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Great articles that you should read.
I came across a cool tidbit of hop information on YouTube about the re-discovery of a brand new wild hop named Monocacy found in Maryland.
Don’t know if it is hardy enough to be bigger than just a novelty or if it has flavors that brewers can truly use but it is great to see hops waiting to be found.
Beer business news broke earlier this month that I thought I should make at least a brief comment on….
A little twist on the acquisition front as Drakes Beer is the new owner of the brands only of Bear Republic Brewing famous for their Racer 5 IPA. (which I now need to find to compare one version to the upcoming new one)
Rich Norgrove the leader of Bear Republic will join the Drake’s organization which bodes well for continuity. How many recipes will make the trip is a question.
I guess that means that Drakes must be doing OK or have brewing capacity and secondly, that there is now a brewing space open for a new brewery. Which is why I am usually only momentarily sad when a brewery shuts down, because I feel it is an opportunity for a new owner to make new beers.
Smog City Brewing along with Ryan Cochran, their label designer who brought to life the original labels and characters for Smog City IPA, Amarilla Gorilla IPA, Coffee Porter, and Sabre-Toothed Squirrel will be refreshing the art for 2023. You can see a sneak of the IPA look below…
Amazing to realize that these beers were all originally released in 500ml bottles many moons ago. I like the dominant blue look and the house style and whimsy is still there too.
February 13 is a big day in the flower game. I know because I have been behind the scenes on that day since my Aunt Donna and Uncle Gene owned Milwaukie Floral. They even let me drive a really old hollowed out blue van to make deliveries.
So I was interested to see this development from FTD….
…but where is the beer. You can get roses and champagne, zinnias and bourbon, peonies and gin but no beer? Weird. A lambic would be a prime candidate.
If you liked that preview then head HERE to check out their Kickstarter page.
December and now January have not been kind to Los Angeles breweries. Today comes word via Instagram that Strand Brewing in Torrance is now done for good.
If you were here for the heady early L.A. brewing days, the sight of Rich Marcello in his crisp white shirt talking about 24th Street Pale for a moment before he had to get behind the wheel again was a common one. The little brewery tucked into a tiny spot was must stop by one as Torrance beer blew up.
When they moved to the huge space close to Yorkshire Square, that magic was dimmed a bit. The space was huge and Strand could only fill so much of it even when they started distilling. For me, the brightness of the beers seemed to dim as well. The pale was still solid but the IPAs started to fall behind nearby Smog City.
Here is to someone or some group finding a way to make that location viable again maybe by having one or two co-tenants that could draw more crowds combined.
And here’s to Rich and all the others who made Strand Brewing great.
Shmaltz Brewing Company, the jokey and punny Jewish craft beer brand seemed to be done when founder Jeremy Cowan moved to other projects after 25 years.
He’Brew: The Chosen Beer is now owned by Jesse Epstein, a 26-year-old Reform rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College. Epstein started home brewing during the pandemic and saw an opportunity to reinvigorate religion which is struggling with attendance.
I saw a great quote from Epstein, “What about our Jewish values can be used to inform our food practices?” he asks. “How, through beer, can we embrace the values of welcoming in the stranger, freeing the captive, opening the eyes of the blind?” A refreshing thought when religion seems quicker to divide and discriminate.
It will probably be a slow build but hopefully Epstein can accomplish it.
There has been moving and shaking in the Los Angeles beer world as the clock runs out on 2022.
First was news that the original owners of Yorkshire Square Brewing in Torrance were leaving and that the brewery is in the hands of the Copley Family who are also involved with Project Barley.
Then the day after Christmas brought the news that King Harbor Brewing was closing up shop in its three locations after eight years in business.
Will there be a dip on top of three years of pivoting? The economic situation doesn’t look great for cost of goods plus a labor market that requires more pay with higher turnover. It is enough to make one look long and hard at opening and operating a brewery. And I do expect more new in Q1 of 2023.
Obviously, not a rosy picture but I was never under the impression that each and every Los Angeles brewery was going to last forever. Change is the only constant and maybe turnkey breweries or brewing equipment for sale or rents coming down as landlords choose lower rent over pie in the sky valuations will create a new surge next year or in 2024.
A little on the hush-hush news as we head into Christmas. I have learned that Eagle Rock Brewery will be taking over the freeway adjacent Empire Tavern spot in Burbank.
I will follow up with a first visit report.
Breweries will sometimes tout their water quality but it appears that Foster’s Lager really likes the H2O, read HERE.
Now adding water is not inherently bad. Bourbon and other spirits have calculations to make to reach certain proof points.
But what I will call the Foster’s Two-Step of lowering ABV while also raising prices is pushing it. It may not seem a shock that they are doing it but the reasoning behind is a bit more complicated than corporations are greedy bastards.
Companies will raise prices for two big reasons. One is cost to make the beer. If it is rising, as it has been, they will cover costs which is only natural. The un-natural bit is that many companies see those rising costs or inflation or a bad mood on a Tuesday as cover to raise prices.
As long as a PR VP can lay the blame elsewhere, a company can add a nickel or dime to the price which gives cover to others to do the same.
Now, if companies paid fairly this would be moot. If Foster’s had a quality or taste profile that makes watering down integral, this would be moot.
In the end, what Foster’s and others will find is that they are antagonizing customers while also putting their prices closer to those of craft beer. And that is not the two-step they want.