Category: Beer Industry

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

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Growing Operations

There is a hop fueled boomlet in the world of Wet Hop beers and festivals, to the point where even the Great American Beer Festival has added it into judging consideration. Category # 20 to be precise.

But what if hops could be grown year round? I will skip over the technical bits (you can read about the details HERE) but maybe the future will include the use of LED grow lights which could lead to (with enough production) wet hop ales any month of the year. It could also lead to more breweries actually growing hops in regions that normally wouldn’t really sustain quality growth.

Something to think about as our industry moves forward.

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RIP – Artisan Ales

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Well, this is shocking news to me. And sad as well. Artisan Ales was the subject of a couple pieces that I wrote in the past including a fun ride-along, day in the life of a sales rep.

Aside from those fond memories, we are left with more of a hole in the craft beer landscape now. The one vital and extremely hard link in the chain is getting the beer to consumers. You can self-distribute but that takes resources in equipment and people. With LA being so spread out and hard to navigate in a timely manner, we need more independent (call them boutique) distributors not less. Where Craftsman and Noble Ale Works go from here will be important in the near future as is the distribution fate of Oregon breweries Logsdon and Double Mountain.

I do not know the reasons why Artisan Ales closed up shop and to me that is water under the bridge because the long term implications are bigger because what we need are two types of distributors for two sizes of breweries in Los Angeles that most need help.

1) for the small breweries that are wanting to create a wider footprint
2) for the medium/small breweries that are getting into packaging

We need steps up, so that a brewery can grow in a logical and linear way. Maybe we will get that needed infrastructure in the wake of this.

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Strong State

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Three out of the top seven Top Markets are here in the Golden State but what really pops out of this graphic is that percentage for Los Angeles. 15.75%!  Lower than Houston!  And the lowest on the list. I assume that our large population is what has propelled L.A. to the dollar title.

But this furthers my point that if a bubble does occur, it isn’t going to hit equally.  That range of 15% to 44% shows how disparate each market is and that aftershocks are not going ripple the same way.

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California Craft Beer Summit – Recap

Time to give a full recap of my trip to the California Craft Beer Summit.

What did I like, what did I see and how do I feel about California Craft beer now that I am back in Los Angeles….

Let’s start with the golden nuggets of wisdom that I picked up during the CCBA Summit:

Bart Watson
Gallup has done a poll with the title: “Do you have an occasion to drink alcohol?” Since the 30’s the Total pie doesn’t change much. What get drunk does.
1/4 Hispanics will be over 21 soon.
8 to 10 thousand breweries needed before possible saturation
4 California breweries make 90% of beer in the state only one is craft, Sierra Nevada
5% of breweries sell outside California

Peter Zien – AleSmith
13 years in the red.
No sales or marketing for 19 years
First made profit in 2008-9
Focus on quality, let the rest follow.

Adam Dulye
Lots of good information about pairing piece to piece. Like malt to toast. Or hops to salted peaches.
Build the pairing up from the base blocks.

Julian and Jeff
Water and beer are different solvents. Coffee behaves differently in beer
Have to keep the base beer constant otherwise the coffee needs to change.
Cold steep post fermentation has been the best way they have found with groundcoffee.
Do not treat the coffee as an additive.
The base beer doesn’t really stand alone without the coffee.
Wet processed vs dry processed coffee is a key decision.
Coffee beers don’t have a big shelf life

I picked these four seminars and talks because it shows the range of this Summit. Yes, there was plenty of great beer in the Expo Hall and the festival but for me, the learning was key. Each day I learn but much more was packed into this long weekend. From brewing techniques to brewing philosophy to dry, hard economic facts to memories and even harder facts of running a business.

The capstone discussion included the powerhouse duo of Russian River and Lost Abbey on stage. They were asked if they were starting now, if they would open a brewery now. Both said no without hesitation. But it didn’t seem as negative as when they implored brewers to dump batches and have rigorous QC measures. It didn’t seem as negative as the subtext of industry vets aging out and retiring.

I left cautious and wary having drunk good beers and beers with way too much cucumber. But I see this as growth. It isn’t bad to be a grown up. Grown ups can have fun but they also know what works and doesn’t. Our little industry is growing up and I think the next few summits will show that.

(Next up will be a more fun post about what beers I drank)

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California Craft Beer Summit – photos (@ the Summit)

Photos start here with what I captured inside the Expo Hall on days 1 & 2 of the Summit…..

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The Bag of Swag upon entering the Summit.

First beer of the Fest from Kinetic Brewing.
First beer of the Fest from Kinetic Brewing.

The Hop Display inside the hall.
The Hop Display inside the hall.

A hot topic of debate.
A hot topic of debate.

Sample trolley in motion.
Sample trolley in motion.

Adam Dulye with a wonderful food and beer pairing able assisted by Pizza Port's brewer.
Adam Dulye with a wonderful food and beer pairing able assisted by Pizza Port’s brewer.

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Day 2 – California Craft Beer Summit

Saturday rolled into the State Capital with a really busy day ahead at the California Craft Beer Summit.

Let’s get rolling with the quick notes:
Who doesn’t like beer and cold brew coffee at 9am? The cold brew tasted weird and of celery. Julian Shrago of Beachwood and Jeff Duggan of Portola Coffee gave a detailed talk of what they thought was the best way to utilize coffee in beer. The takeaway? Coffee is not something you just drop in at the end. You build a recipe and coffee is integral.

Next was the NE seminar. Call it hazy, juicy or turbid. It causes consternation. This was a fun session. Swear words came out. Digressions were made. All in front of Vinnie and Natalie from Russian River. My appreciation for Fieldwork Brewing grew hearing the off the cuff remarks from their brewer. Plus I always enjoy hearing Henry from Monkish when he gets animated.

From there a quick walk to Fieldwork. Shower Beer with Mosaic hops then Sea Wall their sea salt IPA. Both really shone. Loved the vibe of the spot too. Then the opposite. Needing food and a check in on college football, we headed to the TV full University of Beer where we were promptly served a really old IPA. Then when we complained, customer service went bye-bye. No, “we are sorry” at all. Live and learn.

Then the festival on the Capitol Mall. Hot was it. As Yoda would say. Too many choices. Rare Barrel brought the thunder with Gifted Branch and Arrows of Neon. LA was at the far end with Tower Bridge in the background. A well laid out event. Nicely spread out but the sun really baked some areas. Did pick-up some swag sunglasses though.

Then it was nap time. Short nap though before checking out more spots in Sacramento. Capitol Beer first. Nice little bottle shop and really nice people behind the bar. Had my first Moonraker beer and tried another Track 7 IPA as well. As the Lyft flies, we went next to New Glory where I had a cucumber lemon Pilsner that was strong in the the cucumber. Really strong.

From there a quick stop at the seriously loud and packed LowBrau for some food before walking back to the hotel.

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Day 1 – California Craft Beer Summit

Today and tomorrow, I will give some quick notes on the California Craft Beer Summit.

(A full-er recap and more photos to come in a day or two’s time)

Arrived in Sacramento late on Thursday and then prepped for a busy pair of learning and beer. And there was a lot of both. I did hold off drinking until after 10am but when Sierra Nevada pale ale is offered. Hard to resist.

The day started with Bart Watson talking economics then went to Sierra Nevada talking Beer Camp. From there it was on to the Expo floor to taste beers from all over California. Starting with L.A., of course.

Then it was a history lesson. 21st Amendment, AleSmith and Firestone Walker all unspooled their stories. There was also beer and food demos that gave you examples of how to pair sour beers from Rubicon and IPA from Pizza Port with food. Both worked really well.

From there, it was time to breakout of the convention center. I headed over to one of two locations for Track 7 Brewing in West Sac. The brewery was busy and the Sukahop IPA was really good. Then it was a quick hop to Panagea Bier Cafe for food and bier. Lots of of Temescal beers on tap plus a mega busy ice cream shop across the way.

Then back to the hotel via Lyft. More to come.

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Benefits

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Sometimes you need the bargaining power that a group can bring. And seeing as how, I am in the seat of California power, Sacramento, it seemed fitting to talk a bit about how the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) has used it’s weight to to get health care benefits for member breweries (if they so want). Thus helping small businesses gain access to coverage that nna have been too costly on a single brewery basis.

I tout the community of craft beer and I usually mean between brewery and customer. But that community extends to brewery to employee as well. Per Tom McCormick, the executive Director of the CCBA, there are over 15,000 people working to make beer. And I, selfishly, want them in top health and making me beer.

To learn more visit right HERE.

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Polling Down Under

The Beer Cartel polled 6,500 craft beer drinkers in Australia over a wide ranging set of preferences and came up with some results that you can see summarized below:
2016 Australian Craft Beer Survey Infographic
It is great to know what the top three breweries in Australia are so I can be on the lookout for them. I understand that it is a bit of a popularity contest but it makes for a good starting off point for the beer traveler that may be heading there.

This link will send you to the full results and though nothing leapt out as an outlier or statistically questionable, it is interesting to look at each question and theorize how the survey would come out if answered by American craft beer drinkers.

The questions that I wish would get asked to a group (maybe by the fine number crunchers at FiveThirtyEight) are the following:
The Best State for Beer – I am so done with the meaningless Best Beer City interwebs vote
The Best Country Brewing Beer – I assume that we would vote ourselves # 1 but who would win the horserace for the silver and bronze?
Can vs. Bottle preference – bottles won comfortably but 40% expressed no winner.

In addition to hoping that a similar survey can be done here, I hope the Beer Cartel will do this again next year to see if anything has changed.