The Year in Beer

Despite the fact that I only reviewed 52 new beers in 2011, it was still a big year for the Year in Beer, in terms of web traffic.

The majority of the traffic (82 percent) again came from search engine queries, and again it was driven by folks who wanted to know how many calories they had in their beer.

In 2011, our entry for Guinness Black Lager led these searches, accounting for more than 1,100 page views, or almost 7 percent of the total page views.

Overall, the traffic to the site more than doubled, with 11,940 visits in 2011 compared to 5,058 in 2010.

We also got significantly more global, with visits from a total of 101 countries compared to just 58 in 2010.  That included 7 countries in Africa and almost all of South America.

Among them were the odd visit from Rwanda, the Isle of Man and the British protectorate of Jersey (off the coast of France).

Internet Explorer and Firefox were in a dead heat for the browser most used to view the Year in Beer at 32 percent each, with Google Chrome coming in third.

As for mobile views, Apple’s iPad led the way, with the iPhone a distant second.

In addition to Guinness Black Lager, the most viewed beer pages in 2011 were mostly 2010 posts, with Samuel Adams Noble Pils in second, followed by Great White Beer, Big Flats 1901 (the lone 2011 post) and Heavy Seas Loose Cannon.

Anyway, it’s back to new beers soon, with reviews of three new Samuel Adams beers on the way. Cheers!

    — Posted by Mike Freimann