2012 Look-Ahead

2011 retrospectives take a ton of work for very little payola. Nobody reads them, everyone's busy with holiday crap, they're never as clever or biting as you intend them to be and really, they take a lot of time and research (and given that the holidays are busy-but-not-busy-but-very-time-consuming, who has that kind of time?). So instead, I want to do a 2012 look-ahead. What is ATK going to "be" in 2012? What are our new goals we'll never accomplish? How will we again fail to be relevant next year? I'll let Bob and Steve and Ricky if he reappears and anyone else fill-in their promises-to-break.

But as for me? It's beer.

In 2012, from Smitty, we'll see:

• Beer head-to-head competitions:  style versus style, brewery versus brewery;
• Homebrew Adventures;
• Holiday-themed reviews/head-to-heads (Oktoberfests for Oktoberfest, Maibocks in May, etc.);
• Brewery "tours"
• Big News in Michigan Beer;
• Occasional socio-political snark as I see fit.

I used to love to do weekly beer reviews.  Kids, life and work prevent that, and honestly, I need to be inspired to do a beer review.  I weekly bit gets uninspired and becomes work, and the last thing I want after a hard week is one more but of damned work to do.  But this other stuff?  It's all done on a whim.  That makes it "not work."

All the other contributors are more than welcome to update this entry with their own promises-to-break; I hope Bob does more political snark (he is so good at that) and occasional reviews (don't sell yourself short Bob...you've got a great palate).  I hope Steve weighs-in with his giant legal mind and thought-provoking posts (though none of us will ever be the contrarian that Hitchens was, Steve does a great job without being a dick).  Maybe Joel will find unrestricted access to the blog, maybe Rickey reappears, and I really really hope Sopor, who has moved to Oregon to fucking brew for Rogue will stop by and tell us what it's like and make us jealous and shit.

2012 is gonna be a great year.  My brewing has stepped-up, it's a monumental election year, the world is supposed to end, FOX is getting crazier every day, and Michigan seems to open a new brewery a month.  Plenty of material to miss, skip, not post and pass on to better bloggers.

I can't wait!

Happy New Year...early!