Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
my occasional rants and raves about what is going on in the industry.
If you have any doubt that the City of Los Angeles and all the cities surrounding said metropolis could use more breweries, then read THIS.
Denver is obviously a big beer town but one could say they have plenty of beer to go around. But possibly doubling (almost) their brewery count in the span of a year? That is crazy.
Next Great American Beer Festival that I go to, I will probably not even set foot into the convention center. Too many other places to go to!
It must have been an easier job thirty years ago. The craft beer retailer had so few choices to put on shelves and sell. A few ESB’s from England, a bock or two from Germany and maybe something really unique from Belgium. Now to be competitive you had better have at least one display (if not more) like the one above. Because the craft beer consumer fueled by growing sophistication and trained to ask for better beers are now the driving force in beer. And that is not just craft beer, but all of beer.
Growing up in Oregon, a state now known far and wide for choice was a different world from where I am now in Los Angeles. My Trader Joe’s across the street carries Hangar 24, The Bruery and Firestone Walker alongside Full Sail and their in-house brands. Even the major grocery chain, Ralphs carries the cans of Los Angeles brewed Golden Road for quick carry out. Back in the day, you could pledge allegiance to Henry Weinhard or Olympia or just by some cheap stubbies from Buckhorn. Beer shopping sure must have been easier than it is now where I have to make hard decisions about how much I can buy and how much will fit in my ‘fridge or cellar. It must seem to store clerks that I am the most indecisive shopper in the world.
So I have to give a tip of the hat to the hard working behind the scenes people who deal in SKU’s. Heck, I didn’t even know about SKU’s before or what the acronym stands for and now I read about them in beer blogs instead of beer reviews!
Not to suck up but there must be people working overtime at every stop of a beer’s journey from brewery to retailer. Born on dates stamped on bottles. New labels being approved and affixed in a rush. Data and prices keyed into computers. Barcodes scanned and inventory tallied. Delivery trucks rumbling down roads near and far.
All in the name of a bustling and growing craft beer market. All so that I could check out with ease and take my craft beer bounty home to drink and enjoy. Granted we are probably still trying to catch up from all the stagnation of previous years but the incredible leaps in variety is hard to keep up with. Each visit to my favorite beer shoppes brings new discoveries. Seasonals galore. New breweries entering the market. A seemingly endless stream of new hops and IPA’s. More beers than I could possibly choose from. And that is a very good thing.
*a writing assignment (with prizes attached) from the 2014 Beer Bloggers conference in San Diego and the National Beer Wholesalers Association
Sierra Madre may be known as an “off the 210” town but now Greg Kinne and Mike Nalick, co-owners of Beer Monks Mobile Canning will be driving their truck to breweries in the Southland.
The “company delivers and operates equipment on-site to produce as much as 1,800 gallons of canned beer a day. The canning machine fits on a box truck and can go anywhere a truck can — and the machine is small enough to fit through a standard door.”
This is that helpful “bridge” service for breweries that don’t have the capital to invest into lines (either bottles or cans) and / or don’t have space for said lines in their brewery. Kinne says “Our service allows us to deliver smaller quantities of cans and packaging materials — six packs and case trays — in a just-in-time fashion.”
Maybe Pacific Plate or Federal could do a test drive?
Planning craft beer trips requires a certain amount of time. You have to find which breweries are in the area that you are headed. Visit each of the brewery websites or Facebook pages to find out when they are open and then go to another website to map it all out.
Now you can head to one spot Brew Trail, which as the founders describe it is “the ultimate compilation of brewery information, has gone online and Visiting breweries just got easier. Brew Trail compiles every brewery and brewpub in the country – over 2,500 – allowing beer lovers to quickly and seamlessly plan their ultimate tasting trip. Tour schedules, tasting room hours, fees and other info is all available on one site for the first time ever.”
I tried the site out from both a PC and my Mac and it worked pretty well. It has a pretty comprehensive list of breweries. It is missing some but maybe some crowdsource help will fill in gaps. I was impressed to see that Pacific Plate Brewing which recently opened is there. If you search by state that is the best bet. I tried the city and zip code function and either got zero results or funky results. Your mileage may vary with that function.
It does put all the information under one banner which will save you time. You can print out maps. Create an account. All fairly simple. I suggest giving it a try.
TV shows can take a few episodes to get on their feet. And due to that, I will split my BrewDog TV reviews into multiple segments.
This review covers the San Diego, San Francisco and Philadelphia episodes.
I first have to address the beer of the week that they brew. Obviously, it is a novelty brew but I am really on the fence about it. I know it is the marquee part of the show. The spine so to speak. But I really don’t like the whole “Do you like it” moment at the end. I much prefer the opinions of the people who get to drink it, since I never will and the canned applause tactic rubs me the wrong way.
But that may be because I really love the rest of the show. Especially the food and beer pairings which were really strong in this section. With the donuts in Philadelphia being my favorite because it was new and really well explained. The Craft Beer Virgin bit is good too. It could be really bad but James and Martin are just so damn lovable that it works. The lists of breweries and bars is well done and takes the right amount of time. The format of the show is well thought out and moves at a nice pace.
Of the beers done, I would have the fog beer. The pepper beer is out of my league and the Declaration of Independence beer seemed a little strange to me. Not that I wouldn’t have tried all three.
Great to see this Monkish flagship beer in Bruery style bottles. I think that Henry is doing some really creative things in Torrance and I am glad that I have a growler to use at will, or whenever the traffic allows. Feminist pours a reddish brown color. I first get hibiscus notes. Followed by a dry, antiseptic Belgian yeast strain. Puts cranberries in mind for some reason. I have found that hibiscus can be way too overpowering but it works here. It also puts me in mind of Thanksgiving. I think this would be perfect with turkey and stuffing.
Books and movies are catching up to the creativity of the brewers in documenting the revolution of craft beer and, in my humble opinion, there can’t be too many documents of what is happening so that is why it is important to watch Crafting a Nation…
Then check out their website to see if it will be screening near you.
Lambikstoempers are an “association that wants to make known the beer culture in Belgium and support, specifically the beers of our region: the Senne valley and the Pajottenland.”
For some reason, I imagine Stormtroopers heading into a bar and brewery demanding at laser point, that good local craft beer be served.
They started back in 1999 (10 years before I started blogging) and have been putting on events and getting into the news since then.
I am talking about them because I believe that we need more watchdog groups like theirs to keep different elements of the craft beer world honest and to call people out in a constructive way.
And what is a Lambikstoemper?
It is a pestle to use in mashing in sugar to a lambic or Gueuze.
I wonder what the craft beer folk who hate “big” will think of this. A large foreign brewery looking into acquiring ‘Merican owned craft breweries. Does Duvel Moortgat get a pass because of Ommegang and Brasserie d’Achouffe (among other holdings)? Or will the following quote “We would like to acquire two or three U.S. craft breweries over the next five years,” that Simon Thorpe, the president and CEO of Duvel USA and Brewery Ommegang gave to Brewbound.com scare the bejesus out of people?
Will the anti-“big” brigade believe the next Thorpe quote, “We view ourselves as a craft brewer that happens to be based in Europe and has a brewery in the U.S.,” ?.
Duvel has a few prerequisites for potential partners: long term growth, potential for scaling up, geography and type of market the target brewery is targeting. The last generated this intriguing statement from Thorpe, “We are not interested in brands where margins and pricing is low,” Thorpe said. “We are only interested in the luxury end of the market. We are looking for premium, high-end, beautiful brands.”
Informal talks have been held but no names released. But this may be the start of a consolidation phase for craft beer.
Ninkasi Brewing has been showing up in Los Angeles with their Tricerahops Double IPA. I first spotted them at the Blue Palms 5th Anniversary party and then on tap lists for the Food GPS Beer Blast. The craft brewery based in Eugene (Home of lightning yellow football uniforms) signed agreements with independent wholesalers here as well as Orange County and and San Diego County. Flagship and limited release offerings are on the way in 22 oz. bottles and kegs.