Hello, friends. In case you missed yesterday's video (or didn't watch the whole thing), TODAY is the first birthday of Pourly Reviewed Beer!

To be honest, a year ago, I wasn't quite sure how far this would go.

The initial blogging concept started early in 2015 (as Inside the Keg), and Pourly Reviewed Beer started in what I'm calling the "Beta phase" in September of 2015. But that attempt resulted in just a handful of beer-related posts in a six-week period. Now, a catastrophic flood did play a bit of a role in that inconsistency, but mostly it was on me, and at the end of October I finally hunkered down and started writing pretty regularly.

After a regular posting schedule, I decided to add video to the site, grabbed a YouTube channel, and began weekly video reviews in February. That spring, the Six-Pack of News debuted, creating a dedicated semi-regular/as-needed news platform that had been attempted and abandoned a few times previously. Those first half of 2016 also brought the first theme weeks (Columbia Craft Beer Week in January and St. Patrick's week in March), the first event report (the Columbia Brew Bus in April), and the first in-depth location/travel posts (Posts from Asheville in May and June). The end result was an ever-increasing posting frequency, from about 10 posts/month at the beginning of 2016, to around 15/month in May and June, to what will likely be at least 20 posts in October.

So, where do we go from here?

Well, more of the same, and more frequently, is a start. I'm personally committing to having at least 5 posts per week, in an attempt to make this a site that MUST BE visited daily. This will include my recent commitment of YouTube videos each Tuesday/Thursday/one weekend day. After just doing a couple of events this year, I feel like that will be a big area of potential growth. Columbia has so many excellent beer events year-round now, and they should be shared with the world.

I also need to utilize social media better. Right now, the Twitter page gets some love thanks to some of my fellow beer bloggers and vloggers, but the Facebook page is little more than notices about new blog articles. Both platforms can be better utilized. I started this by linking my Untappd account to the PRB Twitter handle (add me on Untapped, username: PourlyReviewedBeer), but I just need to add my own thoughts and opinions to these platforms as they strike me.

Long form news and opinion pieces could also be a next step, but I will need to see how that fits into my current blogging set-up. Still, it's something worth looking into for the next year.

Now, to the many people I have to thank.

I must start with my incredibly supportive family, who are wonderful in so many ways.

To all the readers and viewers, thanks for stopping by, and stopping by often. Special thanks to those commenters, especially on YouTube. It's made for some great conversation, debate, and networking!

Specifically, to the members of the Columbia beer scene that have stopped by my little corner of the internet, thanks so much, and if there's anything at all I can do to help you out, let me know. I would love to do some collaboration.

Thanks so much, everyone, for all of your support. Here's to Year 2! Cheers!