Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
I am not a LOL FAFO acronym spouting person so I did not know that in some circles BRW is code for brew or beer. So when I saw an ad on social media for BRWTXT claiming to be a Los Angeles beer service, I admit to being confused and a little wary of internet skulduggery.
Then I checked and you are prompted to add your credit card number as well, just to get text notifications. Still seems fishy to me. If anyone in craft beer land has tried this and has opinions or hot takes, let me know.
Consider this your fair dues warning, March 3rd is International Tripel Day. Probably should get at least a half-day off for it. You can look for one of the below choices….
….or check your local brewery tap list to see if anyone has their own spin on the style.
I know that craft beer world may not need another charity beer right at the second. Especially here in Los Angeles, where there are quite a few wildfire charity beers out and about (that y’all should be getting).
But…. I would like to see a few Jimmy Carter beers like this one from Wallenpaupack Brewing in Pennsylvania. “Jimmy” beer, in the American pale lager style. A callback to his brothers infamous “Billy” beer.
You can read a bit more about it HERE.
Even though the initial round of tariffs have been postponed (with aluminum on the way) maybe in part because Canada banned American made spirits from their state-run liquor stores, I wanted to send out a blanket message to anyone who works in distilleries in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee who voted Elon for President that they nearly voted themselves out of a job.
Tariffs, as I have mentioned a few hundred times before work best as a protective layer for a young and growing homegrown industry that may be more expensive to start but could grow and become competitive and then not need the tariff protection. It is pretty basic economics. Unfortunately pretty basic economics seem beyond the grasp of too large a group of Americans.
The point of this post is not to say I Told You So. This post is for us few nice Americans who are siding with our neighbors to thr north and south. How do we push the needle to sanity? Below are some small actions you can take to help….
Our second stop from the New School Beer Blogs upcoming breweries post is at Audacity Brewing which is taking the step of moving from Washington State to Oregon.
Let’s check out some of the beers…
Enksy – “Part of our Trappist-inspired beer series. This underrepresented style goes by many names: enkel, single, patersbier. Fashioned as a lower-strength ale monks drink when they’ve got other stuff to do. With notes of pome fruit, honeyed biscuit, and light spice phenolics, you may find yourself ditching work to get a daily ration.”
Oberwesel – this Kolsch “has a grainy sweetness with subtle bread, spice, and fruit notes.”
Morning Mood – “stout loaded with maple syrup and Velton’s coffee. It’s the ultimate “breakfast” beer, and we are big proponents of the all-day breakfast.”
Offshoot Beer Co. is heading up the ABV dial to 8% for their 8th anniversary beer….
…we might need to get two 4-packs of this one.
Combine history and beer and I am in and I quickly pre-ordered Filthy Queens by Dr. Christina Wade that covers the history of beer in Ireland.
My overriding history book guide is that if it is textbooky then it is not good. History, when written well, can be electric. Most school taught history though is dry as dust.
Preamble aside, Wade has put fun into this gallop through Ireland and its brewing history from 300 AD up to 1900. I mean gallop because it is under 200 pages. Part of the reason is that back just over a century ago, a fire broke out in Dublin and the flames consumed a lot of historical documents. Making a hard task even harder and necessitating comparing other countries and making leaps and guesses as to what could have happened in Ireland.
I knew that I was in good hands when an Untappd joke appears on the pages of this book. Wade doesn’t bog you down with dates and instead finds little personal moments where people and beer intersected through the years.
The only down note is that the book ends at 1900. I know I wasn’t going to get modern craft beer in Ireland but I think the boundary end could have been up to pre-WW2 where there are more sources and info that could be passed on.
Every chapter of Filthy Queens had a nugget of learning, if not more and I am sure I will be referencing this book in the future.
Highland Park Brewery is bring a bit of the Bay to their Chinatown location with…
…I have tasted beers from 3 of the 5 and maybe I will be able to tuck in and have half pints from those 2 missing ones.
I will admit that a cute label occasionally overrides my normal beer buying thinking, it doesn’t hurt if the beer style is left of center too. Such was the case with the Lucky Chicken Red IPA from Lucky Brew aka Kizakura Sake Brewing.
This is from Kyoto, Japan and who knows how fresh this will be so take the following review with a grain of malt. It pours a real dark brown color with a worty malt smell that comes on hard. Sorta tastes old to me which doesn’t jibe with the aroma. Not locating much in the way of hops and in fact, this tastes more English than anything.
One of my favorite charities along with World Central Kitchen is Habitat for Humanity. Both have been and will be integral to recovering from the devastating wildfires here in Los Angeles.
The latter will be getting a boost from a new beer coming at the end of the month from Los Angeles Ale Works…
