Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

Posted on

Biggest Little Farm

If you are wondering if ended up on a different blog because of the image above, rest assured, you have not. Farming is obviously and integral part of beer. Beer requires the extensive knowledge of hop and malt farmers to be able to create the myriad of beer styles out there. But most, and I include myself in that most, do not understand a lick about farming and how hard it is and how much harder it may well be.

The Biggest Little Farm does not have hops or malt (maybe later) but it expertly shows the interplay of the land, the animals and the people. Bugs chewing up plants, find an animal that eats that bug and you have a natural solution. The fact that the Apricot Lane farm has been able to succeed is amazing which is kinda sad because we will probably need more farms like this to truly keep farming around in a more sustainable way.

I highly recommend renting (buying) this movie. Maybe find a fresh hop ale to go with it.

Posted on

The Firkin for August 2019

Before you do “hard” seltzer

Despite my anti-“hard” beverage stance, I am not against a brewery testing or going all in on seltzers, coffees and their ilk.  But I do hope that these breweries are sitting down and analyzing the decision before embarking on it. First though, you need to back up to before the brewery opened.

There will always be a tension between what the brewery wants to brew and what the customer wants to buy.  Finding a balance (the eye of the storm) in the middle is difficult.  It is made much easier if two questions are asked though:

What Kind of Brewery do we want to be? And What Do Our Customers Want?

The first is the more fun and easier of the two questions.  Customers wants are moving targets and hard-earned affection can be easily lost even if you do everything right. But if you are true to who you are, the fans will realize that even if only subconsciously.

So, if you want to jump on the “hard” seltzer train you need to ask, is it on point for your brand.  Can you bring your vibe to it?  Maybe you use local fruit, maybe you use herbs, maybe they are named after employees or customers.  Then, are your customers asking for it.  Maybe this is an annual summer fling, where you do a few during the hot months.  Or you have one seasonal seltzer on tap throughout the year.  Make sure though that this is being done for Customers and not for “customers”. 

The difference is that the former are your regulars, your unpaid cheerleaders.  The latter are there for a day or are social media trend.  This is not to imply that trends are to be avoided but you do need to strike that balance between chasing the new, new thing and creating that new, new thing.  It is painfully easy to spot when a product is launched to make money for the rest of the company to live on vs. a product that takes off and is actually part of a portfolio of drinks.  805 and Hazy Little Thing from Firestone Walker and Sierra Nevada leap to mind.

This leads to one final question that needs to be asked and discussed.  What happens when the “hard” trend starts fading or when the market becomes glutted with the stuff.  Because both of those economic factors will happen.  The supply and demand will find their equilibrium and it will be lower.  Will making the “hardened” beverage still be worth it in those circumstances?  Or will your brewery already be onto the next trend?

Posted on

CA-1K

If it weren’t for the 1000 number in the middle, you could spend some time counting all the orange dots on the map to get to 1000.

Isn’t that crazy? Think about it. At one point it was a handful scratching out an existence on used dairy equipment and now you can find spots where you can walk from brewery to brewery or try to set a low Lyft fare record.

Of course with that number comes re-calibration. And that is for everyone in the independent California beer eco-system. Customers have incredible choice and need to wield it with care. Media needs to stop focusing on their influence and start working on enlightening. Breweries need to keep raising the quality and creative bar higher and those who move the beer need to do so fast, cold and in control.

The inevitable refrain of bubble may arise because some like singing that particular song but I think that it is more of a constant search for the right size of the industry. We had too many years of way under and no one really knows where the sweet spot is so maybe we should enjoy this time of plenty if it is indeed over that spot.

Posted on

Scanners

Are you ready to be scanned when you enter a taproom?  Is speedee ordering worth it? I have read articles where license plates can be scanned to speed drive-thru ordering and now there is a new company that will take camera technology and add it to a bar to film customers as they enter so that the bartenders know who was in line first.

The company is DataSparQ and they began bar testing in London in June with more tests trials to come.  More than facial data will be compiled as the company is selling how to track busy and slack times amidst other data points.

Seems just a skosh intrusive to me.  Enough of my personal data is being stored in server farms enough as it is.  I would rather come back to a bar at a less busy time rather than having my face be my ticket like I am at a busy deli. Serving # 90 now, the gentlemen with greying hair is next.

Posted on

Weed Meet Beer

First I want you to read this highly entertaining article, OK, now that you are back, are you more or less likely to buy a weed infused beverage?

I was on the no side and that article did nothing to move the needle for me. Then again, I am merely a very little curious about the whole edible and drinkable section of this possible business niche.

For me, it comes back to wanting to enjoy a drink. I don’t drink to get buzzed or drunk. I overwhelmingly drink beer but I will indulge in spirits and wine but chasing a high is not for me. And when I want to enjoy a glass of Pinot Noir or a G&T, that is enough for me. I don’t need weed if the drink in front of me is tasty. And besides whatever mind altering aspects do appear seem to me to be contradictory or just an additional layer.

Toss in the fact that I would have to specifically go to a dispensary to find, that it won’t be at a local bottle/can shop, and this becomes something that will operate in a different world than the one I frequent.

I still believe that the whole let’s make a product alcoholic or lets make a product THC filled are just edge products. The frontier for marijuana is probably down the medical path to my guesstimate.

Posted on

Sultana

The hop formerly known as #06277 now has a trademarked name Sultana™.  It is a three-way split of 50% Nugget, 25% Zeus, and 25% USDA male (un-named? Or just agricultural science speak?) When you start seeing it in beers look for pine.  According to Hopsteiner it is a big pineapple hop with pine notes in the background.

Posted on

Notice That it is “Kings” of Beer

First clue the series “Kings of Beer” is bad is obviously, Budweiser, the second is that it is a competition show.  Now I doubt this will be as positive and transformative as say the Great British Bake Off or Queer Eye.  My bet is that they are looking for drama as evidenced by the press release which states that “elite brewmaster from 65 breweries and 23 countries BATTLE it out…”  and “Judged by… experts who are “SEQUESTERED DEEP” within the walls of Room 220 in St. Louis.

All to create a mediocre beer in the best light. I wonder if a brewer from Platform Brewing will win?

Posted on

Not Whole

Not that I was spending a lot of beer money at Whole Foods but I will be taking that number down to $0. It’s not due to that “whole paycheck” catchphrase, I never bought into that. You can spend a lot at any grocery store. It is due to the direction that the company has taken since being swallowed up by Amazon.

Suddenly, there were Echo’s everywhere, Prime deals and lockers. And, yes, the company points to how they pay everyone $15 an hour but they paid for that by reducing hours and expanding work duties. And each time that I get asked if I am a Prime member at check-out makes me feel like I am being watched and that Amazon is cataloging what is being bought.

Other grocery stores are tracking my purchases, I know. But when I buy a Pilsner Urquell at Trader Joe’s, I don’t feel like that company is going to do anything nefarious with that data point. But with Amazon, I feel that they would really like to converge that purchase to sell me more and more stuff.

This could change. Maybe Bezos diverts his spaceship company money to NASA or espouses a Wealth tax and I will be swayed back. But for now, beer shop local.

Posted on

The Slow Pour

Amidst the lactose and pastry and god forbid boba out in the beer world, it is really nice to see that beertending technique is coming back, in the form of the slow pour.

I first encountered it at Cellador Ales which smartly has a pilsner on tap amidst its fine sour collection and my first thought was that it was an Instragam beer moment for sure.

But I just read on a newsletter from the magazine Craft Beer & Brewing the following from renowned brewing legend, Charles Bamforth, “Maybe there is a flavor difference; maybe it has lost a bit of its fizzy nature, and you get a mellower mouthfeel, depending on how much of the CO2 has dropped out of the solution. But, I think the visual triggers are more important than the taste ones.” 

So maybe that pretty top hat of foam is just show, but it is a cool one that might even give you a different flavor perspective on that pils in your glass.

Posted on

The Firkin for July 2019

I may have to petition that some emojis be struck from use. I have a list but right now the top culprit is the popcorn emoji. First and foremost because that stuff is way overpriced in movie theaters.

Seriously, when I see that emoji on a Facebook post or re-tweet, I know that someone behind it is just trying to stir the pot. And yes, sometimes that pot needs to be stirred, but most of the time, does it really?

It is far too easy to trigger someone these days. So I don’t know what thrills can be had by eliciting a response on Twitter. I don’t tweet often and since I do not like confrontation rarely post inflammatory ideas. I responded to a tweet about hard seltzers with the preamble of “in my opinion” and got a response questioning why someone would marry me. I had to get up and walk around because I was laughing so hard that someone got that worked up. Maybe other people get energy from it in a way that I cannot fathom.

Also, most of the popcorn posts don’t offer any solutions and most don’t post anything but negativity so all they end up being is basically a sewage pipe of lewd labels, questionable word choice and everything from barely rude to extremely offensive. It may start out as funny but eventually it becomes wearying.

I listen to a podcast called Dumb People Town. If it were not for the humor and the actual friendship between the hosts and their comedy guests, all it would be was a catalog of human stupidity and sadness. Beer social media needs that addition. I don’t know what emoji that would be but maybe something like and fun, like a beer emoji.