New Years Resolutions

[JoKing]

So... have you made any for the new year? If so... what are they?

I was thinking about taking a month of the sauce... is this wise?

[Kempicus]

That's why i want to know what the reasons are for going a month without....is it a concern about lack control with drinking? is it a health concern? is it impacting lifestyle?
I drink in moderation only at certain times of the week so that it doesn't impact my lifestyle or my health

[Stu McKinlay]

Yeh, I had a hard time convincing James of a second lunchtime beer at D4 just before Christmas... he relented but only because it was a special occasion.

[JoKing]

The wife gets on my case about having a pint or 2 each night. Doesn't seem like a major to me, but she seems to think it's going to give me liver cancer or something! She doesn't drink - she'll have an IPS if anything at all (India Pale Shandy).

We were talking to a guy about a year or so ago, and he takes a month off every year - and my wife said "I bet you couldn't do that!". Now it's just a case of proving her wrong - but I don't want to because this will cause great disorder and imballance to my home brew restocking scedule. If I dont drink - I cant brew... and a month without brewing seems like murder to me!

The resolution is nothing deeper than plain old fashioned stubborness.

[Ian]

Yeah, I agree with Kempicus that quaffing the daily couple doesn't impact on one's health and fitness. Problem is that overdoing it a little can be an incideous thing that sneaks up on you. I find that if I stick to my couple of pints a night everything goes along swimmingly, but then somehow you add in an extra one or two of something that you want to try and maybe the odd party night into the bargain, and then suddenly you start feeling just a little less enthusiastic about things in general and it takes a conscious effort to click back into that moderate pattern again. But personally I put my vote on trying for the regular routine with the odd breakaway, rather than quitting completely. Maybe it should be termed the brewer's dilemma?
Happy New Year, Ian

[Martin Bridges]

After yesterday's near-disaster (see the What Are You Brewing? thread) I really need to ge tthe shed setup completed so I can move my brewing out of the kitchen. That, and adding a handpump to my bar setup, are the 2 main brewing resolutions.

I also plan to make it to BrewNZ this year. I was toying with a trip to Nelson for MarchFest but I can only get away with one major beer-related jaunt per year (if at all) so BrewNZ is going to be it this year. Might try and do the whole week, do a bit of stewarding etc.

Following Barry's trip to the Aussie national homebrew conference last year (i.e. 2008) I might try and pulll the same trick this year - a family holiday in Aussie with a beer trip on the side. Might get away with that if the conference is somewhere like the Gold Coast!

And on more mundane matters I need to put some real effort into sorting my diet out and getting my weight down. I've done it before so I can do it again. This may or may not involve cutting back on the sauce a bit but we'll see. I'm not into radical solutions - they rarely work long-term.

[JoKing]

I'm with you on the weight issue, Martin. It's not too bad at this stage - but it's getting there. That can be one of my main resolutions... thanks for that!