Winking Lizard Ready for World Tour 2013

Since 1983, Winking Lizard has been dishing up great food and superb beers from all over the world. In 1987 they did their first ever World Tour of Beers, challenging connoisseurs to taste beers from all over the world. 2013 will mark the 27th Anniversary of this Craft Beer Geek’s dream. John Lane and the rest of the folks at Winking Lizard have some very nice things in store for participants of this year’s Tour, which can be started on January 2nd at any Winking Lizard location. This will be my very first venture into the World Tour of Beers and I could not be more excited to get started. The fact that I have to wait two more days to get going is killing me! I’m ready for the tour and I’m sure all of you are as well!
As usual, completing the Tour is done by trying 100 different beers from craft breweries here in the United States as well as imports from many other countries from around the world. The 2012 Tour featured over 300 different beers and I can only assume that the number will continue to grow as long as good beer is being made by more and more brewers. For just $10 you enter yourself into the tour and make yourself eligible for the great perks that come with the half way point (50 beers) and the completion of the tour (100 beers). As is tradition, when you hit the 100 beer mark, you get your official Winking Lizard World Tour of Beers 2013 jacket. This year’s half-way prize is a Winking Lizard cooler. I wonder if they’ll let us get some beers to go when we get that cooler…

On January 2nd, head to your favorite Winking Lizard location to get started. This will also be the location that you have to finish. Choose your location wisely! When you pay your $10, you’ll get your “passport” so that you can keep track of your progress during World Tour 2013. New this year will be a mobile app that will also allow you to check your beers off of the World Tour list. The store you sign up at will also be keeping track of your progress as the year progresses. To earn credit for a beer, you must drink a pint if you are getting draft beers. New this year will be 5 bottled beers that will change monthly.

I will be keeping track of my progress throughout the World Tour on here as well as checking in all of my brews through the Untappd mobile app and you can follow me there under the name “ExBEERienceCLE” all one word with no spaces. I hope all of you are looking forward to the World Tour 2013 as much as I am and I’m sure many of us will run into each other on our way towards the 100 beer goal! I’ll be at the Avon location on Wednesday evening to get things started.

If you want to Tour with ExBEERience CLE, just drop me a line! Make sure to also follow me on Twitter for tons of updates as well as non-beer related tweets that range from hilarious to depressing and everything in between @mgvanwormer

Happy World Beer Tour 2013 to all and a special “Thank You!” to John Lane from Winking Lizard for getting my the info on this year’s Tour, as well as the awesome 2013 logo!