The Year in Review: Timeline

This is the week when I begin, during the doldrums between Christmas and New Year's, to toss a glance backward to see what happened over the past year. I'll look at some of the trends from this year, and of course, name a Satori Award for the best debut beer. But to kick things off, here's a timeline of the events we enjoyed. It's not exhaustive, but gives you a sense of how much happens in the world of beer in just a single year.

January

• Alworth to Hawaii in celebration of his own decreptitude; misses most of the month
• Fears about the hop shortage spread

February

• It's Pub Night blog debuts
• First annual Firkin Fest
• Block 15 Brewpub opens in Corvallis
  

March

• Lucky Lab Barleywine Fest
• Hopworks Urban Brewery opens in Portland
• Spring Beer Fest
• Steve Novick offers "Left Hook Lager" as a fundraiser in his senate campaign
• Weinhard releases an IPA--the first craft-style beer ever in the Henry's family
  

April

• Cheers to Belgian Beers Fest
• Pyramid/McTarnahan's merges with Magic Hat

May

• Deschutes opens a brewpub in Portland
  
• Oregonians recommend IPA to Barack Obama when he visits
  
• FredFest

June

• Columbia, Mt. Hood, and Gold River Distributors merge and become CoHo Dist.
• InBev announces intention to acquire Anheuser-Busch
• Organic Beer Festival

July

• Widmer-Redhook officially merge
• Moortgat (Duvel) buys Liefmans
• Sagebrush Classic in Bend
• Portland International Beer Festival
• Three Creeks Brewing opens in Sisters
• Oregon Brewers Festival

August

• Bud's American Ale released
• Beer Around Town blog launched

September

• Fresh hop season begins--Oregon breweries will release more than forty fresh hop beers

October

• Oregon breweries win 8 gold, 3 silver, and 7 bronze medals at the GABF
• Brewpublic blog launched
• Fresh Hop Tastivals tour Oregon

November

• I believe there was some kind of election--tears of joy and sadness spilt in beers across America
• Rogue buys the Green Dragon pub
• Inbev officially purchases Bud--becomes AmBev

December

• Holiday Ale Fest
• Fourth Street Brewing opens in Gresham
• Winter Beer Fest at Amnesia, Oregon gets hammered with the great storm of 2008--a record 19 inches of snow fall in Portland.

For those not keeping score, that's four brewery openings, 12 beer fests, five merger/consolidation/buyouts, three new blogs, and two faux micro releases. The number of new beers released is unknowable, if not uncountable. I'd say it's somewhere north of 200, but that's just a retrospective eyeball calculation. Let's put it this way: more than any person could conceivably drink. Or this way: another year in Beervana.

Cheers--