Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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You Could Do Better

When I first saw the label below, I thought, “Oh, that’s clever”. But as I nosed around the design, my mind changed.

The name is great but I am just not a fan of the color scheme or the image choices. To spot on is the main problem design wise. I would have gone with a listicle graphic instead with all the problems on it and then added a couple blank lines for customers to write in their own problems with this craptacular year and have them post a photo of it on social media. You could even have a second label done with customer versions.

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Election

OK, it has been a couple days now since the calendar marker of Election Day. Due to our over friendliness with Covid, it has been much different with more voting before and more counting after.

So much more counting after.

It is fairly (don’t jinx it Sean) clear now that with the Pennsylvania results this morning, we will be finally getting rid of the Worst President Ever which means two things.

One, is that hopefully the battle against Covid will be waged better. Granted, low bar, but for breweries to emerge OK we will need a nationwide response. Biden / Harris will provide that.

Second is that I won’t have to talk about the lying liar that lies because this is a beer blog not Politico. I don’t want to talk about that psycho much in the same way comedians are tired of finding laughs in it. One of the head writers of the Tonight Show left partially due to that very reason.

So, let’s all take a deep breath. Not look at the news and Twitter so much and dive back into beers, especially holiday seasonals. Still time left in 2020 for craziness and if the super spreader in Chief was a bad winner in 2016, he is sure to be a worse loser. But we as a country have taken the first step back towards normalcy.

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Dec. 2nd

It is easy to look at our shit-acular situation here in the US and get mired in it like quicksand. But the rest of the world isn’t doing so well when faced with Covid.

Case in point, England is having a new set of restrictions. I am posting before the MP vote but it looks well certain that pubs and bars will be closed for anything but takeaway business.

The economics of beer in Britain is very different from the United States but we as beer fans had better be watching because things aren’t THAT different when you factor in a pandemic. That really just scythes through everything.

What worries me most is that creativity will get stifled. Who knows what new beer trends might have come from “across the pond”. We need the pollination of new ideas from every corner of the globe to keep our niche industry vital and alive.

And selfishly, I want to take trips to London and have a CAMRA approved Ale in a historic pub. 2029 seems to have other plans though.

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R.I.P. – Eagle Rock Public House

The restaurant business is hard. Throw in a tiny little year-long and counting pandemic and you got yourself a real tough road.

Unfortunately, the dining arm of Eagle Rock Brewery will be shutting down on the 14th of the month. They will be there to say bye to and commiserate with and to order food from, most importantly.

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The Firkin for October 2020

I have ranted about IP (intellectual property) casual theft on the part of breweries across our nation. In fact, got a post coming up about a specific example.  But instead of using the same old adjectives like lazy and stealing or making a comment about if they try to get away with those type of labels, imagine what they are doing with the actual beer.  I am going to give some constructive ideas so that a brewery can stop doing it.

  1. Hire a local artist – there are great design artists out there, and a flock of great artists as well.  Contact your local universities or ask your regular fans to make suggestions.
  1. Create your own cartoon character – if you are so keen to put a toucan on your still fermenting fruit pop beer, then create your own mascot.  Hire a caricaturist to design one to be the face of your next beer.  Explodey the Covered in Beer Eagle is available.
  1. Use photography – rarely used so it will stand out if that is all you are looking for but you could document your since day one fans or your neighborhood.

Now get creative!

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RSVP

If I ran the responses to social media for a Los Angeles brewery right now, I would just type, “We Know.”

Granted, I am beyond happy that they can open again but LA seems intent on making the experience of visiting a taproom onerous. In addition to the bizarro everyone must order food mandate (whether you eat it or not), now you have to make a reservation in advance, you have only a window of time to sit and no more than six people in a group.

I am quite fine with the last one actually since I am an introvert but there is obviously a Prohibitionist streak tucked into this rule set. If you drink, you will get drunk and do something stupid. Alcohol bad. So, we will force you to eat, cut down on available time to drink, all in an effort to basically dissuade you from going in the first place.

Imagine a scenario where a brewery has empty tables and a resident of the community sees people drinking and says to themselves, a beer would be nice but because they are only a casual beer fan may not know all the hoops to jump through. That person gets turned away because they didn’t set a play date 24 hours in advance? Even though they may be perfectly responsible and safety conscious?

And don’t tell me it is about making sure a person doesn’t leave the house sick. That is all timing and an advanced RSVP doesn’t preclude a sick person from unwittingly passing a virus. No, it is just a hoop that the brewery owner has to police and become the bad guy for because what angry customer is going to go to the Mayor and complain to him.

I would have all my staff wearing sandwich boards saying, We Know the rules are crappy.

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Kettle Help

Sierra Nevada was going to travel their brew kettle around so that folks could see where the famously pale ale started. But the recent fires across California gave them a better opportunity. They took their equipment to Quincy, a California because Quintopia Brewing lost their equipment to fire. Now the brewhouse will serve as temporary stopgap so that the small brewery can pour beer at their taproom.

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Better than a Sticker

We will probably not see this particular Jester King or the below Gigantic beer in our neck of the SoCal woods but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’ treat yourself afterward doing your civic duty this year. I would suggest posting your beer photos along with a quick note about voting once you have filled in your mail in ballot. And if you find an LA brewery with a vote themed beer, buy it.