Goodbye 2010...

...Hello 2011!

Over the past week or so, in each of my regular columns I did a 2010 Review/2011 Preview kind of thing. I realize mid-January is a bit late to be rolling out one’s new year pieces, but I wanted to wait until they all were out and then do it in one shot. However, the Planet S column was due yesterday, and for some reason of which I am unaware, it did not run. So, rather than wait any longer I forge ahead.

The Vue Weekly piece (found here) is likely the most straightforward, offering up my five favourite things from 2010. Topping the list were the new cask nights each month. For Edmonton there is no question it was a good year. It surprised me, actually, just how much happened in my hometown around beer. The bounty kind of snuck up on all of us.

The CBC piece, which aired last Friday (and you can hear online here), recounted some of the Vue column, but added in a bit about new beer highlights AND a look forward to 2011 in the column’s last couple of minutes. It is the prognostications that I found most enjoyable. I feel it adds some value to the usual “beer in review” kind of thing. It offers to listeners some sense of what to expect next year in terms of trends. I would have done it for Vue as well, but there simply wasn’t space.

I kept the predictions local as well. Two are positive and I hope come true: a growth in beer-themed dinners and some improvement in beer selection among Edmonton pubs. Conversations with restaurant and bar owners have me wondering if both things are on the upswing. The third thing is more mixed. I am predicting that Alberta will see something of a contraction in the number of beer brands available at some point in the year. While we will grow for the first few months, I can’t see how one province can support a rapidly growing inventory without end. Some beer has to fall by the wayside. In market-lingo they call it a “correction”. My guess is it will be the imports of more marginal quality (not those connected to the big boys, however). I could be wrong, but the trend line has been steeply up in the past couple years. We will see.

The Planet S was supposed to go in a different direction, offering some beer highlights and lowlights through various categories – “Best Contribution to Beer”, “Worst Beer News”, “Oddest Beer” – those kind of things. If it doesn’t appear soon, I may edit this post and offer a link for loyal onbeer.org readers. We’ll see.

If nothing else, presenting all my columns at the same time proves I don’t simply cut and paste my work (at least not most of the time…).

There you have it. The beer year that was from my perspective. No on to regularly scheduled programming.