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Firestone Walker is really Paso-fying their latest release, a golden lager named Sunglider that uses grain from Paso Robles. The label also points out what visitors to the brewery have either seen or toured around, their solar capability and their extensive energy and waste reduction efforts.
Los Angeles gets a little bit of pFriem Family beers and maybe we will get this Earth Day appreciation IPA. The beer “combines Salmon-Safe hops from Coleman Agriculture with malt from Admiral Maltings using Western Rivers Conservancy’s eco-driven barley…”
The first beer history book from Dr. Christina Wade and the second one that I have read, The Devil’s in the Draught Lines, about the role of women in British brewing is …..
The sub-title of the book is 1,000 years of women in Britain’s beer history and Dr. Wade covers that time frame admirably. The book is broken into seven sections and the reader is plunged back and forth into history.
I did like that this hook had a particular focus on recent history, weaving in anecdotes from various female beer professionals from brewers to writers to publicans. The recent history strongly counterpoints the past showing both how far society has come but also how agonizingly slow and incomplete that is.
Nowhere is that more plain and startling than the last section of the book which talks about women as just drinkers of beer and the hurdles and taboos placed on it from men who seem to be so weak as to not want to allow women to order full pints! The justifications for mens actions are so pathetic if not that they are still well believed to this very day.
My fondness for the modern should not hide the fact that Dr. Wade has done a heckuva lot of research looking for mentions of ale, then beer and brewing in the past. There must have been some real eureka moments when an old parchment mentioned hops or taverns or anything beer related.
I highly recommend this book and her latest, Filthy Queens. Get both!
Readers of the blog know that I am introvert. I feel most comfortable in a brewery taproom right when it opens and I am the only one there.
I recognize that I am not in the majority when it comes to folks going out for craft beer, And it is for these people thar I recommend A Place to Be, a beer ‘zine from the folks that put the Pellicle beer writing website together.
The Craft Beer Channel on YouTube has recently dropped two new videos revolving around their new self-assigned task to get cask ale recognized as a UNESCO historical landmark.
Check out the new cask episodes starting with Bitter Not Boring – Part 6.
Firestone Walker has a new Primal Elements sour ale out now. This time around it is filled with pineapple, passionfruit, orange and guava that is aged in french oak barrels. As a fan of passion fruit, this sounds delicious.
Here is one of many weird things about me. I do not watch college basketball in the regular season but I enjoy March Madness. I have, before teams moving hither and thither watched college football in the regular season and less so the playoffs.
Why? There are a few reasons. First, I think March Madness does not have the same stink of corporate greed as the college football cash grab. Or at least that initial greed has worn off in my mind.
It is also that due to the lesser amount of games played that the importance of footballs regular season is far more than the college basketball one where the Madness is where the rubber hits the road. You also can’t discount that most college hoopers are done when that final buzzer sounds, whereas gridiron heroes have round after round of the NFL draft to look towards.
I have two beer lanes to choose. First, grab a beer from a college town like a Eugene or Berkeley. Or search a little harder to find a Marzen style beer out there to watch the shining moments from this years games.
Earlier this month, Untappd unveiled its best of the best. There were lots of individual beer winners like this…
…which show that stout life is still bankable for high scores but for me the breweries with most medals is of more interest because it shows a wider breadth of admiration.
I know that every year for the last decade has been pronounced the year of pilsner but maybe if enough people wear this….
…it might come true. Head HERE if the shirt is perfect for you.
In this time of major uncertainty, thoughts run to how to get people to the taproom. For a brewery, a pint over the bar is the best profit margin you can get especially with looming aluminum price increases.
There are trivia nights, painting nights, comedy nights, food trucks and all manner of events to get people into breweries.
But there are other deeper cuts that could be tried as well. I am not a fan of babies / toddlers / young’ins but I am probably in a minority so what can you do to bring parents in and create an environment that they want to return to. Perhaps a new parents meet-up where you cut the price on N/A drinks so when parent can imbibe. Or how about creating a quiet night for parents with autistic children who may feel that a taproom is too loud for an outing.
You can have nights for local sports teams but how about going deeper and having a women’s March Madness day to bring in a crowd that is truly growing. How about a book exchange to see if you can get introverts, like me, down to get even more reading material.
Or you can just program what every other brewery is doing.
Peel the Label is an infrequent series with no photos or links. Just opinion.