Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
No, it is not a code name for a spy thriller, it is a very famous Flemish sour ale. One that I need to have a taste of again.
Brews Brothers is going all in on Duchesse de Bourgogne with a Verhaeghe Brewery Beer Dinner at their Burbank Brewpub on January 27th. It will be a 5-course meal expertly paired with Verhaeghe Brewery’s finest beers.
There are precious few beer pairing dinners out there and even fewer with Belgian beer so you may want to snap up this opportunity.
I am not one for Best of the Year lists, more of a in the moment person so I am grateful for outlets like Hop Culture that go in on the whole look back at a whole year thing. You can read their list HERE and my second choice from the list is Deep Fried Beers in Athens, New York.
Not the most appetizing name for a shop known for their IPAs and rocketing up Empire State best of lists but let’s find a table to set our virtual taster down onto including…
Kilometer Long Stare – “Hazy Double IPA hopped with 8+ lbs / bbl of Citra and Galaxy.”
Built Different Batch 2 – “Hoppy Ale brewed with 8 lbs / bbl of lot selected Yakima Chief Citra, Freestyle Hops Nelson Sauvin, and HPA Galaxy.”
In Da Clurb, We All Fam – “Hazy DIPA hopped with 9+ lbs per bbl of Yakima Chief Citra, NZ Hops NZ Cascade, and Freestyle Hops Nelson Sauvin.”
Over the latter half of 2024, I have been checking Instagram because of the curious case of the account for Monkish Brewing in Echo Park (see below).
I looked again at the start of the new year and still no activity at all. Perhaps a hoax? Not an official account? Sheer hopefulness and jumping the gun?
Rest assured that if anything does come to pass, there will be a post about it unless Project 2025 and their neo-prohibition nazi goons take away my right to blog about beer. (that went from positive to dark quick, didn’t it?)
Late last year, Brouwerij West posted that they needed a miracle to stay afloat and now way out the valley in Arcadia, Mount Lowe Brewery could be another brewery casualty.
No firm deadline was given but it looks like angel investors are sorely needed and it couldn’t have come at a worse time as resources are spread thin.
I love to beer travel and most craft beer fans do to. And in Flights Across America, Joel Geier.
Geier has “visited nearly 1,400 breweries across all fifty states, and this book is a compilation of his experiences.” That is a lot of beer and travel and he takes real care in the decision making.
To make up for the other post today, here is a review of a corn whiskey from Home Base Spirits, California Corn.
This whiskey uses certified organic Yellow Dent Corn grown in the Sacramento Valley grown and then goes into former Home Base Bourbon barrels. Originally intended as a piece to a blend puzzle, it turned out so well that it was released all on its own.
It pours a dark yellow with orange tinting to it. The aroma can be gathered even when not near your nose. Powerful wake-up first but underneath is a bit of soft caramel. Very dulce de leche notes in the flavor and then a powerful wake-up as the burn hits the throat. Good cop and bad cop going on here.
There is an international collaboration out in the last weeks from Smog City Brewing and Nepomucen Brewery from Szkaradowo, Poland. And it’s a Baltic Porter! A win for diversity in beer styles.
I do remember those days of high abv beer battles and I have tried Utopias as well as that strange beer that came dressed as a former squirrel.
I thought those stunts were over but apparently there is a new entrant at the top of the heap. A fortified product with a warning to just drink a tiny amount in a single sitting.
And of course, it has a childish name of Snake Venom.
My suggestion is to not shill out that money. You can get a really good bourbon with that cash.
Add another casualty to the brewery list as Burbank’s Trustworthy Brewing Co. will arrive at their 8th anniversary and then close up for good at the end of January.
So on Saturday, January 25th, it will be a bittersweet party from 12 PM to 10 PM. Below are the details….
“We will have our VIP section from 12-2pm. Tickets will be $39 and will include:
Unlimited drinking for the entire 2 hours
2-4pks of your choosing
Bottle of a sour or barleywine
Logo Pint Glass
Starting at 2pm doors will be open to everyone and we’ve got some exciting things planned including free raffles and discounts on everything!
After the party we will be open every day until Friday the 31st which will be our final day. We’ll be doing special promos from now until our final day so keep checking back to see what each week’s deals will be.”
Memoirs are not usually my cuppa but after hearing Salman Rushdie talk about his scary new book, Knife about his near fatal stabbing, I added it to my library list and I was quite taken by the thoughtfulness and openness displayed. It could have been easy to be simplistic about such a horrifying attack recounting events in a rote fashion but Rushdie plumbs deeper and looks at the whole picture and not just one victim and one attacker and the medical consequences.
Such a violent and bloody book make for a much harder beer choice. But I will lean into the word meditations in the sub-title and suggest finding comfort beers. Nothing hoppy or bitter because that is not what this book is about. Find a lovely brown ale like Figueroa Mountain’s Davy Brown or look for a nice porter from your local brewery.