Sports & A Beer – March Madness

It is easy to get caught up in March Madness. The sheer amount of games, the buzzer beaters and the Cinderella teams, Stetson Hatters anyone. Also the fun of busted brackets, yes fun, no one wins so it is truly a game to play.

The only thing going against March Madness is that a good chunk of games each passing year are played in April. But compared to the shitshow that is the college football behemoth and their three super conferences, college basketball is as pristine as the driven snow.

And making this an even more interesting year is that there is no real consensus best player except for Caitlin Clark. And as much as the boy’s bracket will be tough, the Women’s bracket will feature Clark and the Hawkeyes of Iowa, defending champs LSU and new powerhouse South Carolina. That Final Four will be great games.

There are two ways you can pair craft beer with games. One is to find a brewery that corresponds with each of the four regions and when you watch a game from that region crack one open from that part of the country. You could also select beers based on where games are played.

Another route would be to pick beers from the cities / states where the #1 seeds hail from or if you are here for the upsets, find the #16 seeds instead.

Enjoy the tourney and its shining moments.

DTLA de Mars

Angel City Brewery has a new Artist Series beer out and inside the pretty label is a not often brewed or canned style, Biere de Mars.

The DTLA version of “this Belgian-style table ale is a lightly veiled, crispy springtime refresher brewed with a medley of natural herbs like purple sage, Yerba Santa, yarrow & California bay leaf, giving it a mixture of fruity and herby notes on the tongue alongside floral and earthy aromatics.”

Boomtown Day – Tacos and $3.00

In the near future or yesterday, if we want news and journalists out there muckraking then we are going to have to pay for it. Except maybe if you check out L.A. Taco and their new perk for monthly members.

They have teamed with Boomtown Brewery for discounts on beers at the DTLA taproom! You can stay current with what in the f-ing heck is going on in L.A. while also getting a beer. That is a good deal.

Saffron

It has been a bit since I have mentioned Firestone Walker and Buellton but a new beer is coming out that changes that trend and it is a unique one, Saffron Saison a wild saison ale with (take a guees) saffron, sweet orange peel and Indian coriander. It is a Batch No 1 release.

Name That Beer

I do enjoy when a brewery crowdsources a beer name. I know it might be a headache to go through the weeding out process but I think it can yield an out of the box name.

And for their 30 Year Anniversary celebration this year, Beer of the Month Club is joining up with “The Lost Abbey and Offshoot Beer Co., to craft four exclusive beers that will be made available only to members of The Rare Beer Club® and The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club™.”

More info: “Members and non-members alike will be invited to enter the contest beginning on March 21st with an entry deadline of Friday March 29th. Participants will be able to submit up to three names for each of the four beers to be named in the contest and the winners will be awarded a $150 MonthlyClubs.com Gift Card.”

Click HERE to enter.

Where To Go, When You Go, to Oregon

When I travel, either solo or with wife, once the travel is booked the second thing that I do is start looking for breweries to visit.

But getting current and smart recommendations which should be easy in this internet age, only sporadically is. Usually, hours of operation are out of date, can’t find taplists or food menus. I tend to now have plans B and C in my pocket wherever I go. Because I expect that location A may be closed.

Bit of a preamble to very exciting news from the Beervana Blog and esteemed drinks writer Jeff Alworth about a new (and large) project that will help beer travelers plan trips to Oregon.

Read the announcement HERE.

Once up and running, it could be an invaluable travel resource and a clearinghouse of Oregon craft beer information.

NWSL City Brewery Tour # 2 – Milewide Beer Co.

We head to Louisville and the home of Racing Louisville and their team headed by Taylor Flint and Savannah DeMelo.

The brewery we are visiting is Milewide Beer Co. Let’s check into some beers…

Gish – “Black IPA w/ Simcoe, Centennial, Chinook, & Zeus hops.”

7 Sour – “American Sour Ale w/ Raspberry, Blackberry, Blueberry, Moysenberry, Marionberry, Cranberry, Plum, & Vanilla”

Phenomenon – “Hazy IPA w/ Eclipse hops”

Uncle D – “Southern Pecan Coffee Stout”

2 New from Beachwood

Beachwood Brewing released a pair of IPAs this month that you should look for on shelves….

First released was Pizza Corgi, “A double dry-hopped West Coast IPA packed with enough dankness to make and hop-head drool featuring Nectaron Cryo, Nelson Sauvin, and Nectaron hops.”

Second was Animatronic Friends, “This modern West Coast IPA boasts a futuristic blend of innovative hops and electric aromas.” With Mosaic, Ekuanot Cryo, Columbus, Centennial, HBC-586 hops.

Cold and Short

The Short Lived Series from MadeWest Brewing has thankfully not been short lived and the latest has arrived with a gator on it and the latest partner, Firestone Walker.

It is a Cold IPA hopped with Mosaic, HBC 1019 and Nelson and the description is “bright hop character full of citrus and tropical fruit with notes of orange, honeydew and peach.”