Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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GABF Winners – 2022

Time to re-cap the Los Angeles and LA friends (aka California) winners at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival.

L.A. Gold

Ten Mile – Hooked on Onyx American Black Ale

Ogopogo Brewing Nix International Pale Ale

Highland Park Brewery DDH Pillow Juicy/Hazy Imperial IPA

Beachwood Full Malted Jacket Scotch Ale

L.A. Silver

Lincoln Beer Company Amber/Red Ale

Eureka Brewing Methuselah Imperial Stout

L.A. Bronze

Malibu Brewing Happy Days Honey Ale

Highland Park Brewery DDH Timbo India Pale Lager

Arrow Lodge Chanlaso Cream Ale

other winners include a brace each for Topa Topa, Riip Beer and Figueroa Mountain. Riip bagging Silver with Dankster Squad in the ultra competitive IPA category just ahead of North Park Beer and their Hop-Fu. Colorado’s Comrade Brewing won with More Dodge, Less Ram.

California took home 76 medals overall but Firestone Walker was shut out in the first time that I can remember but stalwarts like Stone, Russian River and Moonlight picked up medals.

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The Firkin for September 2022

I have been known to take a sarcastic potshot at seltzers on this blog while simultaneously extolling creativity at every opportunity.

Another dichotomy in this universe is that I cringe whenever I see a slushie machine at a brewery while also partaking of bourbon / ginger beer slushies at a distillery.

How can I do both?

It is pretty simple to me. Seltzers are not beer. They are fruited alcohol. And as much as I enjoy bourbon or gin, you are probably not going to see me having a peach or cinnamon bourbon. But I will try a historical beer based on a colonial recipe or a chili pepper IPA because those are attempts at a new flavor profile, not just an quick and easy add blue raspberry to an existing product.

Same with a slushie. Bourbon and ice is a cocktail. Beer in a slurpee cup yanks beer out of its home like putting a Blazer fan in purple and gold.

Go ahead and sell them if you can but I will treat them as the profit used to make the good stuff.

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By Any Other Name

When on the beer interwebs, I run across beer names that tickle and others that leave me scratching my head as to why? Why choose that for a name.  Let’s start with the winners….

Beer Names – Approved

Bit of a Commute – Ex Novo

We Didn’t Need a Real World -Burial Beer

This World is Not Real – The Veil

Man of No Consequence – Reformation Brewing

I know these are a bit dark but I find them nicely comic.

Beer Names – Unapproved

Opium Cake – 8 Wired

Tongue Butter – Hop Secret

Drinking Sherbert for Dinner – Icarus Brewing

Make Sure It’s Dead – Abomination Brewing

I have a thing about naming beers after things I do not want in a beer.

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Advancing Asahi

Sounding quite ominous, Asahi is looking to the North American beer market for growth.  These will include acquiring brands, working with start-up companies, and entering the NA and low ABV niches of the market.  You can read more HERE.

Does it mean that they want their Stone like Sapporo does?  And follow up question, who would that be?

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Wrexham

I am a big fan of behind the scenes, especially in the world of football, the round ball one – not the oblong one.  So when Welcome to Wrexham started I hoped it would be as good but not a re-run of Sunderland ’till I Die.

And as I was watching Rob McIlhenny and Ryan Reynolds take steps in Welsh football, I noticed that one of the stands at the Racecourse Stadium was the Wrexham Lager Stand.  Of course, that is where I would want to sit.  

But I thought I would give a little background on a beer that it would be great to drink while watching the show but probably won’t be available to most Angelenos.

Head Brewer Ian Dale as “A subtly hopped lager with a clean aroma.Light and refreshing and a good session beer” They also have an Export Lager and the Bootleggers 1972 Pilsner. The new brewery is in the center of the city but has seen many ups and downs since founding in 1882. Including brewing operations stopping in 2000 and the building torn down two years later.

By the way, the show has started well and is fun to watch.

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Redfin and Beer?

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.

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Just a Thought – Part 2

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.

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Just a Thought -Part 1

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.

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Onto the Next Lupulin Rush

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?

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The Firkin for August 2022

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.