Category: News from Other Beer Writers

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Session # 67


Session # 67 topic comes from Ramblings of a Beer Runner and requires putting on our Karnac the Magnificent hats to predict the future….

“There’s been much cheering and fanfare reverberating throughout the brewing community about the latest brewery numbers recently released from the Brewer’s Association, who counted exactly 2,126 breweries in the United States. To put that into context, you have to go way back to 1887 when the United States had that many breweries. It’s an astonishing 47% increase from just five years ago in 2007 when the tally was a mere 1,449, despite the United States slowly recovering from a serious recession over this period. And according to the Brewers Association, another whopping 1,252 breweries are in the planning stages.

Where is it all going? The growth shows no sign of stopping and the biggest problem most breweries have is that they can’t brew beer fast enough. But can the market really absorb all these new breweries? Are we headed for a cataclysmic brewing bubble where legions of brewers, their big dreams busted, are left to contemplate selling insurance? Or is brewing reaching a critical mass, only to explode even more intensely in a thermo-nuclear frenzy of fermentation?

Now you have a chance to weigh in on these questions. For this month’s Session, tell us how many breweries the Brewer’s Association will count five years from now in 2017, and why you think it will be that number.

We greatly appreciate international perspectives on the US brewing industry and look forward to predictions on US brewery numbers from outside America’s shores. Or if they prefer, they can make a similar prediction about the brewing industry in their home country.

Feel free to use complex mathematical econometric models, top secret brewing industry information, or your favorite dart board, and post your prediction on Friday, September 7th. Share your link in a comment to this post, or send it to me in an e-mail from a link you’ll find here. I’ll post the round-up a few days later.

And for incentive, if five years from now your prediction is the most accurate one, in addition to enjoying beer blogger bragging rights, I will personally buy you a beer.”

When I have been asked about the future of craft beer, either by doe-eyed optimists or sour pessimists, I give the same answer. But let me backtrack a little. I have no stats (damned lies in many instances) or hard facts to back any of this up. This is just the gut feeling of one guy in a corner of the craft beer world. But I think in this session that the closest guesses will be of the hunch variety.

After disdaining the use of stats and facts, I will base my estimates on only three numbers and one immutable fact. I was never fond of math and did whatever I could to get away from that building in college. So this will not be trig or algebra.

#1 – 2,126 The “now open” number
#2 – 1,449 “fermenting” breweries
#3 – craft beer market share 5.7% as of 2011 numbers from the Brewer’s Association

Fact – The major industrial water lager brewers will continue to not know how to or refuse to brew a craft equivalent beer

Taking that in. I see growth over the next five years. Maybe not the velocity that we currently enjoy as writers covering this sector but I see continual upward growth. My personal tea leaves see that the current craft breweries are not making enough beer (see expansion to Asheville or lowered distribution efforts). SO that means there is a void for new. I would guess that maybe 1/2 of the crop that want to open will make it. Probably augmented by some not currently counted. Some of the open ones may falter but I see around 3,000 functioning craft beer sites in 2017. That 3,000 may still be not enough to fill the pint glasses because….

….I see this as a long-term trend, I firmly believe that way more than 5.7% of people want to drink more than corn water. It may not be a majority but I do see 15% as not out of the realm of reason. Now some places like the NW are already past that and others (like L.A. where I am typing from today) have catching up to do and the laggards are where the bigger growth will be. But there will be an upper limit to craft beer. (And those will be interesting times to write in, let me tell you).

Masters of graphs and excel spreadsheets will surely be able to figure out that if the market stabilizes at 15% then X amount of breweries producing Y amount of barrels will need to be in operation based on population and drinking habits. I think that number will probably be north of 3,500 but I don’t think that number will be reached in 5 years.

But to the doomsayers or those worried about a second bust cycle, I present the one unbending fact. Since New Albion (pick your pioneering brewery and insert here) flung open it’s doors oh those many years ago, the big boys have yet to make a craft beer.*

Oh, they have tried. American Ale from Budweiser was watered down Fat Tire. But they have mainly stuck to what they are great at. Marketing and distribution. At some point in the future, I see the MillerCoors ABInBev suits just throw in the towel and distribute craft beer en masse to get in on the money that they are unwilling to create from scratch.

The case for growth in this industry is actually easy to see because the cause of craft beer is rippling around the globe. England has new breweries as does Italy and New Zealand. As the majors have taken over market share, the inevitable rise of the small has followed in it’s wake. The brewing epicenter may not be the U.S. in years to come but it will look an awful lot like it.


*I will agree that Blue Moon is the closest to the mark but they are kept quarantined away from Coors proper like Brett from a winery.

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FoodGPS Teaser – Pacific Libations

Tomorrow’s column over on FoodGPS delves into the world of a beer broker (Pacific Libations) with additionals quotes of wisdom about the business relationships between craft beer people.

But before we jump into that weighty (yet important) topic, here are some more fun questions that I posed to Joe Cartlidge from Pacific Libations….
Question – Which beers from your portfolio are favored by Los Angeles drinkers?
Answer – The top 5 beers in the Los Angeles area are Big Sky Moose Drool, LaTrappe Quadrupel, St Feuillien Saison, Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet, and Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge. We also do very well with Bockor Omer and Aspall Ciders.

Question – What was your first beer that you remember having? (Mine was Weizenberry from Thomas Kemper back before they got folded into the Pyramid brand)
Answer – The beer was called “Buckin’ A Pale Ale” from Red Ass Brewing Co and it came in a 22oz bottle. It was my sophomore year in high school and I still have the bottle to this day. Super sentimental as it was shared with my 2 best friends, James and Trevor. We sat at James’ house and giggled our faces off as we passed the bottle back and forth, watching Cobra, which is an old Stallone movie that was one of James’ all-time favorites.

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FoodGPS Teaser – Ventura’s Surf Brewery

Taking a day trip for craft beer from Los Angeles could keep you busy for a long, long time and I finally got around to making one up to Ventura to visit the tasting room of the Surf Brewery…

The owners looked long and hard to find a suitable location in Ventura and after 13 tries found this nice spot right on Market just off the 101 freeway.

Many draft options. I tried the cask, the anniversary and the Rye & Black blend of two of rye beer and black IPA.

The cask version of the Shaka XPA with Palisade hops.

The 1st Anniversary Imperial Brown to round out the journey. Learn more about the Surf Brewery tomorrow on FoodGPS.

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Session # 66


This month is hosted by DrinkDrank and here is the topic with apologies to Gollum.
“We all have our favorite brews—even if you say you don’t; deep,deep down we all do. From IPAs to Pilsners, Steam Beers to Steinbiers, something out there floats your boat. What if we look that to another level? What if you were to design the perfect brew—a Tolkien-esque One Beer to Rule Them All. The perfect beer for you, personally. Would it be hoppy and dark or strong and light? Is it augmented with exotic ingredients or traditionally crafted? Would your One Beer be a historic recreation or something never before dreamt of? The sky is the limit on this one. If you need to travel back in time to brew at Belgian farm during the 1870s, go right ahead—just say hi to Doc Brown and the Delorean for me. Maybe you’ll need to mount a expedition to the treacherous Amazonian rain forest to bring back some chicha, to spike your brew with; or perhaps, you’ll just dust off that old Brown Ale homebrew recipe, tweak it a bit, and call it an evening.

I’d suspect that most of you out there probably have a good understanding about the brewing process—but if you don’t, no sweat, just wing it. This exercise isn’t about making sure you’ve checked all the right boxes for the BJCP or some homebrew competition. This Session is all about imagining the possibilities—no matter how ridiculous! Feel free to create a recipe, right down to the aplha acid in your hops or conjure up a review just like you’d do for any other beer. However you want to come at this, it’s your ultimate beer, your One Beer to Rule Them All!

One small caveat, however, you do need to name your concoction—no imaginary super beer would be complete without some glorified moniker to seal the proverbial deal!”

The hardest part of this “mythic” beer challenge was the right sounding name. I wanted some history, I wanted to convey fun and I wanted to make sure the beer style was incorporated in there as well. I rejected more before I could finish typing them. But I guess I should go back to the beginning of this session.

What would be my perfect pint? I had to set parameters. I wanted something hoppy but not double or imperial. I wanted to pick up ingredients and elements of some of my favorite beers and re-jigger them into a brand new configuration. I also wanted something light (or dare I say, sessionable) because here in Los Angeles, there are more hot days than not and as good as Double IPA or Russian Imperial Stout can be, they are not easy to drink in the heat of August. (I know this is an imaginary beer that could be drunk anywhere at anytime but I want to stay somewhat tethered to reality.)

Without further ado, here is what I want in my glass. I want a hopped up Helles with a touch of sage in it. This fills my self-imposed parameters. I want this beer to be a bit fizzy but with a pronounced hop aroma from one of the hip New Zealand / Australian hops like Motueka with it’s lemon and lime burst followed by a background of tropical fruit or Rakau with it’s tropical fruit aromas of passionfruit and peach. Then just to add a secondary burst of flavor add some locally grown sage to add a bit more zing to the proceedings.

This recipe would hit a few more points of interest for me. I want to see more pilsners and helles’ on tap and it will showcase the diversity of hop styles and be a bit worldly and less West Coast-centric and the sage addition comes from my enjoyment of Farmer’s Markets that are all over the SoCal area.

This is also a nod to some beers that I have had that in the past like the Sand Dune Sage Pale Ale from El Segundo Brewing and the Saison du Buff from the collaborative efforts of Stone, Dogfish Head and Victory and to the excellent helles made by Hangar 24 in Redlands, California.

That being typed, the name of this lovely summer sipper is The Helles Reclamation Project # 1 – NZ Sage. That’s right. I am thinking about a whole series of new flavors for Helles. Now I just need to think of what I would add to # 2.

Since time machine’s were invoked, how about making sure it is in my hand before I finish this post?

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IPA Day version 2.0


Year 2 of the #IPADay is TODAY!

So get over to Twitter or follow the action on Untappd to see what the blogosphere is drinking from the world of IPA. And if you need a reminder of FAQ’s from last year then click HERE.

And I have the perfect choice for this momentous day. You can’t go small. So I have decided to go huge. Actually GIGANTIC!

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FoodGPS Teaser – Ladyface Brewery Tour

Tomorrow over on FoodGPS, I will talk about one of my favorite Los Angeles area breweries, Ladyface in Agoura Hills.

One of the great things that they do (other than having a great cask offering) is that the first Monday of every month they do a brewery tour. I will tell more tomorrow but here are some photos to whet your taste…


The brewmaster talking about the Ladyface way of brewing


One of the newer beers being aged in Makers Mark barrels


The finished product.

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FoodGPS teaser – New Bruery Tap Room

Tomorrow over on FoodGPS, I will give you the full info on the brand spanking new Bruery taproom. All I will say here, 40 TAPS!

To tide you over here are a few photos….

–the silo against a bright July sun–


–1/2 of the taps (and some bottles) all bright and shiny–


–Big glass windows to see the brewing operations (and me too)–


–You will be filling this familiar glass often at the new taproom.–

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Session # 65 – So Lonely

Here is this month’s topic courtesy of Booze, Beats and Bites….
“Speaking of fun, going to the pub with a bunch of mates is great… you have a few beers and a laugh, generally a fun time and all.

I love going to the pub with mates but sometimes I go to a pub alone and I enjoy it.

Other people say I’m weird for this as there seems to be a stigma attached to being in the pub alone – alcoholism.

There are many reasons why I go to the pub alone.

Sometimes I just want to spend some quality time alone that isn’t at home.

Sometimes I’m walking home and fancy a pit-stop.

Sometimes my mates are all busy with their girlfriends/wives/children and I want a pint.

Sometimes I just fancy going to the pub and observing the bizarre people around me.

Sometimes I want to sit down and write blogs on my tableaux while having a pint.

Sometimes I just want to play angry birds while having a pint.

Sometimes I just want to prop myself at the bar and discuss beer with the bartender.

Sometimes I want to explore pubs that I’ve never been to before but my mates don’t want to.

Sometimes I’m just a miserable bastard and don’t want to socialise but want a nice pint.

The way I see it is that I love beer and pubs and I don’t see why I should only go to the pub when I’m with other people.

Am I weird for going to the pub alone?

How do you feel about going to the pub alone? Do you feel it’s necessary to be around friends to spend time in a pub?”

NO, NO a thousand times NO. It is NEVER weird to go alone for a pint. Just like it isn’t weird to see a movie by yourself or to have dinner by yourself or practically anything, solo.

Before our world became wired and we could check in at a place, check in to a specific beer and take a photo of the beer that looks vaguely sepia toned within seconds of walking in the door, you couldn’t always reach the people that you would like to have a beer with. Now because of phones, Twitter and Untappd (name your social media poison), it is almost expected that we stay in 24 hour contact with not only close friends but slight acquaintances and people we have never met.

But if we are always in constant contact how can we possibly get to know ourselves and slightly less importantly, how do we get to know the beer?

If I am out with friends, I may have drunk 3/4’s of my beer without really tasting it because I may be talking or listening or taking mental notes or laughing. All well and good. Beer isn’t always about maximizing flavor and aroma appreciation. But there are times, important to me, where I crack open a bottle and it’s just me, what’s in the glass and the sky above and I can really look at the beer, take a good whiff of the hops and take a good drink and linger.

We all need a fair share of all types of beer experiences. Too much of one without the other and we lose touch with all that is right about craft beer. It would be akin to always having one style or one breweries beer. Your life wouldn’t be as filled and you would probably begin to take it for granted or long for what’s on the other side. I am not overly fond of bars with multiple TV’s but occasionally I want to watch the NBA or Euro 2012 with an accompanying pint.

That is why I go to many different bars and breweries. That is why I stock my ‘fridge with a changing roster of bottles. That is why sometimes, I sit alone and drink my beer. The only common denominator is that in any scenario, I have a smile on my face.

So be a weird, miserable, Angry Bird playing, blog writing craft beer drinker. I raise my pint to you from a different location where I am doing the same.