Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Oakland Block Party IPA is not a simple collaboration beer. It is huge. Count with me: Brix Factory, Cellarmaker, Ghost Town, Original Pattern and Temescal Brewing brewing “an “Oakland-style” IPA brewed with Admiral Maltings malt and dry-hopped with Mosaic, Simcoe and Riwaka”.
It is the official beer for celebrating the opening of the new Almanac Oakland taproom.
One could argue that we do not need IPA books or barrel-aged beer books since they are beer style categories already oft discussed and argued over, whereas the humble Bock Bier could use love.
When I purchased the latest Final Gravity beer ‘zine, what did I notice? A ‘zine about Bock. Looks like a quick way to learn more about a seldom seen style.
This year’s Super Bowl will be contested by two teams who despite getting loads of digital ink spilled about their offensive woes both made it to New Orleans for this years finale to the NFL season.
Reigning champion Kanas City Chiefs will be attempting trifecta of wins while the Philadelphia Eagles behind a monster year from new running back Saquon Barkley will try to snap the streak.
First off this is a long afternoon or long day if you tune in to all the bluster and repetition of football pundits earlier in the day. So have plenty of water handy as well as snacks. The big game is a great time to bottle share so find that hard to find beer and share with whomever is watching with you. I would recommend starting out with the low ABV beers for the first half before moving on to the bottle share portion because sometimes the game is only close in the first half and you want to enjoy that competition and the good commercials too.
I would also suggest having food late in the 4th quarter in case folks feel like jetting off at the final whistle. You don’t want bigger beers on an empty stomach.
I will be posting what I am drinking on Untappd and social media if you want to see what I am sipping.
This months beer that I probably won’t see on SoCal store shelves is a beer with a connection to my hometown of Milwaukie. It is a collaborative beer from Breakside with La Cumbre Brewing from New Mexico.
“Up Top! is our take on the unfiltered Pilsners of northern Bavaria. This ‘Zwickel-style’ approach is high-risk high-reward, as it requires crafting a beer that tastes good through its natural maturing process. Up Top! walks this tightrope, rich and soft, with a supple maltiness and notes of pear and green tea.”
The hops are loose in the sixth installment of Burning Daylight’s anniversary IPA which is the centerpiece of their celebrations today.
My favorite month is here. Mostly ’cause it is my birthday month and I use all 28 or 29 days that I get to the point of exhausting everyone else. For this blog, I will do my best to exhaust you with beer news.
~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Oregon
~ special featured reviews
~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Our Share of Night
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to An Arm and a Leg
~ Sports & A Beer returns with How to Fix the Blazers
~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.
Just before leaving office, the Surgeon General of the United States, following the lead of officials in Europe has suggested that an additional warning of cancer risk be added to alcohol products.
You can read up on the main points HERE but I have three questions that I would like additional information on…
This is all bearing in mind that science is ongoing, what seemed obvious now might be much murkier ten years from now.
I had an interesting month of drinking and not just to forget the downward spiral of America. Firstly, my Trader Joe’s has been pretty regular with La Fin du Monde from Unibroue and that is just such a darn good tripel that it could win many a week. I also had a really interesting sour from Alvarado Street in Double Howzit Punch which was just a fruit bomb. I also really liked the cross the pond collaboration from Thornbridge in Britain and Sacramento’s Urban Roots. Under the Trees IPA was quite tasty with a soft citrus bitterness.
But the winner was North Park Brewing who I have yet to find a bad IPA from. Their charity driven Higher Calling IPA was another super balanced beer. The hops and malt are just in total sync.
Time to pause 2025 for a bit to look at some statistical beer drinking highlights from my 2024.
564 beers were tasted in total from samplers to large format bottles.
6.29oz less beer was drunk per week – but I made up alcohol ground with more home cocktails in 2024.
High of 203 ounces in a week with a low of 112 ounces.
The average ABV over the year was 6.97%
Best of the week winners were led by Smog City Brewing in Torrance with (4) weekly winners. There were (3) other breweries tied with (2) wins.
I had 56 barrel- aged beers, 82 pilsner or lagers, 11 sour beers and a very paltry 14 beers from Europe. Of course the big style winner was 256 IPAs with 125 of those being West Coast
Below are the breweries with the most tick marks next to their names:
Firestone Walker 52
Stone 20
Smog City 16
El Segundo 15
Santa Monica Brew Works 15
Beachwood 14
Radiant Beer Co. 13
Creature Comforts 10
Highland Park 10
Sierra Nevada 10
We head to Europe, specifically the Czech Republic for FUZE. A French restaurant in Prague with a brewing operation.
We will go from light to dark starting with TransFUZE the Czech Pils then moving on to FUZEnáč 13 what they call their semi-dark lager and then finish up with InFUZE 14 their dark beer. And while there they also have beers from Brewery Zichovec to compare and contrast.