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my occasional rants and raves about what is going on in the industry.
Yes, I am a fan of brewery history. Even the 30+ year history of the current craft beer revolution is fascinating.
And this project talks history. Including Olympia that I just posted about. And it not only talks about the last but the future as well which is almost as important.
This month brings the second season of BrewDogs to the Esquire Network but there is another craft beer show that is on it’s second season…Beer Geeks Television. But they need a little push to get more episodes to the masses.
Every get a beer that just tastes old? I have. And it always makes me look for a born on date or a best buy date and then I kick myself for not looking before I bought it.
Well to help remedy this situation, there is a website called BeerDates.com.
Now they only have a minor amount of California breweries but you can use that to extrapolate out and make a better guess on some of the more esoteric labels to get a better freshness handle.
Some breweries like Eagle Rock and Sierra Nevada have added better/clearer information but more need to do so.
L.A. is not Belgium (yet) but one thing that might be translatable from there to here is the combo.
Check out this article with photos from PopUpCity right HERE. Why can’t we mix and match? Restaurants have been slow on the uptake. Either grafting on beer to a menu (looking at the lazy people and Bourbon Steak in Glendale) or ignoring it all together. So how about Pet grooming and beer? Pets get treated real well here in L.A. so why not combo with some craft beer? Or follow the Wasbar example. Maybe a combo coffee house in the morning, craft beer at night concept?
Here is something that I think each state’s brewing guild should look into. And, if course, it is something started in Oregon.
A Hops and Brewing archive. The Eugene Register-Guard has a nice synopsis HERE.
In this day of digital everything. All sorts of documents can be kept without the rent of an office building or much infrastructure at all. And for future book writers and researchers, it would be a storehouse to research ( for a small fee).
You can start with the books written by the founders of Sierra Nevada and Lagunitas.
You see this typical shipping container. But if you put your craft beer mind to it. It could be a full working brewery.
TheCzech firm Mobilní pivovary s.r.o. will sell you one of these for what I must assume is a lot of money. But probably less than trying to build out a brewery in Los Angeles. Now if they can put a tasting room into an adjacent container and a cellar for barrel aging in a third. Then we are onto something.
With the Craft Brewers Conference drawing the beer industry and fans to Denver, the Brewers Association also extended their reach via the old-fangled telephone to broadcast a state of the union as it were.
After the call ended, I went through my notes and pulled what I thought was important out for craft beer going forward. All opinions are mine own.
~ California is the top state for brewery openings and nationwide there were 413 new breweries in operation.
I am sure that is still sustainable but I think the next generation of breweries are going to have to look a lot harder at WHERE they open. The rent cost is no longer the only factor or majority factor anymore.
~ The Brewers Association supports state guilds (which are now in all 50 states, thanks to the last to the party, Wyoming) but only if it doesn’t contravene the national goals.
This may lead to some uncomfortable, we are going to have to agree to disagree moments over issues like big box stores and what constitutes craft beer.
~ Breweries that use adjuncts in their flagship beers will be welcomed back into the fold
Frankly, I don’t know why that hasn’t happened earlier. A small, community based brewery that uses all organic ingredients but has a corn or rice beer as their mainstay is not craft? I am glad that law is out.
~ Export is a growing line item on the agenda.
The BA is playing matchmaker (their words) with those breweries that pony up cash to be part of the export program. Hopefully they will not send over IPA’s because that may dim the view just like the hop aroma gets dimmed during travel. I was surprised to see that Canada, Sweden, the UK, Australia and Japan are the top 5 destinations for our beer.
Next year, the conference will be in Portland. I may attend next year to hear even more scuttlebutt.
Good looking and professional beer labels can be hard to do for those who brew at home. Especially when there is spilling and sanitizing and the like. Plus most prefer to spend their dollars on more equipment or boutique hops and not the art.
Enter: Garage Monk on the Etsy website.
With a line of cool and colorful vinyl labels that can withstand a bit of punishment that a paper label would wilt from. I like the multiplication X sign myself.
How is this for hard data? The Ratebeer website database now includes over 16,000 breweries with 2,600 added in 2013 alone.
They also have 300,000 users. (Some of which obviously are inactive, others hyperactive) There are over 5.2 million user-submitted beer reviews. AND as of February 2014, reached its 250,000th beer in their list of beers. (again some inactive or seasonal).
How fast will it take to double that?
I am not a beer trader. The arcane rules, the clique-ishness and beer snobs that seem to roam this land throw me off. But, maybe a website dedicated to it will bring a more mainstream attitude to it.
Enter the Beer Exchange… “This is the first web application dedicated to craft beer trading. Quickly find trade partners, easily manage your trades, and build your reputation.”