When Brian Brewer left for the soon-to-arrive Hop Saint, The Brewery at Abigaile needed a new brewer in Hermosa Beach and now they have appointed Paul Papantonio as head brewer Papantonio is formerly of Oskar Blues Brewery and Saint Archer Brewing and will be meeting and greeting the public on Friday, October 9th for a “Meet the Brewer” Tap Takeover. In a twist, the night will feature a selection of his favorite beers including Uinta Oak Jacked Imperial Pumpkin and Firestone Wookey Jack.
GABF Re-Cap
Another year of Great American Beer and the Festival that celebrates it, is now past. Brewers and craft beer fans are heading to the airport for flights home. Now it is time to see what was awarded in Denver at the GABF and what I think about it.
For L.A. fans, the two big pieces of news are the brace of silvers that are coming home Smog City nabbed their second medal since opening with their Kumquat Saison in the Belgian-Style Fruit beer category. Julian Shrago and Beachwood added to their trophy case with Mocha Machine in the Coffee beer category.
There were a whopping 92 categories this year plus the Pro-Am beers. The smallest category was the American style Dark Lager with only 21 entries. Fifteen of the categories had over 100 entries with IPA’s again dominating the proceedings with an astounding 336. Followed by Imperial IPA’s with 208! And California wrested the IPS crown back from Oregon as BNS Brewing from Santee took the gold with their Revolver IPA.
Speaking of state bragging rights, California was in the forefront again with 66 total medals (by my count). Including a sweep of the Cream Ale category with Pabst of Los Angeles brewing Washington Iconic beers of Rainier (gold) and Olympia (silver). Dale Brothers from Upland took bronze with Nuff. Colorado parlayed its home field advantage to 35 medals including a gold in the hotly contested Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer category that was won by AC Golden. Oh and Coors Banquet struck gold as well. Oregon hauled in 19 medals and Washington State 12 and it seemed whenever the ABInBev owned 10 Barrel would win that another Bend based brewery would win the next higher medal. A bit of karma perhaps?
Firestone Walker and TAPS were named mid-sized winners and Rip Current from San Diego was tabbed for Very Small Brewing company awards. If you prefer your beer brewed or owned by a large corporation, the Pabst of Los Angeles should be your choice, at least the Brewer’s Association thinks so…
Other assorted notes:
Feral One and Sour Opal picked up medals for Barrelworks in Buellton.
Ritual won big with two gold medals as did Bottle Logic.
Session IPA’s debuted this year and had the 4th highest entry count.
My college town of McMinnville was mentioned with a gold from Golden Valley .
Best beer name was in the Belgian Quadrupel category: Quad Damn It.
Modern LA Times
On the same day that the sale of Golden Road was announced, off to the side, the Modern Times of San Diego made some noise of their own:
“Well, we weren’t planning to announce this quite yet, but for some reason today feels like the right day. In 2016, we’re planning to open a pilot brewery, restaurant, and specialty coffee shop in Los Angeles. Expect crazy one-off beers, decadent vegan food, & mind-blowing espressos, pour-overs, & cold brew.”
Unless the plans are already underway, 2016 seems ambitious. So look for more news in the coming months.
Fran at the Helm
The Full Pint scooped the L.A. craft beer world with the news that Frances Lopez. All around great person and fervent admirer of LA beer has been appointed to a new position that shows a subtle piece of growth in the LA scene.
The L.A. County Brewer’s Guild now has an Executive director. A director who will push the beer of Los Angeles and not have to run back to a brewery to brew beer. It is a key step in creating a culture that runs through one person. It is key because that person becomes the public face for all of the brewers and those hangers on like myself who support the beer scene. Personally, I think it is a great choice. She knows beer, she knows blogs, she knows social media, she knows brewery behind-the-scenes and she knows events. That is a serious skill set.
Kudos to the excellent choice.
Cosmic Lands in Torrance
Cosmic Ales drifted off the craft beer radar. Without a hone base and relying on contract brewing left customers without a reliable path to their beer. That has now changed….
Here is the website announcement:
“1 block west of Western and just south of Del Amo blvd. It’s the perfect location for us nestled in between Smog City, Monkish and the Dudes. What better company to be in!
We’ve already begun the renovations so stay tuned for a lively tasting room with many more great beers from our new Cosmic brew house”
Cosmic will need to up their game to attract people used to visiting the fabulous duo of Monkish and Smog City.
Join the ACBC Brew Crew (Sorta)
Maybe 2015 will be your year to win the Angel City Brewery, What Would You Brew? Contest.
If you can cast your mind back to 2013, you will remember the Mexican Cola Beer that won. (and that I thought was quite good). Last year Desert Dreams was the winner with a blend of figs, honey, orange peel, prickly pear cactus juice and sage.
If you have a recipe and a dream you “will have the opportunity to spend a day in the brew house brewing alongside the Angel City team, have their beer featured during LA Beer Week 2016, and receive a custom kegerator, complete with a case of pint glasses, tap handle and tin tacker sign.”
Entries will be accepted through September 30, 2015. You could be brewing in DTLA later this year.
Help a Brewer Out
From time to time, I call on YOU to help out. Sometimes it’s via Kickstarter or IndieGoGo but this time it is a just a skosh more important.
Brewing can be dangerous. There have been extremely sad examples in the past that show that safety isn’t some seminar or bad video but actual necessity.
So head to this GoFundMe page and help out a brewer who was injured making the type of beer we all enjoy. Then raise a glass and toast her speedy recovery.
Here’s the story….
“Kerry Thomas ( Caldwell ) was in severe accident Friday, July 10th while brewing her favorite beer (Obligatory Double IPA ) at Edge Brewing Co in Boise, ID where she’s an award winning Brewmaster. Kerry is currently being cared for in the Burn Center at the University of Utah Hospital. She has suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 30% of her body. She will require surgery and skin grafting. While it’s difficult for the doctors to know how long her recovery will take they are expecting her to be hospitalized through the month of July. Despite this hardship Kerry remains positive and looks forward getting back on her brew stand. It goes without saying this will be a financial hardship on the family. All of your contributions and warm wishes are deeply appreciated.”
Pee in the Cup
First off, a warning. This post is about urine. Get your schoolboy or schoolgirl giggles out now because this is a cool idea.
Secondly, you will not be drinking beer made with pee so, you can stop being grossed out too.
In what is being called “Piss to Pilsner” or “Beercycling”, the Roskilde music festival will set-up special urinals like the one in the photo to collect in storage tanks. The liquid is then used (don’t ask me how) as part of a special fertilizer for nearby barley fields.
For those planning on attending this festival, put it on your 2017 calendar. The barley has to grow, then be brewed.
If there was a dedicated barley field in L.A., would you “add” yours to it? And would you drink the resulting beer? Imagine seeing a collection trough at next year’s L.A. Beer Week festival
Guinness IPA?
…and in Nitro cans?
I have a couple bones to pick with this new Irish beer….
This label looks awfully close to the font and style of Noble Ale Works to me. Which was OK when it was variants of stout or a pale lager but now that Guinness has thrown their hat into the IPA ring, it seems to close for comfort right now.
Secondly, why would Guinness make an IPA anyway? Do they have leftover nitro widget cans that needed filling? And someone at Diageo HQ read an article about IPA’s being the “it” style?
I’m not some purist who can’t see IPA’s getting the nitro treatment but this seems tilted toward marketing and not toward making great beer.
Azusa-nitas
So Tweet Master Tony dropped this on the social media…..
If I had been told that Lagunitas was coming to L.A., I would not have been shocked at all. Chicago is up and going and that means that sights could be turned to another location for the fast growing Petaluma based brewer.
But Azusa was a shock. If they were going valley, I would have liked them to come to Glendale instead of the umpteenth bleeping condo project.
Questions abound. What will this mean to the L.A. Beer scene? Do they join the L.A. County Brewer’s Guild? What kind of taproom are they envisioning? How will they co-exist with the Congregation’s, Alosta’s and Sanctum’s that have already set up shop?
Answers to come in 2017, I guess.