Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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Ladyface Down

The last of the pioneering Los Angeles breweries and the second this year has called it quits.  Ladyface Ale Companie which changed over to Tavern Tomoko + Ladyface Brewery will be closing just before Christmas on 12/22.

Ladyface Ale Companie & Brasserie was established in late 2009 by Cyrena Nouzile.  That year brought us Strand Brewing and Eagle Rock Brewery as well.  Brewmaster Dave Griffiths was at the controls of award-winning Belgian, French and American style ales. La Blonde, La Grisette, Blind Ambition Abbey Ale, Trois Filles Tripel, and seasonal ales such as La Trappistine Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Blue-Belly Barleywine and Dérailleur Bière-de-Garde which was a favorite of mine.

Nouzile and Ladyface Ale Companie were proudly independently owned and operated and an active member of the Brewers Association, California Craft Brewers Association and especially the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild.

Pete Lee, turned from a Ladyface customer to owner when he bought the brewery and restaurant from Nouzile and channged the Brasserie to Tavern Tomoko while still keeping the beers under the Ladyface banner which I thought was a confusing choice.  

Later beers such as Animé, a Japanese pale ale brewed with jasmine rice and Sorachi hops and Atlas Shrugged, a barrel-aged dark strong anniversary ale did not get wide distribution and much like the other ’09ers, they could not re-create the buzz they had in early years.

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The Firkin for November 2024

A tariff is a tax imposed by one government on either imports or exports of goods (or both).  It is a revenue source for a government and import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade that taxes foreign products to encourage or safeguard domestic industry. Protective tariffs are among the most widely used tools of protectionism along with import and export quotas.

Why did I just give a simplified definition of a tariff? Because many people who voted did not understand the meaning of that word and its ramifications on food and drinks. And in the coming years, this is going to really hurt the buying power of an American dollar.

American craft beer buyers already know the upward rise of cans or draft beer. My experience has been that $8.00 is probably as low as I can expect to see a price to be. Tariffs will push that up higher.

If your favorite brewery buys malt from Germany or wants a New Zealand hop varietal or wants to make an avocado ale using Mexican fruit, well, depending on the whim and senility of the dodo in charge, those ingredients may be more costly or far more costly.

And if you believe that this tariffs will bolster industry in America well, Mr X himself has the ear (as of today) of the dodo and thief and has proven to be very anti-union and anti-paying a fair wage and extremely anti-40 hour weeks. So you may not have enough money or time to enjoy a craft beer.

This country is heading for another depression and that is going to be another broadside to a beer industry already hit hard.

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Happy Thanksgiving

A great Thanksgiving for me is an unstressed Thanksgiving. No worries about cooking a turkey, no who to invite or not, no traveling through a packed airport.

Give me a turkey sandwich and a side and I am good.

And a few beers too.

However you best enjoy the day, enjoy it. Give thanks for the last 11 months and thanks for the next 11. We all need it.

Cheers!

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Wisco Expansion

In a sea of mostly negative news when breweries are concerned, here is a bit of positivity.  New Glarus Brewing will be adding space to their campus in Wisconsin.  It will take a few years for this expansion to be completed so plan your midwest brewery vacation accordingly.

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The Darkness

The aroma hop HS16660 now has a name, Erebus™ . Not the worst name around but I do not think that “the primordial deity of darkness in Greek mythology” would be into the aroma therapy of blueberry, citrus, candied fruit, and floral rose. But maybe Hopsteiner knows something about it that I do not.

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By Any Other Name

In a world where an Italian phrase Che Vuoi? has been used for multiple beers, may I suggest using some of the new slang, taken from the mouths of babes (aka Gen Z) like from below….

FYI – Delulu apparently stands for delusional which is probably what this idea is.

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New Chouffe, Who Dis

I should get punished for that headline but I just want to say that I think the Belgian design of modern art styled glassware and label design is just bright and fun in a way that American design seems to just lean into appropriating other brands IP.

This La Chouffe bottle would really look good on a Thanksgiving table.

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Celebrity Day – Welcome to Welsh Lager

Wrexham Lager has some new co-owners in Red Dragon Ventures.  News like that might strike craft beer fans as an “oh no” moment but RDV is actually Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney + the Allyn family — which very recently became a minority investor in Wrexham’s soccer teams. 

Wrexham Lager was founded in 1882 and now is on the verge ( as I previously posted about ) being sold in America as well as in countries across the world.

The Roberts family, which revived Wrexham Lager in 2011, eleven years after production had halted, will remain a co-owner of the brewery alongside Reynolds and McElhenney.  Both of whom have past experience in the drinks sector in spirits with gin and Irish whiskey.

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Celebrity Day – Spider Beer

Looks like another celebrity is entering the beer game but with an N/A twist.  Tom Holland is founding a company with the un-Marvel name of Bero and will have three non-alcoholic beers initially.  Kingston Golden Pils, Edge Hill Hazy IPA and Noon Wheat.  Nary a spider pun to be found but certainly some British influence.

It will be direct to consumer via their website with plans to launch in Target next year. Holland has discussed his sobriety which makes a venture into near beer a good call.

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Wednesday

This Wednesday has me feeling a lot of emotions.  Sad, angry confused to name check just three.  But the main takeaway from election night 2024 is that The United States of America is populated by a mean society that must live sad, angry and confused every day.

I am not despairing though.  I will not be one of the many voices on the interwebs that says we have lost our fragile democracy.  Our institutions are made up of people and the American people are majority mean.  So please do not give me your plea to save democracy, we have been barely clinging to it since this country started.  We live in a mean quasi free land. That means our government is mean and quasi free too.  It is a reflection of us. 

Some may be on this blog for some ray of beer sunshine instead of this jolt of reality.  I get it.  I would much rather post about a new beer or some funny beer gadget than type the word mean over and over.

So, as John Oliver would say on Last Week Tonight, what do we do?  In general and in craft beer.  First, come to accept that there are a lot of mean people in this country and that this incoming government will embolden them to be 110% mean instead of hiding it.  Life is going to get harder for a lot of people.

Second, we need to call out all shitty racist, sexist, all the -ist behaviors fast and hard.  We have to let the mean people know they are mean each and every time.  This blog will speak up anytime meanness enters craft beer. And we all need to say something if we see something mean.  Don’t let them normalize hate.

Understand that the other key attribute of this country is that it is reactionary.  This means that the pendulum will swing back and that we will have to do some clean-up and it will not be pretty or easy.  As Americans, we should be well used to hiding skeletons in closets.

For craft beer,  join your local and state guilds.  Link arms with distributors and shopkeepers.  Serve your specific community knowing that it will more than likely enrage the mean because your community of beer fans will look similar to those who gathered in pubs back in the 1770’s.  The cozier you are with your neighbors the better. 

Most importantly, include anyone that wants to be at your brewery.  Craft beer needs to expand the customer base.  That was true before Tuesday and is still true.  Let’s keep bringing open minded people together over a pint, or two.  I will probably need that many, at least, today.