clear that I do slide into the 6 or 7 beer realm a little too easy some weeks, whatever the stress or trouble I am tying to escape may be, more than 76% of my total consumption happened in only half the days. So trying to transform more of those 14 heavy days into the lighter, more moderate ones is a reachable goal for the next month, a modest reduction in pouring one last pint at midnight on my evening off and then falling asleep in my chair would go a long way to helping make that happen. Whatever I do with the numbers I find, I do know that being absolutely open and honest about every beer I pour is changing something about me that I am open to exploring more as the year goes on.

 Thanks for following along and we'll do this all over again at the end of March for what should be an interesting look back at my birthday month that has a week's vacation in it and how that plays into the numbers going forward.

Polk

Now for the raw numbers, nerd Polk approved...

Beers by the day 

Sunday -  14 (3.50 per day)

Monday - 8 (2.00)

Tuesday - 8 (2.00)

Wednesday - 19 (4.75)

Thursday - 20 (5.00)

Friday - 15 (3.75)

Saturday - 32 (8.00)

Unique Beers - 60/116 (51.7%)

Beers by Brewery

Great Lakes Brewery - 12

Collective Arts Brewing - 9

Nickel Brook Brewing - 5

New Ontario Brewing - 5

Fairweather Brewing - 4

Block Three Brewing - 4

Beers

Collective Arts Good Monster DIPA - 9

Clifford Brewing Brave Captain Brown Ale - 6

Collective Arts - Frisch Pale Ale - 5

Grain & Grit Beer Co. Homebound IPA - 4

Collective Arts Brewing IPA No 16 - 4

Rating and Reviewing - My take on the Numbers

Reviewing like a Boss. Pinky's out baby!

  I often get asked about the ratings I give beer at the end of my Instagram reviews. It comes, of course, from the old days when we used Untappd and scored beers to try and help us remember whether we liked them or not. It has morphed into something different as my palate and education in beer have grown and that is what drives me when I put it to the test in my glass day after day.
 Taste is subjective, people differ on what style and flavours they like and this can be a cause for some difficulty when assigning a numerical value to that latest review. What used to be a "like this beer or not" number has become a test on how closely it matches my understanding of the style as well as how I feel about the beer. An IPA that is super malty or lacks bitter citrus will obviously receive a lower score than one that is well balanced. But what separates a 3.75 from a 4? That is where it gets tricky for me and can have me waffling over the send button on some reviews for a lot longer than you'd think. Here is a brief description of how I feel when assigning the specific numbers to any beer from under 1 to over 4.5.

• Below 1.00 - Not sure what I did to the universe to deserve this punishment. Way off the mark and almost offensive to humanity. A never buy for me and one I actively discourage their production or consumption to all. 
• 1.25 to 2.00 - Any beer below this number is lacking several distinct characteristics stylistically and will not make another appearance in my fridge unless someone buys it for me, even that is pushing it. Not worth your time or money.
• 2.25 to 3.00 - Something about these beers is just a little off. They are not horrible, but they are missing or have too much of something or reached too far and didn't achieve it. Would give another chance, with caution
• 3.25 - Better than average and eminently closer to the mark of what they are. Generally falls because the balance of flavours did not come together quite as well as the style suggests. To be tried again.
• 3.50 - Solid beer, sharable, will buy again. Not outstanding but hitting all the proper marks with decent balance.
• 3.75 - Stepping up with a little better flavour profile. More memorable and the palate is pleased but not blown away. Good beer that will be tried again to explore it further.
• 4.00 - The top end begins here. Balanced and on point for the style. Checks all the boxes for texture, flavour and finish. A candidate for regular pours and recommendations to friends. Buy this beer.
• 4.25 - Now we are talking. This is when beer gets exciting. Standout balance between flavours, above the norm and sought after for repeat purchases. Something special in these beers that makes them stand out from the crowd.
• 4.50 - Simply the best. Everything screams amazing from the pour, sniff and sip. Hitting and exceeding the mark on proper style notes, outstanding flavour and texture with memorable moments all the way through
• 4.75/5.00 - I've never been this lucky or able to appreciate a beer to either of these levels. Perhaps with time I can learn enough to take some of the 4.50 to these heights. Call them Unicorn beers, one day I shall ride the lightning.

  Anyone who reviews beer and gives it a number is always open to criticism and some of that is deserved. Passing judgement on someone else's work is difficult and even more so when you get to know the good people that populate your local craft beer scene. But the honest and open exchange of information and feedback can be helpful to the brewers and I rarely post scathing reviews because it doesn't help anyone to attack or belittle a beer. Ask me privately and I will always tell you the truth, but for beers that don't hit the mark, I generally log them into Untappd and move on, not wanting to waste creativity or my words on a longer review. If I have serious concerns I will and have contacted the brewery directly to seek answers because I always want to know more. If we really are fans of what Craft beer has brought to us, making it a better and more open for discussing things is only going to create a positive place for all.
  I know some people take the reviews I do to heart and will seek out beers I trumpet and avoid ones I pan, so I am conscious of trying to be as honest as I can with everything I write. I know many folks disagree with giving a score at all and I can respect that too. I do what I do because it is part of who I am and how I translate my experience to the world. The rating I give a beer combined with the mood I try to create with the words I use should help to paint a picture that is easy to understand. I take what I create seriously, but never myself. I don't get all caught up in followers, likes or anything of the sort. Writing about beer should always take a backseat to enjoying it and the people who've come into my life are proof of that. My reviews have brought me so many opportunities to meet new people and create friendships with a really diverse group of pretty awesome people. That is what it should always be about, fun and friends with better beer.
  So review your beer any way you want, give it a score or don't, but always be honest about what you taste. Take other people's reviews with a grain of salt and look to those you trust or who you seem to have a similar palate with for suggestions. Remember that what you taste is what it is, so be patient if you're just learning to experience what can found in all the different styles of beer. It took me a long time to get here and I still feel like I have so much more to learn. Take a class, get your Prudhomme or Ciccerone certification to get into what really goes on in your glass. Or just enjoy the fact that we are living in a golden age of beer right now and explore everything your local scene has to offer. Tell a story, take a picture, sing a song or make a video if that's what you want, have fun and create something that shows who you are. I'm going to keep doing it my way because that's what makes me happy. Hope you can stick around because this ride is just getting fired up.


Raise your glass and your standards,
One beer at a time.


Cheers!


Polk