What is a Beer Book Blitz?

In 2015, I was in a friend's bakery. At the counter was a stack of "Brooklyn Beer Books."

I picked one up. The rest is history.

Well, it's a little more complicated than that.

I figured, at the time, that this would be a piece of cake. Lots of the bars in the book were in my neighborhood, and the summer still stretched out in front of me. So what if I missed a few out in the Rockaways?  Heck if I only used 4 or 5 of the coupons, I'd still come out ahead of my $28 investment.

As it turned out, I procrastinated, and found myself in the middle of December having used only one of the coupons, at my favorite local beer garden, Lock Yard. So, with 27 beers and less than that many days remaining (all beer book coupons expire at the end of the year), I scrambled.

I made a valiant effort, dubbing my adventure a "Beer Book Blitz," but I couldn't get to all of them - several bars had shuttered their doors.

Nevertheless, I had fun, logging my beers on the Untappd app, and posting on social media. Friends and family were either entertained and/or concerned.

A month or so later, in 2016, the website that presented this little adventure, Brokelyn, posted that the new beer books were on sale.

I rushed to the website where, I learned, that there was no "South Brooklyn & The Rockaways" edition in 2016. Just North and Middle Brooklyn.

Living in south Brooklyn, the 2015 book was very appealing, as there was a nice scattering of familiar establishments from which to choose. I pondered this new conundrum: would I take advantage of the geographical location if it were less convenient. Brooklyn's a big place. I couldn't even fathom trying to get the "Upper" Brooklyn book. Why no "Lower" Brooklyn? I tried to find out, but it was one big "Fuhgeddaboutit!"

So I bought the 2016 Middle Brooklyn book, tried to get some friends to go in on it with me, but ended up being solo again. Plus, it was two more beers for two more bucks.

Although I did manage to dispatch two of the coupons in the fall, I once again faced the prospect of 28 beers in December. I started earlier, but only got to about half of the places in the book. Still, Beer Book Blitz II was a mild hit on my social media and people seemed more excited about my frothy adventures.

And here we are in 2017, another Beer Book is in the mail, but I really wanted to commemorate the adventures a little more formally, so I have endeavored to do two things:

1) Go back and recap the first two years of the Beer Book Blitz, piecing together what I can

and

2) Documenting the 2017 adventures which will hopefully be less blitz-y and more successful. Plus I have three great friends joining me. They saw how much fun I was having and have hopped on board.

So, this will be the place marker for the new chapter. I will backdate old posts commemorating past Beer Book Blitz adventures, and post new adventures as they happen.

Cheers!

Launching the Beer Book Blitz - Volume 1, Day 1

So, aside from using one of my beer book coupons at Lock Yard some time over the summer, I was looking at 27 coupons (out of 28 total), with six days remaining in 2015.

I decided to try to knock out as many as I could with what time was left in the year. It just so happened that I had recently become a fan of Newcastle United and they were playing my daughter Shayna's favorite team, Everton.

Me and Shayna enjoying the match

We knew the game was going to be on at Longbow Pub & Pantry, where I also had one of my beer book coupons. Killing two birds with one stone, as they say. I used my Longbow coupon for either a Tripel from Allagash Brewery or a Yeti from Great Divide Brewing Company (I had both). The Yeti is one of my favorites.

I was just getting a handle on the task before me.

Once the match was over, Shayna headed home and I stopped at the Yellow Hook Grille and had a Single Digit Dubbel from Smuttynose Brewing.

Yellow Hook Grille later closed in April 2016.

After a less than spectacular experience at Yellow Hook - the beer was fine but the ambiance was barely tolerable, I aimed for my third stop, Zito's Sandwich Shoppe, and I learned my first Beer Book Lesson: If you wait until the end of the year, the place may no longer be there.

As seen from the evidence below, where Zito's had been was now a restaurant called Bon Chovie.

It was an inauspicious start to the inaugural Beer Book Blitz, but I still had 9 coupons left for Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, so I was optimistic.