Stay safe and enjoy the candy and your pumpkin beers!
Get your Candy!
Urban Elective
Some classes in college would have improved with a beer in hand and some classes, well Physics for Poets tried but I still was not going to understand it all that well.
Now if you are in Los Angeles, you can pick an interesting topic or pick an interesting brewery thanks to Urban Elective. Both Boomtown and Indie Brewing will be hosting a six week course.
You can learn: The Dark History of Los Angeles at Boomtown Brewery from Joan Renner or The Skeptical Cinephile: Investigating Science in Cinema at Indie Brewing Company from Dave Farina.
The Fall Quarter starts on September 9th.
July United
The next iteration of the DTLA Brewers United Festival, # 4.0, is scheduled for Sunday, July 22nd from 4-8pm at the Triangle parking lot outside of Angel City Brewery in the Arts District.
Three items of note to help you decide to buy a ticket:
1. Each brewery will also showcase a themed fruit beer as well, perfect for the summer weather.
2. 100% of the proceeds benefit the Keep A Breast Foundation, a nonprofit breast cancer organization.
3. Highland Park – Chinatown has been added to the mix
Your list of breweries is this: Participating breweries include Angel City Brewery, Arts District Brewing Co, Boomtown Brewery, Dry River Brewing, Highland Park Brewery, Indie Brewing Company, Iron Triangle Brewing, and Mumford Brewing.
Here are you ticket details, General admission tickets are $45 and include unlimited tastings and commemorative glassware. Designated driver tickets are also available for $15. Guests must be 21+ to attend. RSVP and purchase tickets HERE.
Quick Pass over 2017
The 2017 sales and volume data has been released by The Brewers Association (BA) and most people are going to probably see one number the 5% rise in volume and start to get nervous or gloom and doomy.
I won’t be shooting rainbows myself but that volume number and the retail dollar value growth of 8% are closer to what we will see going forward. There was a tremendous lack of small breweries even in 2013. Now that void created by consolidation has been filled to a great extent. There is still room for new breweries but the heady days of double digit growth is now part of #independent beer history and perhaps future.
That 5% looks even better when compared to the overall -1% in the total beer market. The other “good” number is that the closing rate of breweries was 2.6%. My hunch is that that number will grow in next year’s report if the Green Flash situation is any indicator. We may be getting closer to finding our number of breweries equilibrium. Once that magic point is found, decisions can be made from a point of firmer ground. If you know that there are X amount of breweries, then questions from how much hops are needed to how to distribute can be answered with more certainty. Remember that business hates unpredictability.
You can check out the handy infographic for the marquee statistics.
A Quote & A Beer – March 2018
This month we listen to advice from Bertrand Russell,
“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
When I saw this quote, I immediately thought of the numerous times that I had downed a beer far quicker than I thought. My mind being elsewhere, I don’t notice that the glass is half full, then quarter and then there are only a couple sips left. And in this time that I am monitoring my beer intake, I sometimes scold myself for using my daily allotment so casually.
But, if I look back and that was a happy time, then what was the harm. Mindful eating and drinking is all well and good but it can also lead to way too much navel gazing. I will endeavor to strike a balance and enjoy my “wasted time” more.
Mik is 1
Mikkeller DTLA will celebrate their 1st anniversary tomorrow, a scant two weeks before my birthday. But I seriously doubt any of the special beers that have been announced will last that long or even just a couple of days.
Other Half
Green City IPA – 2nd Anniversary DIPA – 3rd Anniversary DIPA – 4th Anniversary DIPA
Jester King
Colonel Toby – Gotlandsdricka – Petit Prince – Saison Americain (+ bottle releases)
Alvarado Street
Contains No Juice – Delorean Dust – One Giant Leap
Bottle Logic
Gravity Rush – Backwards Compatibility – Pallet Treasure – + rare bottle releases!
Grimm Artisanal Ales
Secret Track – Sunshine Pop! – Galaxy Pop!
Evil Twin
Aun Mas A Jesus (Spanish Edition) – Aun Mas Cafe Jesus (Spanish Edition)
Arizona Wilderness
Sonoran Prince – The Legend…
A Quote & A Beer
‘What you call “flaws”, I call “interesting and flavourful”. If all the beers in the world were brewed without any flaws at all, this would be very boring.’
Michael Jackson
To pair with this quote, I can suggest two routes to choose. You can go British and get a Mild like Solidarity from Eagle Rock or get a lovely cask ale from Yorkshire Square down in Torrance.
The other road would be to find yourself some pilsners and do a taste test to see how this beer could be open to flaws showing brightly.
And no, I am not going to tell you to have a purposefully bad beer. That would be cruel.
900
An early economic gift popped up over social media from the California Craft Brewers Association….
5 years and 587 breweries started up in California. That is amazing. And my eye picked out another pair of numbers that might be even more important in the future. Over 91% of residents are within 10 miles of a brewery. With that kind of base, taprooms can become that 3rd place hub that can really put down roots. Even die hard (It’s Christmas) water lager fans will be tempted to try “their” community brewery if they can be there in a few minutes from work on a Friday, or it is near their favorite restaurant, or they have just driven by and seen a crowd outside.
Now when do you think California hits the 1,000 mark?
Sour Rose
Frequent readers know that I am from Portland and that any Portland Trailblazer beer will get featured here even though this is an L.A. beer blog.
I also like to highlight beers that uses one of the Citys nicknames. In this case, Rose City. Cascade, the NW sour power has blended up Rose City Sour. Blonde and wheat aged in Oak Wine barrels for 14 months with additions of both rose petals and rose hips along with the pink tinted hibiscus tea.
I might even break my no hyper expensive bottle buying prohibition to try this one.
Twin Beer Peaks
If you thought that the Mikkeller collaboration with Rick Astley was boundary pushing, well, a new boundary has been set.
I have never been a Twin Peaks fan nor a David Lynch fan. I do bet that I would like his coffee though. Now the Danish/US brewery has teamed up with Lynch to debut three Twin Peaks beers at the Festival of Disruption, taking place in LA this very weekend.
The three beers are Log Lady Lager, Damn Good Coffee Stout and Red Room Ale.
Per Mikkeller, “David Lynch was heavily involved in all aspects of the process starting with the concepts, names and all the way through sensory analysis and tasting. In particular, he and Mikkeller’s art director Keith Shore traded ideas and conspired on the packaging.”
That last aspect is not surprising at all nor is the fact that the Damn Good Coffee Stout is made with Lynch’s own coffee.
If you are not going to the fest today, you can head to Mikkeller DTLA where cans and possibly draft will be available.