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Setting aside “adaptagens” and “nootropics”, do we need sparkling water to be both double hopped and dry hopped? And who in the sparkling water customer base is going to see that and yank it from the shelves?
What I find extra funny is that the hops are not even labeled but they had room to write “for extra bold flavor”.
Not Needed!
Another trip around the sun for this here beer blogger. Time to celebrate with an extra day and some extra special beers along with the usual posts such as….
~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Washington State in honor of George’s birthday that he shares with me
~ special featured review my chosen birthday beer
~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 Black AF History by Michael Harriot
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to True Detective – Night Country
~ Sports & A Beer returns with What are sports now anyway?
~ 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.
Seems like IP un-aithorization has roared back into use again. For a while, labels that I saw on the interwebs seemed to have actual thought out designs but lately, that whole piggyback on someone else’s work is back like a cold you can’t shake.
I know that punners gonna pun and that not all artistry will be to my particular liking. There are some breweries whose labels just do not speak to me but I am at the very least, on board with breweries who at least try to be original.
But there are soooo many lazy beer labels that look like children’s cereal boxes or sodas or candy bars that I have to believe that they sell enough to make a brewery take that step into outright identity theft. Me, I would looking over my shoulder for a Cease and Desist letter.
This, at a time, when you can probably find many artists to create a look for your new pastry stout or candy sour that actually tells the story of your brand and not a secondhand tale with missing pages that is more attached to the original IP than your beer.
There was quite a bit of pissiness this year around one NFL playoff game on Wild Card Weekend. The reason for the eye rolls was that the NFL had sold one, just one, game to NBC who was putting it on their streaming service Peacock.
Now, no one knew that it would be an anticipated game between reigning champs, the Kansas City Chiefs and the high octane Miami Dolphins but now fans, bar owners and the like had to buy a month of Peacock for one game.
Peacock ain’t the only streamer with issues in my book. The Max (formerly HBO Max) has some NBA but not a lot and not every night. Paramount+ has a bit of stuff as does Hulu via ESPN but that here, here and over there nature means the fan has to mark their calendars diligently to follow their favorite teams. Or just buy and hold subscriptions to watch a bare minimum of games.
And with the pro leagues asking and getting bigger paydays each contract cycle, those streaming subscriptions are probably gonna rise.
Which means you will find me watching the highlights on YouTube instead.
For beer, look for the now not spoken of IBUs (international bittering units) and let your choice of high octane hops be the bitterness instead of you having it inside.
We start with a memoir, which are not usually a style I delve into but Roughhouse Friday covers the topic of growing up and understanding your parents in a fresh way.
Part of that is due to the narrative thrust that is learning about yourself through boxing, also not normally a topic I choose to read about, and the setting in Alaska, which makes me shiver in cold just thinking about it.
Coffin made a few young man mistakes, some I recognize that I made, but he does not stray into “Lad” territory where you cringe at the worse aspects of masculinity. You can see as he gains boxing experience, he is gaining life experience outside the ring.
Alaska looms large in this book and the main beer that the “south” will know of and have tasted would be Alaskan Brewing Co. and might as well start with Juneau Juice Hazy IPA or Icy Bay IPA to get the bitterness of youth rolling. You could also pay homage to his mother’s Thai heritage with a Singha, Chang or BeerLao, whichever you can find. Those might be good to quaff after hitting the punching bag.
Time for my first beer shopping list for 2024. It is doubly toasted and very serious and all California brewed.
Highland Park Brewery Toast Points Czech Style Lager – 5.9% – “brewed with our pals Moonlight Brewing. The crew at Moonlight are one of our favorite American lager producers & we couldn’t be more stoked to create a lager with them. This is also the first time we’ve done a decoction mash on our system in Chinatown. Decoction is a process that involves taking part of the mash, boiling it separately, then mixing it back into the main mash to raise its overall temp. It can darken a beer’s color, impart richer malt flavors, give it a smoother mouthfeel, & even result in more stable foam.”
Paperback Brewing Siri-ous Problems Hazy IPA – 6.8% – “anything but a problem to your taste buds, with an overload of juicy hop aroma snd flavor. Zamba, Citra, and Azzaca hops lend themselves to creating juicy tropical fruit notes, such as pineapple, mango, stone fruits, candy, and orange tangerine.”
21st Amendment Find Your Fortune – 7.5% – “our newest Imperial Toasted Golden Ale is embellished with a QR code directly on the can so drinkers nationwide can scan the code and open their own virtual fortune cookie! Who needs horoscopes when you have a beer like this?!
With toasted sesame, vanilla, and lactose, Find Your Fortune is a complex beer that offers a delightful blend of flavors and aromas. The toasted sesame adds a nutty and slightly savory note, balanced perfectly with a sweet aroma and flavor of vanilla, followed by a silky smooth, creamy finish.”
Let’s start off the year with more of a world view as the BBC presents us with a podcast about food (and spirits). The Food Programme is chipper and upbeat and is just very British. Perfect for the new year ahead.
I would pair this with the Samuel Smith variety pack that I have seen in SoCal Trader Joe’s. But even if TJs is not your thing, you can probably find one where you beer shop.
We are back around the calendar horn. A whole beer year stretches before us. All sorts of new brews and new news are waiting for us craft beer fans. Starting with…..
~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Craft Beer & Brewing’s Best of 2023 Canadian picks.
~ special featured reviews of beers of ciders from 2 Towns Ciderhouse
~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 Roughhouse Friday by Jaed Coffin
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Food Programme from the BBC
~ Sports & A Beer returns with Streaming Sports
~ 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.
One last kvetch for 2023 before the craft beer world moves into 2024.
Hours of Operation. Why do I have to be Sherlock Holmes or an investigative journalist to find them and once found, why am I wary that they don’t really reflect the actual open hours?
A little backtrack first. My father was an inveterate gambler when it came to going out to a restaurant. He barely checked the address, let alone if the darn place would be open. God forbid he call the establishment.
My genome carried some of that devil may care attitude but it has been slowly and surely burned out of me. In my last road trip, I read and re-read the hours of one spot that I wanted to visit. It seemed clear but it was clearly at odds with the sign on the closed door that said different.
Another brewery that I checked and re-checked was closed for a staff event. No where was that mentioned. Guess it was expected that people would find out when they drove their and saw a darkened taproom. Another brewery was lit up and an employee was inside but that employee was apparently the only one who showed up and so the brewery was staying locked.
If I had called the brewery with the staff event, would the message said that? If I had called the one employee brewery, would the phone have been answered. I suspect no in both instances.
Why can’t hours be easy and clear? Are they changing with such frequency that social media cannot be updated quickly enough? Does no one have that job?
The fix is simple. Check your hours on your website and social media pages. Then fix if needed. If hours for a certain week, like Christmas or New Year’s is different, then post that.
Of the three places where I traveled and met with no welcome, I did not go back to two of them. That should say something.
It has been a pretty dismal year for quarterbacks in the NFL. The hapless Jets of New York have cycled through four already and have probably come to the realization that Aaron Rodgers on one leg is easily their best option. The other New York football club is on a back-up from a QB who wasn’t lighting the world afire either but they must be thanking the football gods that the Jets are getting most of the bad press.
We aren’t even near the worst as the Patriot combo of Jones and Zappe cannot get you more than 10 points in a game as they showed in stunning fashion losing to the yet again underachieving Chargers 6-0. Not even one point!
Even Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs don’t look good. And that is a troubling sign for the NFL. Maybe GMs are thinking that if Brock Purdy can pilot a devastating 49er attack that any old fourth-rounder can succeed but that is so not the case.
The injured list is growing each day. Rodgers, Cousins, Burrow, Jones, Lawrence, Richardson, Pickett and Carr. Other teams are going with the likes of Sam Howell, Desmond Ridder and Aidan O’Connell. Not many Heismans there.
Your beer task for this exercise is to stock your ‘fridge with the C.J. Strouds and Jalen Hurts of the beer world wherever you may be because more QB1s are going to get injured and you are going to need really good beer to talk about because some of these upcoming games are gonna be real hard to watch.