Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

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Blend It

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Why would Gabe Gordon build “a temperature-controlled barrel room inside a 100-year-old downtown Long Beach building”?

Here is the reason: “Starting this fall, Beachwood Blendery will produce beer using ingredients, equipment and brewing methods that are both steeped in tradition and admittedly modern. Gordon, Julian Shrago and Beachwood Blendery’s Barrelmaster Ryan Fields (an award-winning brewer formerly of Lost Abbey and Pizza Port San Clemente) are embarking on an undoubtedly geeky quest to create American-style lambics.”

This grand sour experiment will take time as good lambics do but the wait will be broken up into phases. “The first year will see what will be called the “Propagation Series.” These beers will be made to test how the different yeasts and bacteria preform in the Beachwood Blendery environment. The results of these experiments will factor into what will become their signature lambic-style beers.”

Then the “Blendery will begin producing a contemporary series of flavored lambic-styled beers, flavored not with traditional flavors like cherry (kriek), raspberry (framboise), peach (peche) or blackberry (cassis), but instead tropical fruits and spices inspired by Gordon’s many surf trips around the world.”

Then the coup-de-grace, “three years after opening—an American-made “gueuze”, blended from a selection of one-year-old, two-year-old and three-year-old “lambics”.”

The brewing begins this month with the first releases arriving by mid-2015.

One last quote to ramp up the excitement, “A tasting room attached to the Blendery will open at the same time as the first release, with 10 taps of house beer as well as wine from the vineyards whose barrels were used to ferment the beer.”

With Barrelworks humming up north, the Blendery will add to California’s destination status for aged wild beer. Maybe an appellation is in our future.

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MLS + Beer

With the MLS season concluding today with the Galaxy of Los Angeles taking on the Revolution of New England, it seemed a good time to re-imagine what the jerseys would look like if craft breweries were the shirt sponsors.

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And courtesy of Backheel you can see what it would look like if the Bruery was on the pitch vs. Harpoon.

Of course, I root for team Hair of the Dog……

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City Hall

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Once again Eagle Rock Brewery was hauled downtown to answer for their crime of running a brewery in the City of Los Angeles.

The fourth time in five years. And each visit is preceded by paperwork and fees for the paperwork not to mention time spent away from brewing.

This time, as with all the others, there was no opposition save for a City Hall gadfly who was anti-alcohol only and who all but said that he had never visited the brewery.

Obviously, the tide of support coupled with the impeccable way ERB has conducted itself carried the day. But only in LA could a win seem so ungratifying.

First this hearing only produced a “recommendation”, granted it was the one they wanted but now the paperwork goes to another back logged department to be approved or denied or changed. If it passes as I fully expect it to, ERB will get a determination letter. If no one appeals that letter in 15 days, the ruling will stand.

If all goes as planned (knock on wood), then these hearings will finally cease.

And though the hearing was smoothly run and by the book, the lack of knowledge about the brewing industry was clearly evident. This process needs to change and guess who is doing that too, yup, Eagle Rock.

The city desperately needs to hire someone with knowledge of beer, wine and spirits. An Alcohol Czar, who can rewrite the inane rules that force a brewer to complete a paperwork decathalon just to open. And then doesn’t stop there. This czar could also cut through the paperwork and be a one stop shop. Where the toughness needs to be is afterwards. Bad actors should be fined when they do wrong. Right now, you are assumed guilty until proven innocent. Four times.

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A German Fig

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I don’t think they will be close neighbors to Stone Brewing but Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company is not content with creating a mini-empire of tasting room and brewing outlets. They are also going back to Germany. Fig Mountain “Owners Jaime and Jim Dietenhofer are excited to go back to their roots as they evaluate potential site selections for a new European brewery in the Bavarian region of Germany. “. And brewer AJ Stoll will be learning the German words for Hoppy Poppy and Hurricane Deck as the emissary to Europe.

In the works are “a new line of European beers such as Dunkelweiss, Marzen, Weissbier and other lagers,” according to Dietenhofer, “with the potential to import these beers back to the United States.”

Is this the start of a major migration?

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More than 10 Barrels Now

Yesterday the interwebs exploded with righteous anger and fury with the knee-jerk reaction to 10 Barrel Brewing being bought by Lex Luthor.

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Wait, they were bought by ABInBev. Craft beer fans might cheer LexCorp more at this point though. Because, we love to hate the big business beers.

We have been on this merry-go-round before. First with Goose Island, then with Blue Point of New York. The now predictable Tweets and Talking Points about being disappointed, selling-out, drinking local all reared their heads.

Here is where I stand (as of today, because I am willing to listen to rational and reasoned arguments):
You can be sad/angry/pick an emoticon about the sale. And you can have legitimate reasons why, but remember that if you were a passionate fan of their beer and loved the brew team then you have to at the least listen to why the owners sold. 10 Barrel made a video explaining why. Watch it.

Never, and I mean never, boycott a beer just because that brewery was sold. That is cutting off your nose to spite your face. And you will be doing a LOT of boycotting because ownership changes are going to happen. We went and are still going through a phase of small and local growth everywhere. Eventually, breweries will become bigger. Some may no longer be owned by the founders. Judge the beer and brewery on its merits. If neither measure up to what you want in a brewery, then move on.

Local does not equal great. And what is local? If the people who work at the 10 Barrel locations live in the community and the beer is brewed in the community and the ingredients are sourced as usual, you are going to tell me that it is not local? A brewery could be next door but bought their equipment in Germany, hired a brewer from outside the state and get all their ingredients from thousands of miles away and be considered local? Oh and they can brew crappy beer but that’s A-OK as long as they don’t mention Bud-Miller-Coors?

I have a sneaking suspicion that people are less angry at the breweries who sell then fearful of not knowing why ABInBev is buying. Are their reasons nefarious or is it strictly business. And that uncertainty fuels anger.

All I ask is for people to make a reasoned decision and not think that ABInBev is forcing us into an Age of Ultron.

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Drogo + Detroit =

I have a feeling that Jason Momoa might be on to something or has a crystal ball because anytime that I hear that buildings and land are available, it sets me to thinking that breweries would be well served to subscribe to the theory of “Build it, and they will come”. Detroit has an opportunity to be a brewing destination a la Field of Dreams if they can governmentally help foster it through a regulatory system or at least not hinder it like the city of Los Angeles actively does.

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Check out this article from Willamette Week and prepare to be impressed by the discerning taste of the former Khal Drogo.

I,for one, will be rooting him on to succeed.

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Blood, Sweat and Beers documentary

To those who say there aren’t enough “stories” about the people who make the craft beer that we enjoy. I give you an opportunity to change that.

Filmmaker Alexis Irvin has created Blood, Sweat, and Beer. The documentary follows to tracks of brewery building in two very distinct East Coast cities.

You meet the The Brew Gentlemen Beer Company of Braddock, PA. A steel town in the past that is trying to rebuild with new industries and you also meet the owner of a Maryland Boardwalk brewery as he navigates the hot button issue of trademarks.

You will also not need a keen eye to spot all of the California beer folks including Firestone-Walker, Golden Road, Eagle Rock, Beer Paper LA! The Beer Chicks, Sierra Nevada among others.

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Beer in the Pipeline (Literally)

I gotta admit as both grand publicity and outside the box thinking, a beer pipeline from one facility to another is perfect. Whether in practice it works is another story.

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But if De Halve Maan gets this up and running and working without changing the beer, I would be rather amazed. My concern is about cleaning. If tap lines are problematic and need replacing, wouldn’t a pipeline need it as well? If it is just one base beer flowing things shouldn’t be too risky but eventually, that line will gather some strange critters.

I hope it works but some added quality control will be needed.

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Fruits, Vegetables and Craft Beer

Along with a statewide ban on plastic bags, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law an important craft beer bill, AB 2004 which will become the law of the land on New Years Day 2015.

AB 2004 was sponsored by the California Craft Brewers Association and authored by Democratic Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro of Arcata California.  The gist of the law is broken down into two parts:

1) Beer manufacturers are allowed to sell packaged beers at Farmer’s Markets if they get/have a market beer sales permit

2) Breweries are also allowed to sell beer and wine on their own premises during private events

In essence, this creates two new markets for brewing companies to sell to.  In regards to part two, a brewery could sell their own beer at a private party like a company holiday party or wedding but they could not also provide wine or other taps.  Now they can and this could create an additional stream of revenue to destination breweries.  This is a part of the game that a bigger brewery would be interested in.

The Farmer’s Market portion is something that I have seen in Oregon on a limited scale and I think won’t be huge here but it offers an alternative to those who gypsy/contract brew by creating a tap room of sorts to sell their wares to the public.  I don’t think you will see a big brewery on the Santa Monica promenade but nano’s without a taproom or new brewers to an area might be well served to look into this as an option.

Neither may be game changers but both might just provide a boost of income that helps keep some craft breweries above water.

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