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In the Tap Lines for December 2024

Well, 2024 was going along pretty well for 10 months. We will need to really enjoy the living hell out of what may be a final American holiday season. Sorry, not sorry for being so dark but do your best to truly live the sentiment of the season. Christmas is a time for EVERYONE to be happy. I am happy for the great Christmas beers and will be for each of these 31 days.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Best of issue of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine

~ special featured reviews of Christmas Ales

~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 Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Shift Meal on the Ringer Food podcast

~ Sports & A Beer returns with what to do with the excess bowl games

~ 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 November 2024

A tariff is a tax imposed by one government on either imports or exports of goods (or both).  It is a revenue source for a government and import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade that taxes foreign products to encourage or safeguard domestic industry. Protective tariffs are among the most widely used tools of protectionism along with import and export quotas.

Why did I just give a simplified definition of a tariff? Because many people who voted did not understand the meaning of that word and its ramifications on food and drinks. And in the coming years, this is going to really hurt the buying power of an American dollar.

American craft beer buyers already know the upward rise of cans or draft beer. My experience has been that $8.00 is probably as low as I can expect to see a price to be. Tariffs will push that up higher.

If your favorite brewery buys malt from Germany or wants a New Zealand hop varietal or wants to make an avocado ale using Mexican fruit, well, depending on the whim and senility of the dodo in charge, those ingredients may be more costly or far more costly.

And if you believe that this tariffs will bolster industry in America well, Mr X himself has the ear (as of today) of the dodo and thief and has proven to be very anti-union and anti-paying a fair wage and extremely anti-40 hour weeks. So you may not have enough money or time to enjoy a craft beer.

This country is heading for another depression and that is going to be another broadside to a beer industry already hit hard.

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Christmas Beer Time – Day 1

This year I have roamed a little farther and found some new holiday beers to regale the season. One each day until Christmas. We will start, however, with a true evergreen. JubelAle from Deschutes Brewery.

“Embodying the spirit of celebration since 1988, Jubelale features notes of spice, a robust malt character, hints of toffee and dusted cocoa.”

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Brewery + Airport # 3 – Southwest Florida International

Our final destination in this little airport beer crawl is at the Southwest Florida International Airport. Now I do not recommend straying into actual Florida with the alligators and the DeSantis roaming around, there are some spirited stops ( Jose Cuervo, Dewars and Bacardi) as well as a new addition in Fort Meyers Brewing.

Let’s see what we can drink from FMB at RSW…You can start with their airport specific On Time lager.

Solstice Lager – “American lager with refreshing notes of candied lemon”

Goliath Grouper DIPA – ” notes of passion fruit, white grape, and strawberry”

Bramble Jamble – “sour ale brewed with blackberry and black currant”

Kegnog – “brewed with seasonal spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg”

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Happy Thanksgiving

A great Thanksgiving for me is an unstressed Thanksgiving. No worries about cooking a turkey, no who to invite or not, no traveling through a packed airport.

Give me a turkey sandwich and a side and I am good.

And a few beers too.

However you best enjoy the day, enjoy it. Give thanks for the last 11 months and thanks for the next 11. We all need it.

Cheers!

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First Half of Function

Last year I finally visited one of the two Function PDX locations in Portland. And they are banging in the first half of 2025 with doubled up tap takeovers….

…and you are seeing correctly, there is a lot of SoCal represented. So let your PNW friends know they can taste some of the same beers that we are lucky to get.

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Cider Review – 10th Anniversary from 2 Towns Ciderhouse

I received the GABF winning ciders pack from 2 Towns Ciderhouse and it is time to open up the 10th Anniversary Cider to review.

Six different apples make up this 10th Anniversary cider and except for McIntosh the rest are all deeper apple cuts like Newtown Pippin, Orleans Reinette, Ashmead’s Kernel, Golden Russet and Cox’s Orange Pippin.

It pours a light yellow in the glass with lovely little bubbles climbing upward. It is a bit of a green apple aroma to it. Quite sparkly mouthfeel to it. There is a bit of tartness to this which I like. It has a bit of candy apple tart.

I like it over the Cellar Series one because of the that green apple swirl.

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Book Day – The Maltose Paperback

The Maltose Falcons have been celebrating their 50th year in fine style with many collaborative beers and now they have opened up the archives for some of those as well as many other recipes in a new book. 

The book ( in Kindle or paperback) includes a whopping 129 home brew recipes that tun the gamut of their combined brewing experience, beers such as…

“Doug King’s “Dougweiser” that was George Reisch approved or the Steelhead “Bombay Bomber” that was liberated from the brewery (but the actual recipe creator – Teri Fahrendorf – says is nothing like the recipe she created). Silly things like my clam chowder saison. Strong things like the various Falconsclaws, Russian Imperial Stouts, Richard Webster’s stupendously outrageous 18+% beers.”

All proceeds for the book go directly to the Maltose Falcons so buy a copy and support America’s Oldest Homebrew Club.

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Book Day – A Good Dirty

There is far too little written about beer history that isn’t German White Male heavy.  Thankfully that imbalance is reduced now with the upcoming release of Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland by Dr. Christina Wade. 

Here is a little about this book: 

“You’ll find an 18th-century courtesan who had a wicked streak of beer snobbery and early medieval monks who wrote beer reviews so terrible, any Untappd fan would feel right at home.

There will be beer tastings, parties, music and wakes.

You’ll meet thieves and murderers, saints and goddesses.

You’ll hear stories of kings and paupers, witches and bishops, Irish, English and Vikings from the Late Iron Age all the way up to the early 20th century.

Oh, and don’t forget the zombies.”