Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

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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.
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Join the ACBC Brew Crew (Sorta)

Maybe 2015 will be your year to win the Angel City Brewery, What Would You Brew? Contest.
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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.

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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.”

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Pee in the Cup

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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

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Guinness IPA?

…and in Nitro cans?
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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.

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Azusa-nitas

So Tweet Master Tony dropped this on the social media…..
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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.

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BrewDog’s in America

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Columbus, Ohio to be specific for the brewing operations plus unknown cities for branded bar expansion of BrewDog in America.

It now looks like TV was just the opening gambit in the BrewDog attack of the U.S. craft beer market. The brash Scottish brewery will be opening a huge 40+ acre facility in Columbus which will include a brewhouse, tap room, restaurant and office space from which to manage the whole shebang plus up to (5) BrewDog bars that will be built in the US.

Of course the West Coast will be a possibility but will they head to the NW, San Francisco, San Diego or here to Los Angeles? All of the above have been visited by the TV show and presumably scouted to an extent.

If you believe in a BrewDog’ged America, you can buy into the Equity for Punks USA and buy a share.

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Time to Vote

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Have you ever wanted to determine the outcome of what gets brewed and what doesn’t?  Well, Sam Adams is letting the world choose from 16 different beers.  Place your vote for your top 4 and then come later this summer the top four will be voted on at festivals and at the Sam Adams brewery. Two will win and be back in rotation in a variety pack come next year.

You have until the 25th to raise your voice.

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21 Reasons

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Starting May 11th, new cans will be seen on craft beer shoppe shelves. 21st Amendment of San Francisco started shipping to us, Orange and San Diego counties + the Inland Empire as well.

I had always found it weird that I could buy Hell or High Watermelon and Brew Free or Die IPA in Portland but not in LA despite being just a skosh closer to the brewpub. I know that the canning was going on in Minnesota but it was not enough to dent our large customer base. Thanks to a new California production facility, we are now on the delivery list.

And I can’t wait to buy a box of 21A cans.

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Torrance is Blessed

I did not know that Torrance was so beer religious. First Monkish and now a tidbit of more news on the the summer expected HopSaint.

At the kettles will be Brian Brewer who recently helmed The Brewery at Abigaile’s operation. Now he will be creating beers to pair with the smokehouse BBQ restaurant that will be the other half of HopSaint.

The Torrance brew crawl will soon need to be a full weekend.
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