Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
There is a lot of draining news from inside and out of the craft beer world but it is not all bad out there and Hop Culture has turned the spotlight onto some people who are really making waves large and small but all for good.
Read it right HERE and then tell me you do not want to go to the Barrel & Flow Festival or have a truly pastry driven beer from Brown Girl’s Brews.
I am not a true crime podcast fan but I have started an NPR podcast that is all criminality. An Arm and a Leg hosted by Dan Weissmann.
From profiteering to charity care it can be depressing but the podcast is also trying to be empowering as well by getting knowledge out about inner workings of the vast medical business.
With additional labeling being recommended for alcohol a possibility and with Dry January in the rearview, I would say that for beer to drink with this, go find some session IPAs or some low alcohol British-style beers with low ABV
…follow the instructions on this new beer from Lucky Luke Brewing.
I would probably need the whole 4-pack though.
While reading the latest edition of Imbibe magazine with their 75 movers and shakers in beverages, I quickly noticed a glaring tilt. Over 30 of the people and places featured were in the realm of cocktails while both wine and beer hovered around 10. If you add in distillery and spirits the total rises to easily over half.
I am not against cocktails or any of the specific bars at all nor do I require an even count across all beverages but damn that is glaring and it makes me wonder if anyone in the room brought it up..
It does track with media spotlighting tendencies though. When something is uncool, and craft beer is uncool at the moment, instead of building it up, the common practice is to ignore it and heap praise on what is cool.
Issue # 7 of Final Gravity arrived last month with 8 new pieces of beer writing that I greedily read in one sitting.
The three stories that garnered my most interest were regarding the Swiss Beer Cartel which sounds more ominous than what it was, a state sanctioned monopoly of beer. My first exposure to Archival Brewing which re-creates historical beers and the tale of the revolutionary dive bars which takes place way back in, well, revolutionary times in Philadelphia. This was a really solid all around issue. I heartily suggest getting it.
Sierra Nevada Brewing has two new beers on the horizon, first is the oddly monikered Premium Pils Craft Lager (which is it? pick a lane) followed by (or preceded) the latest little thing, Peachy Little Thing IPA a hazy IPA with natural peach flavors both in 12oz cans.
A much happier inauguration is coming on Saturday, February 15th, at 12:00pm (PST), when the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame will be announcing its inaugural Inductees into The newly created Hall.
Here is How to Watch:
“The livestream will be available free of charge and can be accessed live online HERE, or recorded following the event on the Craft Beer Professionals YouTube page.
Who will be the first enshrined?
Collaborations are not just a U.S. craft beer thing, in Belgium St. Bernardus releases the 2025 Kombine a collaboration with Weihenstephan. An “unfiltered Helles blond beer that will be bottom fermented without bottle fermentation—while still staying true to the German Reinheitsgebot rules.” The hops are from both breweries while the famous Weihenstephan yeast will do the work.
A bit late to the 2024 party but when I saw an October canned San Diego Brewers Guild IPA, I thought it would be a good opportunity to review a hoppy beer a couple months on and if anyone could do it, it would be six San Diego breweries.
You have Black Plague, Ketch Brewing, Blah Brewing, Hoponymous Brewing, Fall Brewing and Hodad’s Brewing involved this time.
The Beer pours a light orange color with a dried citrus aroma and a pineapple note. There is a nice creamsicle taste to this with a firm malt backing to it. Nice and light but not anywhere near watery.
Tomorrow, tickets will go on sale and then quickly sell-out for the 2025 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival and this year brewery “lineup includes 15 first-time breweries and marks the most ever for what is renowned as “the best beer fest in the West.”
Below is the graphic with the brewery list and it makes me happy to see so many names that I do not recognize at all. One can trust the selection process so much at this point that you quickly enter giddy phase just to see what is up with that brewery named Uncharted.
Firestone Walker will also be releasing the Wandering Don IPA. A “limited-edition official 2025 fest beer made in collaboration with Odell Brewing Company in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. PST, if you have fast fingers and faster wi-fi.