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On top of the Firestone Walker Lager news, there are two other big tidbits that you might not have heard of from their Buellton based Barrelworks.
1. Barrelworks has been draft and bottles only but is hoping to roll out cans in 2018.
2. A coolship is being assembled at Firestone co-founder David Walker’s vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley. Imagine the yeasts and microbes that are in the air in that area!
Kudos to San Luis Obispo.com for the news.
Los Angeles has some really cool architecture tucked into hidden spots and one of them is a historic Firestone Building from 1938 on La Brea at 8th.
Conroy Commercial plans to re-develop the site into eateries and a microbrewery (their term, not mine). Kind of a mini food hall.
No news on if it will be a brand new brewery or perhaps a second (third) location for an existing brand. Due to concerns about parking which ain’t fun in that part of town have delayed the project into 2019 or beyond.
Updates when more news is released.
Looks like Tony Yanow is adding to his Burbank roots with a big development announced last month and I have been mulling over the plans for a bit now.
A 2.4-acre site at 10 W. Magnolia Boulevard will become event space, Roller Rink (Yanow loves the Roller Derby), restaurant space, outdoor park space and for readers of this blog, a “craft beer pub.”
Artisanal Brewers Collective has been super busy and seemingly getting busier. This project will take a long time to get through all the permit process mumbo jumbo, then the de-construction of the site before the construction.
Questions about who will be drawn to it exist for me though. There is a big Ikea nearby and it will be neighboring the Metrolink – Burbank station but will that provide foot traffic to the space? Will the beer aspect be the draw? Or is event space that lucrative a business?
Due to the trains and the 5 freeway, there are dead ends aplenty so how do eyeballs see it and then get to it? I also foresee issues with late departures from the Metrolink parking meeting early arrivals on weeknights for coveted parking spots.
Lastly, will it be Yanow / ABC beer for sale only? Or will it be more of a Tony’s / Mohawk style with multiple taps?
Many questions to learn the answers to.
Lyft certainly has teamed up with beer festivals for rides home and now, in Chicago, they are also teaming up with cans of beer.
Lyft is collaborating with Chicago’s Baderbrau Brewing on the new Five Star Lager that will be available only in bars and only in 12-ounce cans (no draft). Why? Well, each can will feature a discount code for as much as $5 off a Lyft ride. The beer is actually just a re-branded version of Baderbrau’s South Side Pride, a helles lager.
Maybe an L.A. version will come to pass if this test is successful.
When I think of Saturday Night Live, my thoughts do not go to wine. I would probably head to spirits first and the stronger the better but the winemaker Lot18 has teamed with SNL to release four wines with iconic characters on the label plus the more generic Live from New York blend.
Debbie Downer, The Californians and Stefon all get their own styles from Chardonnay, Merlot and Beaujolais. But what characters other than Stefon (who is the best) should get the beer treatment and what style?
Matt Foley – if you are going to live in a van down by the river, might as well chill your beer there too. I would go with a can from Oskar Blues for this. Maybe the Hotbox Coffee IPA.
Ambiguously Gay Duo – I still can’t believe this recurring skit made it to air but I would pick something like maybe a hoppy pilsner, like Pivo. Bubbly and light but with a hit of bitter.
Toonces the Driving Cat – if a character was deserving of a reboot, it would be Toonces. The cat certainly had nine lives which it needed because you shouldn’t put a cat behind the wheel. Staying super local for this beer choice Cat’z Pajamas Brewyard.
Sean Connery on Jeopardy – what is worse? Connery’s foul mouth or his poor command of trivia? Either way a nice strong Scottish Ale with thistles would be good.
Miss Rafferty – I don’t know what aliens like to drink when it comes to beer but I am sure that poor Miss Rafferty who always seems to get the raw deal when abducted would probably want something strong, maybe a Belgian Dark Strong Ale.
One of the casualties of the Thomas fire was an upstart cidery, Anna’s Cider in Upper Ojai.
The family-owned business was (and hopefully will be again) the first and only cider company in Ventura County. They were crafting hard cider from locally-farmed, organic apples. The cider was made using “winemaking techniques to preserve clean, delicate apple aromatics and flavors in a dry style.”
They are determined to rebuild what had just started in November and have launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise funds and support.
Here are the details: “We are featuring a perk in which contributors of $30 or more get the option to have a sketch of their face on our next round of labels (see below for link to our campaign and more details). We are hoping to raise enough to open a taproom and cider facility in the historic downtown of Santa Paula, California.”
While the orange hued vacation SCROTUS had little in the way of actual laws made, the State of California under Jerry Brown has been quite busy the last two years. And one law that was introduced by Assemblyman Evan Low D-Cupertino could prove to make streets safer.
Under Assembly Bill 711, alcohol manufacturers and licensed sellers can offer free or discounted rides through ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft, or taxi cabs. Codes or vouchers would be allowed to be given by alcohol sellers or directly to consumers. There is a caveat, the discounted ride offers cannot be wink-wink incentives to buy a company’s product.
Currently forty-four other states as well as the District of Columbia this activity making California behind the curve in this instance though wineries had a limited usage proviso for “special events”.
Despite the caveat, Alcohol Justice, a nonprofit based in San Rafael, has been quoted against the bill, “While drunk driving is a serious concern to public safety, and efforts to reduce it should generally be applauded, this bill implicitly allows for beer manufacturers to promote the over consumption of alcohol.” Bear in mind that with a name like Alcohol Justice they are against both words and not just alcohol.
This is the typical, stop all bills quote that you get from certain advocacy groups. Instead of being cautiously optimistic that the measure might decrease drunken drivers, they come out fully against because a bill that isn’t 100% against alcohol. I would wager that if a bar allowed patrons to sleep off a New Years party would be railed against too.
If you have a mind that understands legalese, you can read the bill HERE and make up your own mind.
Look like # 12 is in the works. The next Trappist brewery will be overseen by the monks of Mount St Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire.
This is still way in the early stages of planning though so don’t book travel to England just yet if you are a Trappist completist.
Monasteries in Austria, the US and Italy produce Trappist approved beer currently.
Seeing as how I will be attending a Guinness 200 event in a couple of days, I thought I would bring up another Guinness related event coming up.
Stout Day is back and bigger (if you happen to be in Dublin) but this is a great chance to turn the calendar page and look to the darker beers and leave the IPA’s and summer beers for a bit.
So, on November 2nd – Sláinte!
Like most people, politics is probably the last thing that you want to read on a beer blog but there is some important news as a collaboration of the Beer Institute, Brewers Association, Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, American Craft Spirits Association, Wine Institute and WineAmerica have endorsed The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act with the littler name of S.236.
Here are the details:
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the tax treatment of certain alcoholic beverages, to:
1. exclude the aging period from the production period for beer, wine, or distilled spirits for purposes of determining whether a taxpayer can expense, rather than capitalize, interest costs paid or incurred during the production period;
2. reduce excise tax rates on beer and distilled spirits;
3. modify the small wine producer tax credit to increase the amount of the credit, expand the producers that are covered, and specify an adjustment for hard cider;
4. modify the alcohol content limitations that apply to certain wines for tax purposes;
5. specify definitions for “mead” and “low alcohol by volume wine;”
6. modify requirements for records, statements, and returns for certain breweries; and
7. permit the transfer of beer between bonded facilities without payment of tax.
# 2 is obviously the biggie on the list but 6 and 7 could make life a whole lot easier as well. Surprisingly, this is a bill that might actually happen. I know, strange times indeed.