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my humble and correct opinion
It is easy to get dragged down into the muck and start Twittering to and about breweries when they name a beer something offensive (light or full on, doesn’t matter), but I thought instead of just thumbs up emoji-ing the above image, that I wanted to say how cool this is. How many tourists are going to get their photo in front of the most iconic brewery gate? Plus it ties in with sports which has its own issues to work on when it comes to inclusivity and masculinity so it works on two levels.
It is not going to be hard for me. I am boycotting beer from Alabama, Georgia and Missouri and any other state where old white dudes legislate women’s bodies.
It is not going to be hard for me to not write about beers from those states. And I am certainly striking those states off the list to visit until the laws are reset.
It is not going to be hard for me to donate a little to groups that are fighting to let people make their own GD health choices. It will not be going to beer purchases from those backward states. Sorry Boulevard.
It is not going to be hard for me at all because I am a straight white man. I can skate through life without dealing with this shit. But I would gladly change that to give some of these sexist assholes a taste of the pain that they cause.
I do not envy the people at the CCBA who have to read through the muck of legislative bills and even in California there are those who seem willing to slide bills in that benefit the big corporations over our plucky little band of independent brewers.
Head over to this PAGE to see what is afoot in regards to the brewer and retailer relationship. If you are the kind that calls their local politicians, then you might want to raise your voice here.
Cast your mind back to when you were 21. How many breweries were there when you hit that newly minted beer drinking age? For me, it was a whopping 312. My range of choice was also probably much, much smaller than that so I probably drank more of the same beers or more from the same breweries just due to lack of options. I don’t remember and no Untappd back then to lean on for historical reference.
My oldest nephew turns 21 in 2021. By then, there may well be over 10,000 breweries with much, much wider distribution. How will he make a decision when faced with a bazillion tap and packaged options? How many bars with over 20 taps were around when you started your beer journey compared to now.
That is the new model of entry level consumer education that needs to be understood. Flagships, as lovely as they are, simply cannot hold the same level of attention. We have trained bars to rotate beers and rotate them hard and often. We have trained breweries to focus on special releases and multi variants. How does a new beer drinker navigate that?
Then factor in the cost. Will my nephew be able to plunk down $25 for 4 cans? I am priced out of a lot of stuff right now. I have to pick and choose and try to find single cans and bottles to keep up a variety and I am in no way close to keeping up with the beer Joneses.
Breweries are going to have to go after some of these youngsters and give them a reason to pick up a beer. Whether that is through better signage at their taproom to point newcomers to start with a certain beer or to use simple flavor descriptors in the manner of Modern Times with their 3 adjective branding on their cans or some other novel concept to quickly message what the beer will be like.
You can’t expect customers to be of the same mindset and you can’t say that millennials are not drinking beer and just shrug your shoulders as if being a different generation is the only answer. We all need to put ourselves in other peoples shoes.
Can design has come both a long way and in some instances devolved into IP copycats. And writer Joshua Bernstein has quantified a list of his personal best designs. To his credit, Brouwerij West is on the list for their Falling Water IPA.
Now, I will take the this list and pick my best, worst and almost there…(from left to right in the graphic below)
The Alvarado Street design mixes the font, design and name to great effect. It is also of a style that makes you lean in and look at it. The middle design is just flat out lazy to me. The font is as close to generic as possible and it just screams done in a few minutes. The final “close” one is a good idea but the art just doesn’t do it for me. This could be a fun series with different people in each box, heck even employees of the brewery might be fun choices too.
Just when you thought it was over, the shuffling begins anew. This time biggest of the craft beer guys (since the Brewers Association keeps raising the cap), Samuel Adams is merging with Dogfish Head.
You can read about the dollar amounts and the shares owned by whom on other sites and you can head to Twitter for the semi-comedic hot takes but I want to focus on questions I have for the combined brewing group in the future.
First, the aforementioned cap raising will need to be raised once again, maybe not this year but even with the smaller amount that Dogfish produces they will more than likely be pushing up to the line sooner rather than later. If the Brewers Association was loathe to kick Boston Beer out of the club, they sure as heck ain’t gonna kick out Boston Beer and beloved icon Sam Calagione in one fell swoop. Each time Boston Beer is snuck in it seems to raise more consternation amongst the members about what and who the Brewers Association stands for, expect it to be a thorny issue again. It probably won’t lead to a rival band of brewers in their own group but you might see an internal split with larger members on one side and smaller in their own group.
The next agenda item is what the mixing of the companies will be. Operated separately just under the same umbrella? Sharing some resources but brewing kept separate? Boston Beer is tilted to the non-beer side just a skosh in recent years with ciders and seltzers and hard this and hard that. How does that affect the brewing philosophy in Rehoboth Beach? The slightest deviations are going to be analyzed by beer fandom.
How does this affect the future of Jim Koch and the Calagiones and how will that affect the street cred of both? More interestingly, what happens when both retire off to a remote island, what do the two brands stand for then? It is not bad to have a CEO from another beverage company in charge but who is the totem for fans to latch onto when the names on the back of jersey change?
I am sure that this merger will be a topic of conversation and re-evaluation for years to come.
From time to time, I try to keep the beer loving public up to date with new up to date regarding new hops that you might be seeing in beers in the future. Two more have come to my attention….
No, that is not a new cop buddy movie. Though I will sell the title if wanted. It is re: a recent memo from the TTB, aka the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
The TTB looks to be warning those who are pushing the leading edge of beer and cannabis. Maybe in part to recent business acquisitions of and by marijuana companies. Maybe due to the fact that labels are showing up that cause red flags to raise up. Either way, my guess is that limited runs of these beers and probably not in to-go packaging is in the future.
So the annual revision of “styles” is out from the Brewers Association and this year I have a couple of questions…
Rotbier? Breslau-Style and Dark Schoeps? Those are some really deep cuts. Maybe it is just housekeeping but I do not think that beer geeks were clamoring for obscure European wheat beers to be consolidated. And speaking of the obscure, Rotbier? Yes, that is the second time I have put a question mark on it. I cannot think of any beers available in that style to me here in SoCal. And I don’t think it is something you can readily pick-up in any beer store around the country. Is it the next new thing? Is it hazy?
The Twitter Machine will probably make hay with the Ice Lager removal for days but it and its brethren the malt liquor were really out of favor with the sometimes pop-up of ironic releases. I would be more concerned that there were not MORE consolidations and removals.
What will the effect be on the GABF awards? Minimal. I don’t see a rush to enter into those (4) new styles since the hazy strong will probably steal entries from the other two hazy categories, Gueuze might grow in later years but has too few current practitioners in the US. IPL’s like regular lagers are the Houston Rockets of the beer world, threatening to take over but then don’t and complains about it afterwards.
Now where is my DDH Rotbier?
One beer that I wished that I could get fresher and more of were the ales of Pretty Things from founders Dann and Martha Paquette. They had unique beers often with a European spin to them like their Jack D’Or Saison as well as some historically researched beers that I found to be fun explorations.
They became embroiled in the distribution hi-jinks on the East Coast and called it out to the media and then in short order they had called it quits. But not entirely. Now the Paquettes are in Sheffield. Spiritual home of the new Doctor and they have a new brewery, Saint Mars of the Desert.
Their reputation has allowed them to create something brand new but with the DNA of Pretty Things but on a smaller and English scale.
Maybe they still have contacts in the U.S. and some of the beer may come to SoCal.