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Modern British Beer Brewery # 1 – Salt Beer Factory

Turn to page 97 of Modern British Beer by Matthew Curtis for our first stop, Salt Beer Factory.

They are located in the village of Saltaire and they name all of their core beers after textiles. Speaking of, let’s dive into a taster tray.

Jute Session IPA – “Jute as a textile is one of the most accessible and versatile fabrics in the world. Over the years it has been used for fishing, manufacturing, household items and even clothing. Similarly, the goal of our session was to brew an accessible beer suitable for all occasions.

We put our spin on the traditional IPA, using a mix of Australian and American hops, keeping it naturally hazy and packed full of flavour. Jute is a crisp, light and refreshing session IPA. Initial aromas and tastes of citrus followed by a slightly bitter melon-rind finish”

Denim IPA – “1. A hard-wearing cotton twill fabric, typically blue and used for jeans and other clothing.

2. A hop-charged IPA utilising a blend of 3 hop products to pack in big, bold hop flavours.”

Hessian – “1. A strong, coarse fabric made from hemp or jute, used for sacks and upholstery.

2. A dark & roasty beer infused with coffee, cacao & vanilla.”

Pray for Mojo – “A punchy IPA fermented with Kveik yeast.”

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Exit

Sad to say but the biblically inspired Shmaltz Brewing Company will be no more. But before they go, they will leave us with an exit beer which I think is a really cool idea. The fact that they made it to 25 years is a testament to their perseverance.

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A Podcast & A Beer – The Great James Bond Car Robbery

James Bond is famous for martinis, gadgets and his super classy Aston Martin DB5.

The Great James Bond Car Robbery takes you from 1986, where a film used DB5 sold for $250,000 to a Florida airfield where it went missing in 1997, and still be missing to this day.

The story (I am four episodes in) moves along a bit haphazardly bouncing from back story to side topic to theory and some of the cuts seem odd, I don’t need to have, “she continued” interjected. A pause is fine.

That being said, this is fun and mysterious and it moves along and is perfectly timed for those who want to see the latest Bond, No Time to Die.

I don’t know who the beer sponsor for Bond25 is but we will skip past whichever large company bought their way into product placement and instead set a challenge to drink beers from breweries that are older than 25 years. Bell’s maybe Alaskan or Deschutes. Or maybe globe trot like Bond to many locales. I am sure you can find an old Belgian or German brewery.

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Q

It is not often that I am surprised at the ingredient list for a beer. Brewers have unleashed all the arrows in the quiver, or so I thought. But FANTÔME has done it with a … “Special recipe brewed with quinine, cardamom and quince juice.”

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NAGBW – Opening a Brewery During a Pandemic

This month the Guild has two back to back weeks of info. Here are my takeaways from Opening a Brewery During a Pandemic with guests Mario Cortes and Dave Riddille of the excellently named Here Today which is still yet to open in Seattle.

  • How do you create a beer list that attracts beer nerds, beer newbies and then how do you split that between local and tourists
  • You don’t know what will be important day-to-day nor predict what may be important in the long term
  • You need to be able to have honest discussions about which distribution route you want to take. Is selling focused on your location the best?
  • Can you still produce quality beer but with less state of the art equipment?
  • And a question from me for other new breweries, do you have to design a space that can be transformable in case of future pandemic restrictions as yet unknown?
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Unity-toberFest

News dropped yesterday from The L.A. County Brewers Guild…

Here are the details straight from the Guild…

“Members of the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild came together for the first time in nearly two years for the 2021 Unity collaboration brew hosted by Common Space Brewery. Unity, the annual Guild brew originally created by LABG co-founders Eagle Rock Brewery, is traditionally brewed in the spring to commemorate our annual LA Beer Week. Due to the pandemic however, the last time Unity was brewed was back in May 2019. While hosting LA Beer Week this summer wasn’t in the cards, the Guild wanted to finally come together so that we could begin to rebuild the strong sense of community and camaraderie that make our L.A. beer scene so great.

Host brewery Common Space Brewery will be releasing 16-ounce four packs of Unity on Thursday, October 7 at their Hawthorne tasting room. This 6% abv Hoppy Pilsner marks the first lager iteration of Unity and will be available in cans and on draft at select retail locations. Check out the list below for LABG members and local craft beer retailers who will have Unity available.

But wait! There’s more! To celebrate the release of this brew, we will also be hosting the LABG Unity Oktoberfest at Common Space on Saturday, October 30, 2021. We’ve missed sharing beers with our community and while we still weren’t ready to go all out this summer with our usual events, we hope that you can join us for this intimate outdoor tasting event featuring 30 independent craft breweries, entertainment, and local food vendors.”

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Making Moves

This is a collaboration heavy blog. I really like this aspect of tge craft beer world and brewers do to, so much that they collaborate with people tangentially connected as Deschutes Brewery has with Dovetail Workwear, “a women’s workwear company based in Portland whose mission is to encourage women to enter and succeed in non-traditional occupations. Inviting women from across industries to participate in every aspect of this project in celebration, Deschutes crafted Move Maker, a Cold India Pale Ale with all proceeds benefitting Pink Boots Society who “assist, inspire and encourage women fermented/alcoholic beverage industry professionals to advance their careers through education.”

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City of Books and an IPA

There are many cool collaboration beer ideas. The podcast, My Dad Wrote a Porno has a range of beers. The Portland Trailblazers have had Rip City beers through the years. Add yo that hallowed crowd…

Powell’s Books! They have an Ex Novo Brewing IPA with their iconic sign on the label. The Book Industry Charitable Foundation will receive part of the proceeds from the sale of the beer.

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Needed or Not? – Beer Shade

So, this looks like a tabletop sign that would tell you something about Humble Sea Brewing but if you turn it around David Copperfield style, you get….

…now, I do not think this is blocking out that much sun, plus it looks like something that would tip over kinda easy too.

The only question that needs to be addressed though, is this really needed? Is there really a problem to be solved? Yes, a beer can be skunked really quickly and double yes, we are drinking outside more. But how many beers are getting off flavors while they being drunk? I do not think that it is a high number.

Besides, you can use your hands or hold it in your lap if you are that worried. Or if it is an important tasting, do it inside. A little walk will save you thirty bucks.