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Tomorrow on FoodGPS, I will be completely local (or is it loco) I will be talking about the latest bottling news from Beachwood, El Segundo and Angel City breweries. The beer of the week will be from Smog City and the homework revolves around the L.A. Beer Blogging community.
To give a little background on bottling, here is a video from an East Coast brewery that gives a succinct educational lesson….
The first topic of 2013 comes from the blog, Brewers and Drinkers….
“It always surprises me how many beer bloggers are out there, and how not all of them brew.
For me brewing was a natural progression from my interest in beer.
But as I’ve discovered more about brewing my enjoyment of beer has changed.
The more I learn the less I enjoy mediocre beers, knowing how easy they are to make. Similarly, great beers seem all the more impressive now.
Apart from this general change, I’ve also become a more analytical drinker. I try to identify flavours in a way that I never did before.
How did they get that biscuity malt flavour up front? Is that raisin? They overdid the bittering hops, didn’t they?
Brewers and Drinkers is about your relationship with beer and how it’s made. Do you brew? If so why? If not, why not? How does that affect your enjoyment of drinking beer?”
When people learn that I am a not-so-famous beer blogger, I will inevitably be asked if I brew at home. I have two stock answers.
1. I have attempted and made some spectacular vinegar.
2. My wife hates the smells associated with beer being brewed so I refrain.
And as much as I push beer education and beer reading and flat out drinking as many beers as you can safely try in general practice, I do not think that you need to be an expert home brewer to either judge or enjoy craft beer expertly. You can coach a football team without playing a single down or be completely non-athletic and call the play-by-play of the game featuring multiple coaches who never strapped on a helmet. And I feel the exact same way about beer.
I, of course, can’t answer for the other side of the equation for the fine people who home brew and then order a sampler tray from a new brewery and wonder if it will stand up to their own standards. That may be a difficult circle to square.
But your relationship with the beer in front you should be one of discovery and open mindedness. If home brewing helps to create that state of mind then kudos to you. If it creates too many questions, then maybe it is a detriment. Think about the costumer who watches a movie and only notes what could have been done differently with that dress on the leading lady or that military uniform is too tight or frankly any other artisan who looks upon a piece of work that they did not do and picks out the negative first.
Now I will not over-generalize and say that every home brewer does that. My “no data to back it up” guess is more beer snobs do it overall. But the point is that you should do your best to live in the moment with the pint of beer. That beer may be sub-standard and you may know exactly why and you may know how to fix it but drink the pint first and give a rounded critique from the aspect of a drinker first, home brewer second and then whatever other occupations after that. Because, as a member of the brewing fraternity, wouldn’t you want the same from the people drinking your beer?
I am reminded of what the comedian Patton Oswalt said about the Star Wars prequels in one of his stand-up routines, “I don’t give a shit where the stuff I loves comes from. I just love the stuff I love. That is enough for me.”
Ultimately, I will take every brewery tour and read a book devoted to water and brewing but hand me a pint of Weird Beer from Smog City Brewing and all that important knowledge takes a back seat to the aroma, look and taste of the beer.
If you would like to meet people (like me) and start to social media connect with the burgeoning L.A. Craft Beer Scene then I have an event for you.
Here is the scoop from Cambria and Fran from Golden Road, “We are proud to present our very first event made just for YOU. We are teaming up with LA Craft Beer Bloggers to open the Chloe’s doors to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers, beer blogging pals and homebrewing friends — nobody else! We’ve reserved a special night at our upscale pub-within-a-pub so we can hang out and enjoy each other’s company in a relaxed atmosphere AWAY from our computers.
So here’s the plan for the 29th of January (A Tuesday, yes, you can drink on a weekday):
Doors open at 6PM.
At 8PM the one and only John Palmer and the illustrious Drew Beechum will speak and answer questions on homebrewing and beer writing, offering their precious insights into brewing great beer and upping your beer writing game. If you don’t write or brew, no problem, they are great resources for learning more about beer all together.
From 6:30-8:30PM the Golden Road beer and appetizers in Chloe’s are on us. Our full menu and beer lists from both The Pub and Chloe’s will also be available for purchase all night should you hunger or thirst for something more.
After John & Drew time is over stay and hang until 11 PM. If you happen to blog, we’ll have a table set aside for you to share business cards with your peers and the like, so bring anything you feel would help you connect.
>>¡IMPORTANTE!<<
To guarantee your entry to Chloe’s for this event, you MUST RSVP VIA EMAIL to cambria@goldenroad.la with your full name, phone number, email address, and Twitter handle!! A “yes” RSVP to this event page will NOT get you in… as backwards as that may sound 🙂
Further details on special gifts, beers, bites and GRB brewers to join us are to come … as well as an extra special surprise for our homebrewing friends.”
So if you would like to get involved in “pushing” craft beer then let’s meet up.
Tomorrow on FoodGPS, I give you some “special” christmas shopping ideas the and the beer and homework is from Anchor Brewing in San Francisco. It is the yearly tradition of Our Special Ale. The holiday ale with a different tree on the label and a slightly different recipe each year.
Recently, I did a vertical tasting of this beer starting with the 2008 version and going through to 2012.
2008
Very frothy pour with an espresso head. Aroma hints that this one may have passed prime tasting time. An old ale background with a touch of sour creeping in. Very British ale tasting.
2009
Another frothy beer. Both were stored standing up so I don’t think it was my cellaring technique. But this one had a much lighter head to it. Some minor roast notes and a little whisper of pine. That same sourness and apple cider taste is evident in this one as in 2008.
2010
This one poured better. More Belgian-y. Good sparkle to this one in comparison to the flatter beers form ’08 and ’09. More coffee acidity here. Again the tree and pine notes are only faint and way in the background.
2011
Dark with a brown ale backbone. Not much spice or flavor in the 2011. Even tastes a little thin. If the others did not stand up to aging then I fear for this one.
2012
Pours dark black. Almost a Dr. Pepper type of aroma. Flavor has a burnt quality to it. Body is light and it is quite sparkly. Flavor does linger on the palate.
First – I am thankful for craft beer.
But more importantly, I am thankful to all the people who are friends of the blog and all those people who have helped me on my journey in the past, the present and will help me in the future.
Craft beer and craft beer in Los Angeles is a great place to be right now and so I will be………
….all day long.
Now go have a great craft beer with your tur-duck-en!
Yes, it is Turkey Time. I think it is a great canvas to experiment with beer pairings. So many different flavors and crisp fall weather.
One beer style that I don’t talk about in my post on FoodGPS tomorrow is sours. Generally, I would stay away from this beer on a large gathering occasion. Too many people will turn up their nose. But if you are in charge of the gathering, maybe you can foist this beer on to the crowd.
I think a light sour like a Duchesse de Bourgogne or the newly released Ichico Highway from The Bruery would work. But a nice gose would do the trick too.
Let me know which sour beers you think would be a perfect foil for the turkey.
There is a bit of a movies and TV theme on tomorrow’s FoodGPS post. But trust me, it all comes back around to beer in the end. There may be exotic locales with a green bottled beer of ill repute. A serpent chasing it’s own tail in search of a brown ale and then there are zombies too……
Not only did I meet Fred Waltman of the Franconia Beer Guide at the Beer Advisory Board meeting for the 4 Points Beer Hotel but I also got to meet Curtis who blogs at HopHeadSaid and covers the central coast of California and also puts a spin on beer and food pairings too.
There is an excellent map of breweries that goes as far south as Agoura Hills and one of my favorites, Ladyface and heads north up to Paso Robles and a certain teeny-tiny brewery up there.
It is yet another great resource for traveling and ideas.
99 Pours is hosting the October Session and the theme: Novelty Beers
“With the onslaught of even weirder beards…erm…beers…than before, I can’t help but wonder if novelty beers are going too far. Or maybe not far enough? LOL! As a merchant of beer, I can see the place for novelty beers, as I am choosing for some customers who say, “I want the strangest beer you have.” We’ve even seen some novelty beers in our top-sellers. But beer traditionalists sometimes frown on these new and bizarre concoctions. And I can’t help but wonder if Martyn Cornell will participate, sharing bizarre but notable historic brews.
And what better time for novelty, than the month that holds Halloween?
What novelty beer comes to mind when you think: Is this beer just to strange to stay around? Why in the world would they choose ingredients most beer drinkers have never heard of …what the heck is a qatar fruit? If it’s okay for beer to taste like tea or coffee, why not pizza? If wild yeasts are allowed to ferment beer, then why not beard yeast? If oysters, why not bacon? If pumpkin’s good enough for pie, why not beer? Since hops are flowers, why not brew with actual flowers?”
I am all for stretching the box. Breaking through the box. Heck, even making the box a circle when it comes to beer. I have had beer that has organic fennel in it, L.A. Beer Week’s “Top Chef” style ingredient for 2012 was the prickly pear and I just read about an Oregon beer made with golden raspberries. I lived part of my life with only industrial water lagers to drink and I am certainly not going back to just corn as a base ingredient.
And if I think of the past, some of those beers that I thought were extra hoppy or too roasty would be considered XPA or a light porter in 2012. Today’s “weird” may be “boring” in a few years time but it could also just as easily be today’s fad that does not last until the keg is dry or tomorrow (whichever comes first). And I think that the truly great “novelty” beers should be called Beer from a novel approach because it must be about the beer first. The inspiration can come from Halloween and you can devise a way to add black licorice to a beer (Ladyface Ales did it this year) but if the beer is just black licorice roughly grafted onto any old beer then it won’t take. It has to be which beer would match with black licorice to add an extra dimension to the beer.
Another point to consider. If a consumer tastes a wacky beer and it goes down all wrong then what are the chances that the person picks up another beer from that brewery? Or on the flip side, if that same beer becomes the next “whale” that becomes the first thing that people think about when they think about the brewery and/or the beer is a mess to brew. Either way you need to have established a loyal consumer base that will still drink all the “other” beers in your portfolio.
The third wrinkle that novelty beers bring to the pint glass is that they take up valuable space in a fermenter. Is your local nano working overtime and then some to keep up with the demand for their flagship ale? Then they turn around and throw chipotle peppers into it? I am not saying that it is wrong or bad or an affront to the beer gods but it is something to consider.
Novelty beers to me are like a basketball player who launches an off kilter half-court shot when there is still 24 seconds on the shot clock. You know the coach will yank that player before seeing if the ball goes into the hoop. If it goes in, you get applauded and put on ESPN. If it doesn’t you end up riding the pine watching the game.
Last month, I wrote about the Sourfest night at 4 Points LAX and postponed writing about the Advisory Board that I am a member of because of the L.A. Beer Week festivities.
Well tomorrow over on FoodGPS, you will get the scoop on the proceedings and what makes 4 Points unique and important for the craft beer eco-system here in Los Angeles.
But for now, here are some photos to tide you over….
Beer flights or bottles, delivered to your room!
Last year’s monthly beer appreciation nights.
Our host Phil Baxter who along with Justin Blake are merging hotels and craft beer together.