The Session 143: How Was Dryanuary Anyway?

Before the death of #TheSession, I posted some thoughts and indicated that I was not willing to entirely let the idea go:

I was so strongly moved by the idea of shutting down the sentence that I tweeted out my congratulations to Stan and Jay on their retirement, as opposed to that of The Session – the monthly collective writing exercise that has been a constant in the last 7/8th of the history of beer blogging. But then Stan and Jay wrote to tell me it really was time to let go. I wonder if they are right. They might be.

Jay also sent an interesting and positive email in response which I don’t need to share or anything but the idea is to see if we  (meaning “I”) play with the fabulous concept of collective theme writing without having the same structures that, over time, became perhaps a bit burdensome. Make it hostless, for one. So, not quite the Avignon Papacy but exploring a slightly different path. Think of a 1990s TV special a year after the show was cancelled.  Or maybe Star Trek’s The Wrath of Khan.

That being the case, here is an idea. We have heard a lot about #Dryanuary and folk like Matt have already posted a summary. I am suggesting a hybrid on the topic might be useful if only to record an overall statement on what the phenomenon of January 2019 meant to good beer culture generally. By hybrid, I mean a collection of new tweets and blog posts, links to big media articles  and any other form of opinion gathering might be interesting.

So, how about it? How was your dry or wet January? Did the campaign actually change your behaviours in any way? Or is it just good to reflect on the idea of alcohol and health and this is a great way to do it? Send your thoughts to the comments below, to beerblog@gmail.com or do your own think with the added hashtag #TheSession. I will gather it together as I can and post something either separately or on the following Thursday as part of the weekly update.