Category: Beer in the news

Great articles that you should read.

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Buoy Beer Building

Scary images from Buoy Beer in Astoria, Oregon..

It makes me think about the sexy topic of infrastructure. I have been lucky enough to visit Buoy a couple of times and the combo of beer and river view is amazing but when the Columbia is surging it becomes scary.

And with a business that is capital intensive already, improvement checklist items for days, weeks and months can be pushed. This collapse is probably not due to that but it is a wake up call to make sure everything is, pun intended, ship shape.

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Delayed R.I.P. – Cellador Ales

Most closures spool out over a month or two, but in the case of Cellador Ales, the end date is further on the horizon 12/31/22, but no less sad for the Los Angeles brewing scene.

This will allow everyone to trek out and have a final wild ale ir purchase tickets to their L.A. Beer Week festival.

What struck me about the announcement was this section..

But…something I can’t quite put my finger on has been rippling through the industry in 2022; It has unexpectedly been the toughest year since the pandemic started, for us, and apparently many other small breweries.

Makes one wonder when the other closure pennies are going to drop.

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Thoroughly Modern Maui?

The uncertainty swirling around Modern Times. Closing locations. Receivership sale rumors. All that caffeine from the roaster have led to this point where a potential buyer comes from the island.

Since this is a San Diego story, I direct you to SD Beer News for the full lowdown HERE. With any sale, you hope the new owner will be good stewards going forward. I get to see how that goes with my two favorite sports teams as Chelsea has just been sold and the Trailblazers are in the owner courting phase.

But Modern Times has hit the jackpot with Maui Brewing who are big in the industry and well respected. Now we wait again for news.

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and Chill

From the department of like us cause of causes and not our actual product comes…

Coors Light’s new ad campaign, “Chillboards”. Debuting in Miami it is a  rooftop billboard shown to decrease temperatures in Florida apartments. The “chillboard” is painted with a white roof coating that can reflect 85% of sunlight, but don’t talk to much science or DeSantis will outlaw it.

Is this cool, yes. Does it move the climate change needle, maybe a little. Is it just marketing? Certainly. Maybe they could team up with their family of breweries to paint the roofs of their brewing plants.

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Rue the Moonlight

Time for some inside the business of the beer talk, good news, I promise.

Patrick Rue, the founder and former owner of the Bruery and now in St. Helena with his Erosion Wine label along with his family, have acquired the 1/2 share of Moonlight held by Heineken through Lagunitas Brewing. Sounds like an NBA draft trade, right?

Moonlight founder, Brian Hunt, keeps his half of the brewery which has done a few more collaboration beers that we in SoCal have been lucky enough to get because his beer is stellar.

Hopefully, this will be a better strategic partnership.

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Ship It

We have, in the last few months, heard many stories about shipping containers. Why are they falling into the sea with fancy cars inside, how they are made into homes and why they ain’t getting unpacked fast enough to get us that un-needed item quickly.

Well, could you make one into a brewery?

This blog post details (in detail) how to use that space for brewing. Now, I have seen some micro breweries such as Highland Park when they brewed in Highland Park but, wow, this looks tiny. But maybe at that small scale with one person, it could work.

Though you might need a second container for cold box and taproom.

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Czech It

If someone had told me back in the before times, that I would be entranced by a travel show of a goofy food writer dad and his teenage daughter, I would have given you a serious amount of side-eye.

But Czech it Out is grand…

…not only that despite the goofy and the forced reality of parts, this really gives an overview of Czech food, beer, art, movies but more importantly a sense of place.

The best travel shows make you want to travel much like the best food shows make you hungry and after four episodes, 1/2 the season, I want to go and eat nothing but pastry and drink beer at all the restaurants and Pivovar’s that this duo have visited.

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It’s a Living

For those who wondered what would happen when Modern Times shuttered locations, well, one space will see new life.  Actually a third regeneration, when Modern Times PDX (formerly The Commons Brewery) will become Living Haüs Beer Co.

Founded by former brewers at Modern Times Beer and the highly regarded pFriem Family Brewers.  Now wait to see if the other locations can find new brewing life as well.  Most notably for my purposes, the narrow DTLA space that could serve a brewery with some rent money nicely.

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Weinhards Resurrection

Looks like Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve has made a convoluted journey back to Oregon.

You can read the full press release from Molson Coors HERE. In broad strokes, Weinhards was a fairly large regional that got passed around like a hot potato. The beer wasn’t even brewed in Oregon for the last twenty odd years. Somehow the brand alone ended up in Molson Coors hands and has been passed down to one of their subsidiary breweries, Hop Valley.

As for the beer itself, it is a ” 4.7% alcohol-by-volume lager, first brewed in 1976 and acquired by Miller Brewing in 1999, will be brewed using its original recipe and Cascade hops from Oregon.”

By the time that I could legally drink, the allure of Weinhards was trending down. I still have brand affection but it is not based on the beer so much as nostalgia. How Hop Valley converts new twenty-one year olds is a bit of a mystery especially after their parent company essentially put the beer in the freezer and walked away.

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One Pint at a Time

First, I want you to head to HERE to watch the trailer for One Pint At a Time.

And then make sure to check the website, like I have to keep tabs on possible future showings in Los Angeles.