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?)
The long and winding saga of RateBeer will come to a close as of February 1st. I was a user of the website as many in the halcyon days were. It was a great way to find craft beer information and to hear scuttlebutt about a rapidly growing industry.
Then came Untappd which scratched the itch of those who just wanted to tick and go. That and the sale of rating site to the “disrupter” arm of SABInBev really took the steam out of RateBeer from which it never quite recovered.
Now that story could have been different if said disrupter had put even a tiny bit of effort and money into the site, it could have flourished as a clearinghouse of information from across the globe. But that is not how SABInBev treats the companies that it purchases. It tolerates them at first, then ignores them, then lets them die on the vine and then claim that it was the customer speaking and not their purposeful neglect.
There are still those attempting to resurrect the brand but, to them, I say just start anew. RateBeer has too much baggage at this point. I say find a solid beer pun and let RateBeer be remembered fondly for the good times.
In the run up to Christmas, Brouwerij West posted on social media that, barring a miracle, they would be shutting down early in 2025.
That “so there’s a chance” led me to check their feed more regularly and the news is still up in the air as of the end of the year. There is a GoFundMe that you can access HERE.
It is not only the Brewers Association making changes at the top. The California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA), has announced the choice of a new Executive Director in Kelsey McQuaid-Craig.
McQuaid-Craig is a Certified Association Executive and has over a decade of association management experience most recently with the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians which will hopefully help her navigate the political waters of Sacramento and help out the Golden State’s breweries in the coming years.
Craft beer fans will recognize the name of Bart Watson as the pragmatic numbers guys for the Brewers Association. But he is currently the vice president of strategy and membership after his stint as the chief economist of the group, Watson becomes president and CEO on January 6, 2025 two days after the retirement of Bob Pease on January 3.
It is a challenging time in the beer industry but Watson knows the group from the ground up so I expect that good changes and good growth are on the horizon.
I am usually wary of brand extensions but I do think that what Yakima Chief Hops does with their annual blend to benefit the Pink Boots Society fits into a brand extension slot but with benefits.
This year the blend features a harmony of Simcoe®, Mosaic®, Chinook, and Krush™. That last one seems to be quite en vogue at the moment.
The other cool thing about the 2024 blend is that YCH “partnered with women-owned farms within its network of growers to assist in creating the blend. Jessica Riel of Double ‘R’ Farms, Reggie Brulotte of Brulotte Farms, and Erica Lorentz of Lakeside Ranches each hand-selected their favorite lots from this year’s harvest, which the YCH sensory team used to craft three compelling blends for the Pink Boots Society membership to vote on.”
A third cool thing is that YCH will donate $1 from each pound sold to the Pink Boots Society.
I am not inclined to doom and dread when it comes to the New Year. Perhaps because the bar of past years is not the highest of hurdles.
But I do feel mighty trepidatious about our breweries in Los Angeles and this country overall. Zooming out, it is clear that most voting Americans have no idea of the deleterious effects of tariffs and how they are best used in tiny, targeted doses. It is also clear that the ultra religious right cannot stay in church and rather enjoy pushing their twisted morality onto anyone and alcohol is one of their targets.
On a local scale, breweries here are closing or are in trouble. Will that balance out naturally with the remaining breweries getting the dollars? Perhaps. And I do think that turnkey breweries and cheaper kit may lead to a new set of exciting beer but that may not come to fruition until 2026. Until then, we may be looking at a lot of light lagers as draws since slushies and seltzers are fading fast.
The one thing that I will be tracking in 2025 are beer prices. I routinely purchase mixed 4-packs and I used to be able to get them at the $20 mark but in the last half of the year it has been more $24 to $25 and I am looking at barrel-aged beer prices with a sharp eye and substitute a hoppy pils for them. And I don’t even look at big bottles.
However this year turns out, I hope you all have a great beer year and I urge you to visit local and also travel to beer. It might make a difference.
I do not know if as a youngster with internet if I would have participated in viral challenges with either ice water or cinnamon or whatnot but I may have tried my hand at this…
Is it silly, yes. Will it be tremendously uncool come 2025? Most certainly. But it is causing supply line havoc as Guinness gets more pours and as noted drinks writer, Pete Brown has theorized, it may cause a knock-on effect of when he Guinness is gone, stout drinkers may look for other stouts to try.
Looks like 2024 is when yule logs jumped the shark thanks to the limited-edition Miller Lite YuleLager, described as “a digital, beer-pouring fireplace that offers fans a festive new way to savor the sights, sounds, and great tasting sips of the holiday season.”
With such “amazing” features like….
“A custom BeerBlaze LED screen, which creates the illusion of a frothy, beer-filled fire;
A custom audio track so fans can enjoy the sounds of the crackling, faux fire paired with the satisfying pop of a freshly opened Miller Lite;
Extra beer storage designed to keep Miller Lite at the perfect temperature;
Sturdy, built-in stocking hooks;
An insulated, fully removable chimney-inspired beer tower that allows fans to pour ice-cold Miller Lite straight from the beautifully crafted wooden base of the YuleLager, turning holiday time into Miller Time.
Not Needed – just buy good Christmas beers and get YouTube to play a crackling fire for you and yours.
