Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Great articles that you should read.
Last Friday, what was unofficial became official when Roe V Wade was overturned despite most of the country not wanting to change.
Beer is For Everyone has jumped into action with a beer to work around this very bad, no good decision. You can read all of the details HERE.
Everyone who thinks that women should, oh I don’t know, have the right to choose will need to band together to create a giant work around to render this anti-justice moot.
How’s this for beer business water cooler talk…
“Sapporo U.S.A., maker of the number one selling Asian beer brand in the United States, and Stone Brewing, one of America’s largest and most innovative craft beer brands, have reached an agreement for Sapporo U.S.A. to acquire Stone Brewing. Supporting both business’ long-term growth strategies in the U.S. market, the transaction is expected to close in August 2022. “
Could this work? Sapporo already controls Anchor and aside from can label designs that are a little plain, seem to be in the same craft brewing pecking order as they were before. But though Stone has slipped into seltzers and brand extending Buenaveza lagers, it is still primarily a hop house something Sapporo is decidedly not.
Sapporo does seem to have a California heritage brewery soft spot. Stone is a world brand despite the pullback from Berlin and having both a West Coast and East Coast brewing operation has benefits. Though if I signed on to brew at Stone and I was suddenly making Sapporo for a living, it might be stunting creatively.
For some, the past bold statements from Greg Koch and initiatives to keep craft independent will be “flip flop” fodder for semi-humorous tweets but to me…
The big question that I fall back to is that despite the relative security of a stable parent company, what happens if Stone doesn’t generate money at the clip required. What happens then? Or what if Sapporo decides five years down the road that they want out of a hyper competitive California and U.S. beer market?
As with Anchor Brewing, only time will tell if the two can work together. Maybe Sapporo, Stone and Anchor can do a Hoppy Holiday lager for Christmas.
Some may consider having a building at a prestigious university named after them proof of a life well led. But I would argue that having brewing equipment named after you is even better.
Which leads to a fundraising campaign as brewing legend Charlie Papazian explains, “Metropolitan State University of Denver plans to name their 3 ½ barrel brewing laboratory after me. The Charlie Papazian Brewing Education Lab.
In effect they are commemorating the role that homebrewers and beer enthusiasts like you and I have played in making the world a better place for the enjoyment of beer. Who would have thought that! I enjoy being involved with initiatives that help assure great beer for the future.”
Scary images from Buoy Beer in Astoria, Oregon..
It makes me think about the sexy topic of infrastructure. I have been lucky enough to visit Buoy a couple of times and the combo of beer and river view is amazing but when the Columbia is surging it becomes scary.
And with a business that is capital intensive already, improvement checklist items for days, weeks and months can be pushed. This collapse is probably not due to that but it is a wake up call to make sure everything is, pun intended, ship shape.
Most closures spool out over a month or two, but in the case of Cellador Ales, the end date is further on the horizon 12/31/22, but no less sad for the Los Angeles brewing scene.
This will allow everyone to trek out and have a final wild ale ir purchase tickets to their L.A. Beer Week festival.
What struck me about the announcement was this section..
But…something I can’t quite put my finger on has been rippling through the industry in 2022; It has unexpectedly been the toughest year since the pandemic started, for us, and apparently many other small breweries.
Makes one wonder when the other closure pennies are going to drop.
The uncertainty swirling around Modern Times. Closing locations. Receivership sale rumors. All that caffeine from the roaster have led to this point where a potential buyer comes from the island.
Since this is a San Diego story, I direct you to SD Beer News for the full lowdown HERE. With any sale, you hope the new owner will be good stewards going forward. I get to see how that goes with my two favorite sports teams as Chelsea has just been sold and the Trailblazers are in the owner courting phase.
But Modern Times has hit the jackpot with Maui Brewing who are big in the industry and well respected. Now we wait again for news.
From the department of like us cause of causes and not our actual product comes…
Coors Light’s new ad campaign, “Chillboards”. Debuting in Miami it is a rooftop billboard shown to decrease temperatures in Florida apartments. The “chillboard” is painted with a white roof coating that can reflect 85% of sunlight, but don’t talk to much science or DeSantis will outlaw it.
Is this cool, yes. Does it move the climate change needle, maybe a little. Is it just marketing? Certainly. Maybe they could team up with their family of breweries to paint the roofs of their brewing plants.
Time for some inside the business of the beer talk, good news, I promise.
Patrick Rue, the founder and former owner of the Bruery and now in St. Helena with his Erosion Wine label along with his family, have acquired the 1/2 share of Moonlight held by Heineken through Lagunitas Brewing. Sounds like an NBA draft trade, right?
Moonlight founder, Brian Hunt, keeps his half of the brewery which has done a few more collaboration beers that we in SoCal have been lucky enough to get because his beer is stellar.
Hopefully, this will be a better strategic partnership.
We have, in the last few months, heard many stories about shipping containers. Why are they falling into the sea with fancy cars inside, how they are made into homes and why they ain’t getting unpacked fast enough to get us that un-needed item quickly.
Well, could you make one into a brewery?
This blog post details (in detail) how to use that space for brewing. Now, I have seen some micro breweries such as Highland Park when they brewed in Highland Park but, wow, this looks tiny. But maybe at that small scale with one person, it could work.
Though you might need a second container for cold box and taproom.
If someone had told me back in the before times, that I would be entranced by a travel show of a goofy food writer dad and his teenage daughter, I would have given you a serious amount of side-eye.
But Czech it Out is grand…
…not only that despite the goofy and the forced reality of parts, this really gives an overview of Czech food, beer, art, movies but more importantly a sense of place.
The best travel shows make you want to travel much like the best food shows make you hungry and after four episodes, 1/2 the season, I want to go and eat nothing but pastry and drink beer at all the restaurants and Pivovar’s that this duo have visited.