Category: Beer Industry

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

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Los Angeles Craft Beer timeline

Saw this on the Craft Beer Chronicles and thought it should get another audience after bouncing around Facebook and Twitter last week.


These two timelines really show how young we are as a craft beer community. I sometimes feel impatient with the growth of breweries and bottle shops here in LA but I have to stop comparing to Portland and Denver and see that that most of the places that I frequent aren’t even 5 years old. We have to walk before we can run. And here is what I think we will need in the future to really make LA a beer destination.

1. More breweries. We are on the path and if the City of Los Angeles would just get the hell out of the way we could have a bumper crop in a couple years. A community of brewers will only create higher standards and more experimentation.
2. A couple specialty beer bars. We need a real ale establishment or a sour beer house or heck even a bar that serves out of town beers to all the LA people who came from someplace else. Maybe a movie house with taps like the Alamo Drafthouse.
3. More media coverage. I’m looking at you LA Times and KCRW’s Good Food.
4. A lot more summer beers. LA gets hot if you didn’t notice over the 4th of July weekend. We can’t be drinking high ABV Triple IPA’s and Barrel aged stouts. We need light session beers and pilsners and we need more of them in cans so the active set can take them to where they want to go.

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Silipint

from the Silipint website

I heard about the Silipint on Beer O’Clock and I thought. How many pint glasses have I broken that this would be such a need? I am clumsy at times but nothing has even chipped in the last two years.

But just because I don’t go to the beach or hike or other places where these would come in handy. Doesn’t mean others don’t.

If you have tried the Silipint, let me know your experience.

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Purpose Energy

Using your beer to make energy for your next beer. That is the basic conceit behind Purpose Energy.

Check out their website and see what they did at Magic Hat. I can see some of the regional and super-regional breweries taking a good hard look at this idea.

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California Growler Challenge – June Update

Here is what has happened in the first half of the year. It may not seem like much, but considering that I am brand new at this and I can’t devote loads of time to it, the progress ain’t half bad.

-started an electronic petition
-got a Facebook page up and running
-created a letter to your representative template
-raised awareness

Now it is time to try to get some bigger guns in the fray. So here is where YOU come in (yet again). If you know anybody in the following areas: recycling, California tourism, beverage container manufacturers or a politician, start telling them about the “Brewed in California” growler idea. Ask for their feedback. See if the idea has a fatal flaw or needs to be tweaked. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, sign them up and get them involved. If we can get a coalition of people and groups and businesses, we stand a better chance of succeeding.

I am going to start by reaching out to the Container Recycling Institute and see what she thinks of the California growler.

And to make the conversation clear, here is what I perceive as the need.
To change current law so that any participating brewery can sell a “Brewed in California” growler alongside their own branded growler. This growler could be legally filled by any participating brewery in the State of California as long as the beer information is attached to the growler via a sticker or other means.

and the why?
Two reasons. To create craft beer tourism options for the State of California while also creating an incentive to re-use one container repeatedly thus helping the recycling cause.

And if you haven’t written your state representatives, then do so! It can be done online! Let them know you care.

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Kiwi Hops

After reading about New Zealand in the current issue of All About Beer, I was intrigued by the new hops talked about and thought that a little hop education was in order. But since I am not a grower or brewer, I decided to let the descriptions from THE source do the talking. New Zealand Hops Limited


Pacific Gem
A high alpha hop with a pleasant aroma and a useful bitterness level of 13% alpha acid. Pacific Gem can produce a cask oak flavour with distinct blackberry aroma, along with a woody character. Used as a bittering hop by internationally famous European brewers.

Green Bullet
This hop variety has a unique raisin-type character, a slight floral note and has been likened to giving a Styrian style flavour to the beer. It consistently averages more than 12% alpha acid and its aroma qualities match its excellent bittering power.

Super Alpha
A very reliable variety always giving better than 10% alpha acid. Super Alpha has a very encouraging humulene-caryophyllene ratio, similar to European aroma hops. A unique cross of the best English and German hops, Super Alpha produces a crisp clean flavour and also has some nice resin character.

Southern Cross
A spicy and lemony character typifies this high alpha variety with some slight piney and woody hints. Southern Cross has an excellent essential oil profile and low Cohumulone, whilst still producing alpha acid of 12%. It produces a very “European” flavour in beers.

Pacific Jade
The most recent release of the New Zealand Hop Research Programme Pacific Jade is a high alpha hop, averaging 12-14%, with low Cohumulone and an excellent oil profile. Brewing trials have shown that this hop gives the beer a clean crisp taste, with a nice balanced palate.

Both Pacific Jade and Green Bullet intrigue me. But which hop would you like to see more of?

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Save on Beer


On January 3rd, 2011, SaveOnBrew.Com, LLC officially launched SaveOnBrew.Com (www.SaveOnBrew.com), a site that quickly shows the lowest advertised beer prices across the entire country. It’s simple to use. Go to the site, put in your zip code, and within seconds you’ll find hundreds of discounted beer sales at grocery, liquor, drug and convenience stores.
My way of buying beer is a bit antiquated and haphazard. I rotate amongst stores in my area. Most of the time, I am searching for a specific brew. But sometimes, I am just scanning the shelves for an old favorite or something new.

Now I can do some price checking before I even leave the house, with the Save On Beer website (and soon to follow mobile apps).

All you have to do is type in your zip code. OK, that is not all. You will have to set some filters like distance and more importantly narrow down the choices to craft beer. But the site has two good things going for it from the get-go that allay my fears that this is a industrial water lager for cheap site.

1.“We know people can be picky about their beer,” said Greg Thibodeaux, web-marketer and one of the three principals. “So if finding the lowest price on Bush, Keystone, or Pabst isn’t your thing, filter your results to find your favorite IPA, dark ale, or exotic craft beer on sale in your neighborhood.”

2.“One of the biggest challenges the team faced was finding a way to keep the beer prices both current and accurate. “We’ve had to be really creative about gathering data,” said Mark Davidson, site writer and data wrangler. “If people can’t find what they’re looking for, they’re not going to come back. That means seven days a week, we’re scouring close to fifty thousand vendors across the nation for discounts on beer. That effort generates between one hundred- and three hundred thousand live sales on beer at any given time.”

Until more good craft beer stores sign up, you will be mainly looking at Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada and Widmer as choices. But this site will certainly help you save some cash if those bigger craft names are what you are looking for at the moment. Plus, if big chains see a spike in good beer traffic because of people changing their beer shopping patterns, they might stock more.

The only downside that I see is that most of the beers that I purchase (excluding BevMo) are not the type that will ever be on sale. There will be no price war on the Bruery’s Cuir or Stone’s Belgo Anise RIS.

I will be checking the site over the coming months to see if craftier beers start showing up and to see if my favorite beer stops start popping up too.

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Beer-Con

This just flew into my beer radar. And I thought I would pass the pertinent info on about it. Has a good panel and you can’t beat San Diego for a beer location. Would be interested if anybody is planning on going and why?

“San Diego’s first craft beer conference that caters to industry players and fans alike will take place on August 27th 2011, promising exclusive access to the top names in the industry, and their expert presentations plus panel discussions on all things relevant to the American craft beer movement. Between informative discussions, giveaways, and an extensive beer garden officially dubbed “Tap Haven,” if you’re an aspiring craft beer guru, you won’t want to miss Beer-Con.

Beer-Con’s impressive line-up of participants includes industry pros like Anat Baron, Director of Beer Wars, Patrick Rue, Founder of The Bruery, Greg Koch, CEO and Co-Founder of Stone Brewing Co, and Bill Sysak, Beverage Supervisor at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, to name a few. Presentations are scheduled such as Beer Tasting 101 to Transitioning your Bar/Opening a Brewery, Beer and Social Media, and many more. Check out the official Beer-Con site for a full list of speakers and sponsors. Or visit Beer-Con.com.

Beer-Con is slated to sell out quickly, so be sure to reserve your space today! You can reach us by simply leaving a comment on the Beer-Con website. Beer-Con is a huge step in forwarding the craft beer movement, and we’re excited to meet you at the Handlery Hotel in San Diego on August 27th.”

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Stone Media Day – The analysis

Now that the BIG Stone Brewing news is out in the open air. I want to take a step back and really look at what this means for Stone, San Diego and craft beer in general.

Stone is now putting a lot of projects onto a hopefully large plate. Can they keep up the quality on so many fronts? I believe that they can. They have broad support from the city and community. They have common cause with local brewers some of whom they distribute and I think they have the hard headed gumption to reach 2013. They will need a deep bench of talent to do it. In the following key areas: Hotel management. This can be tricky. They plan to go into this with a company that has expertise. Which is probably the best route. But they will have to monitor and be ready to step in if the Stone ethos doesn’t stay on course. Sour and barrel beers. I am hoping that they have a brewer and staff ready to charge into this field. Could be very exciting but the bar is incredibly high. Cascade, New Belgium and Russian River are high benchmarks.

For San Diego, it is a win-win. More Stone tourist draws spread out to decrease some traffic. And hey, any business opening now is a plus. This also really burnishes the craft beer reputation. Portland and Denver have proven that more can be merrier and this will draw more beer to the region.

For craft beer, I wish I knew. I have a feeling that a Stone backlash will be in the offing. Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada both get “too big” attached to their names occasionally for usually no good reason. I am sure that Stone will get tagged with it as well. But I believe we need all levels of business size to truly compete for the hearts and minds of the beer consumer. A rare beer that only a few can get will not make people put down the bad beer. We need more good beer in more places.