Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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4 of 8

Modern Times is halving their West Coast footprint as they seek a less perilous financial footing.

Portland, Oakland, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles will be closed. Not coincidentally, those are the furthest away from HQ and in the case of Los Angeles and maybe the others as well, the smallest outposts.

The San Diego brewery bolted out of the gate when they opened and followed that with ambitious plans but the last two to three years have brought lots of challenges and a new leadership team which did not like what they saw and hit the re-trench button.

Hopefully, Modern Times can navigate back with a leaner company.

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Trade Deadline

No, this is not an NBA blog but part of the reason that beer is part of my story is because I am from Portland and Portland is inextricably tied to the Blazers and currently the health of Damian Lillard’s abdomen.

Which means a kinda-sorta-no good season needed some action to set-up next year, replenish draft picks or to at least avoid the luxury tax.

The latter being why the trigger was pulled to trade forwards Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers for guard Eric Bledsoe, forward Justise Winslow, and guard Keon Johnson. The Blazers will also receive a second-round pick and a trade exception in the deal.

Then, the big deal came down on Tuesday, CJ McCollum being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans for forward Josh Hart, guards Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tomas Satoransky and draft compensation.

We then turned around and sent Alexander-Walker and Satoransky away to the Jazz and Spurs respectively and received back more picks and currently injured three point specialist Joe Ingles.

I think that Hart and Ingles have the most current upside with Johnson and having future upside. The draft picks will require some mining to find something but if the plan is to go young, the process has begun.

The beer link is community. As the Blazers do well, more people go to games, buy merch like the pint glass above, there is a spring in the step of fans and non-fans alike. You see Blazer themed beers popping up more. People head to sports bars, especially if there is a deep playoff run. You hear cheering outside your window. I have seen that joy as both the Dodgers and Rams have had recent success.

The Rising Tide maxim becomes plainly clear. Community matters and we need more of it whether it is basketball or IPAs.

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Indie is Done

You have this month minus a day to visit Indie Brewing as the Boyle Heights brewery announced on social media that it is closing on the 27th for good.

With Dry River already closed practically next door, that means that south of Downtown is bereft of breweries. Sadly, this is probably not the end of closure notices but maybe there is a next generation that can use the equipment or space. Trying to stay positive here.

Thanks for the beers Indie and may your future endeavors in beer or elsewhere be bright.

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Don’t Read the Comments

First, go HERE to read the furor caused by a questionnaire.

Do not TL:DR.

Now that you are back, I want to say that all the people who commented about CAMRA “caving in” to “wokeness” must be living in a whole ‘nother world.

Part of me wishes that these sexist, racist idiots would just return to the caves from which they crawled out of but then I would be insulting cave people who were more than likely way smarter.

I would like to say that my better angel wishes compassion but I think we are past that. No more carrot for this lot, they need a stick to the ass.

Pete Brown, as usual is more eloquent than I but even he seems fed up and I wish more people were.

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Sallanches is Where?

It is not often that you see a second location announcement with the location being the French Alps. But that is what Colorado’s Outer Range Brewing is doing…

“Colorado’s Award-winning craft brewery and apres hub, announced Saturday that they are taking their quality craft beer and mountain lifestyle concept to the heart of the French Alps, with a second location in the picturesque, quaint town of Sallanches, France. Set to open in winter 2022, the Sallanches brewery will include a Nashville Hot Chicken restaurant, coffee roaster, a private event space for large parties or weddings, and a climbing wall with floor-to-ceiling views of Mont Blanc.”

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Label Art Playoffs

NoHo bottle shop, Hop Merchants harnessed the opinions of the interwebs to determine March Madness bracket style, the best can label currently out there…

I voted in a few of the rounds but my choice did not make it far, instead, the winner was…

…which to me looks more candy wrapper than beer label art. Brouwerij West, El Segundo and others like Highland Park and Los Angeles Ale Works had better art in my humble opinion.

That said, I hope that Hop Merchants does this again next yeat.

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The Firkin for January 2022

As of today, signs are pointing (encouragingly) to a cresting of the Omicron wave. Granted we have been in this false ending scenario a few times but maybe this virus has finally found its sweet spot of communicable but not deadly that will lead to an end to this strange time.

I have been proven wrong about Covid more times than I can count especially with my beer predictions. I thought it would lead to a rash of closures. I thought the amount of sick and dead would put a screeching halt to buying better and more expensive beer. I did not see the can becoming, for all intents and purposes the only container option.

So, don’t come to this blog for predictions. Though I do have a few.

– festivals will start being a thing again. I think there will be a burst of activity and then festivals will slow to a slower pace than in the 2010 to 2015 range when every summer weekend practically had one scheduled…

….there will be a new hype style of IPA. But I don’t think it will last very long. I think we are in a Brut IPA type of year…

…closures will ramp up and smaller actual nano breweries might become the route of choice for opening a brewery. There are too many places that are stuck in the middle ground with too much debt or not enough growth. The solution will be to keep it small and affordable.

That is it and let’s not speak of them when proven wrong.

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Threadless

It appears that Five Threads Brewing is calling it after six years in Westlake Village.

I had seen them start to gain some traction with their high ABV – 5X line of beers. Even seen them on the FOMO shelves at Arroyo Shell in Pasadena, which is a sign of popularity but I guess that was not enough after all the hardships of the last few years. Maybe the space or the equipment can find a new lease on life.

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Mashing Interns

Let’s start with the news that came out earlier this month….

(my addendum is in bold after the slightly abridged press release)

“The Oregon Brewers Guild announces the launch of their new Mashing Barriers Internship Program. The Guild’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee set the work in motion in early 2021, focusing on creating employment access into the Oregon brewing industry for underserved individuals. 

“The brewing industry has been historically dominated by white cis men”, said Christina LaRue, Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. “Our goal with this program is to partner with our member breweries and help open the door for those that have come up against barriers – women, people of color, LGTBQ+…really anyone who has struggled to gain access. It has been a labor of love over the last year and we are very excited to see it finally come to fruition.”

The program will partner one intern per quarter with a Guild member brewery, and kick off this April with Von Ebert Brewing in Portland, Oregon. The paid internship will run for twelve weeks and will follow a thorough program syllabus, created to offer the intern training and education across multiple facets within the brewery. 

“The program was created as a next step for the Guild’s DEI work”, shared Sonia Marie Leikam, owner of Leikam Brewing in Portland and DEI Committee Chair. “We see this as an opportunity to provide education and mentorship to individuals who historically have not been a part of the industry and who have  experienced challenges in accessing employment due to lack of hands-on experience.  It is our hope that this program will grow and we can strengthen the industry from the inside.”

“We worked very hard this past year to create a paid internship that will help people who don’t necessarily see themselves reflected in the craft beer community. From grain to glass, this program delves into every aspect of the brewing process and beyond, which makes it a phenomenal opportunity for someone looking to get involved”, shared Madeleine McCarthy, Brewer for Von Ebert Brewing and DEI Committee member. “This is just the first step in making the craft beer scene more accessible to all who are intrigued; I’m so thrilled to be a part of the Mashing Barriers Internship program.”

As this is a paid internship, the Oregon Brewers Guild will be assisting with the program costs. The Guild launched their first Pint Day event in December 2021 as a fundraiser for the program and will also be running a fundraising campaign over the next two months.”

This is important. It is not enough anymore to say that you hire blindly and without prejudice. You also have to support programs that fill in gaps that prevent people from being able tp get the job. It is also in a brewery’s self-interest because you get to train a person in your way of brewing and create a real bond that could lead to adding a new full-timer to your team and if you scroll through Facebook for more than two minutes, you will see finding workers ain’t easy out there.