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Here is your handy link spot to read what I covered in Brew & You in October on Food GPS….
October 3rd – Portuguese Bend Distilling and the 4th Horseman in Long Beach, Bears Ears from Brouwerij West and Cellador turns 3.
October 17th – Smog City West opens, Stone Buenaveza and Southland Beer turns 4.
October 31st – Two new breweries in El Segundo, Kern River Pumpkin Ale and Cask’s Not Dead Festival.
The October podcast is Eaters Digest. A breezy food news and trends podcast from the Eater brand of websites that stretch across the country. The pod is hosted by Eater Editor-in-Chief Amanda Kludt and Producer Daniel Geneen and covers topics ranging from natural (orange) wine, to restaurant trends to babies in bars. Each show goes by quickly and though the hosts skew towards a younger generation, I find it refreshing to hear about items outside my little bubble even if they do not come down hard on hard seltzer.
I would suggest, since they do talk wine and cocktails a bit that you find say a Rosalie from Firestone Walker or a Nitro White Russian from Left Hand to pair with the podcast.
Here is your handy link spot to read what I covered in Brew & You in September….
September 5th – Project Barley, A Velvet Glow from Russian River + a state gathering at Long Beach Beer Lab.
September 19th – California Craft Beer Summit in Long Beach plus plenty of Oktoberfest fun.
I am a fan of the Onion / AV Club family of websites (though the current ad infested format is horrible), so obviously I love the content over on The Takeout as well and one of the regular features that I enjoy is Gateways to Drinkery where a deep dive from the beginning is conducted. One of the latest is on hefeweizens which is great to see talked about in this hard seltzer landscape. Bookmark it to keep learning about beer.
Wow. I knew more than I wanted to know about the West Coast Donald that Los Angeles tolerated for far too long but this new 30 for 30 podcast from ESPN is just too much.
Hosted by long-time NBA reporter Ramona Shelburne, this five-part podcast starts at the end and then re-traces the steps of this sad, sad man and the many people that enabled him and his wife. From Boyle Heights to courtrooms to real estate deals to all the affairs and horrible interactions with players. This is a parade of awkward and ugly and by the end you wish you hadn’t heard of either Donald or Shelley.
To accompany this series, you could make the journey that the podcast does, starting in Oakland where the ascendant Clippers were playing the before championship Warriors. Perhaps Faction Brewing beers would be a good choice considering the acrimony in this podcast. Then head to San Diego and get something bitter for when the Clippers left that city. And finally get something from Mumford Brewing in DTLA, one of the closest breweries to Staples Center.
Here is your handy link spot to read what I covered in Brew & You in August….
August 8th – Trademark Brewing, Pineapple Saison + a Block Party with Chapman Crafted.
August 22nd – Two new San Dimas breweries, Zwickelbier + the California Craft Beer Summit in Long Beach.
With the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing (yes, it did happen ya’ kooky nutjobs), it is a good time to go back and dig into the details that we haven’t seen in movies like First Man, Apollo 13 and Hidden Figures) and no better place than the venerable BBC with 13 Minutes to the Moon.
The music and the pacing seemed a bit off in the first couple of episodes but as we reach episode 8, the podcast seems to have found its footing. The interviews from both archival footage and new is weaving together the stories of the flight controllers and the astronauts into a larger story and pinning the arc of the story on one specific section of the flight allows for stories to spin off but return to the 13 minutes of descent to the lunar surface.
For beers to pair with it, I would suggest 8-Bit Brewing from Murrieta. Apollo 11 was using the most rudimentary computer coded via punch cards so a brewery with beers such as Turbulent Juice would be a good choice. You could also look to Florida for a Cigar City beer like Cold Moon Flanders or to Houston for flight control and Great Heights Brewing and their Lupulin Starship or Galactic Fruitier Pellets.
Recently, I hit a milestone on the Untappd app….
…and no matter what your opinion is on the usefulness of ticking apps, this is kinda cool. Not so much even for the 5,000 check-ins but the 4,040 separate beers. To me, that means a mixture of promiscuity and adventurousness. That number doesn’t even reflect all of the beers as many went untagged through the years. And that little blue graph reminds me that I need to make good choices with my ratings.