Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

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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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Beer TV

You may have seen Drinking Buddies, the movie that charted two couples relationships with the backdrop of a Revolution Brewing in Chicago. Now, the City of Angels has their updated version with “L.A. Beer” a sitcom Web series taped in front of a live studio audience.

It is a workplace comedy set in a brewery that stars Sam Daly (“Hot in Cleveland”), Arianna Ortiz, Kevin High, Alicia Ying, James Lontayao and Sarah Stoecker. The series is Executive Produced by Sam Miller a staff writer on the CBS show “Mom”.

The series will debut with five episodes on YouTube beginning May 11, in conjunction with American Craft Beer Week. Five more episodes will be posted in June to match-up with L.A. Beer Week.

Here is the trailer to whet your appetite:

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Stark(a) Differences

There is always something to learn about for the first time. Today it is Starka. If you knew about this version of vodka then kudos and gold stars to you.

For those like me who have never heard of it or tasted it, this spirit has Eastern European roots and it is basically vodka aged in oak casks.
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Three Oregon distillers have combined to make three unique Starkas and this is where a new craft beer idea could be found. The three participants Big Bottom Distilling, Bull Run Distilling and Indio Spirits and Distillery each “created an exclusive variation of Starka by choosing specific barrels that are distinct to each producer.”
What would happen if a group of brewers brewed up a whopping batch of a base beer and then each used their distinctive cooperage to age their ales to see what difference that not only the wood but the expertise of a brewery can be created.

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Hops in the Outfield

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If forced to attend a professional baseball game, I could have fun checking out the craft beer choices. Checking out the good food options and even the totally bad for you food. And at Coors Field, there is another attraction to keep my mind off the interminable length of an actual game.

The Colorado Rockies will be adding hop plants to the garden that is beyond the outfield. This gardne already includes the home run fountains as well as other plants and trees but now will have planter boxes of quite possibley Citra, Simcoe and Cascade. These hops will be used (if they successfully grow) in a fresh hop beer made by Blue Moon at the Sandlot.

Now watching beer being made is so much more interesting.