Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Part of my daily routine is five minutes of Italian language learning. Trying to keep my little grain active while preparing for a possible future trip to the Boot.
A recent learning section is about bars and besides la birra, I have run across a couple other useful phrases….
What’s on tap?
I want an IPA (pronounced eepa)
Another trip around the sun for this here beer blogger. Time to celebrate with an extra day and some extra special beers along with the usual posts such as….
~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Washington State in honor of George’s birthday that he shares with me
~ special featured review my chosen birthday beer
~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 Black AF History by Michael Harriot
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to True Detective – Night Country
~ Sports & A Beer returns with What are sports now anyway?
~ 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.
Seems like IP un-aithorization has roared back into use again. For a while, labels that I saw on the interwebs seemed to have actual thought out designs but lately, that whole piggyback on someone else’s work is back like a cold you can’t shake.
I know that punners gonna pun and that not all artistry will be to my particular liking. There are some breweries whose labels just do not speak to me but I am at the very least, on board with breweries who at least try to be original.
But there are soooo many lazy beer labels that look like children’s cereal boxes or sodas or candy bars that I have to believe that they sell enough to make a brewery take that step into outright identity theft. Me, I would looking over my shoulder for a Cease and Desist letter.
This, at a time, when you can probably find many artists to create a look for your new pastry stout or candy sour that actually tells the story of your brand and not a secondhand tale with missing pages that is more attached to the original IP than your beer.
Time to see what beers made an impression on me in the first month of 2024. My penchant for collaboration beers is certainly showing.
Here are my runners up:
Bagby Beer Co. wEYESsbier with Bierstadt Lagerhaus
Creature Comforts Winter Trees Cold Red IPA
Everywhere / North Park Retro Steps Forward DDH Hazy IPA
This month the most memorable was:
Brouwerij West / Harland Cosmic Gulp Tarted Fruit Ale – I guess I am a sucker for passion fruit which was strongly forward but what other than that, this sour was not puckery. I think I found a tart beer that doesn’t leave my stomach in backflips
Well, the big industrial marketing brewers are at it again. Spending time on advertising over ingredients.
Coors Light has had its iconic (?) Silver Bullet Train for as long as I can remember but now they are harnessing some Hollywood CGI so that lucky (?) fans can see their face in the ad during the Super Bowl. They will also get $500 and swag.
The downside is that the actual commercial during the game will be played at normal speed which means no one can see the faces. You have to go to their website or god forbid the Coors YouTube channel to see a slow motion version where you might be able to catch your face if you don’t blink.
Our last brewery recommended by drinks writer Stephen Beaumont is in Halifax, Stillwell Brewing Company.
For my taster tray, I would select…
Stilly Pils – “Brewed with German malt and hops in the traditional method, Stilly Pils is our idea of a great everyday beer: fresh, foamy and moreish.”
Best Bitter – “Brewed with English malt and hops in the (almost) traditional method, Best Bitter is our take on England’s great pub ale. Highly sessionable and naturally conditioned.”
13° Czech-Style Dark Lager – “Brewed with Czech Ingredients and in the traditional method, our 13° Tmavý Ležák is our take on Czechia’s magical black beer. Na zdraví!”
Cream Ale – “Brewed in the traditional method as a true hybrid beer – American hops balancing a german grist – Cream Ale is a nostalgic and highly sessionable everyday beer,”
There is always lots of beer chatter about a new hop varietal even when given an unappetizing name like Anchovy but less attention to yeast unless it is Thiol Boosted.
But premiere Yeast Lab, White Labs has found a new and rare yeast….
…strange to have a yeast from rare cacao. Hope to find a beer with it.
With all the economic distraction around the craft beer niche, it is good to see milestones reached, such as Offshoot Beer Co. attaining the seven year mark!
Here is to another year of beers from The Bruery’s younger sibling.
One of the cool places for beer on the Central Coast is the Ancient Owl Beer Garden. Big list of draft beers and beer to-go.
Now, you can Owl in San Luis Obispo too as they have opened their second location there this month.
There is not much better in craft beer life than perusing a bottle shoppe so each new one is a gift.
LA County and Orange County team up on a hoppy pilsner. Broken Algorithm is the combo of Chapman Crafted and Smog City Brewing
It will arrive in February, and features a “blend of Citra, Motueka, and Nectaron hops, with a twist of Muscat grape must for a dry, refreshing finish.”