Category: Beer Industry

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

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The Brewmaster


Looks like a craft beer documentary opened recently for a brief and probably very limited “in theater” run before hitting the digital realm next month this time.

The movie is Brewmaster from filmmaker Douglas Tirola. The documentary is about one person, in this case a lawyer, trying to break into brewing and another going for the Master Cicerone level of beer knowledge.

There are interviews with the usual roster: Garrett Oliver, Jim Koch, Sam Calagione and deeper cuts like Vaclav Berka from Pilsner Urquell, beer writer Randy Mosher and Cicerone Founder Ray Daniels.

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Angel Lyft

Unless you have the alcohol tolerance of a superhero and not just dressed as one for the coming candy-thon known as Halloween, you will need to use public transit, taxis or Lyft.

As an extra incentive, Angel City Brewery and Lyft are launching a discount. look for pink or green Angel City IPA cans starting on Friday, October 26. Each of these colorful cans has a $5 off codes for new and existing Lyft riders.

To up the ante there will also be a sweepstakes for riders and drivers from November 1st through December 31st. Per the press release, “One lucky rider will win a $500 credit at the brewery and $500 worth of Lyft credits, while one driver will win a $250 credit at the brewery, $500 in Lyft credits and $250 in gas money.”

That’s money saved for candy, turkeys and presents this year if you are lucky enough to win.

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2019 Pioneers

When I first started blogging about beer, I heard about a documentary in the works about it helmed by Jay Sheveck. News would pop up here and there but then it seemed the project had died on the bine, as it were.

But then Facebook brought this to my timeline:

I checked the website and it appears that sometime mid next year, Beer Pioneers might actually be released. (Whether streaming or DVD or subscription remains to be seen)

I do like the New Albion meets Oregon Trail game look of the poster and the roster of beer names is impressive so let’s hope I can review it sometime next year.

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Protect the Hops

Beer is dependent on farming and so far the current shit government we have has not been very helpful. Basically throwing paper towels at people in the form of “cash for tariffs”.

Thankfully there are some trying to improve the lot of hop farmers at least.

Check out this New School Beer post about how Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is fighting for hop protection.

Let’s hope we, as a nation, can create a (literally) a better environment for farmers to work in.

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GABF Awards Recap – The SoCal Perspective


The awarding of the medals happened in Denver yesterday at The Great American Beer Festival in a production better paced and funnier than the Emmy’s, the Brewers Association live streamed their awards for 2018. It took an “unpacking” team three + weeks to sort the 8,864 entries from 2,404 breweries so that medal worthy beers could be tabbed.

So let’s dive into the statistics and see how our corner of the beer world fared competitively.:
Bronze
Smog City Kumquat Saison
Enegren Brewing Nighthawk Dark Lager
Trustworthy Brewing (formerly Verdugo West) Bear Temper Barleywine

Silver
Pocock It’s My Island Irish Stout
Bravery Brewing The Shroud Imperial Stout
6th & La Brea Skag Scotch Ale

Gold
Beachwood Blendery Funk Yeah!

Considering how many breweries we now have, that is a decent-ish showing. Orange County (especially Green Cheek) got called on stage more, as did San Diego naturally. With San Diego edging out our OC cousins barely but both in double digits. From here on in, it would be good to see our own mark of ten

One of my favorite breweries, Firestone Walker got two medals in kind of weird ways. They won silver in the brand new Collaboration category for their work with BarrelWorks on Pixie Dusted tangerine sour. And they won for Feral Brut, a beer not being released until next week.

Figueroa Mountain picked up a trio of wins on the day as well bringing their eight-year total to 23!

Favorite Beer Names:
Germophile Berliner Weisse from Rowley Farmhouse
Liquid AC Summer Ale from Karl Strauss

Other notes:
Two babies got the Papazian fist bump.
Winning Juicy/Hazy Beers were primarily from the south and Mid-West
One of the winners from Texas had. Beto Election Beer shirts on.
Loved that the Chuckanut Brewery has sub-named it’s two locations, North Nut and South Nut

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New Belgium Built This


I am not a super fan of the How I Built This podcast from NPR, but my wife is and thanks to her pointing it out, I got to listen to a decent little talk with Kim Jordan of New Belgium fame. Now I would have asked some other questions. More about women in beer and more about changing tastes. Maybe there were edits for time, I don’t know, but the podcast did give a nice amount of backstory. It’s worth a listen, so check it out HERE.

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06297


I have subscribed to one of the e-mail newsletters from Hopsteiner and they recently sent out a sheet detailing a few, still experimental, still only numbered not named new hops.

The one that caught my eye was 06297 because of the first two descriptors: orange and vanilla. Now if that doesn’t scream perfect for a Milkshake IPA then I do not know what does. What is amazing is that along with that creamsicle combo, it imparts berry and tropical fruits as well. All from three hops that don’t get much press nowadays, Eastern Gold (50%), Apollo and Cascade (25% each).

If 06297 makes it through the gauntlet, I wonder what the marketing name will be.

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Sponsored Basketball Content

With the Clippers being Bumbled and the Lakers Wishing, there is no room on the jerseys of L.A.’s NBA teams for the longshot chance of a brewery being the sponsor and seeing the logo of Monkish or Homage on the TV or live at Staples Center.

But my hometown Blazers still have a spot that could be taken by a brewery. Obviously, the most obvious choice would be Widmer. The big brand in town is already involved with the other team in town, the MLS Timbers but a gold “W” would look good and match the lone title tag on the back of the jersey.

Or you could go the charity route like FC Barcelona does with Unicef and add Ex Novo to the jersey….

…lastly, we could get a lot of Haze Bros. to buy jerseys if we add Great Notion to them….

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B Positive

I was spinning through the Twitter-verse when I came upon this….

…and even that simple call to hashtag left me feeling better about our little world of beer on social media.

So I answered right away and will *attempt* to remember to do this at least once a month.

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All are Welcome

It’s is always great news to see inclusiveness in beer. And the news from Scotland about the Glasgow Brewery Collective is a plan that I hope can spread far and wide.

This plan is to create “a Scottish first, a taproom and event space that is 100% accessible for people with disabilities.”

Dave Lannigan, Head Brewer and founder of Ride Brew Co. is the force behind this project. He is also “officially disabled through loss of hearing and suffers from ADHD and dyslexia.”

Through the use of large print menus, access for wheelchair user at the bar and lighting are some of the improvements being looked at.

For the project to really get off the ground they will be starting a crowdfunding campaign in the near future.