Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

North Carolina Craft Beer & Breweries


I love a good craft beer book. Especially one that takes me someplace that I haven’t been. And that is what the guide book, North Carolina Craft Beer and Breweries does.

Author, Erik Lars Myers has done an admirable survey of the blazing hot North Carolina scene and added a human dimension to the people behind it. I never tire of hearing about people who left behind a job for a passionate career in beer. But what I found most interesting was the section before the brewery profiles, when he covered the history of brewing in the state. And I would have enjoyed more information on the “Pop the Cap” organization and how they help to create an open environment for craft breweries to develop. That back story is what invests a reader in the breweries and in possibly taking the next step and heading to North Carolina.

I think more beer books would be better served to skip over the “How beer is made” chapter (which is also in the book) and use that space to discuss regional food pairings (which is in the book a smidge). But I would have love to seen that expanded past BBQ.

I liked the section on breweries that are still fermenting, so to speak, but that would be a great launching point to a website for the book that could update those listings as the beers start flowing from new taps.

Lastly, I would have added more heft to the bottle shop section. They are an important cog in the beer ecosystem and deserve to get more face time as it were.

Overall, with those nitpicky issues aside, the meat of this book are the profiles and those are well written and graphically attractive with good information which is what you need when you have a book in your hand and you are planning a beer vacation. This book is going up on the bookshelf waiting for me to win the lottery so that I can travel the beer world and hit ALL of the places in this book.

(Full Disclosure: This was a press copy but as I mention every year, whether free or paid for, EVERYTHING that I review gets reviewed with the same standard.)

You can get the book HERE.

Posted on

Learn about Hops

I briefly mentioned the Simple Earth Hops people a while back and now Matt Sweeny has announced 2-hour educational “Brewing Up a Community Hops Webinars” in March, April and May of this year, on the third Saturday of each month with a morning and evening session on each day.

From the press release, “commercial topics to be covered include marketing local hops, establishing a commercial hopyard, processing hops, how to use earth-friendly growing practices and lots of time for questions and answers. The cost for each webinar is $20, tickets are available at Eventbrite” and a full schedule is available online.

Posted on

Sacramento Beer Week

Now that San Francisco Beer Week is over, it is time to head to the state’s capital and the Sacramento Beer Week.

There are (2) signature events to attend during the week including: the Sacramento Brewers Showcase and Capital Beerfest on February 25th.

And then there are a lot of other events to hit. So load up the app and see the brewing sites of Sacramento.

As an added bonus the nearby Cordova Restaurant and Casino will be holding many special beer nights ranging from New Belgium to American River to Lost Coast.

Who’s beer week is next?

Posted on

Select Beer Store

I ventured way south on a Friday night from my valley hub to Redondo Beach to visit a new member of the FoodGPS Beer Blast and two week old bottle shop and tap room, Select Beer Store. I mentioned them in a post a while back and now I can share some photos.

Owners Wes and Heather have taken a spot just on a bend of PCH and made it into what I see everywhere in Portland a folksy and welcoming place where you can get a bottle to take away or peruse the tap list for something to enjoy on site amongst the bottles.

I also met my contact David and he told me about the tinted windows and the beer safe lighting in the coolers and how they have plans to host events all of which I think are great. But what caught my eye was the fact that they sell make-your-own mixed packs too!

Another neat touch is the wall art of old time canned beers right above the boxes of beer. The place is well laid out and designed.

Posted on

Holiday Beer Review – Session Fest

The second holiday beer up for review is the 3rd version of the Session line from Full Sail in Hood River, Oregon.

Here is Fest Session….

“When we decided to brew a special Session for the holidays, we knew right away what color it had to be: Red (and full-bodied). Next, we considered what kind of head it should have. Bright white was the obvious answer. And as for the label? Gotta be green, right? So there you have it. A new Session all decked out for holidays, ready to spread joy and cheer. Happy Holidays to one and all! And have a good Session.

Session Fest is a Czech-style strong lager (gotta love the Czechs!) called polotmavé or literally “light dark or semi-dark.” Brewed with 2 Row Pale malt, Munich malt, Caramel malt and Wheat malt and hopped with a blend of Glaciers and Cascades, Session Fest has a medium to full body balancing candy caramel and full malt flavors that are underscored by a spicy hoppiness that provides a nice perfume with citrus and pine overtones and a long clean finish. 6.2% ABV 26 IBU”

Posted on

Local Peasant

Keep the Gastropubs flowing! I heard about the Local Peasant on the KCRW show Good Food.

You can tell that a gastropub is trying by quickly scanning the draft list. Any local beers? If so, the people are clued in. It is how you propel your craft beer culture forward, faster.

I certainly will be checking out the Local Peasant (probably after LA Beer Week)

Posted on

LA Beer Week – Day Two – Echo Park Crawl


Night number two and on to Echo Park to walk and drink. Just not at the same time. Here are my thoughts on the Musical Beer Crawl…
which coincided with a beautiful SoCal night. I thought the passport idea was grand because you need one to navigate LA at times. You had your map and the specials in a handy pocket sized guide. And more importantly, I thought the walk and number of establishments was good. Too much more and the amount of walking and drinking would discourage people from doing the whole route.
My other beer bloggin’ friend Richard and I started at Sunset Beer since he had not visited the store before. Started with the Populist IPA from Eagle Rock (see above). At 6pm, we were some of the first crawlers.
We next went to Short Stop (a first time visit for me) where no one knew about the crawl despite being on the map and they certainly did not know about the special keg or special prices either. Though the barkeep did remedy the last part. This could have been avoided with a pre-visit to all the locations by the organizers. So we moved past Lot 1 which wasn’t open and on to El Prado where I had a Duvel Single (see above) and Richard had a $5 Angel’s Share. You read that right $5. El Prado is my kind of place. Chill with good beer choices. I will be returning there. (I totally forgot to give a shout-out to Two Boots Pizza. Two-for-One slices that were really good)
We hadn’t planned on visiting Mohawk Bend because our plan was to visit places we hadn’t been to before. We looked in on City Sip but we didn’t see any of the Stone beers that we thought were supposed to be on tap. So we headed back to a now busier Sunset Beer and had a nightcap.

Overall, this was a good way to introduce people to the craft beer in the area. It would have been better if crawl volunteers could have been posted along the route to assist and make sure events and kegs were working and/or some more signage delineating spots that were stops on the crawl. But for a first year event, pretty well done, and I didn’t even partake of the music.

Tomorrow is the epic DECONSTRUCTED dinner. Gotta pace myself.

Posted on

Dionicess IX

Over the coming days and weeks, I will highlight L.A. Beer Week events that you should consider attending. Up first is Dionicess IX…..

These are some heavy craft beer hitters behind this event. Just google the names on the above poster and you will see why this will be an exciting time.

And Gev has this teaser, “..the use of beer in the cocktails will be far from trite…sure, most of what we are doing is using an appropriately exact beer for the drink…but the beer component may also incarnate as a beer reduction, a distilled beer and hop-infused spirits.”

You may not know about the burgeoning craft beer and cocktail scene but after Dionicess IX, you will be on the lookout for more.