Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

Posted on

Lions and Bears Mixed Up

PI-GvaIxIjTivlB31k-XiYqhW2BsTbvmwRbfCOzRxpg

It seems that mixed packs are all the rage and I have yet to be really tempted, until now….

“Firestone Walker Brewing Company has you covered with the The Lion’s Share, a new mixed 12-pack featuring four distinctively different brews.

The Lion’s Share includes three bottles each of DBA (British pale ale), Pale 31 (California pale ale), Union Jack (West Coast IPA) and 805 (blonde ale).” (Which I still think they shouldn’t sell outside Paso, but that’s just me)

And id 12 FW beers isn’t enough then in March you can purchase the Bear’s Necessities mixed 24-pack!

 

Posted on

the final BrewDog TV review

brew-dogs

Onto Round 3 of the BrewDog TV review!

Sadly this was the final show of the year.  Why no visits to Chicago or New York?  Or Glendale?  A bit of a stretch but why not come to Eagle Rock or Golden Road.  Enough ranting, on to the review…

For some reason, the season finale in Boston was full of sexual innuendo and innuendo +, Over ten by my count starting with a Hummer Limo crack.  The other oddity was the beer.  This was, by far, the weirdest of the beers.  And that is counting the Declaration of Independence thing.  Lobster and clam with sour mash on top of a chassis of Scotch Ale.  Doesn’t sound very appetizing to me.  And again they took to the water to brew it because they hadn’t learned their lesson in the Portland episode.

But the like a good sports team, when one segment is flat the others pick up the slack.  The oyster pairing section was delightful and it is great to see seafood getting into the conversation with beer.  And the fact that they didn’t do the wine vs beer and instead made it wine vs. beer, cocktail vs. beer and spirit vs. beer was a great idea.  Also the locales for the craft beer virgins were unexpected but part of the community, a boxing ring and a bocce court.  Really cool.

Jim Koch from Boston Beer was game the entire episode and it was fun to see him be just as crazy as the Scots.  It made the episode pop a little more like when a great guest star arrives on a TV sitcom.

Now if I could just get the hot tub of beer image out of my head, I could give it a proper rating.

 

Posted on

Dry River Brewing UPDATE

crop

It looks like for all you Dry River backers and craft beer fans that happenings are afoot!  Here is the latest Kickstarter update from the (hopefully) soon to come brewery!

“We’ve been busy-busy-busy since our last update, pursuing locations, working with lawyers and accountants, preparing to raise money for the build-out, all the fun parts of opening a brewery… And we’ve hit a major milestone and we wanted you to be the first ones to hear – we hired our brew-master!

Naga Reshi comes to us from Wynwood Brewing in Miami, but he’s been brewing professionally all over the world since 2007. Brazil, Holland, you name it – he’s probably brewed there. And he brings tons of Green brewing cred to the table. He designed, built, managed and sold a production brewery in Brazil that ran entirely off of solar power! Plus his recipes are super creative and he’s awesome at using local ingredients, like he did with his barrel-aged jungle-fruit Lambic series in Brazil…

We have a proposal in on a great space, right on the river, so we hope we’ll have a positive update there soon as well.

Posted on

Room Key and a Craft Beer

Dogfish-Head-Logo

Dogfish Head brewery has announced plans to open a hotel, the Dogfish Inn, sometime in or around spring 2014.

Each room will have a mini-fridge that you can fill along with beer glasses and a bottle opener on the wall.  This is a trend that I think will accelerate in the coming years.  Craft Beer tourism is big.  McMenamin’s runs a few boutique hotels and resorts.  (I even had my wedding reception at one!)  Rogue has their own Beer and Breakfast.  And Stone has been toying with the idea as well.  Much like a casino wanting it’s whales on the premises, a brewery wants its fans close by too.

Maybe you can stay the night and try their Moondust beer.

Posted on

Single Malts from Cismontane

Cis_Black

Looks like that Cismontane is starting a science project and we will be the beneficiaries!

It is a Single Malt Series, let the brewers talk about it, “Years ago I conceived a project that would captivate the scientific and artistic mind of the brewer: single malt beers. I’m very happy to say that we are finally doing it.

Think of it this way, if we completely understand the behaviors of various malts we have more control of any subsequent beers that we generate. This gives us artistic ability through scientific testing.
We have partnered with Best Malz out of Germany to do a series of single malt beers with all of their base and specialty malts.  The specialty malt beers will differ in that they will be blended with a base malt. The base malt will be selected based on least amount of color and flavor.
The purpose of the study is to understand the effects of various malts in the brewery, and the resulting beers. We will control all of the variables of the brewing process except the type of grain used. We believe that each grain will affect the following variables that we can measure in our brewery: extraction rate, change in pH, attenuation, and color. This will also affect many variables that only you can measure with your nose and tongue.”
 
Materials
·         Water (R.S.M.’s finest) enough to get that kettle to 16 bbl of beer!!!!!!!
·         Yeast (Cali ale baby) ~5gal pitch 1million cells / ml / °P
·         715 lbs base malt grains (our variable)
o   Best Malz – Pilsner
o   Best Malz – Vienna
o   Best Malz – Munich
o   Best Malz – Heidlburg
o   Best Malz – Red X
·         Hops (Northern Brewer – single addition at 60min for 16 IBU)
·         Brewer (the Citizen)
·         Brewery and all its stuff (Cismontane Brewing Company)
 
Method
We will brew a beer where all the ingredient’s processes will be exactly the same with every batch. The one variable that will change is the type of malt. Below is a list of the controls:
·         Mash temp: 152
·         Quantity of grain: 715lbs
·         Run off from mash to kettle: 465gal
·         Hop Addition: 35oz Northern brewer with 10.9% alpha acid at 60 min
·         Boil time: 120 min
·         Yeast: California ale yeast pitching rate 1million cells / ml / °P
·         Fermentation temp: 66 °F

·         Water: We will add water to the kettle to have 16bbl of beer before we transfer to the fermenter.

I am a big proponent of tests and experiments like these.  They really open the eyes to what a single ingredient change can do to a beer.  Mikkeller has done it with hops, yeast, barrels.  White Labs does different yeast strains in their brewery and now Cismontane.

Posted on

Double Barrel on the Venice canals

While I was whiling the beer hours away at various spots in Portland, some major SoCal news hit.  Not that I would have scooped anybody but I would feel remiss if I didn’t weigh in on Firestone Walker’s announcement that they are heading to a location in Venice which depending on traffic may still be as far away as Firestone Walker in Buellton.

fw venice

So it won’t be perched on the canals.  Probably not enough parking for that. But this is where it will be, “The property is located on West Washington Boulevard near Lincoln Boulevard. Adam and David selected this site after more than two years of searching. It’s not a main street or restaurant row, but it’s still accessible.”

The goal being to “establish a third leg along the coast, complementing our existing locations in Paso Robles and Buellton.”  I am all for Firestone being here but it wasn’t as if I felt neglected by them at all.  Part of the joy of visiting them was the excuse to visit the majestic new BarrelWorks in Buellton or hit up Paso and the surrounding sights.  Now will people take them for granted?  To a certain extent, some beers like Solace and regular Union Jack and DBA get short shrift in the rush for barrel aged products and double this and that.

Best case scenario is this new spot becomes the hub for the off-the-wall events like Deconstructed or Walker’s Wild Ride that have been high points in my beer experiences in LA.  Hopefully it can be a center for food and beer pairings.  Sour seminars and the like would be great too.

The best sign about this move is that our fair city (adopted or native) is getting the attention of breweries.

 

Posted on

BrewDog TV

Next month, BrewDog takes to the small screen.  Will it be able to contain their hijinks?

bd

Here is the 411, ““Brew Dogs” premieres September 24 at 10 p.m. It stars Scottish “beer evangelists” James Watt and Martin Dickie, who own the UK’s fastest-growing brewery. James and Martin have come to America with a vital mission: to prove that the drink of the masses doesn’t need to taste mass-produced. In each episode, they will visit a different American beer town, celebrate distinctive craft beers and create their own locally-inspired draft.”

One of their stops along the way is the fabulous Belmont Station in Portland.  I am anxious to see how they view one of my favorite beer locales.

Posted on

Bell’s in SoCal

I don’t think we here in Los Angeles will be getting Hopslam anytime soon.  But there are rumblings that Bell’s may follow Boulevard and Goose Island and Clown Shoes and Cambridge into the SoCal area.

c886428379b1b27ddc1cc3e4aa7d4a5a

But I can easily make do with Oberon…. “An American wheat ale made with European ingredients. Belgium wheat malt and Czech Saaz hops provide a spicy, fruity balance to this seasonal ale.”..

….or Expedition…”The darkest beer we make; this Imperial stout contains double the malt and five times the hops of our Kalamazoo stout and is perfect for cellaring as its complex character will evolve over time. Available October-March.”

Posted on

A Hopumentary

I caught this on the Facebook recently and thought that I should pay it forward as it were.  It covers a lot of ground that we know and love about our craft beer industry but what I like about it is that they are talking to people that I and most likely many people haven’t seen or heard about.  If it gets more butts in seats at City Beer then it is well worth it.  So take a watch…..

Posted on

Dry River Brewing

drb_logo_small

1st – Check out this Kickstarter video

2nd Find their beer before anyone else at these events:
JULY 5    Grand Performances – Nina Simone
JULY 13  NELA Art Gallery Night
JULY 14  Permaculture Networking at The Shed

If everyone pitches in, we could be having their beers by the end of the year!