Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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Best IPA in Oregon (or elsewhere)

The State of Oregon and The Oregon Brewers Guild has gauntlet in hand for a new beer competition – “the Best of the West Coast IPA: National Throwdown.”

This is for West Coast IPA’s between 6 and 8% ABV ONLY.

“Registration for the competition is open through July 7th and is open to breweries from all 50 states. All beers entered must be produced on a fully licensed, commercial brewery with a TTB Brewer’s Notice on file. Breweries-in-planning and homebrewers are not eligible. All proceeds from the competition will go to supporting the Guild.”  It will be interesting to read about the turnout for this new competition and if indeed all 50 states will have an entry.

You can get additional information about the competition, HERE . 

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Breaking News – Anchor Brewing to Cease Operations

Bad news has come to pass as Anchor Brewing who was bought by Sapporo in 2017 will cease operations and the business will be liquidated.  According to news released, Sapporo had been attempting to sell the San Francisco heritage brewery for some time now and found no bids.  

A financial knight could ride in during the liquidation process and the Anchor Public Taps will remain open until the beer runs out.  One of the beers on tap is the 2023 Christmas Ale which was being ramped into production. Probably the biggest whale in the beer ticking world for some time.  

You can get the sad details from Dave Infante at Vinepair who should get a tip of the hat for the journalism he has done on this story.  But, to me, this development seems to come at a weird time.  A history of Anchor (which I reviewed on this blog) came out recently, Sapporo let Anchor buy the ingredients for Christmas Ale, Anchor came out with a new summer Mexican lager and the vitriol over the bland logo re-brand had faded.  Those moves don’t signal floundering to me.

If Sapporo thought that the money would come from brewing Sapporo in San Francisco, that seems misguided since Sapporo owned Stone seems much better suited to that task.

Fingers crossed that this is not the end, end but maybe, and this might be an idea too crazy, there should be a brewery who only does beers from defunct craft breweries.  A place that snaps up recipes like the steam beer and Christmas ale and Liberty Ale so that they are not completely lost.  

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BiB 2

Weathered Souls Brewing Company have a Black Is Beautiful sequel coming  out this summer and it is a Hazy IPA which will benefit the NB2A (National Black Brewers Association) The label mock- up is below.  Hopefully we will see lots of breweries jumping on board for this initiative.

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Sports & A Beer – Bad Owners

If you are a sports fan, your favorite team just might be owned by an asshole.  Not saying that all people who own teams are but there does seem to be a preponderance of assholes amongst the super-rich who can swallow clubs whole.

The English Premiere League is riddled with fan groups trying to push owners out.  The NBA had the delightful Donald Sterling around for what seemed like forever before he finally became too toxic.  And the NFL’s version was Dan Snyder who will forever be linked to the Washington Redskins and not their new era Commanders name.

There are articles, and probably podcasts aplenty, about Snyder and his mis-management of the Washington Football Club.  His stubborn death grip on the Redskins name being first on the list despite the known fact, that changing the name made any Redskin emblazoned gear more pricey and you would double dip by selling all new gear to diehard fans.

What made it all the more egregious was that he didn’t listen.  Not to fans or even fellow owners.  When you get to a point where your delusion field blocks out your fellow richie rich’s, well that is a red flag.

Which is why it is hilarious that there was an anti-Dan beer brewed.  Makes me wish there were more beers that take on the 1%. 

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Acreage

Time to talk agriculture AND business.  One intersection point is the planning of which and how many hops to grow.  It is hard to make such estimates into the future but with craft brewing slower than the past, the amount of hops needed is lower.

The USDA is forecasting that, in the Northwest, hop acreage for harvest will be down 8% from 2023. The biggest hop varietals, Citra and Mosaic were reduced the most as growers are trying to balance out their portfolios.

Might be more reductions and varietal shifts coming.  It is serious logistical work being a hop grower.

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The Firkin for June 2023

The 16oz can is the de rigeur format and has been for a few years now taking the packaging crown from the 22oz bomber and the six-pack with it’s 12 ounces. Though the 19.2oz stovepipe can is pushing for the throne currently.

This article in Punch talks briefly about why it is as well as the good and bad about it..

…but I firmly believe (and have expressed on this blog many times) that more sizes should be in the packaging arsenal.  I would like to see more big ABV beers in 10 ounce bottles or heck, 12 ounce cans.  I love the extra large format of some Belgian beers with the corks and one of these days, I will buy one of those jereboams that you sometimes see.

The packaging format should be as creative and unrestricted as the crazy beers that are inside them.

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Need Beer Faster

Here is another patented BSP, read THIS, then come back here post.

Thanks for tapping the back button.

Here is the thing about sped up beverage technology, same goes with AI in all applications, the depth of texture will be lost. Sure you might get close to a generic adjunct big business lager but how do you re-create a pastry stout or Phantasm and its tropical thiols or the slight bit of extra something from a double decoction? Answer, you don’t.

Bourbon has had techies try to create fast barrel aged and most, if not all, get reviews that range from it tasted weird to it tasted bad. Because you just can’t replicate time.

Two more additional points: I very much enjoyed how they glossed over the water part. Your test tube beer will taste different depending on the soft water of one city compared to the ultra hard water where I am at in Glendale. And point three, how much does this cost? Even $24 4-packs will be cheap in comparison.

So, I am not worried.

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Corporations are Bad People Day – Grinch

Two weeks ago, the news started to leak that the owner of Anchor Brewing, Sapporo was re-trenching the distribution of the beer back to California.

An understandable move and one that might have blipped into a news feed and then been pushed aside by a politician saying something stupid or the latest Tik Tok craze.

But that was not all that was announced. There will be no Christmas Ale in 2023. After 48 years, there will not be a beautifully drawn tree on a label during the holidays.

Did I expect that there would always be an Anchor Christmas Ale, yes. Was that realistic? No. But you think that Sapporo would have given the beer an epic send-off. Or brewed it for two more years to reach the 50 year mark. Are there no marketers left?

Economics is not just demand, it is supply and demand. You could bring back Christmas Ale and say it is the last year for it and you will probably sell it all and probably sell it at a higher mark-up. I will not believe that Sapporo doesn’t have enough loose change in the couch cushions to do a final bottling run. Even a small one for magnums only.

If I was a smaller brewer, I would start working on a replacement Christmas beer. I can imagine some pointed names for the beer would practically write themselves.

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Buyback

Last month Appalachian Mountain Brewing bought their company back from the SABInBev Craft Brew Alliance and I my first wonder was if more would follow that lead.

It is one possible benefit of the slowness of the craft beer industry is that breweries who had sold out to the big beer barons, might see that their treatment at the hands of their overlords wasn’t great and the price is now right to get their company back into their hands.

My second wonder was that maybe the people that sold already moved on? But then Funky Buddha and Four Corners were reverted back to their OG owners from Constellation who bet ever so wrong on craft beer.

I think more will follow.

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Platonic

Now Apple is not one of my current streamers so I can’t vouch for the show but hey, in the trailer for Platonic, we learn that Seth Rogen’s character is a brewer! Maybe that is referenced just the once and the only actual scenes are behind a bar pouring a beer but a rare brewer in a movie is a progress.