Beer in the news – Page 33 – Beer Search Party

May 7, 2016August 30, 2018

SoCal to the World

My Facebook and Twitter feed was hijacked yesterday by loads of good news from the World Beer Cup which was a bonus add on to the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia which already was making me social media jealous.

Beachwood picked up a prestigious Large Brewpub of the Year win and Noble Ale Works racked up an overall win in the Small Brewery category. Overall California brought in 39 (if my counting is right this early in the morning) medals with Eagle Rock going gold for their Yearling sour, Beachwood and Noble should have had chairs on stage, TAPS pulled in multiple medals continuing their impressive string since the new brewing team took over, Tustin and Smog City with their shared past will share memories of winning too with a bronze and silver respectively.

You can check the full list HERE. But it is impressive considering this competition was open to the world. But a microcosm of the current beer culture could be found in the Sour German category where Oregon and California nabbed the one and two slots with a German brewery coming in third!

The Golden State brewers were warriors last night. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have nothing on the brewing splash that SoCal made in Philly.

April 22, 2016August 30, 2018

BSP Advice Column – Sunset Strip Brewery

As far as interwebs hoaxes go, this was well done. But for the sake of future brewers who feel entitled my original (April Fool’d) post still stands. So in honor of a good joke, here is what I would have written if Sunset Strip Brewing were real……

I don’t think I could survive long giving out advice. Oh, I have opinions and ideas and sarcasm but those qualities are not usually top of the list for future Dear Abby’s. But when I saw this pop up on my social media feed….

After thinking to myself, “Who is Sunset Strip Brewery?” and then doing a cursory Google search which turned up more hits for the fantastic Sunset Beer Co. bottle shop, I began to think of scenarios that would lead to this Tweet. (I ran into the same issue when I first heard about them months back.

Drunken? Nope. Posted at 10am with correctly spelled @ call signs with capitalization too.

Frustration? Maybe, but no one reached out to me and I doubt that any or all of the organizations listed would have refused to run something.

Internal Strife? Seemed most likely since the biggest stressor in L.A. is the getting your brewery open process but without information I let the issue drop and planned to wait to try beer if it ever came to be.

Well, first the Tweet was denied and labeled a hack, then this happened….

…and the BSP Advice columnist in me jumped up.

There is so much wrong in that “non”-apology. But let’s first write the correct response:
Hello, my name is Mark and I want to apologize for a member of the Sunset Strip Brewery team who made ill-advised remarks on social media. The remark has been taken down and we are dismayed that it even saw the light of day. It is not how we want to present ourselves to the fans of craft beer in L.A.

We hope, in the coming months, to spread the word about our brewery and our ambitious plans in a positive way and even more we hope to share our beer with the City of Los Angeles sooner rather than later.

If you want to talk to us then please contact us at the e-mail address below.

Literally, except for the first sentence, every other paragraph in “their apology” had something horribly wrong in it. (Not to mention some spelling gaffes). Just as an FYI to future brewers out there, what NOT to do:

paragraph two – “those of you who that said things you regret will take responsibility for it” / An apology does not ask for an apology back.

paragraph three – “We have a combined 50 years plus brewing experience.” / An apology should not be cribbed from your About page of your website.

paragraph four – “We’re currently in talk(s) with producers about television opportunities” / An apology should be brief and not about plans unrelated to the actual beer.

paragraph five – All of it. / An apology does not reinforce whatever was said that made an apology necessary.

paragraph six – “reasonably priced t-shirts” / An apology should have some remorse. Not vague swag promises.

paragraph seven – “abuse and cyber bullying we received” / An apology does not include mitigating factors.

I will try the beer but, frankly, it would have to be really damn good for me to write about it. Right now LA has such good beer flowing that I do not have time to visit the people and places I enjoy, let alone drink beer from people who don’t understand how to communicate a simple apology. And this episode speaks to how disorganized this group is and leads me to think that they probably won’t even make it to the brewing stage at all.

April 21, 2016August 30, 2018

Lagunitas – Azusa – The Words

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I didn’t know what to expect when I got off the bus filled with City of Azusa government officials and a few beer media folk at the 3rd location of Lagunitas Brewing.

I have been to location 1 in Petaluma but not location 2 in Chicago. What I saw in Azusa is probably closer to 2 than 1.

It is ‘uge as Bernie Sanders would say. You wouldn’t be faulted for wanting a golf cart to get around. There are three massive airplane hangar sized buildings. Currently they are empty of brewing equipment and bottling equipment and taprooms so it was hard for me to envision the final “look” of the campus. But to give you perspective, the first building that you see upon taking a left into the parking area is where they held their first bash held a bunch of people, three pouring stations, a bunch of couches (of course) and still have room to rope off a circle for some roller derby action. All without feeling elbow to elbow with people.

All I could think of was that you could probably fit 20 or so L.A. breweries into the space that Lagunitas will be using. It is set-up to accommodate delivery trucks with roll up doors on one side. Tanks will be stationed like sentinels outside. And you can just make out (on a clear day) the iconic Miller sign in next door Irwindale. There will be a beer garden and an amphitheater for musical acts and as things ramp up some cellaring action as well as a merchandise store.

We all will need to wait basically for a year from now before visiting. The expected opening time is spring 2017. In the meantime, there will be the Lagunitas Circus in September

April 21, 2016August 30, 2018

Lagunitas – Azusa – The Photos

We are now about a year out from drinking Lagunitas beer in Azusa because (as you will see) there is still much work to be done.

The Azusa Campus. It is a VERY large footprint.

One of the huge buildings on the Lagunitas campus.

A look at the outside, from the inside of what I call Building 1

April 12, 2016August 30, 2018

Devil Went Down in Virginia

Start copying/pasting your anti-takeover post from months back. At this point every beer blogger in America probably has a standard blog post template for SABInBevMiller “acquisitions”.

This time it is Devil’s Backbone Brewing of Virginia that has joined the “High End” making it the eighth company in that division of the multi-national industrial conglomerate. But it is also unique from past sellers in two ways. It bucks the trend of West & Mid-West breweries and DB has been a Great American Beer Festival darling. winning many a medal but also taking brewery of the year in numerous categories as it grew to its current size.

“…national titles for GABF 2014 Mid-Sized Brewing Company and Brew Team of the Year, 2013 Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brew Team of the Year, and 2012 Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year.”

DB has two locations, their Outpost which is the main production hub and their Basecamp & Meadows which is the primary guest destination Their Vienna Lager is the flagship of their Germanic-hued line of beers.
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If you are worried about the beer quality, well either this statement will help or not, “While we are joining a creative group of craft breweries in the division, Devils Backbone will retain a high level of autonomy and continue its own authentic DNA within The High End framework,” brewery co-founder Steve Crandall explained in a press release on April 12th.

As I have explained before, don’t automatically write the latest “High End” entrant off completely. Put them on a watch list and see if the beer starts to decline or if the management or brewing team starts to leave. Some breweries have handled the transition well and others have not. Let’s hope that Devil’s Backbone doesn’t GRB it.

April 8, 2016August 30, 2018

On a Boat

Carnival Cruise line has partnered up with the Boston Beer Company (more specifically the Alchemy & Science division) to add a brewery on-board its new Carnival Vista vessel.

The A&S Key West-inspired bar, the Red Frog Pub, will be the marketed lead but beers (and the godawful hard soda trend) from Concrete Beach in Miami and Coney Island from New York as well as our local Angel City will be on tap as well.

Friend of the blog and Alchemy & Science brewmaster Jon Carpenter, will be “serving as a consultant and helping to develop the pub’s recipes, Carpenter also helped the cruise company recruit and train Red Frog’s head brewer.”

When the Vista sets sail on its maiden voyage on May 1, the available beers will be the Thirsty Frog Port Hoppin’ IPA, Thirsty Frog Caribbean Wheat, and Frisky Frog Java Stout.

April 2, 2016August 30, 2018

City to Wood

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Getting bottles of those hoppy IPA’s from Beachwood will become a lot easier once this deal goes through….
“We are getting ready to embark on a pretty large expansion; while the deal isn’t done yet, we recognize that many people have come to learn that we’ll be acquiring Beach City Brewing in Huntington Beach. We are still in the process of securing the proper licenses that will allow us to take over the facility, so we’ve been a bit coy on the topic. Our hope, once the purchase of the assets and the transfer of the licenses takes place, is to increase our production capabilities over the next five years to upwards of 8,000 barrels. This will allow us to introduce more consumers to a steady line of Beachwood Brewing products via retail outlets such as bottle shops and grocery stores as well as restaurants and bars throughout Southern California. Our beers are increasingly growing in demand and this production facility allows us to expand at a rate we believe the market can sustain.” – Gabe Gordon

It is too bad about Beach City. Apart from the poorly executed labels, the minimal amount of beer that I had from them was quite above average and showed promise though it never achieved wider distribution. The failure of one business though will lead to expansion for others. I am flabbergasted each week when I look at the tap list of Beachwood beers then I remember the Blendery beers too and am more amazed at how Julian Shrago does it. He must be a logistics maven. This new space will allow more flexibility for his skills which is great news.

March 12, 2016August 30, 2018

Man(zanita) Down – Toolbox Heading North

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Good News and Bad News for San Diego. (I mean other than the 10 Barrel expansion into town.)

Bad – Manzanita or Twisted Manzanita has fallen and will be no more. I had a couple of their beers and was impressed enough by them but the crowded market had me tasting other breweries from the area and that must have happened on a larger scale and they were squeezed out. They had gone through multiple names and contract brewed but anytime that a head brewer leaves and isn’t replaced, is not a good sign.

Good – But, Toolbox Brewing seems to be moving forward and expanding into Los Angeles where they will be distributed now so we can get Bog Sauce and Purple Drink.

What do these two pieces of news mean? To San Diego it will have one set of ramifications but to those of us in L.A. it means that more beer is headed our way and that we need to be incrementally more judgemental. Not in a “you’re not fit for our town way” but more discerning. Taste the beers and find out which ones make the beers that you like. Maybe SD Brewery # 1 makes sours that you like and # 2 makes Session beers that you prefer. Find the strengths and notice the weaknesses.

L.A. beer needs to improve not just for the sake of improvement and not just in the beer quality sense. Our beer will need to stand up in San Francisco and San Diego and any other San ____ around. But business sense needs to improve too. That means money and distribution and marketing need to be managed.

As time passes the lessons from both of these San Diego breweries will need to be first bullet-pointed and then learned. We don’t hear too much news of closings but we should listen to that news along with the good of expanded distribution.

February 18, 2016August 30, 2018

#drinkitnow

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Dedicated craft beer fans have bottles stashed away either in a cellar or in the dark recesses of our ‘fridge but they do need to be drunk (at some point). Which is why whenever their is a proposal to head to the secret supply for a bottle, I like to promote it.

This time it is Allagash Brewing who are asking us to “drink some beers together that we’ve had stashed. The moment has come! ‪#‎drinkitnow ‪#‎getsocial 2.21.16”

No need to get all hashtaggy if you don’t want to but at least take a look around your beer inventory.

February 3, 2016August 30, 2018

Add to the Watch List

There is still only limited information but it appears that a brewery under the moniker of Sunset Strip Brewery is in the works for Los Angeles.

Information is a bit scarce except for the boilerplate from the Twitter account – “An exciting and revolutionary new brewery set to open this year on the famous Sunset Strip in Hollywood, CA.”

Can’t even arrive at their website after multiple efforts.