If you missed the first California Craft Beer Summit Experience Box O’ Beer. Get shopping now! Right HERE.
10 CA breweries offering up a great beer from their portfolio. Makes a perfect Christmas gift and will arrive on Dec. 16
Buy Now!
Under Construction
You have probably noticed that the site looks different. Behind the scenes work is taking place. Migrating, theme changes and other blog terms that I have a passing acquaintance with.
BSP will continue to post content as the packaging gets a refresh.
Thanks for reading and a big shout out to Loren Kling who has kept this site functioning.
Hallowed Seasonal
The labels for Institution Ale Company have been imaginative to say the least but they have found the right holiday to pair with the design for their fall seasonal DIPA. Both a creepy and fun vibe for a Cryo beer.
GABF Awards 2020 (no fist bump edition)
Brewnited at home, this year the Great American Beer Festival went virtual. But the awards carried on with 1700 competing breweries Here are my thoughts on the medals given….
First though, I have to say that busting through those categories so fast was dizzying. I admit that I liked the goofy intro and the videos sprinkled in between.
From the Los Angeles perspective, Beachwood remains king of this castle. Barrel-Aged Full Malted Jacket goes bronze, then Funk Yeah gold in the American Lambic category. But there are challengers. Claremont Craft Ales went yard twice once in the (new?) Experimental IPA category with Pepper & Peaches and then for Happy Days.
El Segundo got gold for Hammerland DIPA and then picked up bronze in the Strong Red category for Devil’s Path. They are strong in the strong categories.
Here are other winners from LA:
Ogopogo-Silver for Boeman Witbier
Three Weavers– Gold for Deep Roots ESB
Highland Park-Bronze for Sugar on My Tongue hazy
Firestone Walker Propagator-Gold for Wookey Jack
Rhubarb Sketch
Rhubarb is not often thrown into the mix but if the Beachwood Blendery is doing it, then expect it to really shine. A choice selection of their aging beer was exposed to the rhubarb and then that was mixed with an apricot flavored beer for the final product. Releases today!
SNL
I don’t know if this was more a burn against Boston or against fine upstanding gentlemen named Sean but this happened last night…
..and I gotta say, made me laugh. Bill Burr has been crisscrossing the cringe line lately but this was good.
Not Cerulean
A soft hop combo of Hallertau Blanc and Mistral hops paired with a fruit blend from Bird Pick Tea should make for an interesting new pale ale from LA Ale Works.
Fun / Cool Beers for October 2020
Now that season 2 of the Taco Chronicles is available on Netflix, you have an emoji bedazzled beer to drink while watching. Party Beer Co. has created a fun and vibrant label for their taco cerveza.
I am not a baseball fan but the design of this new IPA from El Segundo Brewing has a lovely expanse of green to gaze upon that reminds me of hops.
In the Tap Lines for October 2020
Fall is here! Or it is working it’s way here for us in SoCal. Time for festbiers without the Fest’s and pumpkin beers and socially distanced trick or treating.
~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Russia like AF Brew, Knightberg Brewery and Brewlok
~ special featured reviews of beers of round two from Cerveceria del Pueblo in Pasadena
~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events (Far in the future events)
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Lovecraft Country Radio
~ Great Beer names and Best Beers of the Month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.
Generalizations from Data
When I heard that a large number of Covid19 cases were found to stem from the Sturgis Motorcycle rally, it made intuitive sense. Bunch of people without masks gathering in a large group equals outbreak. But turns out that the numbers were based not on actual counted cases since the US is not a leader in contact tracing but on math and statistics which in this case were not telling the full story.
Talk about beer, I hear you yelling, well I will. First though, read THIS
We and our government need to realize, truly, the danger of this virus and how it is transmitted and tailor our responses to less general categories. I have said it before but Shop A might be home to multiple cases and Shop B might have zero. Shop A might be considered safe and Shop B might not be. The flawed thinking that bars and taprooms are too dangerous is troubling because it means that the virus will have free rein elsewhere.