L.A.s own Beer Chicks will be hitting the small screen with…..
“Eat This, Drink That, a special on The Cooking Channel starring The Beer Chicks, Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune airs Sunday March 4th! They travel to New Orleans to taste local craft beer, go shrimpin’, eat fantastic food and down some artisanal cocktails, then return to LA where Food GPS’ Beer Float Showdown is underway. They team up with Chef Ilan Hall of The Gorbals and Jonathan Porter of Smog City Brewing. Watch the competition go down at Eagle Rock Brewery featuring local chefs and brewers!”
The premier air date of the special is March 4th at 8pm on The Cooking Channel. You might even see, yours truly, in the background at the Beer Float Showdown! And I sure wish I could go to New Orleans because that food must be amazing with beer.
The Canny Awards
“The best can graphics in the craft beer industry will be recognized as part of the first annual “Canny” Awards, a competition to promote craft beer in cans and highlight the high-quality, captivating graphics on canned craft beer. Awards will be presented during the Craft Brewers Conference, May 2-5 in San Diego, Calif.
The “Canny” Awards honor craft beer and the distinctive graphics created in an industry known for unique brands and brews. The competition is sponsored by four leading suppliers to the canned craft beer industry – Ball Corporation, Cask Brewing Systems, Hi-Cone and Mumm Products.
The Canny Awards is open to any canned craft beer in North America. Entries are now being accepted through March 31. Craft brewers can submit up to three entries per brewery and may choose from seven categories to enter. One design may be entered in multiple categories (up to three).
Independent judges will award an Overall Can Design trophy to the top three designs, as well as first-place awards in each of the seven categories:
Best Shelf Presence
Best Graphics Design
Best Use of Color
Best Seasonal
Best Character
Best Illustration of Beer Name
Best Local Tie-In (State, Town, Geography, Local Activity)
Winners will receive a custom Canny Award trophy that includes their can graphics and recognition at the Craft Brewers Conference and in industry publications. For a complete set of guidelines and rules and an entry form, search for “Canny Awards” on Facebook and Twitter.”
I certainly hope that Golden Road picks up at least the Best Local Tie-In award. And the Cavatica Stout from Fort George should get best use of Spiders.
Consumer Reports needs better beer
I have been subscribed to Consumer Reports for years. It comes in handy more than you would expect. I chose my last digital camera based on their recommendation. And I totally agree with their aggressive approach to consumer protection and safeguards.
But where Consumer Reports is weak is quality food and beverages. They occasionally will review good chocolate, but in general, they only talk about mass marketed, available everywhere food. And normally, I just skip over it. I ain’t gonna base my spaghetti sauce purchases on their opinion of Ragu. Be it a best buy or not recommended.
But when this article appeared in the latest issue, all I could do was shake my head. (click on the photos to enlarge)
A) I want to know who drew the short straw and had to drink these crappy beers. And yes, they are crappy. The one that I had most recently was the Name Tag lager from Trader Joe’s. And it was thin, with no taste other than some sugar and cereal notes that you really had to look for to find.
B) Is there no store in New York that they could get a representative sample of actual beer? They could do a tasting of Firestone, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Widmer and Stone at least.
C) How could they rate these as anything higher than adequate? And who thought they detected citrus in Coors?
Come on Consumer Reports! You can do better.
Blue Palms Situation has Me Blue
The craft beer scene in Los Angeles had an eventful weekend. First, the news that Angel City was now owned by Alchemy and Science and then following that the distressing news that Blue Palms Brewhouse might be forced out of their location through no fault of theirs.
Thankfully, the beer community has rallied to the aid of one of our favorite beer spots and the new landlord has given a three day extension to work things out after seeing the outpouring of support. The hope is that they won’t have to close down and find a new location after building such a loyal clientele in the Hollywood community.
I was there last night because, if it was the last day, I wanted to occupy Blue Palms one more time. I ordered up a Sierra Nevada Beer Camp beer called The Dude. A cherry accented brown ale. Quite nice and fitting since the first Beer Camp beer that I ever had was at this spot. It was good to see a large crowd there including the Steeler fans who were not having a good day.
To stay in a celebratory mood, I cracked open an expensive wish list beer. Almanac 2011 Plum Ale. It was good and lived up to the price and my high expectations. I have now added their Blackberry beer to my wants/needs list.
If you haven’t paid your respects, I strongly suggest heading over on one of these three nights to show the powers that be that a new agreement would be beneficial to everyone.
Angel City + Alchemy & Science =
Big news for the Los Angeles beer world, Alchemy & Science which is a new division (?) of Boston Beer Company has purchased Angel City Brewing which had recently moved to downtown LA last year.
Before I opine on the matter, here are the posts from the great BeerNews.org that detail what happened. # 1. # 2. # 3.
This seems to be uncharted territory as far as I know in the beer world. There is the Craft Brewers Alliance and the Magic Hat group where there is a pooling of resources but those are different from what appears is going on here with Angel City and A&S. The first question that I have is, and should always be the first question in any analysis of a business deal, will the beer quality improve? If Michael Bowe is allowed to just brew and someone else does the marketing and distribution, will that be a change for the better? Only time will tell, but my initial gut instinct is that it will.
Angel City, in recent years, had been eclipsed by Eagle Rock, Strand and El Segundo in buzz and number of tap handles. And Craftsman beers were always more highly regarded especially from a keeping the craft beer flame lit in Los Angeles perspective. Will the big business and dollars behind the new Angel City be a turn off to the craft beer crowd? I think it might.
One good thing is that the craft beer spotlight is now shining on Los Angeles for a bit. Can we as consumers and bloggers and lovers of craft beer keep that focus on LA?
The Barman’s Fund
Times are tough but it looks like the world inside the bar is still welcoming, if not more so than in the past. Breweries are as charitable as ever with time and beer and now a group of bartenders in New York are pitching in to help.
The Barman’s Fund pools the money of bartenders to be given to a charity. I think that each city with a thriving cocktail or beer or wine scene should get in on this idea. And maybe get one of the 1% to throw down some matching money too.
Brooklyn Home Brew – the book
I have posted about Brooklyn Brew Shop’s home brew kits that you can either purchase online or get at a Whole Foods and now they have the companion book to go along with it!
Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Better Beer Making Book, by Erica Shea and Stephen Valand.
Here is the blurb from the press release: “Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Beer Making Book takes brewing out of the basement and into the kitchen. Erica Shea and Stephen Valand show that with a little space, a few tools, and the same ingredients breweries use, you too can make delicious craft beer right on your stovetop.”
Beer Paper
If they can make a shirt out of milk, then why not paper out of beer? And not just any beer, from the spent barley of famed Upland Beer in Indiana.
Here are the details from Twisted Limb paper:
“Cheers! woodcut by Darian Goldin Stahl on front of card. Text on the back of card lets receiver know the special ingredient and beer name. Cards include matching handmade beer paper envelopes.
Colors match your favorite beers–wheat, pilsner, amber, and porter. Set of four cards and envelopes includes one card in each of the four beer colors.
We can print your brewery’s logo on the front of these cards on orders of 50 or more cards. (50 logo cards for $195/100 logo cards for $375)”
Eco Cans
I saw these “earth friendly” cans in the Uncommon Goods catalog and it got me to thinking if these “cans” could be used to transport your bottled beer to the beach. That is if you really wanted a certain beer that wasn’t canned yet. Read the description and decide for yourself.
“Quench your thirst for sustainable goods and high design with this reusable, earth-friendly can made from corn-starch based polylactic acid. A convenient tab and twist-off cap with double walled construction securely totes and insulates your daily sips. Replace your water bottle or on-the-go coffee mug with this bright idea that’s ideal for everyday use.
BPA-free. Dishwasher and microwave safe. The double wall construction allows for temperatures from -20 to 110 degrees Celcius.”
Ken Burn’s Prohibition
One of my favorite books of the last couple year’s was Daniel Okrent’s Last Call. And that is the jumping off point for the new Ken Burns series with the name of Prohibition.
Premieres October 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2011 at 8 PM on PBS. But check your local PBS station for more information.