Costa Mesa is adding Bootlegger’s Brewery to their line-up.
Bootlegger’s has a been a bit out of earshot for us L.A. drinkers as the market fills up in our neck of the woods so this new locale might make a good re-introduction to the brand.
Pop Down
Every twice-in-awhile you see something on the interwebs and can’t believe it’s true. This post states that Amazon is opening a pop-up bar in Tokyo.
April Fool’s in October, right? But Amazon owns Whole Food’s and is selling Alexa in the produce section and it doesn’t seem as far-fetched.
But other than price, why would one go to an Amazon branded bar? For a robot to make a drink? or maybe selection you can’t get elsewhere. I certainly don’t think it’s for the ambiance.
Maybe Amazon will pop-up in Los Angeles but my suggestion would be to make it part of the community it is in. Have local brewers, distillers and vintners in house. Go ahead and tout some hyper expensive whiskey but also talk about whiskey history and its future. Don’t be some sterile glassed in enclosure.
GABF17 – LA Recap
Before we check out the medal counts for Los Angeles, some numbers to toss by you and a disclaimer because of those numbers.
There were 7,923 entries submitted for judging this year. Just think about how you would organize that amount of kegs and people to rate them.
2,217 breweries were represented out of 5,200+ total. That means that if you have two favorite breweries. One of them, on average, did not send in a beer to be judged.
That means anything can happen. Even a marriage proposal right in front of Charlie Papazian and the whole crowd.
Seven medals will be heading back to Los Angeles this week. Beachwood (again) leads the pack with two. One GOLD for their Ghost, the band, inspired Black IPA, Hoppa Emeritus and one BRONZE from their sour side, Dia de los Mangos in the Chili Beer category. Ohana picked up BRONZE for Spa Water Saison, Sanctum won SILVER for their Solar Helles. Also on the SILVER side was Three Weavers for their Seafarer Kolsch and HopSaint for their Pure Intention Pale Ale. Last, but not least, Claremont Craft Ales and their Jacaranda Rye IPA picked up BRONZE.
Congratulations to all the winners and to our L.A. brewers and to all those who watched all 98 categories get medals.
other notes:
Packinghouse Brewing of Riverside picked up a silver and bronze this year. Winning once is hard, twice is a really good year. Saint Arnold of Texas was the big winner with 3 medals and a Mid-Size brewery award.
Speaking of big winners, Figueroa Mountain had another dazzling year with three total medals.
The Firestone Walker folk got a pair of medals for 10 Buck Chuck and for Pivo.
A shout out to Zoiglhaus of Portland and brewer Alan Taylor who took home a Gold for Zoigl-Pils. Is this the first ever GABF medal for a Linfield College alum? I think so.
#QuadGoals was my favorite name from 515 Brewing.
No wins for Hazy. Maybe GABF did not get in line fast enough.
Only one category was deemed not gold worthy. An improvement from 2016.
Check out the full winners list right HERE.
Prohibited All Day
In less than the span of a week, two beers emerged from some horrible dark place, the Mordor of Beer…
First up is a beer from a non-brewery. A music-focused production has launched 24 Hour Beer. Tabbed as a session ale and sporting the tagline, “the anti-craft, craft beer.”
The horrible word “crushable” is being tossed about as well as “approachable”. Enough to grit my teeth at the jargon used to basically say that the consumer can’t handle much but we can’t tell them that straight out.
Will Shelton and his Concrete Jungle Brewing Project seems to be making the actual beer or at least complicit by hosting a Los Angeles launch.
Then there is….
…I cannot wait for the inevitable Shock Top and High End variants that are probably already on the drawing board.
Barcade to Land in Highland Park
http://barcadenewyork.com/games/
We here in L.A. already have Button Mash for that potent mix of classic arcade games plus good beer and now the venerable name Barcade is planning to venture west from their East Coast hub.
The planned Barcade will be on York in hipster Highland Park. Further details when they become available.
Hand Labeled
Looks like Hand Brewed of Chatsworth is headed to packaging according to their Instagram. That is a big step since I don’t believe that they have a tap room, yet.
The ABCs of ABV
As I was scrolling through Netflix I came across a British documentary/news program about alcohol. The Truth About Alcohol was part education, part government propaganda and part reality TV.
There was some good nuggets of information throughout the sixty minute running time but I couldn’t shake the theory that this was a commercial for the health service that was basically saying that 14 units (2 units equal a pint of beer) was ALL you could safely drink in one week. Oh, the host would say that he drank and that you could drink more if you really wanted too but….
What also undercut the message was the fact that all beer was treated the same. A pint is two units. Doesn’t matter if it is a low alcohol bitter from the pub or an American barrel-aged Imperial Stout over 10% ABV. There was no problem talking about red vs white wine but the lack of beer diversity (for lack of better phrase) was a bit demeaning.
So, watch, but watch with a careful eye.
Cantwell has Landed
Seems like two lifelines have been extended to Magnolia Brewing of San Francisco. One from Belgium. And one from New Belgium.
Magnolia has been struggling in a crowded San Francisco (for that matter, California market) and will now have both more financial power as a triumvirate of majority owner New Belgium, with Elysian Founder Dick Cantwell and Belgian lambic producer Oud Beersel as minority partners take over the rein.
Cantwell will take over the brewing tanks in his first gig since Elysian was sold despite his objections.
Magnolia has two brewing locations on Haight Street and Dogpatch from which Cantwell will brew. Oud Beersel will add their spontaneously fermented beers from Belgium and plans for an SF coolship are in the works.
I can see how New Belgium and Oud Beersel would play well together but I don’t quite know how Magnolia’s line-up fits into the puzzle.
Bruery DC
Instead of draining the swamp, looks like the The Bruery is going to try to fill it. They will be opening an East Coast outlet (sans brewery) and call it The Bruery at Union Market.
It will be in an “urban village” which I assume is code for recently gentrified area.
This store will allow for online and offline beer pickup and purchases of beers from all three brands: Bruery, Bruery Terreux and Offshoot Beer Co. and there will potentially be up to 8 rotating taps for growler/crowler fills and the merch as well.
What caught my eye was at the end, that the Bruery @ Union Market would be a shared space with a retail partner. Food? Wine or Spirits?
Will this end up being a model for the Bruery in other locations?
Build Border Bars Instead
We knew that Columbus would not be the only site for BrewDog in America. Other bars were hinted at but the first to be blogged about by them is on and over the edge.
BrewDog is planning to build a craft beer bar on the border between the USA and Mexico. Whether it comes to fruition or not. The sentiment and politics is strong and I think really cool.
From their post, “Our ‘Bar on the Edge’ will take back the great frontier between the US and Mexico before it is taken away forever. Half in each, with amazing beer from both. Heck, you can order up a four-beer flight and drink two Mexican craft beers in the US and two from our Ohio brewhouse south of the border.”
I hope my passport will still be valid by the time it is ready.