Category: Monthly Features

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Best Beers of November 2022

I guess we should call November Topa Topa Month.

Two of the Ventura based and growing brewery placed as best of the month. First was their Howler Coffee IPA that balanced the hops and coffee very well and very smoothly. One step better was the Bourbon barrel-aged version of their Tux milk stout, King Tux. Just decadent mixing of spirits and sweetness.

Runners-Up include Green Cheek’s wonderfully named Thrives on Relaxation DIPA, Firestone Walker’s Parabolita Salted Caramel Stout and Ogopogo’s 4th Anniversary Pale Ale.

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A Book & A Beer – Endless Night by Agatha Christie

My parents had the full collection of Agatha Christie books. I never really got into them but I saw a lonely book of hers in a Little Free Library so I picked it up as a change of pace.

The book is Endless Night…

It was not what I expected. Yes, there was an heiress, greedy relatives, a curse and a few scattered murders but it was set in a more modern ’60s-’70s England and there was no detective to gather all the suspects around a fire. I guessed half correctly but I liked the rather fierce ending to the tale and the landscape conjured by Christie.

This was an excellent fall read and so I would recommend a couple beers to pair with this. Specific to Los Angeles choices but similar beers can be found in your area.

First is Foliage, an Autumn Lager from Enegren Brewing. Here are notes about the beer, “German malts give this lager its copper color and full body, while American Chinook and Cascade hops add a snappy pine and citrus kick.”

Then to Beachwood for Freudian Sip which “is brewed with toasty Vienna malt & floral German hops. This crisp amber lager is no slip of the palate.”

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Needed or Not – The Lift

Apparently the initial version of the Draft Top wasn’t up to customer snuff.

“The LIFT now lifts and removes the lid from the can. No more pushing down on the lid or removing it with your fingers like their previous versions.”

Problem? solved. I mean, you have other options. You can either drink out of the little opening in the can or pour it into a glass or other drinking vessel. I just do not see how even an improved tool is really worth it. Plus, you will probably just forget it in the dark recesses of a drawer when you might actually use it.

Verdict – Not Needed

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A Podcast & A Beer – The Brief Case

It is NBA season and time for this beer blogger to root for my Portland Trailblazers, and to do so effectively I will be turning to this new podcast, The Brief Case…

These are bite sized, under twenty minute podcasts from long time Blazer writer Holdahl. It is a nice behind the scenes soundbite from players alongside some betting information which is a bit incongruous to me. The episodes that I have listened to thankfully do not veer in the rush to analyze each game as a momentous occasion that troubles some sports podcasts.

To pair with this podcast, I would recommend alighting upon a favorite brewery to match with your favorite team. Choose a starting line-up of core beers, then find a bench of five more beers and taste through them all to re-acquaint yourself with why that brewery is your favorite.

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In the Tap Lines for November 2022

Halloween just passed, Turkey Day a’comin quick and before you can blink, Christmas. All of that means holiday beers and winter warmers and IPAs dressed up cold for the snow. Plus, this…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Brewseum Breweries

~ special featured reviews of the Sierra Nevada Bourbon Barrel Bigfoot Barleywine

~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 Endless Night by Agatha Christie

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Briefcase featuring Casey Holdahl

~ 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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Sean Suggests for October 2022

Staying in Los Angeles this month with three pretty big beers.  One is the definite outlier but fits the spooky season for sure.

Angel City Saisonic Ritual – 7.2% – “Featuring 1,000 pounds of Pinot Noir grape must and skins fermented with a demonic farmhouse saison that is just in time for Halloween. We aimed to blend beer making and the dark arts to bring about a dry saison with just enough wine grape flavor to keep the ritual going.”

El Segundo Octo Brew Hazy DIPA – 8% – the final beer in the Octo series is a hazy DIPA loaded with Citra, Simcoe and CTZ Cryo hops.

Common Space Hey Big Guy Triple IPA – 10% – “lemongrass, kiwi, dank.”

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A Book & A Beer – Less by Andrew Sean Greer

I am not a prolific Facebook poster but what I do post the most about are the books I am reading and the book that has sparked the most feedback has been Less by Andrew Sean Greer.  The Pulitzer Prize winning book follows the travels of Arthur Less as he avoids the wedding of a former flame.

Billed as a comic novel, it is subtly narrated by that former flame in a very effective way that I found the book more inner quest than laugh out loud comedy.  There are moments such as the fruitless attempt at securing a VAT refund that are funny and quite a few one liners that are chuckle inducing but once Less gets a piece of bad news early in the book it starts the gears of his mind rolling and the book becomes poignant.

I found out about the book because a sequel is now out, Less is Lost. So with that in mind, the beer choice is to find a sequel beer.  A new Little Thing from Sierra Nevada, a fruited American Gose from Anderson Valley or a Mind Haze from Firestone Walker to name three California ones.  

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A Podcast & A Beer – Scam Likely

You will get a bit tired hearing that the investigative podcast Scam Likely is a production of Campsite Media and the fourth season of Chameleon but once you get past that, you hear a true tale of how one multi-national scam scared people out of life savings.

Hosted by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee who has a great podcast voice, Scam Likely traces the origins of a scam, how that scam morphed into a much bigger one, the stories of the cops chasing them and the employees doing the shady grunt work that involved so much driving.

To pair with this scary crime procedural, I propose finding a Halloween themed beer to amp up the fright factor.  Something like Evil Dead Red from AleSmith Brewing or whatever spooky season beer is local to your area.

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A Podcast & A Beer – Bourbon Pursuit

This month’s podcast focuses on Bourbon and the business of Bourbon, Bourbon Pursuit hosted by Kenny Coleman, Ryan Cecil, and Fred Minnick. Plus a host of others from bourbon industry and bourbon media.

You get “news, reviews and interviews with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen.” Three times a week with in depth bourbon talk.

Beer wise, I would suggest that on your next beer shopping trip, that you buy either a style or various styles that you think just might work being aged in bourbon barrels that hasn’t been yet. Maybe it is a dunkel or a red ale or a California Common. Taste each and see if the dominant flavor notes would mesh with oak and vanilla.

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In the Tap Lines for September 2022

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This month I will be making my first ever trip to Kentucky, specifically, the Bourbon Trail from Louisville to Bardstown.  So get a snifter out, there is going to be some bourbon talk this month.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from cities that also distill spirits
~ special featured review of Kentucky
~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 Bourbon Empire by Reid Mitenbuler
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Bourbon Pursuit
~ 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.