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Vocation Brewing brings us a Last Christmas beer for the festive season…
“Last Christmas, we gave you Whamageddon, this year it’s back! The festive favourite DDH IPA is back for the 3rd year running, and for good reason! Bursting with tropical fruit balanced with a smooth bitterness and earthy pine finish…”
I have read the first two “Everyone” meta murder mysteries and was excited to see a third book pop-up. And it is Christmas themed, Everyone This Christmas has a Secret is the latest from Benjamin Stevenson.
Ernest Cunningham is back to solve a third mysterious case involving a philanthropist and a magician. And yes, the case is laid out with no fake-outs or last chapter new information like the past two books.
I will keep the rest of the plot for you to discover but I will say that the end reveal of the how done it is quite ingenious. Which makes it worse that the rest of the quite slim book seems, well, slim. The author doesn’t bring back characters from the first two books except for Ern and Juliette (briefly and at a distance) when he probably could have to add some extra twist of interpersonal drama. Also, even though it is set in Australia and the weather is not the chill type, the lack of seasonal festivity is pretty glaring. It is barely mentioned sans a Secret Santa and a Rudolph costume. The book could well be called, Everyone at the Magic Show has a Secret. There is also an arch enemy brought up early in the book that doesn’t pay off at the end for me at least.
It is a fun and super quick read though and the winks and nods and breaks in the fourth wall are good fun but seems a skosh underbaked overall.
For a beer pairing, I want to suggest Australian Summer beers but SoCal does not get much in the way of Aussie craft. I would also like to suggest just Summer beers but that doesn’t fit the current season since we are in holiday mode in 70 degree weather. So the best recommendation would be to stock up on dark lagers since they are en vogue. Urban Roots has some good ones as do many breweries.
Readers of the blog know that I am a sucker for collaborations and also for cocktail styled ales. Creature Comforts Brewing has added a garnish to that by teaming up with Tip Top, makers of RTD cocktails for Jungle Bird.
I cannot recall having this cocktail so I will not be able to compare and contrast but maybe I can have the inspired ale first and then compare later.
It is always heartening to see something other than an IPA variant being canned for the first time, 8One8 Brewing is bringing their Gravity Hill Belgian Tripel to to-go out in cans now for the winter season.
Institution Ales Fall Seasonal is back with a Black IPA. It is “brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo hops. Deceptively dark in appearance, this beer drinks similarly to a piney, citrusy West Coast IPA with only small hints of toasty and chocolate malts.”
The Georgia based Creature Comforts Brewing has reached the one year mark for their south of downtown, Fashion District L.A. outpost and will spend the first weekend of November celebrating. Maybe they will have a few autumnal beers on tap to ease into the holiday season with.
I posted about Slice & Pint from El Segundo Brewing expanding to a second location down the road in Redondo Beach, well in no time flat, they already have a special beer for it.
Naturally, it is an IPA. Now to find the right pizza for it.
L.A. Beer Week is underway and here are the photographic receipts to prove it…
Brewing history is important and that history includes both the knowledge and the equipment. And earlier this month there was some positive news on that front as Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company has announced that they are taking some old Burton Unions and given them to Thornbridge Brewery and will also help with the set-up to get them going.
Burton-on-Trent was the Portland / San Diego and Asheville of its time. Basically the brewing town. You can go HERE to read all about Burton Unions. (Firestone Walker used a modified tiny version up in Paso Robles.) Like most bespoke items, it was not modern day efficient and thus not being used by Carlsberg.
I have a feeling that Thornbridge will be able to make good use of the Unions.
New breweries are a tiny bit easier to track now, but even I can fall behind on the news. Ikasu Brewing helmed by Masahiro (Masa) Kitano is in the planning stages and certainly has a different look from other L.A. breweries but has a renowned home brew club education (SoCal Cerveceros).
Follow on the social media and hopefully more news about this in process brewery will emerge.