Hiatus #2

I read a book recently about a man who saw one film for every day of the year. The man: Kevin Murphy. The book: A Year at the Movies. The book made me realize how useless and uninteresting the Beer Year is. Murphy sought out the interesting: he saw one movie at the world's smallest theater, another at a hotel made entirely of ice, and one silent in a Scandinavian tent. During the latter, a storm reached its tumultuous zenith at the climax of the film, a scene in which a girl is killed.

Murphy's book is divided into weeks, and each week has a different theme. One deals with movies on planes, another with art films, and yet another with the author's experience as a lowly theater attendant. It is essentially a collection of 52 separate essays, joined together by the humorous and knowledgeable voice of the author and the advance that each makes toward the 365 movie goal.

This, I thought as I was reading, is what Beer Year should be. Instead of sitting in a small living room, typing tasting notes on a laptop while watching From Here to Eternity, I should be out experiencing the beer. This is only possible through travel. I am a college student, low on money and even lower on spare time; as rewarding an experience as Murphy's is beyond my current capabilities.

I want to be able to write about drinking an Orval in the courtyard of the monastery, about chatting with the brewer of Dark Lord (presumably one of the three Floyds), about finding a brewery in the dark corners of Nambia and drinking its product from a hollow log. I want to be able to relate accurately and truthfully the entire experience of beer, not just the appearance, aroma, and taste

And so the Beer Year, while still a great idea, must wait until I have the necessary time and resources to make it a truly valuable experience for both me and the reader. With luck, I'll be able to do this when I'm 55.

Until then, read my ratings on ratebeer.com under the username jmuhops.