Quick hop post for y’all.
Remember these two hop names because I bet you will be seeing them in beers next year and more I need 2022.
First up is Australia- Eclipse. Then to New Zealand for – Nectaron.
Reparations
Charity beers have been a bright beer light this year and in 2020 fashion, we ain’t done yet. Great Notion Brewing in Portland has a new one, named Reparations Imperial Stout. All (100%) of the proceeds will be donated towards The National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) in support of bill HR-40
The brewery was buoyed by the success of the Black is Beautiful Beer program from Weathered Souls in Texas so they are inviting other breweries to do their versions. You can read more at reparationsbeer.com.
Happy Thanksgiving
Patience. We are close to a vaccine. So please do not spread the virus at literally the second to last holiday of the year just to eat turkey next to a cousin who you only see once a year. Make this year a Zoom-sgiving. Stay safe and enjoy your beer in your holiday bubble so next year can be a return to normal.
Cheers!
Peel the Label – Making Up for Lost Styles
It can be easy to fall into a beer buying rut. Whether you are chasing the latest releases or even just supporting your local brewery in trying times. But in this time of transition from one president to the next, from one season to the next, from one holiday to the next, this marks a good time to pause and consider the beer selection you have made in the last eleven months and how you can change in the final month.
It would be better to keep everything mixed up year round but especially this year, without taster trays or travel, 16oz IPA cans have taken over. Right now there is one bottle in my beer fridge. ONE. I am as guilty as the next person.
What have you not had a lot of this year? Use December as your testing ground. For me, barrel-ages beers have been in shorter supply. For you, it might be sours or Belgian beers. Whatever style has been missed, rectify that situation. Maybe, ask for that style of beer for a Christmas present.
Peel the Label is an infrequent series with no photos or links. Just opinion.
Second of Best of 2020 – Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine
There is a nice mix of lists from Crafts Beer & Brewing magazine. Bordering on too many almost. You have a main Best of featuring twenty beers of which I had three. Then there are readers choice categories in top 50, favorite brewery by category and a who brews it best by style. Then there are five more Best of’s from different contributors.
From an LA perspective Monkish gets their hazy (and stout) love but Highland Park is making some serious inroads and could almost be considered 1B from our area. Speaking of, the excellent Glendale Tap in my adopted town made the best beer list which s quite the commendation.
The sheer amount of beers can lead to overload but you can see patterns emerge as you see breweries show up on multiple lists. You may have to make notes in the margins but this is a lot of helpful leads.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cool Beer Labels / Names – November 2020
A. It is always good to see pilsners, especially Italian styled versions.
B. Very cool of Green Cheek to pay homage by naming the beer after the year they think they can make it as well as TipoPils.
What a cool pandemic related name. Plus it matches NE hazy perfectly. The fading letters is a great touch. Plus Moonraker has been known to make a good hoppy beer.