Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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Blazers Re-Start and Re-Mix

The 2023/2024 season starts, for me, with the Portland Trailblazers and our three S’s (Simons, Sharpe and Scoot) vs the Los Angeles Clippers.

The pre-season finished at 1-3 with the only W coming against a team from New Zealand but that was to be expected with only two returning starters and an average age of just shy of 24. But this season should be fun for a few reasons:

  • Expectations are low – no disappointment at failing Dame’s quest for a title
  • Exciting talent – not only #3 pick Scoot Henderson but Shaedon Sharpe and Toumani Camara and new pick-ups DeAndre Ayton and Robert Williams
  • Future picks – even if this season doesn’t show potential, the future just might.
  • Fun rivalries – games against young teams like OKC and Chet and Spurs with Wemby should be the start of something new

Yes, this is not a beer-centric post but for years, I have kinda dreaded watching the Blazers knowing that the balance wasn’t right no matter the effort but now I can sit back and look for progress with a session beer or maybe a Widmer Hefeweizen and enjoy without getting tense. Plus, who knows, maybe Portland breweries are already concocting beers with Blazer themes for this new team.

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Open / Shut – King Harbor

King Harbor Returns?

Everyone follows a social media account which enjoys being cryptic instead of letting the info just rip.  Earlier this month the King Harbor Brewing account posted…..

…with no other hints or clues.  So, I waited to see if some real news would pop up and last week it became soft official that Trusted Gut Brewing from Long Beach had taken over the space, spruced it up a bit and were pouring beer and kombucha at the main brewing location on 182nd. I have not tasted their beers nor even seen them in my neck of the beer shopping woods and I have to assume from the name that kombucha would be their lead with beer and seltzer a lesser focus.

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Open / Shut – Anchor Brewing in Stasis

Some small good news from the crappy Sapporo handling of Anchor Brewing, per the NAGBW, “At the end of September, the National Museum of American History collected the business records and other artifacts from the recently shuttered Anchor brewery to preserve and make them accessible to researchers and the public into the future. The items include tools from the brewhouse and lab, a barrel that transported steam beer to 19th-century taverns, books from Fritz Maytag’s library, and more.”

Plucking those items combined with, the pluck and zeal of former employees and the recent book about Anchor’s history will go a long way to helping unfreeze the actual Steam Beer out of carbonite. More will need to be pried out of Sapporo’s hands if a new age of Anchor is to really happen.

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The Firkin for September 2023

I do not remember which brewery finally put me over the top but this month, I am officially done with photos and videos of spilled beer.

First is was the glamour shots of beer caught in freeze frame like a reverse waterfall flying up out of a glass, then it was the varied and sundry contests where beer ended up on the floor and lately it has been brewery staff drinking from a can but ending up with more on them and their clothes.

Maybe it is a sign of approaching geezerhood but as craft beer prices rise, wasting beer for a few digital thumbs up seems wrong. As a viewer, I wonder how many takes were needed for these videos. And as someone in a drought zone, I am heavily conscious of the amount of water it takes to brew beer and then add in the water needed to clean up after each Tik Tok stunt.

Then I break out my list of things breweries should do before uploading these videos like have an up to date tap list available, have your opening hours consistent on all platforms, keeping your website updated. Ya’ know, the basics.

I know that stuff is boring admin and doing video shoots is more fun and doesn’t seem so much like work but this beer fan is going to scroll right by spilt beer because that shit is sticky.

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GABF 2023 – Quick Recap

Here are the centered around Los Angeles winners from today’s award ceremony in Denver….

Golds

Common Space Sonrisa – American style lager

Highland Park Hand of Josh – International Pale Ale

Claremont Craft Ales Triple IPA – Imperial IPA

Highland Park DDH Pillow – Imperial Hazy

Silvers

Angel City Apple Pomace Puncheon – Experimental beer

Beachwood Hoppa Emeritus – American black ale

Bronzes

HopSaint Random Acts of Greatness – other Strong Ale

Firestone Walker Propagator Extra Pale Ale – International Pale Ale

Beachwood Glenlongbeach – Scottish-style ale

Angel City Trois Annees Cuvee – Belgian Style sour

IPA Winners

WC IPA – Westbound & Down Westbound Select

Hazy IPA – 1852 Brew Co Away Days

Best Beer Name

Ain’t Afraid of No Goats my favorite beer name – bock of course

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No Menu

Courtney Iseman who writes Hugging the Bar brought up an interesting topic on her substack recently about brewery taprooms having no menus.

And while there is nothing more satisfying to me, than flipping through a beer menu, the idea has some interesting benefits to it in my mind.

First, you won’t default as quickly to a safe beer or your typical order.  Secondly, you have to improve your descriptions of what you like.  You just can’t say hoppy.  You will need to give more specifics like grassy or peach or soft.  Thirdly, you just might find a beertender who is on your taste wavelength and you will be able to find a new favorite beer.

I think it would be cool if a taproom had a no menu Monday to encourage those three items.

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Peel the Label – All for One

There is discourse both illuminating and not about the push / pull of beer and wine and spirits and whom is in the lead. Who has the market share?

To me, the three work in concert. A distiller has to use a barrel once? Well a brewer will take that barrel. Wine spritzers beget hard seltzers beget RTD’s. Craft brewers spawned craft distillers. Heck, for a hot second, there was a whole wine / beer hybrid thing.

I wonder why the three alc players don’t push together? We could possibly see uniform state laws if that happened. Uniform tax rates too. But they often work against each other instead of being co-conspirators.

And consumers seem stuck in lanes too. Wine drinkers say beer is too complicated. Beer and spirits drinkers say the same but I say enjoy the banquet. I do not go for seltzers or wines but gin and bourbon are great. I sneer at beer slushies damn a mint julep tastes grand.

There seems to be sharp elbows out when welcoming high-fives should be the action. I want all the beverages on the menu.

Peel the Label is an infrequent series with no photos or links. Just opinion.

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Elani

From a hop growing wild up in Idaho’s St. Joe River Valley, comes the now, newly named Elani hop varietal.

Per the hop growers at Yakima Hops it is “Clean and bright. Tropical-citrus and stone fruit.  Notes of pineapple, guava, lime, white peach, orange zest.”

And if you want to taste a commercial example head to a nearby BJ’s Brewhouse where Elani is featured in the seasonal Tropical Hopstorm IPA.

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Cali Distro

California is a large state and yet even in this behemoth 7, only 7 cover 90% of the entire state.  And those 7 have now formed an alliance under the California Beverage Solution banner. 

The 7 are: 

• Advance Beverage Company;

• Donaghy Sales;

• Heimark Distributing;

• Markstein Sales Company;

• Matagrano Beverage;

• Pacific Beverage;

• And Stone Distributing.

I will hold judgement but I will say that power eventually always corrupts and whenever mergers and collusion go to far, splintering will occur.  Independent and local distributors are always needed.