Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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#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.

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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.

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Untappd to Next Glass

Mergers aren’t constrained to just breweries. My go-to app Untappd has recently merged into Next Glass. Another app company. One that I did not favorably rate.
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I am happy because this allows the two Untappd founders to become fully employed in beer instead of part-time which should lead to improvements in Untappd. On the other hand, who knows if it will eventually get folded into Next Glass which I found to have ambitions that were too great for a world of craft beer that is constantly updating. The feature of bottle/can recognition is hopefully improved at this point though in reading some reviews it does seem that the main problem that I had, lack of beers in the database is still prevalent.

Maybe combined they can create a super-beer-app?

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Beer Art

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I have been reading and researching about labels this month (and last year) and this event struck me as super cool. And it has nothing to do with the fact that Gigantic Brewing beer is uniformly awesome….
Since the event is in the recent past, I will have to say that I think it would be great for L.A. breweries to bring in the people that design their labels and have an art show.

Even ardent craft beer fans don’t know the creativity, the discussions and the give and take of creating the label that you see on the store shelf. So congrats to the Fig & Thistle, now send the art show south.
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On the Open Sea

Despite my father watching every last WW2 documentary and movie made, I never knew the footnote to history about the HMS Menestheus, a war time floating brewery.
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According to the story from Vinepair, “These ships were built at the insistence of Winston Churchill himself and were not only to include breweries, but also cinemas, dance halls and other amenities, which is why they then became known as amenity ships.” What would under the USO banner to us in America.

The full vision was never really fulfilled since, thankfully, the war came to a close but according to the story, “During its time in the Pacific the HMS Menestheus visited the ports of Yokohama, Kure, Shanghai and Hong Kong, brewing a mild ale that was served slightly chilled. Reports from soldiers who consumed it at the time were that the beer was absolutely delicious, especially when compared to what they had been drinking before.”

I know that there are cruises with craft beer themes. I just read about one with the Texas brewery Jester King. But wouldn’t it be great if there were a ship outfitted with a brewery that could ferry paying passengers from port to port and learn about the brewing history (and future) of the ports of call and then brew a beer in that style (or have one at the ready).

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An Iconic Glide

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Hangar 24 started off the year by giving new names to two hoppy offerings. On the lighter end, 4.0% to be exact is the Easy Glider Session IPA. If you are a fan of the Equinox hop, then this is the one for you. Easy Glider will slot in below Betty IPA and the Double IPA which will now have a real name, Iconic. Three C hops and Simcoe plus local orange blossom honey make up this big beer.
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