A year of 2016 beer...

So the last one of these I did, year in beer from Untappd not blogposts :) was 4 years ago covering 2012, and it makes an interesting comparison to see how much beers and brewing have changed since then, if at all.
Before we get to that just a reminder of the ground rules on how Ive been using the application

• a third is the minimum amount required for a valid check-in,and extends through 330ml bottles or cans), halves and pints, only free tasters are still excluded
• check-ins arent retrospective, bar the occasional one lost to various phone issues, lack of signal, battery or in case the phone broke, but none of this I drank this beer 4 years ago stuff, which some people still do.

Unique types of beer checked-in per brewery

The first chart is basically a chart that shows the number of different beers, as opposed to total beers thats the second dataset, per brewery, which tries to highlight how varied the range of beer some breweries are now producing,though it can be skewed by local availability obviously.

Back in 2012, Adnams topped the charts with 21 different types of beer, 2016 they topped it again with 26, alot of these are the collaboration beers they now produce for Wetherspoons, but it shows they are consistently producing alot of different beers over the year above their core range.

Moving into surprising second place was Thornbridge, as its mainly just been bottles. A Waitrose opened up in Ipswich since 2012 and has carried a fair sized range of beer since, what will be interesting to see is if Thornbridge's switch to 330ml bottles will change that as Im not a fan of 330ml bottles.

And 3rd, quite literally coming from nowhere since 2012, as they didnt even exist back then, is Briarbank, who started brewing in Ipswich in 2013.

The rest in the list are mainly local East Anglian breweries, but notable highlighting of Grain (they now have a very good pub in Ipswich so tend to see their whole range on offer), Fourpure and Tiny Rebel both the results of tap takeovers at another excellent pub to have opened in Ipswich since 2012, and Muirhouse.

Marks & Spencers are a data anomoly I think with the way the beers have been created on Untappd as they just use normal brewers to produce similar versions of existing beers, most of the ones I get tend to be just Adnams or Meantime, which wouldnt have changed Adnams rank, but might have pushed Meantime into the list.

Those notably missing since 2012, Darkstar whose beers no longer seem as easily available locally in Suffolk which is a shame and Thwaites who were producing lots of fairly decent one off beers for Wetherspoons in 2012 but have since been taken over by Marstons...who basically dont.

Total Beer check-ins

The next chart shows the total number of check-ins per beer over the year, no suprises Brewers Gold still at number 1, and drunk more than twice as often as any other beer on the list, I really do like me Brewers Gold.

Next is Oakham Citra, which didnt even feature in 2012, and another Crouch Vale favourite Yakima Gold. I guess its no surprise they are all fairly closely similar in taste.

Whilst 2012 was quite abit about seasonal beers, 2016 was very much core range beers, Wherry, Landlord, JHB, with only 3 recognisably seasonal only beers. Sadly since 2012 Fat Cat beers seemed to have stopped heading south from Norwich,whether thats to do with the fact they now run 3 very popular pubs in Norwich and dont have capacity, or they simply dont send the stuff this way anymore Im not sure.

Total Brewery check-ins

Finally the number of total check-ins expressed in brewery terms, so kind of an almagamation of the previous two sets of data. And Adnams as was the case in 2012 leading the table again 150 check-ins, no surprises really given the bulk of their checkins from the other data, Crouch Vale again still in second, but only just, which isnt all that apparent from the other data, though Brewers Gold does still make up over half the total.

And a return to 3rd spot from Woodfordes, though I suspect heavily slanted by a weeks holiday last year on the Norfolk broads, where it was literally the only brewers beer available. Top tip if you do go on holiday in Norfolk, dont buy a Woodfordes Wherry polypin as your cottage/boat back up beer supply, theres plenty of it available everywhere!!! Outside of Norfolk Id say its harder to get than even I thought it was in 2012, which probably explains how Oakham are pushing hard on their heels in 4th place.

What might 2017 hold...

Probably more of the same, interestingly for 2013 I predicted Adnams would hopefully bring back a few old favourites, mark the date in your diaries Regatta last seen in 2011 is back for 2017.