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my humble and correct opinion
One side effect of buying pretty much nothing but 4-packs is that you create quite the colorful collection of snap-tight plastic can holders. Maybe you have been recycling them but another way to help the green new deal is to return them to a brewery. Boomtown recently messaged how they would take them and I have seen that Common Space has a collection box too. Call or message first for other breweries but let’s all pitch in.
I know a fair bit about beer styles and I understand that labels will stretch definitions for marketing reasons but I am a bit confuzzled by this Sierra Nevada label that says both Pale Bock and Malt Liquor.
There is probably a flavor overlap and I am quite interested to try the beer but it seems to be sending a mixed message to me.
The only (semi) reliable comic strip nowadays is Pearls Before Swine especially when beer comes into the bubbles and the art. But this recent strip had me thinking about Fans of Craft Beer In Name Only. You know the ones. You will see them in release lines, they trade a lot, they post pictures of what look like slurpees but are the latest fruited beer concoction and they are very sure of themselves. Mostly “beer-splaining” white dudes.
What I want to encourage is exploration, learning, changing your mind, listening (and reading). Don’t be a DINO, they went extinct.
CA Craft Beer Week started on Friday with a load of virtual speakers plus cheese! Here are my takeaways from the evening….
Philly Beer Week inspired SF Beer Week which is now (at least this year), CA Craft Beer Week
Greg Koch thought that Stone Brewing had started too late. He also boldly declared that craft beer has “won” which he is both right and wrong about and ended his portion of the night talking about how there is so much happening now in craft beer.
Next up was David Walker who spoke about craft brewers as tinkerers and how California really brought hops back into the conversation. He said we all will still be chasing the perfect beer and that we need to keep curiosity as a tool in our brewing tool box.
Next was a three-way discussion of hops from North Park Brewing, Silva Brewing and Cellarmaker. What caught my attention were a few comments about how yeast had been somewhat forgotten about in early IPA’s and now has garnered probably too much credit especially when you take into consideration that some customers order IPA’s based on the featured hop.
I also like the idea of a blind tasting that has three Hazies and three West Coast IPA’s. It is something new that the Hop Grenade bar has done that should be replicated to see which style I should favored.
The last session that I watched was the beer and cheese pairing. Learned a golden rule to have a sip of beer first, then the cheese. Also that contrast is usually best with this type of pairing but if you have a really bold beer that a striking cheese can work.
Happy Valentine’s Day and enjoy the beer week.
It appears that Achel will have to switch their labeling from Trappist to Abbey in the near future as the monastic community has dwindled down to (from what I have read) just two monks.
It was probably understood when the Trappist rules were laid down that this rule could be the Achilles heel of the Trappist designation. Not only is religion taking a dip in attendance but the monks average age has been on an upward trajectory as well.
Westmalle has been brewing the beer for awhile but even they are at only 27 monks.
It will be interesting to see if any changes to the three rules are made or if they make tiers and promote the tiers equally. I would be for more truth in advertising such as monk brewed, monk supervised or profits go to monks but they are not involved, just the recipe is trademarked.
I think tradition is grand but having the beer still around is grander.
Before we begin to talk about Hanabi and their $90.00 six-pack, read this ARTICLE that started the fire.
Now that you are back, I expect you are feeling emotions from annoyed to pissed off. I certainly felt a spectrum of the negative kind.
It’s not the twee hair and outfit or the dabbling with artisanal fireworks. It is certainly not the malt sourcing or old-timey handmade brewing equipment. It’s not the only brewing four times a year.
It’s the privilege that practically drips off of each quote that galls me. I should know, I am a white male who has certainly gotten more than a fair share of it myself. In this case it is the privilege of NOT having to sell their wares. When you have an obscenely wealthy owner and you make a fraction of what you can sell and then you add another, even more restrictive boutique side project and price it outside the reach of 90+% of the people, you have a mash tun of privilege.
And if you don’t at the very least acknowledge that you are seriously in a dream job then I know that you may have extensive brewing knowledge but that you are missing a piece of the humanity puzzle. If you are not brewing a special batch to sell to help financially assist fellow brewers who aren’t in your rarefied financial air. If you aren’t donating to any other charity then it won’t matter how excellent your beer is, it will be found lacking.
I’m not posting an image of the bottle or even adding a link to their website because I have already devoted too much time to this beer. I almost didn’t add the Vinepair link. Buy local, buy quality but don’t buy from those who are more brag than humble.
Yeah, that headline is facetious to a degree but I do not know how I missed the first go-round of the Horchata IPA…
Obviously, the star of this Mumford / Magnify collaboration is the lactose. Americans will suck down sweet no matter what. But the spice profile of Horchata seems to lend itself to more of a stout or a golden milk stout. I do not see how cinnamon and nutmeg would blend with hops. But maybe it is an opposites attract thing.
By the time this posts the beer will probably be sold out and trading online proving me to the contrarian yet again
I was reading an obituary of Portland Brewing on the Beervana Blog when the writer Jeff Alworth made the following (paraphrased by me) point, that Portland Brewing could have brewed the best hazy IPA and the customers would still go to Great Notion for their trend fix.
That made me think what it would take for an “old” brewery to regain hype credibility. Would it require a change in brewer? A new branding initiative? Sole access to a hop that everyone wants?
Being the Bernie like contrarian, I do not know the answer because I don’t buy based solely on hype or perceived market value. That is neither a plus or minus but it does leave me with blind spots when the next cool thing takes off. I am invariably late to the party and slightly jaded about it too.
I do think that there should be some sort of distribution channel for breweries trying to be bold and different from their past. Something that would let a customer know that a beer should be judged anew. Or, for shits and giggles one of these trendy breweries should put out a beer brewed by another brewery and likewise for the other. Let it sit in the market a bit before pulling back the rug on the con.
You might see people running to a heritage brewery right quick.
If you have watched everything on Netflix, HBO to the Max, D+, and you need something new to watch, well you are in luck because Beer! is available to stream.
Here is the elevator pitch, “There’s no other film like BEER! A Love Story. This full-length feature documentary weaves together the stories of over 30 international protagonists across multiple countries who speak the universal language of beer, the world’s most consumed fermented beverage.”
Already in 2021, I have improved on past performance by listening to another North American Guild of Beer Writers Zoom. This time about malt. Here are some two row bites of info….