Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
I should get punished for that headline but I just want to say that I think the Belgian design of modern art styled glassware and label design is just bright and fun in a way that American design seems to just lean into appropriating other brands IP.
This La Chouffe bottle would really look good on a Thanksgiving table.
Since we are talking pubs, let’s get into the latest book from beer writer Adrian Tierney-Jones, A Pub for All Seasons.
I would say that the sub-title of this book is misleading. It is not a book of rankings or whether Fall is better than Winter. Winter obviously wins. But more a trio of interlocking themes. Memoir meets existential thoughts and the people who run and frequent the pubs.
And for some readers, that second thread of musings on life is the one that I found hardest to latch onto. Yes, you can wax poetic about the first sun of summer but I want to know more about why a pilsner on a pub patio works so well or give me a tip as to beers that you might not know work really well on a rainy day in April. There is some of that in the book but it is a little more inner when I was hoping for a little more travel guide.
Which leads to my next nitpick. I really would have loved to see a map or three in this book. I was trying to follow the winding train tracks but kept having to press pause on the book to do so.
Those two improvements aside, I did really enjoy the book and how the publicans and brewers are piloting their ways through ownership in this day and age. The beers described made me thirsty throughout the book and it was overall a relaxing read through all four seasons.
…there is rauchbier merchandise. Not a phrase I would ever think to type before seeing the hat, shirt and cups in the All About Beer webstore celebrating the smokey beer treat. I especially like the camp cup even though I do not camp.
Check it out HERE.
Wrexham Lager has some new co-owners in Red Dragon Ventures. News like that might strike craft beer fans as an “oh no” moment but RDV is actually Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney + the Allyn family — which very recently became a minority investor in Wrexham’s soccer teams.
Wrexham Lager was founded in 1882 and now is on the verge ( as I previously posted about ) being sold in America as well as in countries across the world.
The Roberts family, which revived Wrexham Lager in 2011, eleven years after production had halted, will remain a co-owner of the brewery alongside Reynolds and McElhenney. Both of whom have past experience in the drinks sector in spirits with gin and Irish whiskey.
Looks like another celebrity is entering the beer game but with an N/A twist. Tom Holland is founding a company with the un-Marvel name of Bero and will have three non-alcoholic beers initially. Kingston Golden Pils, Edge Hill Hazy IPA and Noon Wheat. Nary a spider pun to be found but certainly some British influence.
It will be direct to consumer via their website with plans to launch in Target next year. Holland has discussed his sobriety which makes a venture into near beer a good call.
This Wednesday has me feeling a lot of emotions. Sad, angry confused to name check just three. But the main takeaway from election night 2024 is that The United States of America is populated by a mean society that must live sad, angry and confused every day.
I am not despairing though. I will not be one of the many voices on the interwebs that says we have lost our fragile democracy. Our institutions are made up of people and the American people are majority mean. So please do not give me your plea to save democracy, we have been barely clinging to it since this country started. We live in a mean quasi free land. That means our government is mean and quasi free too. It is a reflection of us.
Some may be on this blog for some ray of beer sunshine instead of this jolt of reality. I get it. I would much rather post about a new beer or some funny beer gadget than type the word mean over and over.
So, as John Oliver would say on Last Week Tonight, what do we do? In general and in craft beer. First, come to accept that there are a lot of mean people in this country and that this incoming government will embolden them to be 110% mean instead of hiding it. Life is going to get harder for a lot of people.
Second, we need to call out all shitty racist, sexist, all the -ist behaviors fast and hard. We have to let the mean people know they are mean each and every time. This blog will speak up anytime meanness enters craft beer. And we all need to say something if we see something mean. Don’t let them normalize hate.
Understand that the other key attribute of this country is that it is reactionary. This means that the pendulum will swing back and that we will have to do some clean-up and it will not be pretty or easy. As Americans, we should be well used to hiding skeletons in closets.
For craft beer, join your local and state guilds. Link arms with distributors and shopkeepers. Serve your specific community knowing that it will more than likely enrage the mean because your community of beer fans will look similar to those who gathered in pubs back in the 1770’s. The cozier you are with your neighbors the better.
Most importantly, include anyone that wants to be at your brewery. Craft beer needs to expand the customer base. That was true before Tuesday and is still true. Let’s keep bringing open minded people together over a pint, or two. I will probably need that many, at least, today.
Every once in a while I will get a happy email from the Rare Beer Club wanting to highlight some of their great beers that you can get.
I will be reviewing two of them this month and if it sounds good, you should check out the club.
It has been a bit since I have had a blended ale and I could not have picked a better beer and brewer to return with than The Last Sipper and Tomme Arthur.
This is a mix of quadrupel and strong ale. The aroma is candied dark fruit and hints at the texture of the beer which is not thick as some big beers are but has a minerality, along with chocolate and coffee. There is a brightness at both the beginning of the sip as well as the end. It is a complex beer for sure.
It has been a pretty good last half of the year for beer books and now you can pre-order a nice shiny coffee table book filled with info and photos of the Hidden Beers of Belgium.
This is going on my Christmas list for sure.
Time to take a peek at my beer drinking statistics as we are now in the last quarter of the beer drinking year.
I have been doing a pretty good job of keeping it local. 180 out of 431 were from the greater Los Angeles area with 353 total from California. My foreign beer game jumped too to 20 with my home state of Oregon notching 44.
Most of the beers were IPA with 212, 108 being straight up West Coast style and a dip in hazies to 36. Maybe I am just not as into them as in the past. I drank slightly more Pils (37) than lagers (31) maybe to our plethora of hoppy pils here in L.A. and there has been a respectable amount of barrel-aged beers as well, more than hazies at 38 tasted.
The average ABV is not super high at 7.10% but considering that my highest ABV week was 10.22%, I feel that there must be a lot in the 7% to 8% range,
Brewery wise, Firestone Walker is the big leader at 50 and even if I don’t visit the Propagator again this year, will probably win the year still. Stone ranks second with 18 beers and Santa Monica Brew Works at 15. There are a few at lucky 13: Beachwood, El Segundo and Smog City.
Expect a jump in non California beers since I will be in Colorado for enough days to make a dent in the total 2024 numbers.
The Modern Times fallout continues as Craft ‘Ohana, the parent company of Maui Brewing Co. is partnering up with San Diego based Wings & Arrow Beer Co. to kinda-sorta supervise Modern Times operations.
This is where it gets even more complicated though. Wings & Arrow is part of Great Frontier Holdings which is the overarching group for Ninkasi and Ecliptic Brewing amongst other seltzer holdings.
Got me to thinking about how one cqn have a manager, who has a manager, who has a manager. Eventually there is too much distance between the brew floor and who owns the business.
I have a feeling this will be ongoing.