Happy new beer! Some resolutions to consider in 2016

As we close out one year and begin another, many of us are resolving to do better. Some resolutions will be personal, others professional. Some will be quite difficult, others easily achieved. Some will be serious, others silly.

Whatever promises you make over toasts of champagne, here are a few resolutions for those wanting to get the most out of beer in 2016.

New Year’s means new beers

This might seem a given, especially since it rhymes and all. But if there’s one hallmark of the craft beer industry, it’s variety. Charlotteans have never had access to as many beers as they do now. Get out of your comfort zone and try a brewery or style of beer that you usually avoid. You might surprise yourself.

But don’t forget old favorites

It can be so easy to get caught up in the new that you overlook the classics, or the ones that piqued your interest in good beer in the first place. For me, these were beers like Highland Brewing’s Oatmeal Porter and North Coast’s Old Rasputin. Those beers are as delicious now as they were when I first tasted them, and I’m going to make it a point in 2016 to dance more often with the ones that brought me.

Take a road trip

Charlotte has an amazing local beer scene, but it’s fun (and often insightful) to see how other cities fare as well. With its myriad breweries, Asheville is an obvious option, but there’s good beer throughout the Carolinas. Head to the mountains or the coast, the Triad or the Triangle. Or if you want to stay closer to home, you can find breweries in suburbs such as Cornelius, Huntersville, Mint Hill, Belmont, Rock Hill and Fort Mill.

Brew your own

Charlotte is home to the Carolina BrewMasters, a local homebrew club that won the American Homebrewers Association’s first Radegast Club of the Year Award. The group is comprised of more than 200 homebrewers, ranging from the yet-to-brew to the professional. They meet at 6:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month at Dilworth Neighborhood Grille, where they discuss and sample homebrews. For local homebrew shops, check out House of Brews (3611 Tryclan Drive) and Alternative Beverage (4450 South Blvd.). This is one I’ve resolved to do for a while, and I hope 2016 is the year I finally pick up a mash paddle.

Attend a festival

Beer festivals offer one of the best ways to sample a wide variety of beers, and in some cases you can meet the people who brewed them. Charlotte has many excellent options throughout the year, with the next one being the fifth annual Queen City Brewers Festival. This year’s festival will be held Feb. 6 at The Fillmore, and tickets are available at www.qcbrewfest.com.

Donate your time or money

Attending a festival on the other side of the taps has its advantages, too – it’s a great way to meet others in the local beer community, and often for a good cause. Many of the festivals donate a portion of the proceeds to local charities. Charlotte’s breweries and bottle shops frequently host fundraisers as well, as do the Charlotte Beer Babes (keep up with their events at www.facebook.com/charlottebeerbabes). As great as beer is, the people in the beer community are even better.

Host a party

You have several options here. You might pair beer with specific foods, such as cheese or chocolate. You could host a white elephant-style party, in which everyone brings a gift-wrapped beer to exchange. One of the most illuminating things you can do is to taste beers blind with a group of others doing the same.

Earn your beer

Many new year’s resolutions revolve around fitness, and you’ll be happy to know that beer and working out are not mutually exclusive. At many of Charlotte’s breweries, you will find run clubs, yoga clubs, Pilates, cycling clubs and more. Whether this makes it more or less difficult to stick to that resolution is up for debate.

This story was originally published December 31, 2015 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Happy new beer! Some resolutions to consider in 2016."