Category: Beer Industry

my occasional rants and raves about what is going on in the industry.

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Keep Acting Better – Action # 1

It is a new month but that doesn’t mean that we file away the last one and forget about it.

The whole beer world has to keep acting better and we can use this new month to learn new practices.

This month, I will touch upon what can actually be done to make improvements. Some of which I touched upon in my first post about the craft beer reckoning with the horrible treatment of women.

First, create your own damn spreadsheet. Why did men need women to track all the offenses? That just removes men from the process that they should be involved in.

Here is what you do. Go HERE to find the spreadsheet. Take notes on the breweries who appear on it and match that with the breweries in your area. Are any that you go to on the list? Are any in your ‘fridge that is on the list?

Make your own spreadsheet. Check to see if the brewery or person on your list has apologized and taken action. Also read the accounts linked to them to prioritize. If a brewery is cited multiple times and it is one that you have gone to many times, and they are silent about it, now you know to not go there to start and you can develop a plan as to what additional steps can be taken.

An example, I received a media package from BrewDog during the first week this news was coming to light. I checked the spreadsheet and they were on it. So I reached out to the PR firm that sent the beer asking what BrewDog had to say.

The person I e-mailed with answered honestly, appalled at what had been posted and said that I would get answers when they got them from BrewDog. So I posted a photo on Instagram and until I get the answers, that is all I will be doing. If no answers come then no posts from me even if the founders rescue a thousand cats from a thousand trees that they planted to save the rainforest.

I will also be checking that spreadsheet to make sure that I don’t post about the places and people in the future. Because, I am not here on a high horse dictating tactics. We all need to be in the field.

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Ship it USPS (Maybe)

The Brewers Association recently announced news of legislation that would (finally) allow the United States Postal Service to ship beer. Now this wouldn’t be a blanket across the US thing. Here are the details:

“On Monday, May 17, Representatives Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced the United States Postal Service (USPS) Shipping Equity ActOpens in new window, bipartisan legislation that would allow the USPS to ship alcohol in states where it is currently legal to do so.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic and government-mandated business closures and restrictions, small and independent breweries have seen consumer demand increase for products delivered directly to their front door. A consumer survey by SOVOS Ship Compliant and Harris Poll found that 84% of regular craft beer drinkers – defined as those who drink craft beer at least once per month – want to be able to legally purchase beer via direct-to-consumer (DtC) shipping to their homes. Additionally, the survey found that more than 73% say the pandemic has increased their interest in purchasing craft beer via DtC shipping.

To meet that demand, we have seen state laws expanding to allow shipping and delivery of alcohol products, as well as allowing alcohol “to-go” at restaurant and bars. The USPS Shipping Equity Act would help small and independent breweries, wineries, and distilleries meet that demand by allowing the postal service to provide another method of getting their product to market.”

The TL:DR of it, is that rules that have been bent for Covid should stay this way so that shipping beer can become a standard business right.

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On Deck

Podcasts like TV, film and music has its candy and good for you choices. I say that not disparagingly but to let you know that if you want to know more about the agricultural side of beer life, then I have the podcast for you from the Countryman Malt Group.

It’s called the Brew Deck and it is where you can turn for deeper dives into malt, hops and other beer topics. When you tire of the hot takes and beer snobbery, give this podcast a listen.

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Pop Goes the Hop

Washington’s  Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) has a new frozen innovation for breweries “called Cryo Pop™ Original Blend. Since helping to pioneer and launch their advanced product line, Cryo Hops® four years ago YCH has learned a lot, this new hop blend uses groundbreaking research to solve the common brewing problem of how to carry raw hop aroma into finished beers.”

Quite a few acronyms later, YCH describes how their lab testing got them to this new product, “The data is utilized to engineer a hop pellet that contains high concentrations of the most beer-soluble compounds, or compounds that survive the brewing process. The result is a supercharged pellet that provides brewers with a dynamic solution for juicy, fruit-forward, highly aromatic applications, showing massive tropical, stone fruit, and citrus aromas.”

Now we wait to taste IPA’s that pop.

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Act Better

Many have dived in over the past week with their take on the unsurprising stories that have come to light via Brienne Allan (@ratmagnet) about horrible treatment of women in the beer and beverage world.

I add my voice to the strident calls for this shit to stop. First stop for anyone is to check out Women of the Bevolution. It lays out what is happening with clarity and without rancor (though frankly it would be deserved).

Second, look into your behavior, men. When have you been an ass, when have you not spoken up in defense, when have you treated people poorly based strictly on gender?

Then, third, what are you going to change? The world is tentatively opening up again which means that more interactions will occur. Will you be better the next time you step into a tap room?

Lastly, encourage those with stories to tell them. One of the most frightening aspects of this sorry situation is that men are not only aggressing but then scaring women into silence. The more the stories circulate, the higher the possibility that consequences will arise.

We can do better. Treat people with kindness, it isn’t that hard.

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Active

As I have shown in the past, I am up for experimentation in beer making and beer trying. So, if I see a can of Lion’s Mane Lager from the kombucha makers Flying Embers, I would certainly taste it. But I am wary soul as well so I see the adjectives “organic” and “super” in front of the words ingredients and I see puffery.

There is every possibility that you can make a healthy lager but it has yet to really happen without sacrificing the essential beer-iness. Maybe this beer will crack that code.

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Come on Down, You are the Next Contestant on the Hop is Right!

First, I want you to hop (sorry) over to the Beervana Blog and read this POST and don’t give me any TL:DR guff.

OK, now that you are back, there are two golden nuggets in that piece. First is that a hop can have rum and caramel and banana notes. That is mind blowing. And second, is that a brewery can sponsor an up and possibly coming hop in exchange for dibs on the crop.

And the big takeaway that I want most beer fans to keep in mind is how veeerrrryyy long it takes for a seedling to be an actual crop. Hats off to the potent combo of science and farming that can do it that quickly while satisfying IPA fiends.

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To the Moon

There are not a lot of strawberry beets out there and I can’t imagine that there are many strawberry IPA’s out there that are actually IPA but come April you will have Moon Boots IPA.

This is a partnership between 21st Amendment Brewing with the Pink Boots Society.

With this spring release, the brewery will be sponsoring 4 Pink Boots scholarships:

(1) Women in Leadership Certificate scholarship with eCornell University at $3,800
(3) Level Two Cicerone Course + Exam scholarships for Pink Boots members at $400 per recipient.

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You “Can” Recycle

One side effect of buying pretty much nothing but 4-packs is that you create quite the colorful collection of snap-tight plastic can holders. Maybe you have been recycling them but another way to help the green new deal is to return them to a brewery. Boomtown recently messaged how they would take them and I have seen that Common Space has a collection box too. Call or message first for other breweries but let’s all pitch in.

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CA Craft Beer Week Kick-Off

CA Craft Beer Week started on Friday with a load of virtual speakers plus cheese! Here are my takeaways from the evening….

Philly Beer Week inspired SF Beer Week which is now (at least this year), CA Craft Beer Week

Greg Koch thought that Stone Brewing had started too late. He also boldly declared that craft beer has “won” which he is both right and wrong about and ended his portion of the night talking about how there is so much happening now in craft beer.

Next up was David Walker who spoke about craft brewers as tinkerers and how California really brought hops back into the conversation. He said we all will still be chasing the perfect beer and that we need to keep curiosity as a tool in our brewing tool box.

Next was a three-way discussion of hops from North Park Brewing, Silva Brewing and Cellarmaker. What caught my attention were a few comments about how yeast had been somewhat forgotten about in early IPA’s and now has garnered probably too much credit especially when you take into consideration that some customers order IPA’s based on the featured hop.

I also like the idea of a blind tasting that has three Hazies and three West Coast IPA’s. It is something new that the Hop Grenade bar has done that should be replicated to see which style I should favored.

The last session that I watched was the beer and cheese pairing. Learned a golden rule to have a sip of beer first, then the cheese. Also that contrast is usually best with this type of pairing but if you have a really bold beer that a striking cheese can work.

Happy Valentine’s Day and enjoy the beer week.