Having a beer blog is ton of fun. I get to drink beers and write about them as often as I want. I get to learn about the beer making and beer drinking processes. I usually dedicate more time for “research” for this blog than I do for my college classes. I initially started this blog for a journalism class, the professor wanted us to get in the habit of writing every day and getting our words out there on the interweb. I thought for a long time about a central topic that would keep my blog on track. My roommate kept telling me to write about craft beer because I love it so much. She said “Kellie, you’ll never run out of things to talk about. If you need inspiration just drink more!” Thus Girls on Hops was born.
That worked for a while. I was drinking a beer or two almost every night—it was for a class after all. Plus, I was honestly just trying to educate myself and others as I imbibed.
Before long I stopped writing as frequently as my grade required. I stopped brainstorming ideas for new ways to talk about beer and I lost focus. Instead of drinking and writing, I was just drinking cheap beer, or craft beer solely for the alcohol content. It’s a slippery slope writing a blog about something that pretty much acts as a poison when you drink too much. As a youngin’ in the world of inebriates, I haven’t learned moderation as well as a beer blog demands. Instead, on the weekends I find myself drinking too much, too fast and too often.
After a string of wicked hangovers and foggy memories from the nights previous, I’ve decided to slow down for a while. I’m letting my body reset. I still have to write a blog for my class, and can continue to educate myself on the booming beer industry, but I have to let my favorite quote “Write drunk; edit sober” take a backseat for a while. In the meantime, I’ll be acting as a stellar designated driver, talking about beer to other beer nerds and learning a bit more self-control. I hope to emerge with skills in knowing my limit and giving my liver a fighting chance.
To keep me accountable my roommates created this in my honor:
As you can see my roommates are pulling for me—kind of. On the left you have the tally of my consecutive days sober. On the right you have a countdown to a kegger that my roommates are more than excited for. Maybe in 12 days I'll drink a beer, not half the keg.
I don't have a concrete goal in terms of "consecutive days sober," but I'll keep you posted on my dry days as well as frequent postings about the craft beer world. Feel free to have a beer in my honor in the time being, or maybe take a little break with me. It's up to you.
