Can we talk?
Are you well, you know, a Tegestist? 
How do you know if you are? 

A tegestist is a person who collects beer mats.
The name is Latin.  Teges means covering mat. However, the coaster came much later.  In fact it was in use long before it was patented in 1892 by Robert Sputh in Dresden.  The mat serves several functions.  All of them correct: none of them wrong.
The mat serves to primarily catch the condensation from the glassware and protect the surface of the table.  When you place a mat on top of your beer glass it indicates that you are not done with the beer. 

Collecting mats is cheaper than purchasing a t-shirt or a glass.  They take up less space.  They do not shrink, stretch, fade, chip, crack or break.  Best of all they do not require washing!!!
I find that the CD/DVD storage pages are a great way to hold and show off my collection.

It is like a photo album of my beer travels.  There is a story behind everyone of them. 
The challenge is to find an inexpensive source for the budget conscious collector. 
One could go to Staples and pick up a pack of 5 sheets with 4 pockets for a total of 20 coasters to display.  If you only intend to go to 20 breweries in your entire life. 

I found an inexpensive source for 400 pockets for less than $25.00 at the Artisan Deco Store for the more serious tegetstist. 
A large D three ring binder make a good home for these pages and the front allows you to be creative in making up a cover for yourself.  Now they can be proudly displayed on your front room coffee table for you to share and for others to enjoy. 

It's only been ten years.  What a difference a decade can make!  

Ten years ago local breweries had hit a snag along with the bust of the housing industry.  Hard lessons learned include the resources that are drained by having a restaurant with the brewery.  After all beer and food go hand in hand.  The number of breweries in the area where not much more than a dozen and would go down even more.

The past five years saw cornerstone breweries fail as a result of trying to move to fast.  Rubicon was not spared.  The industry is a tricky one but Sacramento residents love their beer.  Smaller breweries continue to pop up in the same spirit of local pubs in Europe.  Why not?  As long as the community has the population to support it the neighbor hood brewery is a good thing. 

Breweries bring more than just beer.  They bring the community together in so many ways.  In the past decade we have seen a collective effort to show case the breweries with our very own Sacramento Beer Week (inspired by the SF Beer Week).  We have also seen a strengthening of the California Craft Brewers Association and the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild.  Social media has created a plethora of apps: Facebook pages,Instagram posts,Twitter  tweets and Meet Ups.  All of this makes it so easy to reach out to the community for causes.  No one comes together better for causes than beer drinkers!

Visit Sacramento and Trip Advisor have come together and designed a lovely source that brings the best of Sacramento and beermap together in one area.  With all the beer groups on Social media the one question that is the most common is, "where is a good place to get a beer?"  Personal suggestions  are a good source of local advise and a great way to reach out to other beer lovers.  However, if you are taking time to plan a trip this is a good place to start.  If you have a goal for 2020 why not include the Sacramento Brewery Passport .  The brewery passport was founded by Aaron O' Callaghan and The Sacramento Beer Frontier site features other cool items that are supported by local breweries.

Is it possible to visit a new brewery in Sacramento for every week of the year?  Yes it is.  

Here's to another decade.

For industry detailing the decade in review check out Forbes.