I’d like to raise a glass to 2012, a year that offered me the chance to taste well over 100 different beers. I sampled ales and lagers from 40 South African microbreweries, I finally got to sip some Dogfish Head IPA, I was treated to tasters of hand-crafted ales from the US and Italy, I scored a stash of the superlative Captain Smith’s Ale from the Titanic Brewery in my UK home town of Stoke-on-Trent and I splurged R65 for a single shot of BrewDog’s Tactical Nuclear Penguin.

I expect this year to be similarly palate-pleasing and so I have made a six-pack of New Beer’s Resolutions. Here are half a dozen things I’d like to try in 2013 – share your new year wants list in the comments section below…

1) A South African Weiss for summer

At last year’s CTFoB I was asked for a recommendation on a good local weissbier and was temporarily stumped. Later I remembered Boston’s Johnny Gold, as well as a couple of good examples from breweries not featured at the fest (most notably Chameleon Brewhouse near Jo’burg), but it did get me thinking. A few have tried brewing a Weiss but not quite hit the mark, so in 2013 I’m hoping to stave off a summer thirst with an expertly made German-style Weiss. And with Paulaner’s former brewmaster Wolfgang Kodel manning the kettles at the Cape Brewing Company, I have an idea where I might get what I’m looking for…

2) An overseas beer tour

The location is yet to be confirmed, but if I haven’t completed a brew route around the UK, the US or Belgium before the end of the year, I’ll consider 2013 a disappointment.

Where would you go on your perfect beer break? Tell us in the comments section below.

3) Show us your hops

For those who don’t know, I’m a massive hophead and in 2013 I’d love to see more South African breweries helping me to find my hoptopia. At 2012 fests, IPA was the buzzword, yet there are still too few on the shelves – for this year’s IPA day, I’d love to see a total tap takeover at Banana Jam Café (or whatever your local craft beer haunt is)…by my count we’re missing about 13 to make that dream come true…

4) Something fruity

Some five or six years ago I tasted a beer in London, a beer that I continue to crave from time to time today. The beer in question is Früli, a strawberry beer brewed in Belgium. These days my beers tastes have changed and with my penchant for bitter beers I might find Früli too sweet, but I’d love to have the chance to find out. I’d like to throw down the gauntlet to South African brewers to create a refreshing, drinkable fruit beer that actually tastes of fruit (not like the Liefmans Fruitesse, which reminds me of childhood medicine).

5) Lambic beer

Can the next person who goes to Belgium please bring me back a Lambic beer? I’m pretty sure I won’t be mad about the sour style, but I’m hugely curious to see what an intentionally sour beer tastes like…

6) Anything that doesn’t patronise our palates

You know what I’m sick of? I’m sick of breweries putting out beers that are ‘easy-drinking’, designed for the South African palate. It’s either incredibly patronising – especially in  country with a well-established foodie culture – or it’s a cop out for big beers that went wrong. This year I want to sip on thick, full-bodied stouts, heavy, roasty ales; I want beers that live up to the styles they’re modelled on, not beers that are watered-down versions that suggest we’re not up to the task of drinking big boys’ beers.