The spiral-bound, locally-produced 500 Beers is essentially a beer scrapbook. It does what apps like Untappd and Beer Citizen do without forcing you to look at your phone or a computer during a social encounter.
(Before the nastygrams start coming in, I should say I’m pro-technology and I’m pretty sure 500 Beers’ creator John Foster is, too. This is also a good place to say he wouldn’t let me pay for my copy, though I would have been happy to.)
If you’re looking for a beer-drinking goal for 2013 (THAT would sound weird to a normal person) I would also suggest the 500 Beers project rather than working through someone else’s list of must-taste brews. As the 500 Beers website puts it:
“you know those books that list 300 things you must try? chances are half of what’s in there is unobtainable. so why not make your OWN book.”
Each log page has room for 20 beers and their brewery, style, and location and date consumed. Opposite each page of 20 slots is a page for, as the book puts it: “labels, doodles, maps, schematics, directions, wagers, loans, phone numbers, addresses, great ideas for solutions to world problems and things about to be forgotten.” This sort of wry humor permeates the parts of the book that aren’t blank. For instance, the checklist of beer styles includes free beer and canoe beer, and the glossary of beer terms defines gravity as what holds beer in the glass.
You can write down your beers as you go and then the blank pages – if they’re not full of tipsy notes and quotes – will encourage you to actually download and print some pictures.
Finally, this book need not deprive you of any badges, if you care about such things. You can always enter your drinks into a beer-ticking app when the party’s over.
To wrap up, 500 Beers is useful if:
- you’re trying to spend less time online.
- you don’t want to tell the world every time you have a beer, or every place you’re having one (remember privacy?)
- you enjoy hobbies that take you away from the Internet (or should) like camping.
- you miss or appreciate holding things in your hand like film photos, paper books, and non-digital music.
- you have aggravated yourself trying to check off the beers on “best of” lists
- you want a cool souvenir of the next 500 beers you try.
You can order one at Beerschool.com/500beers.
I think your link to the book may be wacked. it looks like it added “eastbaybeer.com/” on the front of the link. Thanks for the tip!