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my humble and correct opinion
Non-Alcoholic East Coast brewer Athletic has pounced on the former Ballast Point “Trade Street” brewing facility and will be shipping their beer out the door in mid-May. This new production hub will increase their capacity and help them meet a demand across its 10 state distribution footprint. And maybe they will even add a taproom to this spot as well.
So, despite some light Republican siding with corporate interest resistance, the first of what may be many CoronaVirus bills has been signed into reality.
Phase 1 is about free testing, sick leave and expanding unemployment benefits.
Phase 2 would have small business loan assistance
Also, the Brewers Association is going to push their weight behind the following initiatives…
That list is taken from information from the BA and of those items, the last one is the most important. Breweries need a replacement cash flow and hopefully they can get it.
Who doesn’t like a good raffle? And you can win some serious beer too. Follow this LINK Whale Hunters and buy a few tickets to help the Make-A-Wish foundation. Personally, I went for the Cantillon package.
Well, no March Madness this year, BUT… Silva Brewing, released their “Sweet Sixteen” earlier this month and this bracket could be filled out and won, no matter how you picked. Maybe next year, I will get my act together and create a bracket of L.A. beers to vote on and find out our local “Final Four”.
If you were told to go home today, and not return to work until April, without pay, could you do it?
What if the return date was unknown?
Well, Los Angeles bars and restaurants have been forced into that choice by the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles.
After those paragraphs, you might be surprised that I am for the halt. What I am fully against is not having any other part to the plan. If a restaurant chain lays off or furloughs their staff or is at a small margin and cannot survive a week off, then the results will be massive. And not in a good economic way.
Your favorite restaurant might be gone. Or breweries will close and not just temporarily. Without a second part to this plan, that involves supplementing income for both affected businesses and workers, then we will be forced into an economic panic and we have seen that Americans will panic and panic hard.
Closing bars and restaurants will put even more pressure on grocery stores and speaking as someone who waited 1 1/2 hours just to enter a well run Trader Joe’s and also saw the empty shelves at Amazon/Whole Foods can attest, that pressure is going to be too much. Then we expect underpaid gig economy workers to deliver food and groceries! Until one gets the virus, of course.
There needs to be a full multi-pronged effort. Even if the details are not ready, it should be made crystal fucking clear that restitution will absolutely be made. Or that a the very least that delays in payments will be vigorously enforced as business practice for now. All there is now is vague promises of support.
Health now is vital. But to sacrifice tomorrow in the process is just a Ponzi scheme. One that individuals and small business should not have to shoulder the cost of without a promise of having that favor be returned.
Update as of 3/16/20 – New game plan now that many places have been told to shut. Buy gift cards. Online, if possible, or purchase a 4-pack and add a card for those breweries that can sell to-go. Buy beer online. Tavour being an example. Join a brewery club. Or if your brewery does food and delivers, order that. Move your normal beer out spending to new places.
Fear and panic and toilet paper memes are at high levels. Sporting events, movie premieres and theme parks have suspended activity.
That inactivity means that money is not coming in and that can be very painful for small business, and let’s face it, most breweries are of this Mom and Pop variety.
So, what can the beer fan do? AND stay safe and diminish the spread of the virus?
If you are sick, stay home. Testing is probably not an option now so err on the side of caution. If you are not sick, keep washing your hands and make an effort to not touch as much door handles, drawers or anything that others will probably be touching. Obvious stuff really.
Then, go out and buy stuff from breweries. Gift cards are a great idea. As are 4-packs or other packaged items. If you have been meaning to buy a hat or t-shirt, do it now. It will be appreciated. And if you bought a ticket to an event or festival, don’t be an ass about it, demanding money back or explanations. Time spent massaging your entitled ego is time not spent sanitizing and keeping clean.
If you are reluctant to go to a tap room, find out when they open and arrive then to avoid any larger groups. If you plan on staying for a beer or two, give people space.
Lastly, enjoy the beer and talk about it on social media. We could all use less doom and more delight.
As ever, Stan Hieronymus has the hop beat covered and he has unearthed a pair of new hops that you might see in the future. Personally, Akoya sounds the most interesting to me, “Two recently named hops reflect that. Solero, previously known as #243/42, comes from the crafty line and the aroma is described as containing tropical fruits, mango and passion fruit. It is a cross between Cascade and a Hopsteiner male and grown primarily in Germany. Akoya, #99/268, is a cross between Zenith (a 1980s product of the Wye breeding program) and a Hopsteiner male. Its aroma is described as tea, spicy, green fruits and pepper, and it is considered a substitute for Perle or Halltertau Traditon.”
File this under, should be done more. Rogue is making a limited run of blank canvas cans for artists and beer lovers to adorn with their own design for the fall – Halloween staple from the Oregon brewery. If I had any (I mean any) skills, I would give it a shot.
Beer Advocated purchased by Untappd. To be more precise, by Next Glass, the owner of Untappd. And no, they are going to merge their ratings systems. They know better than anger that fan base.
This follows upon the “other” beer rating website (RateBeer) being bought by SABInBev. Quite frankly, I have not used RB’s site since I do not want Big Beer to grab any of my beer data and since the Beer Advocate magazine stopped, I haven’t really dropped by their website either. I have had subscriptions for pretty much every beer magazine down the pike, included Craft Beer & Brewing currently but minus Beer Paper LA and blogs, the writing game is pretty scattered now.
Which means a more than likely, money or time losing situation for a passion project (like this here blog). I can’t fault Beer Advocate for going this route. It will allow them to focus on events or other projects that could not have been done due to the lack of cash or hours in the day.
The question is, what is the future of sites like Beer Advocate and RateBeer. Both have passionate defenders but I feel the initial rush of giddy beer drinkers has passed and the middle ground of fans no longer deep dives into topics like they once did. I certainly do not even add everything I taste onto Untappd, and that really just requires wi-fi and a working finger.
Perhaps, there will come a time when there are different levels of beer rating services catering to passionate niches of people. Who knows what the future will hold.
I wasn’t expecting this news. Not with the Lakers-Clippers-Kings keeping Staples Center busy and considering that the brand is opening in Portland. They had a nice city chain working up the coast and now it is broken.
I don’t know if the space was too big or the coffee shop / bottle shop was not pulling people in but the few times that I went, there were crowds. It wasn’t the typical uncrowded restaurant that you can tell is not going to last.
This all being said without knowledge of the franchise style that operates the San Francisco and formerly L.A. locations. It is a loss that combined with Mega Bodega leaving last year in the same area that does not bode well for craft beer.
Maybe they can find a new location, plenty of mixed use space in the condos of Glendale.