Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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PDX Back in the W

Two items are now on the to-do list now that the WNBA has announced that Portland will be getting a reincarnated franchise.

First is a real kick ass name. The NWSL Thorns is great because it is a riff on the City of Roses and also matches up with the woodsy Timber name for the MLS team. Please do not try to bring back the generic Fire or Power names from the past.

Pioneers is good but a little to spot on though I would take it in a pinch. I prefer Pathfinders but maybe take a cue from the minor league baseball franchises like the Hillsboro Hops or Portland Pickles or Salem Marion Berries. Or keep the T going from Timbers, Thorns and Trailblazers and go with Thunderbirds or to riff off the Portlandia statue, Tridents.

Once someone more Gen Alpha than me figures that out, our breweries need to make a signature beer for the team. Considering that Portland is a great coffee city, I suggest a Golden Coffee Stout. Something smooth and rich but with a nice topnote of java to give it a little burst. If the team does go the T route than TIPA becomes a frontrunner.

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Catering

Anytime the craft beer industry can catch a break, that is a good time and here in California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2174 (Aguiar-Curry) into law.  This change allows breweries to sell their beer at events through the use of a new Beer Caterer’s Permit.

Kicking in on January 1st of next year, breweries can use a type 01 or 23 license to apply for a Beer Caterer’s Permit to sell their beer for consumption at events held off their licensed premises.  As long as that event has been approved by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). The BC permit allows the brewery to sell up to 124 gallons of beer at each event for a maximum of 36 events per calendar year.

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Pouring for NC

The scenes of devastation from Hurricane Helene are incredibly sad but even in an election year with such a yawning divide in the country, one of the things thats has always made the U.S. strong is their response to natural disasters.  

Beer fans can help by heading to the Untappd shop as they will be donating proceeds from sales from their shop directly to the Foundation For The Carolinas who will be financially assisting those left in the wake of the storm.

I also want to commend the North Carolina Brewers Guild who have been quick to add a page of resources for breweries and in getting a Pouring for Neighbors program up and running with a free special tap handle to use. That is some serious boots on the ground work.

We Angelenos come from all over the country so we know helping out may well be helping an actual neighbor who is from NC or someone we work with or are related to.  Combine that with the fact that beer people are fast to help and we can give this rebuilding effort a real jump start.

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The Firkin for September 2024

Gonna go very trivial here. But it is a bee in my bonnet. In my internet beer wanderings, I see videos and photos where beer is spilled, intentionally.

I know that there is only so much new beer content when making beer content is very much second, third or fourth place behind making craft beer but whenever I see spilled beer, I think that the beer could be given as a taster to a new customer or an old customer.

Then another part of me just moves to who has to clean up that mess because beer is sticky as hell. What cleaners are they using? I just start thinking of anything other than the beer.

Instead of the pranks and hijinks, this beer fan would like more about the brewery and the beers.

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Refill

Most of us old-timey beer fans have a few big growlers either getting dust in a cabinet or garage. It was super trendy for a super tiny amount of time and always seemed to come with caveats to it.

16oz cans basically killed off growlers and bomber bottles in one fell swoop but Double Mountain Brewing in Oregon has been rallying behind refillable bottles for quite some time now.

Matt Swihart from the brewery talked to OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) about recycling which you can check out HERE.

At this point, I think the battle is over. Cans have the upper hand and also, there is no beer chasing FOMO or big recycling push at the moment from the younger generation so I do not see who would take the extra time to do this.

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Sports & A Beer – Beer Prices

In July, I went to Providence Park in Portland to see the Thorns V Wrexham in a friendly. I would have enjoyed having a beer at the game but even a vending machine 12oz can of Pub Beer from 10 Barrel was $8.00 and draft options were around $12.00.

Fast forward and I see the average beer prices for Premier League clubs and I nearly fell out of my chair.

Even at a $1.31 exchange rate, the high end is about $8.00. The high end. $8.00 ain’t getting me a half a soda at the new Intuit Dome here in Los Angeles. Everything about attending professional sports in the U.S. is expensive and I get that overcharging beer leads to less drunken and rowdy behavior during the game but it also leads to fans drinking it all before the game at tailgates.

If the Premier League can do it, so to other leagues.

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Tilray Did What?

Like so much spent grain, Canadian cannabis company, Tilray is dumping a who’s who of Oregon brewing talent from 10 Barrel Brewing in Bend.

Gone is former Barley Brown’s brewmaster Shawn Kelso, former brewmaster Jimmy Seifrit, former Bend Brewing brewmaster Ian Larkin and most notably GABF medal machine, Tonya Cornett.

You can write a book (others have) about the malfeasance of SABInBev but at least they were not stupid enough to cut loose that murderers row of brewing know how.  It would be the equivalent of the Kansas City Chiefs, waiving Mahomes, Kelce and Coach Reid in one fell swoop.

This is, unfortunately, typical corporate shortsightedness.  Keeping talent happy and hoppy is not valued as much as profit.  And what is thought of now as cost savings is going to end up losing them customers in the short term and will also introduce more competition in the long term as those brewers either start their own places or go to a brewery and bring their ‘rizz with them.

It takes a special attitude for a large corporation to grow a small company under its banner and most do not have the people skills or vision to accomplish it.  Tilray has shown their true colors.

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Tick Tock

It is only a matter of time before user of TikTok could be seeing advertising from alcohol companies as their advertising policy guidelines have been recently updated.

Since I have only have bandwidth for Facebook and Instagram, I have never been on the app so I can not gauge the usefulness of it for craft brewery marketing. Also considering the congressional fire it is under, I do not know how or in what form it might be in going forward. But any loosening of Puritanical strings is good in my book.

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The Firkin for August 2024

The slushie machine era must be nearing an end because I see those swirling machines at pretty much every brewery taproom that I visit.

And that gets me to thinking about two things:

A. the slushie machine salesman is getting big checks

B. when are breweries going to stop chasing after trends and get back to being a trend?

I don’t mean to throw too much shade with point B but I do feel that the more hard seltzers and slushies one puts on offer is a lost opportunity to do something innovative in the beer space. Each alternative drink sold cements a customers relationship, not to beer or your brewery, but to sugary, bubbly treats.

Much like coffee shops that sell iced diabetes bombs that contain zero coffee, a brewery that is just selling hard slurpees are stealing from their core brand. I can understand that a group of people may acquiesce to going to a brewery if there are more options but it starts to look like the brewery isn’t the destination. Much like the group of friends who end up at an Olive Garden because it is the least offensive choice.

Time to sell the slushie machine or at least make a fresh hop slushie.