Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
my humble and correct opinion
You never know where beer writing content can be found. Weeks ago, I was contacted, out of the blue to talk briefly (my specialty being brevity) about the Los Angeles craft beer scene by the internet real estate site, Redfin.
Lo and behold, you can now read about mortgages and beer. Right HERE.
The destination brewery. Is that next for L.A. ? SoCal is seeing a lot of second, third and fourth locations for breweries but the next step might be the one where you spend the day, or night.
Back in pre-Sapporo times, Stone Brewing had the idea of a Stone Hotel next to the brewery on Citricado Parkway so that visitors could spend the night travel the Hops Highway or just drink in their room if they so wished. Obviously, that never got past grand idea stage.
But there are options that do not involve getting into the hotel business. Glendale and Los Angeles has what could be called a wee glut of condos with ground floor retail. Many of which just sit there vacant or have one space leased. Putting a brewery into a space for a residency would be a better amenity for condo owners, I think.
A farmhouse brewery would be grand. Visiting Jester King’s acreage is on my bucket list but L.A. long ago removed orange groves but maybe a garden, an actual beer garden would be an idea.
One last idea is to merge a record store with beer. Portland has a shop where you can pick up some vinyl while also getting a beer. This could be transposed onto bookstores or other collectibles.
Creative ways to weave beer into life are out there.
L.A. craft beer at the airport. Why isn’t there more there? I was set to thinking about this when I read (somewhere) that an America whiskey maker was setting up shop in a Paris airport.
Couldn’t there be a cart or a pop-up Welcome to L.A. Craft beer spot at LAX? It could be to-go only or a little biergarten area where either weary travelers could disembark from the plane and have a drink or a place where you could get a last minute gift before heading home.
It could rotate between Torrance breweries for a month, then DTLA, then Long Beach to keep things fresh and new. Merch could be up for sale as well. Teaming up with a winery or local spirits makers would work too.
Might make me think about flying more.
I am going to drop a couple hop names your way for you to file away for later. Luminosa (a daughter of Sorachi Ace) and HBC 586 (which will probably get a fancy name later).
These are two to be on the lookout for in future IPA’s and pale ales. Will either be a breakout star like Citra or Strata?
This is a tough question because I have changed methodology depending not just on the quality of the beers but on many other factors.
In general, I sip a little of each beer to see first but if beer A is light and really good and the rest of the tasters are darker, I may polish off the light one to not wreck my palate. I also sometimes try to find what exactly a flawed beer has wrong with it and thus finish it, before I go back to the best beer of the bunch.
If all the beers are of equal quality, and one is not a stylistic outsider, then all will be drunk at the same pace. But if all beers selected are not good, and it has happened. I may drink the best one and drink enough of the others to obscure my dislike when I bring the glasses back.
It is not an easy question to answer because of the Choose Your Own Adventure decision tree involved.
As far as radical label re-designs go, Westvleteren has probably caused a stir by simply adding labels on all of their bottles.
Why? It is for the first time in 75 years. Personally, I think the round splash of color is distinctive and classy and different from bottles out there.
I wonder the reaction if the ever decide to can Westy 12.
I guess walking on water is passe when you can walk on beer? But man these sneakers ain’t pretty to my eyes so I would hope to sink.
Here is the snippet from Adweek, “The company used a specialized surgical injection method to inject Heineken Silver into the soles, aiming to create a ‘smooth’ sensation when walking in the shoes that supposedly mirrors the taste profile of the beer.”
Needed ? – No on the beer inside which is probably skunked and no on the generic Italian flag color scheme.
Breweries seem to be leaning back into flagships as inspiration for brand extending. Think Two Hearted or Ja Alai and their siblings.
It should come as no surprise then that Dogfish Head and Sam Adams are leveraging Utopias now as well….
To be honest, this sounds like an interesting treatment and if given a bottle would profusely thank the giver but will that be the same with the next beer in this possible series?
Retro. Obviously said in a Scooby Doo voice. It is usually the domain of the big breweries or even faded regionals like….
But many craft breweries have cycled through multiple branding exercises. Some better than others. So maybe four-packs if the same beer with different logos could be something for smaller breweries to try out.
Sierra Nevada used their Pale Ale labels in such a way and I thought the effect was great. You could also highlight the artist or PR firm that executed the design. Or conduct a vote as to the people’s choice of design for an informal poll.
Another OR or two here, you could have future designs as well to see which resonates with customers. Or reach into the past and design your label using a 50’s or 70’s look.
First, I suggest you take a quick read of Bart Watson’s take on the first half sales numbers for 2022. You can click right HERE for that.
Now what leapt out at me wasn’t so much the numbers for on premise or OpenTable reservation data but a term that was new to me, channel shift.
Now it is just a fancy way of saying that people bought beer from different places but it is quite interesting to see how the swirling will they-won’t they of Covid restrictions and lessening thereof has thrown things out of whack.
Pivoting is good and was practically required of breweries but it does making reading the tea leaves much harder. Toss in supply chain snafus and airline flight cancellations and each year becomes an unenviable sorting task for Watson.