It is not only the Brewers Association making changes at the top. The California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA), has announced the choice of a new Executive Director in Kelsey McQuaid-Craig.
McQuaid-Craig is a Certified Association Executive and has over a decade of association management experience most recently with the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians which will hopefully help her navigate the political waters of Sacramento and help out the Golden State’s breweries in the coming years.
Craft beer fans will recognize the name of Bart Watson as the pragmatic numbers guys for the Brewers Association. But he is currently the vice president of strategy and membership after his stint as the chief economist of the group, Watson becomes president and CEO on January 6, 2025 two days after the retirement of Bob Pease on January 3.
It is a challenging time in the beer industry but Watson knows the group from the ground up so I expect that good changes and good growth are on the horizon.
I am usually wary of brand extensions but I do think that what Yakima Chief Hops does with their annual blend to benefit the Pink Boots Society fits into a brand extension slot but with benefits.
This year the blend features a harmony of Simcoe®, Mosaic®, Chinook, and Krush™. That last one seems to be quite en vogue at the moment.
The other cool thing about the 2024 blend is that YCH “partnered with women-owned farms within its network of growers to assist in creating the blend. Jessica Riel of Double ‘R’ Farms, Reggie Brulotte of Brulotte Farms, and Erica Lorentz of Lakeside Ranches each hand-selected their favorite lots from this year’s harvest, which the YCH sensory team used to craft three compelling blends for the Pink Boots Society membership to vote on.”
A third cool thing is that YCH will donate $1 from each pound sold to the Pink Boots Society.
I am not inclined to doom and dread when it comes to the New Year. Perhaps because the bar of past years is not the highest of hurdles.
But I do feel mighty trepidatious about our breweries in Los Angeles and this country overall. Zooming out, it is clear that most voting Americans have no idea of the deleterious effects of tariffs and how they are best used in tiny, targeted doses. It is also clear that the ultra religious right cannot stay in church and rather enjoy pushing their twisted morality onto anyone and alcohol is one of their targets.
On a local scale, breweries here are closing or are in trouble. Will that balance out naturally with the remaining breweries getting the dollars? Perhaps. And I do think that turnkey breweries and cheaper kit may lead to a new set of exciting beer but that may not come to fruition until 2026. Until then, we may be looking at a lot of light lagers as draws since slushies and seltzers are fading fast.
The one thing that I will be tracking in 2025 are beer prices. I routinely purchase mixed 4-packs and I used to be able to get them at the $20 mark but in the last half of the year it has been more $24 to $25 and I am looking at barrel-aged beer prices with a sharp eye and substitute a hoppy pils for them. And I don’t even look at big bottles.
However this year turns out, I hope you all have a great beer year and I urge you to visit local and also travel to beer. It might make a difference.
I do not know if as a youngster with internet if I would have participated in viral challenges with either ice water or cinnamon or whatnot but I may have tried my hand at this…
Is it silly, yes. Will it be tremendously uncool come 2025? Most certainly. But it is causing supply line havoc as Guinness gets more pours and as noted drinks writer, Pete Brown has theorized, it may cause a knock-on effect of when he Guinness is gone, stout drinkers may look for other stouts to try.
Looks like 2024 is when yule logs jumped the shark thanks to the limited-edition Miller Lite YuleLager, described as “a digital, beer-pouring fireplace that offers fans a festive new way to savor the sights, sounds, and great tasting sips of the holiday season.”
With such “amazing” features like….
“A custom BeerBlaze LED screen, which creates the illusion of a frothy, beer-filled fire;
A custom audio track so fans can enjoy the sounds of the crackling, faux fire paired with the satisfying pop of a freshly opened Miller Lite;
Extra beer storage designed to keep Miller Lite at the perfect temperature;
Sturdy, built-in stocking hooks;
An insulated, fully removable chimney-inspired beer tower that allows fans to pour ice-cold Miller Lite straight from the beautifully crafted wooden base of the YuleLager, turning holiday time into Miller Time.
Not Needed – just buy good Christmas beers and get YouTube to play a crackling fire for you and yours.
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.
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.
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.
