Category: Beer Industry

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

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CCBA 2019 – Day 2 – Recap

Here is the Day 2 update from the California Craft Beer Summit…

It started with a blindfold on for Sightless Tasting led by Dr. Toby Wexler from SensPoint Design who showed emphatically that though we are primarily (85%) a visual creature that you should still use and hone that other 15% too. We were passes three separate containers with blends inside and were asked to describe what we smelled. Grapefruit, mango, turmeric passed by, cedar passes by as did coconut and chocolate. Then, we all carefully reached in out to taste four beers. I guessed one right and was just as sure on another that I was wrong on. Probably the best seminar of the two days.

Judging by the crowd and amount of questions afterward, the Kviek (ca-Veek) seminar from Omega Yeast was an attraction. We learned the origin of the yeast, how a blogger just went from Norwegian Farmhouse to Farmhouse to collect the strains that made up this truly home brew yeast which is still being dissected to find its properties. Apparently, it is a cross of a wild yeast and a commercial one. Much of the science flew past me at light speed but speed is one of the attributes of the yeast as it does it’s job very fast.

From there it was back to the Expo to do circuits of the beer and the food with a mid-afternoon stop for a talk on cannabis led by Lori Ajax, the chief of the California Bureau of Cannabis Control. She talked about the process in which marijuana can be state legal to sell. If you have a love of filling out forms and constant oversight, then you would be well suited to either or all of the cultivating, distributing or retail channels.

With that the second day was done. Next up, the Festival.

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CCBA 2019 – Day 1 – Recap

Long Beach – Day 1 of the California Craft Beer Summit, here is what I learned about beer and the Golden State…

The day started with a “Pioneer” presentation, a look back at 1989 when the precursor group to the CCBA started. It was a slick presentation with a drawer- full of anecdotes about what it was like in the early days. John Martin of Drakes, Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada, Chris Cramer of Karl Strauss and Tom McCormick of the CCBA were interviewed by another legend in Vinnie Cilurzo. There were secret payoffs, equipment sales from jail and lenient inspectors involved.

Next up was the “numbers” presentation. Bart Watson, the statistics maven for the Brewers Association showed the industry numbers and the contradictory story that they were telling us. The sky isn’t falling. It’s just that the competition is more than it has ever been and that taking a peek into how the post millennial generation is buying might just be a smart thing to do. He also touched on seltzer (including the entrance of Bud Light seltzer) and how closings are still incredibly low for such a mature market. As always, Watson was engaging and funny and made me wish my economics teachers were this much fun.

The expo hall was open by now but I wanted to take in another seminar and one labeled Beer Trends struck my fancy. It ended up being a discussion of four beer styles with a California example poured of Pilsner, kolsch, saison and a sour. It was good info but currently none of those beers are trending unless you count Italian pilsners.

Then it was time to taste some beers and see all the gadgets and gaskets on the trade floor. There were also tap talks and chef demos which got swallowed up in the general hall noise. That leads to a pro tip. Sit up front. That way you hear what is being said and you are first for samples. The best section, for me, was another food and beer pairing area. Time slots of a couple hours allowed for people to wander up when hungry to get a Pale ale with tacos, or Oud Bruin with ice cream. Quick and delicious.

Day 2 news coming tomorrow.

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New Hoppiness

There are two more new hops in the pipeline (aka pre-commercialization stage) following in the footsteps of Sabro and Strata are HBC 586 and 638.

HBC 586 is a “bright, fruit-forward hop”.

HBC 638 is “complex and versatile. …with tropical fruit flavors”.

You might see some beers that mention in the marketing material those two numbers and then we will have to translate that to their trade names if they become popular and have enough acreage to be in larger runs of beers.

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CA-1K

If it weren’t for the 1000 number in the middle, you could spend some time counting all the orange dots on the map to get to 1000.

Isn’t that crazy? Think about it. At one point it was a handful scratching out an existence on used dairy equipment and now you can find spots where you can walk from brewery to brewery or try to set a low Lyft fare record.

Of course with that number comes re-calibration. And that is for everyone in the independent California beer eco-system. Customers have incredible choice and need to wield it with care. Media needs to stop focusing on their influence and start working on enlightening. Breweries need to keep raising the quality and creative bar higher and those who move the beer need to do so fast, cold and in control.

The inevitable refrain of bubble may arise because some like singing that particular song but I think that it is more of a constant search for the right size of the industry. We had too many years of way under and no one really knows where the sweet spot is so maybe we should enjoy this time of plenty if it is indeed over that spot.

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Scanners

Are you ready to be scanned when you enter a taproom?  Is speedee ordering worth it? I have read articles where license plates can be scanned to speed drive-thru ordering and now there is a new company that will take camera technology and add it to a bar to film customers as they enter so that the bartenders know who was in line first.

The company is DataSparQ and they began bar testing in London in June with more tests trials to come.  More than facial data will be compiled as the company is selling how to track busy and slack times amidst other data points.

Seems just a skosh intrusive to me.  Enough of my personal data is being stored in server farms enough as it is.  I would rather come back to a bar at a less busy time rather than having my face be my ticket like I am at a busy deli. Serving # 90 now, the gentlemen with greying hair is next.

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Sultana

The hop formerly known as #06277 now has a trademarked name Sultana™.  It is a three-way split of 50% Nugget, 25% Zeus, and 25% USDA male (un-named? Or just agricultural science speak?) When you start seeing it in beers look for pine.  According to Hopsteiner it is a big pineapple hop with pine notes in the background.

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No Bitterness

Science. Dumb people don’t trust it but it can do amazing things given enough money, intelligence and time. Obsession too.

A recent POST on NPR’s website discussed a new coffee product that is beanless and bitter-less. This is on the heels of explosive growth for meatless burgers that has left supplies low.

But, this is a beer blog, Sean. Yes, but the increase of alcohol-free beers is growing and probably will continue to do so. Hops have gone from pellets to cryo to who know what in the future so why not a fake engineered flavor that is close to hops? Especially if it can consistently provide a flavor that the brewer wants.

Beer is based on agricultural products but considering our stewardship of the planet so far, beer may need to science its way out of a possible problem.

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Please Share

I didn’t see this POST on the CraftBeer.com website getting as much attention as such pressing matters as Pabst Hard Coffee, so I am urging people to take a moment and click the link to Bottleshare.

The money is super important in this charity but the last part of this chunk of their mission statement is super important too, “When a fellow craft beverage worker is experiencing an emergency or extreme hardship, we not only want to help them financially, we want to lift their spirits, give them something to celebrate, and share our story in such a way that they feel their very own hope renewed.”

I am hoping to see some L.A. breweries join into this mission.

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Creating Traffic

File this under things I would love to see on the streets of Los Angeles. Well, actually, it would probably need to be safely stored on a bigger truck to avoid accidents from lookie-loos….

(picture grabbed from Twitter)
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Tax Extension

I know that the words excise tax either cause sleep or sleeplessness.  The first due to mind numbing legalese that need to be carefully read to be understood and the latter because, well, no one likes paying taxes.

But stick with this post a minute.  One of the few good things in the Trump “Don’t Tax the Rich but I Won’t Show My Tax Returns” plan was that there was relief for small brewers as well as other alcohol producers and importers.  The bad thing, the tax was temporary. 

That temporary status is on the road for a one-year extension with the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act of 2019 which will be voted on by the full House of Representatives, then if all goes well, to the Senate and then for the Cheeto to doodle on before he realizes he has to sign it.

And if they do this enough times, maybe they can make it permanent.