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.
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 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.
The last of the pioneering Los Angeles breweries and the second this year has called it quits. Ladyface Ale Companie which changed over to Tavern Tomoko + Ladyface Brewery will be closing just before Christmas on 12/22.
Ladyface Ale Companie & Brasserie was established in late 2009 by Cyrena Nouzile. That year brought us Strand Brewing and Eagle Rock Brewery as well. Brewmaster Dave Griffiths was at the controls of award-winning Belgian, French and American style ales. La Blonde, La Grisette, Blind Ambition Abbey Ale, Trois Filles Tripel, and seasonal ales such as La Trappistine Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Blue-Belly Barleywine and Dérailleur Bière-de-Garde which was a favorite of mine.
Nouzile and Ladyface Ale Companie were proudly independently owned and operated and an active member of the Brewers Association, California Craft Brewers Association and especially the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild.
Pete Lee, turned from a Ladyface customer to owner when he bought the brewery and restaurant from Nouzile and channged the Brasserie to Tavern Tomoko while still keeping the beers under the Ladyface banner which I thought was a confusing choice.
Later beers such as Animé, a Japanese pale ale brewed with jasmine rice and Sorachi hops and Atlas Shrugged, a barrel-aged dark strong anniversary ale did not get wide distribution and much like the other ’09ers, they could not re-create the buzz they had in early years.
In a sea of mostly negative news when breweries are concerned, here is a bit of positivity. New Glarus Brewing will be adding space to their campus in Wisconsin. It will take a few years for this expansion to be completed so plan your midwest brewery vacation accordingly.
The aroma hop HS16660 now has a name, Erebus™ . Not the worst name around but I do not think that “the primordial deity of darkness in Greek mythology” would be into the aroma therapy of blueberry, citrus, candied fruit, and floral rose. But maybe Hopsteiner knows something about it that I do not.
Wrexham Lager has some new co-owners in Red Dragon Ventures. News like that might strike craft beer fans as an “oh no” moment but RDV is actually Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney + the Allyn family — which very recently became a minority investor in Wrexham’s soccer teams.
Wrexham Lager was founded in 1882 and now is on the verge ( as I previously posted about ) being sold in America as well as in countries across the world.
The Roberts family, which revived Wrexham Lager in 2011, eleven years after production had halted, will remain a co-owner of the brewery alongside Reynolds and McElhenney. Both of whom have past experience in the drinks sector in spirits with gin and Irish whiskey.
