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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

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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!

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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.

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In the Tap Lines for October 2020

header_attractionsFall 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.

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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.

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NBA Finals

Well, my beloved Trailblazers are not in the finals AND the damn Lakers are! At least LeBron and AD eliminated the damn Rockets who I hate even more.

Typically each city bets local delicacies in a show of civic pride. This year though, I would like each city to promote their restaurants, sights AND breweries. Let’s have the mayor of Miami come here and have a beer.

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Haus Party

When I think of Anchor Brewing, I don’t think lederhosen. But the Bay Area brewery has their spin of the Oktoberfest style with Haus Fest. Normally this ground has been ceded to a Chico brewery but it would be a good side-by-side drinking comparison.

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Lost Abbey Pils

When a brewery known for sours and barrel-aged beers bring stout a Pils. Be it German, Italian or Czech, it is probably for the brewers so they can have something light and fun to drink because making these right is not easy. So I will be on the lookout for this new canned Pilsner from Lost Abbey.