Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

Posted on

Covid-19

Update as of 3/16/20 – New game plan now that many places have been told to shut. Buy gift cards. Online, if possible, or purchase a 4-pack and add a card for those breweries that can sell to-go. Buy beer online. Tavour being an example. Join a brewery club. Or if your brewery does food and delivers, order that. Move your normal beer out spending to new places.

Fear and panic and toilet paper memes are at high levels. Sporting events, movie premieres and theme parks have suspended activity.

That inactivity means that money is not coming in and that can be very painful for small business, and let’s face it, most breweries are of this Mom and Pop variety.

So, what can the beer fan do? AND stay safe and diminish the spread of the virus?

If you are sick, stay home. Testing is probably not an option now so err on the side of caution. If you are not sick, keep washing your hands and make an effort to not touch as much door handles, drawers or anything that others will probably be touching. Obvious stuff really.

Then, go out and buy stuff from breweries. Gift cards are a great idea. As are 4-packs or other packaged items. If you have been meaning to buy a hat or t-shirt, do it now. It will be appreciated. And if you bought a ticket to an event or festival, don’t be an ass about it, demanding money back or explanations. Time spent massaging your entitled ego is time not spent sanitizing and keeping clean.

If you are reluctant to go to a tap room, find out when they open and arrive then to avoid any larger groups. If you plan on staying for a beer or two, give people space.

Lastly, enjoy the beer and talk about it on social media. We could all use less doom and more delight.

Posted on

Design Time

File this under, should be done more. Rogue is making a limited run of blank canvas cans for artists and beer lovers to adorn with their own design for the fall – Halloween staple from the Oregon brewery. If I had any (I mean any) skills, I would give it a shot.

Posted on

NAGBW 2020 Grants

The North American Guild of Beer Writers, with partner support from the CraftBeer.com website published by the Brewers Association, has chosen four winning writers to receive the 2020 Diversity in Beer Writing Grant.

Per, the press release, the writers and their projects are:

“Alessandra Bergamin will chronicle a cross-border collaboration between California’s Dos California’s Brewsters, SouthNorte Beer Co., and Tijuana, Mexico’s Lúdica Artesenal Cerveceria. The story will follow female brewers making a beer that will help fund scholarships for female peers in Mexico.”

“Stephanie Grant plans to report about the safety of women who work in the beer industry from a variety of roles and perspectives. Industry professionals will share stories and insight on the challenges they face at events, traveling, and more, as a way to give context to their experiences.”

“Louis Livingston-Garcia will tell the story of the leaders behind Minnesota’s Brewing Change Collaborative, a group made up of people of color and the LGBTQ+ community working to share beer with minority communities and support those who are trying to break into beer.”

“Jen Blair will connect plant-based food and beer to write about how these dietary options can work together to create a more inclusive environment at events and among those who love beer, especially among African-Americans, who have the highest percentage of vegans among all demographics in the U.S.”

Of those, the first sounds like the most interesting for me to dive into when it is published.

Posted on

AirBnB vs Can Release

I thought this was an Onion headline at first…

…nope. It apparently happened. A line of Other Half fans apparently got heckled and White Claw’d by a gun-toting person from a nearby AirBnB.

Here is my breakdown. If you are standing in line for special anniversary beers then you will be heckled and you have enough money to laugh it off. If you are staying across the street from a brewery, just laugh and enjoy whatever candy flavor of the Claw you have. No need to go back inside and get yo’ gun because there is only one way that ends. You in a jail cell.

Faith in humanity just lost a few points.

Posted on

Hops on the Horizon

If you do not follow the BeervanaBlog, well, you are missing out. Especially if you want to be up to date on hops. Jeff Alworth has done the legwork on new and slightly new hop varietals so that you can sound so much smarter at the bar.

HERE is the extensive round-up. I am the most intrigued by the English and French hops since especially Endeavour and Barbe Rouge.

Posted on

Tiny Taps

I raise your tiny home and give you this….

…it needs a little love but that is where L.A. Beer Hop comes in. Per a recent Facebook post, “Our 2020 look. It’s a 1955 Aloha Travel Trailer that we’re converting into a MOBILE BEER BAR. 6 taps on the exterior. Surprises inside. Coming this Summer!” Now I have to measure to see if it will fit in my underground parking garage for a cool party.

Posted on

Paperback on the Shelf

Last year, I put Paperback Brewing on the radar of readers and then, well, nothing really happened. I mean there was probably forward motion but nothing really concrete. Seems like 2020 might hold more news on this Glendale brewery….

Posted on

Whittier x2

Poet Gardens, the home of the Whittier Brewing Co. won’t be the city’s only brewery for long as a 2nd brewery has gained approval from the Whittier Planning Commission.

The brewery is La Bodega, owned by Erik and Raul Tapia.  They plan to operate a brewery, as well as a retail store to sell beer and wine alongside a restaurant in a former optometrist’s office.

Abraham Mercado, a friend of the owners will be the brewmaster and the hope is for a 2020 opening.

Posted on

Food Waste

I don’t think that brown bananas or lumpy apples will be the new hazy IPA but with an emphasis on upcycling and making the most of the fruit and vegetables that are grown, one company, Hazel Technologies is creating products to slow the inevitable decay of food. 

Per a recent article in the Los Angeles Times that leads to its own waste.  R&D has to be done on actual fruits and that creates a whole separate waste cycle but Hazel has gotten creative and is taking “discarded passion fruit and making a sour IPA, and discarded bananas and making a banana rum. He (the company founder) has a fridge full of dragon fruit and is considering making a dragon fruit beer.”

I have heard about re-use of hops and small beer but this would be a whole new world for whatever brewery is really into conservation.

Posted on

All Four

Arts District Brewing begat Imperial Western Beer and now brewmaster Devon Randall will add another name to her resume as All Season Brewing Company is set to open sometime in (maybe) early 2020 at the former Firestone Tire Building on La Brea near Wilshire.

The space will hold the new brewery as well as a Chicas Tacos location and marks, as far as I can tell, the only real mid-city brewery in Los Angeles.

When more information comes available, I will pass it on. Along with other jokes about how SoCal only has one season.