Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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Your Own Personal Tariff

Even though the initial round of tariffs have been postponed (with aluminum on the way) maybe in part because Canada banned American made spirits from their state-run liquor stores, I wanted to send out a blanket message to anyone who works in distilleries in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee who voted Elon for President that they nearly voted themselves out of a job.

Tariffs, as I have mentioned a few hundred times before work best as a protective layer for a young and growing homegrown industry that may be more expensive to start but could grow and become competitive and then not need the tariff protection. It is pretty basic economics. Unfortunately pretty basic economics seem beyond the grasp of too large a group of Americans.

The point of this post is not to say I Told You So. This post is for us few nice Americans who are siding with our neighbors to thr north and south. How do we push the needle to sanity? Below are some small actions you can take to help….

  • Buy Local + – the plus sign is the important part. Make sure that the local you are buying from is not a pro tariff, anti DEI, money above people brewery and if they pass that simple niceness test, then buy from them as directly as possible.
  • Do not buy – craft beer from places like Target who backed away loudly from DEI measures. liquor from big multi-nationals especially if they are from a state that Nazi Musk won. Basically be a mini-Canada.
  • Start buying from progressive or minority run business – use this time to discover new breweries, distilleries, cider spots. I have a whiskey from a female run distillery named Home Base and gin from another female run distillery, Freeland Spirits.
  • Buy from Canada and Mexico – no better middle finger than spending your money on goods from those two countries who are being shat on for no good reason.
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Hobbits in Santa Monica

Merry and Pippen.  Sorry, let me start again.  Billy & Dom and their travel / food program, Eat the World stopped off in Santa Monica and went through the brewing process of the Westside (not Middle Earth) brewery.

Santa Monica Brew Works is in the California section aka episode three but the series is not yet streaming here in the U.S. but keep checking for when it does.

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Not Tickled by Pickled

I was in a fancy cafe and market recently (looking at you Joan’s on 3rd) perusing the rather desultory craft beer choices and the biggest inventory was a pickle beer.  I almost belted out, “stop with the pickles” in the middle of the store. And the dill doesn’t stop with beer, it has invaded spirits as well.

To backtrack a bit, I do not mind savory elements in a beer nor do I hate on experimentation but can it be explained why there are so many pickle beers?  It reminds me of the pepper beer kick way back in the early days where spicy beers were the rage.  Those beers are not around anymore and the peppers are going into hot sauces with horrifying and painful names and I feel that pickle beers are set for the same fate of being a forgotten footnote in craft beer history.

Perhaps this is the zenith of pickle popularity, I have not heard much Pickleball talk either.

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Enter the Hall

A much happier inauguration is coming on Saturday, February 15th, at 12:00pm (PST), when the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame will be announcing its inaugural Inductees into The newly created Hall.

Here is How to Watch:

“The livestream will be available free of charge and can be accessed live online HERE, or recorded following the event on the Craft Beer Professionals YouTube page. 

Who will be the first enshrined?

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The Firkin for January 2025

Just before leaving office, the Surgeon General of the United States, following the lead of officials in Europe has suggested that an additional warning of cancer risk be added to alcohol products.

You can read up on the main points HERE but I have three questions that I would like additional information on…

  • is this for ALL alcohol? are grapes better than malt or apples better than toasted oak? are the botanicals in gin OK?
  • what is the math on amounts? is 16oz of 5.5% beer better than a cocktail with 45abv spirit?
  • what is the research (if any) on people who drink but do not get cancer. we have all heard about the old lady who drank scotch every week for forty years and lived to be 100. what is different about those folks.

This is all bearing in mind that science is ongoing, what seemed obvious now might be much murkier ten years from now.

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Heart

I have not written about the terrible fires that popped up seemingly everywhere earlier this month in the Los Angeles area. Mostly because it is so sad and disheartening to see such catastrophe some of it closer to where I reside in Glendale than wildfire has ever been.

And Los Angeles was already barely able to build enough as it was, especially when it comes to affordable housing for all economic levels. Now rents and home prices will push even higher than they already were.

But this is not a housing blog, though it kind of is, because the more people that can find housing at a price point that isn’t 75% of take-home pay, the more people will go out and buy good craft beer.

Anyway, the preceding paragraphs are prelude to the actual point of the fact that Common Space Brewery has stepped up to rally our remaining L.A. breweries into a special beer to help the rebuild cause, We Love LA will be showing soon up from over 50 California breweries participating and close to 10 from out of state as well, and I will be grabbing from wherever in financial support. I strongly suggest that we make this beer a complete sell-out.

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Follow Z Star

American breweries have done nationwide charity beers but maybe the next evolution as craft beer goes back to basics is for a nationwide Zoigl.

Interested to see if you are near one or do you need to know more of this Z word. Then head HERE first Then follow AmericanZoigl on Instagram for updates.

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Maybe # 3

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?)

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Rate No More

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.

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Bleak San Pedro MidWinter

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.