Happy New Year! It sure has been a while.

2011 was a crazy year, having more ups and downs than most of the years before it. As far as beer goes, we made some great beers, attended our first National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego, and settled on plans to move to Adelaide, Australia to open our brewpub in a couple of years.

It was a big year for my health too! In April, I joined a new gym (Hard Exercise Works) and in them finally found something I absolutely love and is sustainable over the long term. They recommended a primal/paleo way of eating, which I greatly resisted at first – give up bread you say???! However, I gave it a spin….aaaaand it seems that removing the grains, legumes & (most) dairy from our diet has had a super effect; I’ve dropped about 15lbs and around 12 inches since making the switch! A side effect was also losing my reflux/GERD type issues, as well as the arthritis in my hands completely disappearing; a very happy side effect!

Some of you probably wondered why I fell off the face of the beer earth this year; it started with the cutting back on grain products in our diet, luckily I have since figured out a happy medium and beer is back, phew! But it continued with me getting pregnant a few months ago – forcing a vacation from beer – unfortunately I miscarried just before Thanksgiving. I know I don’t normally get so personal or serious on this blog, but honestly people don’t talk about miscarriage enough, and us women feel like sad little islands when it happens. And it happens a lot; about 50% of women who have kids had a miscarriage at some point, yet it’s such a taboo topic. Enough already.
Anyways, the blog will continue to be about beer/wine and definitely food too; however, there will definitely be a Primal/Paleo spin to it, and probably some fitness-y type stuff too. Brent got a new job as a consultant with a big, fancy firm and is now living in Denver half  the week, so hopefully he will be helping me out with a “Paleo on the Road” post here & there also!