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Tick Tock

It is only a matter of time before user of TikTok could be seeing advertising from alcohol companies as their advertising policy guidelines have been recently updated.

Since I have only have bandwidth for Facebook and Instagram, I have never been on the app so I can not gauge the usefulness of it for craft brewery marketing. Also considering the congressional fire it is under, I do not know how or in what form it might be in going forward. But any loosening of Puritanical strings is good in my book.

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Cookies, Cream and Stout

I do not need any nostalgia when it comes to ice cream. I will have it every day to keep it in mind if needed but Radiant Beer Co. has a new late summer stout to maybe pair with a pint…

Nostalgic Vibes is a cookies and cream ice cream cone pastry stout. Using Cacao nibs, Comoros Vanilla Beans, crushed chocolate sandwich cookies and waffle cone pieces.

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Variety Box of Solitude

Topa Topa Brewing is setting out their first variety6-pack just before Labor Day weekend. The Solitude Series IPA Mixed Pack harkens back to the single hop IPA craze of years past.

You will get two beers each of Mosaic, Citra and Talus.  Here are the brewers notes from Brewmaster Casey Harris – “Mosaic has always been a standout hop, as it’s so diverse in its flavor and aroma with an array of fruity, tropical, and earthy notes. Citra is one of my favorites, and kind of finds its way into a lot of our beers – perfect for rounding things out with its strong citrus qualities. Talus is a new one, and it’s really a unique hop with intense flavors of grapefruit, stone fruit, and oak.”

There is also an “interactive QR code on the base of the mixed 6-pack provides an opportunity to share feedback on which hop pleases their palate the most.”  If this sells well, I would expect another set of three hops in box 2.

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Review – Patio Project from Beachwood – Can 1

This month, as a bit of a scientific lark, I am going to review the same beer weeks apart to see if any differences can be found. I chose Patio Project IPA from Beachwood Brewing as the test subject after picking it for the beer shopping list post last month.

As you can see from the above photo, it was canned up on 8/1/24. For this review, the first can was tasted on 8/16/24. I will taste can two and can three later.

PP pours a light yellow in color with bubbles flying upward in the glass. At first, it seems slight but this has a very solid dank base to it. The malt texture is not letting itself be left behind here as it is near equal to the hops. Any fruit notes from the hops come off as dried citrus to me.

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Okto-Wheat

Can you imagine being a brewery since 1701?  Crazy.  Just crazy enough that Sierra Nevada has tapped Brauerei Gutmann, for the 2024 edition of their collaborative Oktoberfest.

This year’s beer celebrates with more wheat malt in the recipe in a nod to Gutmann’s famous Hefeweizens.  There are also Saphir hops to add a little lemon to the proceedings.

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In the Tap Lines for September 2024

Here in Los Angeles, September is the last real dry and hot month and I am so happy to see fall on the horizon. Except that fall brings the always too soon Fall Y’all Pumpkin Spice nonsense, followed concurrently by always too soon Christmas. So let’s do our best to stay in the present and keep our eye on all things Oktoberfest.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries in Colorado in anticipation of GABF

~ special featured reviews of Oktoberfest beers + tips on Fest Biers to buy in SoCal

~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 The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to the NPR 4th Grade Podcast Challenge

~ Sports & A Beer returns with beer prices in the Premier League

~ 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.

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The Firkin for August 2024

The slushie machine era must be nearing an end because I see those swirling machines at pretty much every brewery taproom that I visit.

And that gets me to thinking about two things:

A. the slushie machine salesman is getting big checks

B. when are breweries going to stop chasing after trends and get back to being a trend?

I don’t mean to throw too much shade with point B but I do feel that the more hard seltzers and slushies one puts on offer is a lost opportunity to do something innovative in the beer space. Each alternative drink sold cements a customers relationship, not to beer or your brewery, but to sugary, bubbly treats.

Much like coffee shops that sell iced diabetes bombs that contain zero coffee, a brewery that is just selling hard slurpees are stealing from their core brand. I can understand that a group of people may acquiesce to going to a brewery if there are more options but it starts to look like the brewery isn’t the destination. Much like the group of friends who end up at an Olive Garden because it is the least offensive choice.

Time to sell the slushie machine or at least make a fresh hop slushie.

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Best Beers of August 2024

This month it is the all IPA edition. Which is weird because usually I find most IPAs to be smack in the vast middle of pretty good land. I do my best to taste fresh IPA but even the most ardent hop hunter can fall prey to hops that just aren’t packing the same punch as earlier.

Two were draft and two were canned. In the runners up category was Smog City and their CCBA White IPA, the first of two of that sub-style that I tasted this month. It was bright and light without getting too thin and it had a real nice subtle character to it. The other draft was at Great Notion where I had their Orange Creamsicle IPA. Usually not a fan of the milkshake but this did not have the fake orange and too sweet. It tasted much like the ice cream treat.

The cans were from North Park Beer Co. and from Ambitious Ales and it was a tight call but North Park’s Dead as a Doornail DDH West Coast IPA made me sit up a bit straighter than the Gimme That from Ambitious.