Winner: ALL THE BEER

As I anticipated, I'm not sure what to make of the outcome of the Cardboard Groundhog First Annual Rodent-Themed Soothsaying - thus making my prediction a complete success. Gordie the Groundhog clearly cast a shadow, but being an inanimate composition in Sharpie-on-cardboard and these still being the sobriety hours, he didn't react in any way. I'm going to assume that means six more weeks of stouts and IPAs, along with anything else I can find that has a weird name or extra-adventurous ingredient (I draw the line at Aporkalypse Now from Hogsback, though - as much as I love oatmeal stout (and bacon(and brackets)) this bacon trend has long since crossed the line into ridiculous, and $8.50 for one 600 ml. bottle is pretty steep when there are competing, and excellent, smoked oatmeal stouts to be had). I plan to celebrate this fortuitous, if not entirely surprising, outcome with both Stack Brewing's Birch and Sawdust City's Sawdust City's Blood of Cthulhu - respectively a birch-bark infused India Pale Ale and a purple Imperial Stout. You don't get a lot of beers that are purple.