Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

Posted on

Tilray Did What?

Like so much spent grain, Canadian cannabis company, Tilray is dumping a who’s who of Oregon brewing talent from 10 Barrel Brewing in Bend.

Gone is former Barley Brown’s brewmaster Shawn Kelso, former brewmaster Jimmy Seifrit, former Bend Brewing brewmaster Ian Larkin and most notably GABF medal machine, Tonya Cornett.

You can write a book (others have) about the malfeasance of SABInBev but at least they were not stupid enough to cut loose that murderers row of brewing know how.  It would be the equivalent of the Kansas City Chiefs, waiving Mahomes, Kelce and Coach Reid in one fell swoop.

This is, unfortunately, typical corporate shortsightedness.  Keeping talent happy and hoppy is not valued as much as profit.  And what is thought of now as cost savings is going to end up losing them customers in the short term and will also introduce more competition in the long term as those brewers either start their own places or go to a brewery and bring their ‘rizz with them.

It takes a special attitude for a large corporation to grow a small company under its banner and most do not have the people skills or vision to accomplish it.  Tilray has shown their true colors.

Posted on

Tick Tock

It is only a matter of time before user of TikTok could be seeing advertising from alcohol companies as their advertising policy guidelines have been recently updated.

Since I have only have bandwidth for Facebook and Instagram, I have never been on the app so I can not gauge the usefulness of it for craft brewery marketing. Also considering the congressional fire it is under, I do not know how or in what form it might be in going forward. But any loosening of Puritanical strings is good in my book.

Posted on

The Firkin for August 2024

The slushie machine era must be nearing an end because I see those swirling machines at pretty much every brewery taproom that I visit.

And that gets me to thinking about two things:

A. the slushie machine salesman is getting big checks

B. when are breweries going to stop chasing after trends and get back to being a trend?

I don’t mean to throw too much shade with point B but I do feel that the more hard seltzers and slushies one puts on offer is a lost opportunity to do something innovative in the beer space. Each alternative drink sold cements a customers relationship, not to beer or your brewery, but to sugary, bubbly treats.

Much like coffee shops that sell iced diabetes bombs that contain zero coffee, a brewery that is just selling hard slurpees are stealing from their core brand. I can understand that a group of people may acquiesce to going to a brewery if there are more options but it starts to look like the brewery isn’t the destination. Much like the group of friends who end up at an Olive Garden because it is the least offensive choice.

Time to sell the slushie machine or at least make a fresh hop slushie.

Posted on

Endorsement for President

I know that this choice does not surprise nor will it change minds but I do have to say what I feel will work better for both this country and for the beer industry as well.

It is easy because of one factor. Yea, oversimplified, I know when many aspects should be contended with but for me the choice is for stability. Business hates unpredictability. And who represents chaos. Pretty obvious that. Harris + Walz will be stable. There won’t be unhinged junior high attacks. No tax breaks for the wealthy because, you know who, stills clings to the fable that he is wealthy. No isolationism from the world. Just down the middle government with occasional turns towards actual progressiveness. Sturdy supply lines, reduced inflation and a solid economy are a pipe dream for Republicans but achievable for Democrats.

On a personal level, I too crave the SSDD of life. I shudder thinking about the Orange One’s psycho tweets that bombarded us all under in his ( hopefully ) one term. It was mentally exhausting. With Biden, I didn’t have to worry about some loose tweet riling up some faction against the other. I can go weeks not having to think of the White House.

At this age of my life, I do not need drama. I want boring, mostly ineffectual, sometimes helpful government. I am not asking for the moon just not to be dragged into a tar pit. Harris + Walz might get the former whilst the other duo are 100% certain to give us the latter.

Posted on

Back to Life

Jeff Alworth always posts interesting and thought provoking beer content at Beervana Blog and this piece HERE, is no exception.  Using the premise of what other breweries could use a Chobani like savior to bring them back to life.

His picks are more centered in Europe and are much deeper cuts so I propose three additional choices….

One – Bert Grants – this was a Spokane, Washington based pioneer in the early craft beer movement.  With the titular Scotsman as the branding lead.  They made quite a few Americanized British Ales and were decidedly on the malty side of the spectrum.

Two – Thirsty Bear Brewing – this San Francisco based brewery and restaurant was on the organic bandwagon and Spanish tapas too.  Maybe too niche to last too long but I would love to see a beer and serious food pairing space.

Three – Eagle Rock Brewery – this recently closed Los Angeles brewery led the way in L.A. but despite heroic efforts, could not find a winning combination of beers.  Bigger bucks could bring back the opening year line-up and maybe find a better location as well.

Posted on

New Norwalk

Norwalk Brew House and founder Ray Ricky Rivera are transitioning to a physical location after years of being a little bit of contract brewer and a little bit of distributor too. 

According to Rivera, “Norwalk Brew House you’ll enjoy fresh beer brewed onsite and special one-off batches only available at the taproom. We’ll also offer a rotating selection of guest beer by other Latino owned breweries.”

The crowdfunding campaign launches via Indiegogo Monday 8/5/24 @ 9am. 

Posted on

The Firkin for July 2024

I love imagining what my perfect beer bar would be and so to counteract the existential dread in the air, let’s dream for a while instead.

First, there would be inside and outside seating with the outside being a calm garden center zen zone. Inside would be a mix of bar seating and booths because I like comfortable seating. There would be no TVs. I think it pulls focus from the beers and sports bars do a better job of it anyway.

There would be a total of 12 taps. I think that is manageable in both keeping social media and your own bad menu updated. And that churn would keep coming back to see the new beers.

In regards to the beers, six would be from a guest brewery for the month ( stolen from Function PDX ). That leaves me to have two lighter beers, to IPAs and two stouts. Depending on the guest brewery, the local taps might switch to lighter beers heavy for example.

There would be a little bit of food but nothing fussy or hard to make. Chips and salsa. Cheese plates. Little plates that can be high quality. Outside food would be encouraged as well so that instead of spending time booking food trucks, that time could be spent on beer selections.

I would also have a few single cans in a fridge to-go as well. A curated selection of beers that I find fun.

There is my current idea.

Posted on

Decompose

With the rise of 4-packs came a rise in rings.  Thankfully most breweries are not using the translucent ocean killers as in years past but I still have a major league stack of the plastic snap ons and only one brewery that I know of that takes them back.

Screenshot

But now comes the Craft-Pak Versa can carriers.  They “use up to 50% less plastic than competitor carriers without compromising form or function. Plus, certified 100% biodegradable*, Craft-Pak Versa completely decomposes within months. This produces fewer emissions and creates less waste.”

I am hoping to see more of these on the market.

Posted on

The Firkin for June 2024

Are building landlords the biggest problem for breweries now and is it more of a problem in higher cost Los Angeles?

When an industry reeling a bit and breweries closing, the first suspects through the door are ingredient and labor costs and / or shrinking customer base.  The former pushes raising the cost of a pint and the latter scares you away from doing that so as not to lose more customers.

But rarely is the cost of the physical space invoked. Is it not an issue?

As I write this, there is an empty apartment in the building next door.  My building has had extended periods without a tenant in one of the four units because my landlord is quite rigorous in her selection process but throughout the fair city of Glendale there is plenty with a capital P office space, plenty of business space in one of the many with a capital M condominiums in town and even quite regular space open at the fancy Americana mall.

It seems a math question of possible future returns vs steady now money.  But the value of a current tenant does not seem to have risen very much if at all while the allure of some dream tenant walking in and paying double as far-fetched as it may or may not be seems to be in vogue.

I do not know how pervasive it is in the Los Angeles rental market for breweries but I have seen it mentioned a fair bit and I saw it play out with the beloved Sunset Beer Co. which was intentionally priced out of their space.  Even though literally across the street was a new and very empty development that was mostly graffiti.  

How does a landlord see that and go, now is the time to look for higher paying tenants? Do they have the cash reserves to pay for a building not getting rented out?  

I know that the stereotype of a landlord is not great even though I have a great one and others do as well.  That perception should lead to landlords differentiating themselves by being really good.  By selecting a business that they can have for the long term and work with so that BOTH succeed.  Why is that not the norm?

Posted on

Ozempic & Alcohol

Ozempic has been in the news a lot though coverage was waning a bit to my untrained eye.  But now that drug is back with a new trial focusing on the liver.

The new trial is going to ascertain if Ozempic can improve liver health. How that will be determined is by the medicines’ effects on enhanced liver fibrosis, aka scarring, over a 28 week period.

Obviously, that is addiction adjacent and there are other studies about decreased desire for alcohol or nicotine in progress (and probably more planned).  And also obviously, alcohol and nicotine have big weight effects so being able to curb excess would help in weight loss.

This is another bit of a blow to beer though, since it is a high calorie alcohol. But the question is, are the people utilizing the drug in the beer buying camp?   Or will this hit another spirit or wine harder?  And of course, the main two questions are, does Ozempic work not just anecdotally against addiction and if so for how long?