Category: Monthly Features

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The Firkin for May 2023

At the start of this month, the Craft Brewers Conference was held in Nashville, Tennessee. There was a bit of dismay at both the choice considering the hostility towards, well anyone not a white male, in that state as well as disappointment at the Brewers Association for not either moving it (may not have been feasible) or at least using their voice to condemn recent laws.

Let me preface the next bit by saying that I am an over 50 white guy who is trying to be more aware each day and who tries to keep rose colored glasses and blinders away from my face to see the world as it is.

There are some steps to be made that I think will help.

  • Create a city selection committee who will make suggestions based on current optics and politics and not on facilities or hotels or cost and maybe not have any white people on it, just to see what happens
  • Have a grievance list for the city chosen because you can easily find problems in literally every city in this country, then air your grievances like at Festivus
  • March to the state house of representatives and hand them your grievances and let them know that if they are in the red, as it were, that they may not get the conference again until things change
  • Allow dissenters to participate virtually if they feel unsafe going to a city. Or better yet, create an alternate conference where views can be spoken

It is easy to sweep things under the rug. It is easy to just say craft beer is broken. The truth is in the middle. There are great people in craft beer and there are shitty people in it. No one in this country is doing well by women, minorities or anyone not a rich white male. To expect that craft beer will be an exception is naive. But, we can all push the ball forward. Might only be a yard and a cloud of dust but we can all enjoy our beer and make good change.

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The Best Beers of May 2023

To be transparent, I did take a pre-Invitational beer break so May drinking was cut short a few days but since I am a very picky beer buyer, the quality is there if bot the quantity.

This was a particularly strong beer class as well. I had Green Cheek’s Illusion of Choice (great name – by the way) Hazy on draft at North Hollywood’s Hop Merchants and it was great. Had the haze but didn’t have that unfiltered apple cider brown look. I also had a collaboration lager from two Washington State breweries, Lowercase and Machine House which was fantastic. Glad to see super high quality lagers in cans.

But the winner was Seoul Searching IPA from right here in Los Angeles. Party Beer Co. teamed with LA Mill Coffee on a tea driven IPA and it had such a bright tea note, very floral, without sacrificing the hoppiness. A really grand aroma when the can was cracked open.

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Sports & A Beer – Another New Jersey

Not talking about the state but rather the state of multiple jerseys in sports. Every team seems to have a home jersey, a road jersey, a third jersey for home or away, a themed jersey just for one season, then the process starts again next year.

Digression – Maybe the way to stop tanking is to force teams in the bottom five to wear only two styles all year.

I follow the Timbers and Thorns of Portland and Dear God, it is a design rollercoaster from weird dusty pinks to punk Shakespeare when the best uniforms are almost always the most simple. Now, that is not to say a refresh isn’t warranted or that creativity should be stifled but more does not always correlate to better. Don’t get me started on the Oregon Duck football jerseys. Why highlighter yellow? And with advertisers added onto it, things can get squeezed in with bad results.

Maybe this is the old man, back in my day coming out but, my vote is for a standard every year home and away pair and them have one alternate that changes year by year. It’s hard enough to keep track of players and also keep track of which jersey is from what year.

Now your job is to find a branded extension set of beers and decide if they really need them all, or which one is your favorite in a group. Find a bunch of Sculpins or Torpedos or Hopnosis and really check if more is better.

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A Book & A Beer – Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

I am a bit of a completist but I also do not like being told what to do, so when Cormac McCarthy wrote a duo of novels with one being a clear addendum to the main book, I was attracted more to that addendum than the main book.

The books in question are The Passenger and Stella Maris. The latter being the name of a psychiatric hospital that a woman named Alicia turns herself into for care. She is a mathmetician with a complicated past with her brother who headlines Passenger.

The year is 1972 and twenty year old Alicia starts talking to her therapist. The book is basically just the conversations between the therapist and Alicia. It is a testing set of exchanges as they verbally circle each other. Her life is slowly teased out over the pages.

At first it worked for me but the reveals were slow for me and a little drastic especially at the end but it was enough for me to grab the other book to read in backwards order.

For beer, I would look to finding beers thar you can blend. Maybe a Radler or a Black and Tan or whatever half and half pairing that you think would work. Experiment a bit like a scientist, test your math as well with what percentages work well.

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Sean Suggests for May 2023

Staying SoCal local with three bigger picks than normal.  So come along to Venice, Anaheim, Long Beach and San Diego.

Firestone Walker Idaho Secret IPA -6.5% – “Limited-release West Coast IPA bursting with fruity and citrusy hop flavors of pineapple, blackberry, and mojito.  Idaho Gem & Vic Secret hops.”

Pure Project / Radiant Beer Co. Clearer Thinking – 8.5% – “bold and flavorful West Coast DIPA brewed in collaboration with the 2022 Alpha King Challenge winners, Radiant Beer Co. We experimented with new techniques to create this beer and, as our first centrifuged West Coast DIPA, we are extremely pleased with the final result. Its sensory profile is sure to impress, with aromas of resin, dehydrated pineapple, and grapefruit rind that grace the nose, and flavors of melon, dank, and apricot that are rounded out by a clean bitter finish on the palate.”

Beachwood Brewing Barrel-aged Vanilla Fudge – 11% – “Bourbon barrel-aged imperial milk stout infused with cacao and vanilla beans.”

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A Podcast & A Beer – Doctor Dante

This month we get into hypnotism with Doctor Dante. And boy is this guy a huckster with a radio announcer voice of the ages.

Hosted by Sam Mullins with a mixture of awe and incredulity, Dr. Dante tells the tale of a man driven to be successful no matter what the cost. To go from being married to Lana Turner to an Arizona penitentiary is quite the roller coaster.

For the beer to drink with this podcast, what beer would you need to be hypnotized to drink? Me, overly sweet pastry stouts or too smoked Rauchbiers would be on my list. So pick a beer you would normally turn up your nose at, make a bad beer decision, heck, everyone in this podcast made bad choices.

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In the Tap Lines for May 2023

It has been a colder than usual spring here in L.A., heck the whole West Coast. No joke but it snowed in Portland on April 1st. Let’s dive into a month of beer fun with shorts on.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the upcoming Firestone Walker Invitational

~ special featured reviews of whatever is new in my ‘fridge

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Doctor Dante

~ Sports & A Beer returns with the proliferation of team jerseys

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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The Firkin for April 2023

At first, I thought that I should probably not comment on the whole Bud Light controversy. Primarily because it is just so emblematic of America to get offended so easily by showing the colors of the rainbow. A bit too “been there, done that”.

But I do have my two-cents to add, because beer, especially craft beer, should be more about community. And that is coming from an introvert who prefers to drink his beer in peace.

And all people should be allowed to drink their beer in peace. I am not going to tell someone with a can of Bud Light that they have horrible taste. I think they probably already know it. If asked, I will suggest better options. Something local perhaps. But overall, I keep my mouth fucking shut. Except on this blog, but Bud Fans ain’t here so I feel OK expressing myself.

But if a Bud Light hater is here and you feel the need to make a Tik-Tok showing you destroying a can of Bud Light, stop. Just stop. Buy another brand of beer and move on. Let others drink their beer in peace.

Here is the simple truth. Bud Light will go on. Those protesting will probably buy it and drink it this year. The Transgender community will still be here. No matter how much you deny them or demean them. So live your life and let others live theirs. The liquid inside the can is the same.

..and now this…

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Best Beers of April 2023

This month, just for fun, I will list the four best beers that I had this month and then I will give a not so subtle clue as to which beer is my overall pick…

  • MadeWest / Ghost Town Short Lived IPA
  • Firestone Walker Wookey Jack
  • 14 Cannons Fuck the Patriarchy IPA
  • Upshift Wheels Up Hoppy Pilsner

The winner starts with a swear word.

14 Cannons Pink Boots IPA was just super fresh and bursting with greenery close to a wet hop beer. The MadeWest and Ghost Town collaboration had a bit of that as well so it is a close second.

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Sports & A Beer – Tanking

To be a commissioner for a major sports league probably requires spending an inordinate amount of time to stop teams from tanking.

Tanking being that decision to either trade away or not play your best players in order to get a high draft pick after the season. The poster child of tanking were the Philadelphia 76ers about six years ago who re-imagined tanking as “the process”.

My beloved but hard to watch Portland Trailblazers have pressed the tank button the last two years and the Dallas Mavericks head coach came out and said they were not going for a win, were actively trying to avoid the playoffs which they mathematically could have reached.

To properly tank you have to avoid that Mavericks path. You cannot publicly acknowledge the tank. You just silently do it. Otherwise, karma will more than likely come for you. By karma, I mean the league office with fines.

You can debate the morality of tanking but until you have a real negative consequence such as relegation to a lower league, there is no stick nor enough of a carrot in expanded playoffs to not do it.

For beer to pair with this not so savory part of sports, see if you can find one of two beers, both related to consensus NBA pick #1 this year, Victor Wembanyama…

  1. Something from the R&D brewer from Figueroa Mountain – Victor Novak.
  2. A French Saison to match Wembanyama’s nationality.