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Angel City, inspired by Champurrado are releasing a namesake Champurrado Ale.
Here is the brewery description: “Inspired by the chocolatey Mexican Atole, this creamy ale is made with all the champurrado fixings you can find from your local street cart: corn masa, cocoa powder, panela sugar, lactose, cinnamon, and vanilla all come together to give you a smooth, sweet ale that will warm you up with every sip.”
I call this a good use of the pastry stout category.
Two strikes firstly for this 25th anniversary release from Cascade Brewing. Star anise is not my favorite featured flavors and second, my poor tum tum can only take so much sour.
On the upside, I do like the limited tastes I have had of cascara plus the Tartini release from Cascade was great.
I am not a social media power user (still no Tikety Tokety for me) but I have noticed pushback on Dry January from various and sundry folks with half the month now past even in the face of the amount of N/A options increasing significantly. Lots of #PubJanuary hashtags out there.
Maybe instead, the moderation talk can be spread throughout the year instead of focusing on the slow times in January.
We know why taprooms are slow and less crowded, the reasons are twofold. Financial and seasonal. When the weather is crappy, people go out less and they certainly don’t sit out on a patio with a beer or two. Customers have also probably over celebrated during the holidays and take a breather for a bit. Whatever the reason, the brewery books do not look rosy because of it each January and into February.
So ironically, you end up promoting a month of drinking less in an already slow month which, in essence, is setting an easier goal for yourself. If you wanted to take a bigger swing, then pick a month in the high summer drinking time.
Before I go further, I am not against N/A options, in fact, I think all the options should be on the menu. Choice is great and needed. And if someone uses January to re-set themselves healthwise, again, all for it. But if you don’t go to breweries or bottle shops for a month, you cannot expect all to be there when you want to binge on February 1st.
The pendulum has swung in favor of the survival of breweries as we sit in non-growth times for craft beer. Dry January may have been a non-factor when growth was big but now that it isn’t it is most certainly seen.
What to do? Well, moderate your drinking through the year. instead of one lump sum. I advocate taking days off each week. I don’t drink alcohol two days of the week and I watch my intake to keep it at a certain level the rest of the days. I end up with three sober months that way. And local business’s get my money each month.
Option two is to buy craft N/A options at their taprooms. One can go out with friends without drinking. If more people did that, breweries, bottle shops and bars would notice and probably increase the N/A section of the menu.
You can support locally AND be healthful at the same time.
We start with a memoir, which are not usually a style I delve into but Roughhouse Friday covers the topic of growing up and understanding your parents in a fresh way.
Part of that is due to the narrative thrust that is learning about yourself through boxing, also not normally a topic I choose to read about, and the setting in Alaska, which makes me shiver in cold just thinking about it.
Coffin made a few young man mistakes, some I recognize that I made, but he does not stray into “Lad” territory where you cringe at the worse aspects of masculinity. You can see as he gains boxing experience, he is gaining life experience outside the ring.
Alaska looms large in this book and the main beer that the “south” will know of and have tasted would be Alaskan Brewing Co. and might as well start with Juneau Juice Hazy IPA or Icy Bay IPA to get the bitterness of youth rolling. You could also pay homage to his mother’s Thai heritage with a Singha, Chang or BeerLao, whichever you can find. Those might be good to quaff after hitting the punching bag.
Time for my first beer shopping list for 2024. It is doubly toasted and very serious and all California brewed.
Highland Park Brewery Toast Points Czech Style Lager – 5.9% – “brewed with our pals Moonlight Brewing. The crew at Moonlight are one of our favorite American lager producers & we couldn’t be more stoked to create a lager with them. This is also the first time we’ve done a decoction mash on our system in Chinatown. Decoction is a process that involves taking part of the mash, boiling it separately, then mixing it back into the main mash to raise its overall temp. It can darken a beer’s color, impart richer malt flavors, give it a smoother mouthfeel, & even result in more stable foam.”
Paperback Brewing Siri-ous Problems Hazy IPA – 6.8% – “anything but a problem to your taste buds, with an overload of juicy hop aroma snd flavor. Zamba, Citra, and Azzaca hops lend themselves to creating juicy tropical fruit notes, such as pineapple, mango, stone fruits, candy, and orange tangerine.”
21st Amendment Find Your Fortune – 7.5% – “our newest Imperial Toasted Golden Ale is embellished with a QR code directly on the can so drinkers nationwide can scan the code and open their own virtual fortune cookie! Who needs horoscopes when you have a beer like this?!
With toasted sesame, vanilla, and lactose, Find Your Fortune is a complex beer that offers a delightful blend of flavors and aromas. The toasted sesame adds a nutty and slightly savory note, balanced perfectly with a sweet aroma and flavor of vanilla, followed by a silky smooth, creamy finish.”
Instead of going dry this month, I am widening my beverages. Not only N/A but ciders and now highlighting meads. Super meads from Nectar Creek Meadery.
Super Cyser: “Back by popular demand, Nectar Creek Meadery and 2 Towns Ciderhouse are proud to reintroduce Super Cyser, a regal mead from 10 years ago, breathing new life into this time honored masterpiece. This warm, rich cyser is made with Pacific Northwest apples and local blackberry honey. Fermented and aged in white wine barrels, Super Cyser boasts a rich, aromatic profile, perfectly balancing the acidity of crisp apples with the sweetness of honey.”
Super Mure: “With a respectful nod to tradition, Super Mure revives the classic melomel style reminiscent of Medieval times. This royal nectar combines blackberries and blackberry honey fermented in oak barrels. It delivers just the right balance of tannin, oak character and warm honey sweetness. At a commanding 14% alcohol by volume (ABV), this indulgent creation offers a sensory journey that is nothing short of extraordinary.”
Reviews to follow later this month!
The winner of must clunky beer packaging award goes to, well, you read the post title so you know it is the Tesla CyberBeer. Boy howdy is it the least cool bottle and mug (?) that I have run across. Which would be of little import if the beer inside outpaced the bottle.
But it doesn’t so having to peel off the shrink wrap from the neck, then manhandling the strange top off, you then still have to pop a cap and then try to carefully pour into the lopsided mug. The choice of an Imperial Helles seems odd. If the goal was just unique then mission accomplished but if the goal was instead to be a thoughtful gift or promotional item then why not just a simple lager?
Maybe this bottle was old but it tasted mostly of pear and malt and had a lot of viscosity to it and a weird alcohol-y after taste that was not quite burning but was there in too much abundance.
I hope that Buzzrock Brewing was paid well for this because this must have been extra, extra work to get from tank to bottle.
Our next anniversary party to add to the Los Angeles craft beer calendar is Burnin’ Daylight Brewing in Lomita who have reached the fifth year mark.
I mentioned last year that I made a stop in Oceanside at Bagby Beer Co. but I failed to mention that I brought a few of their beers back with me and it is now time to talk about them further. And for the last time! See today’s other Babgby blog post.
Starting with the cheekily named Corn Star an American Lager brewed with corn at a big 7.8% abv. Originally a collaboration with Sun King Brewing in Indiana. Pours a vividly clear darker yellow. Crisp and sweet aroma. First sip is very sweet on the palate. The corn taste is there for sure. Silky mouthfeel to it. Tastes pretty hefty too.
wEYEssbier was a gem that stood out in my taster tray so I bought a can of the hefeweizen to have again. There was a slight spice note but this was a banana dream. Almost into cream pie territory with a mouthfeel mix of bubbly and silky together. Better version of a pastry beer to me.
In startling news, Bagby Beer Co. in Oceanside is transitioning into the southernmost Green Cheek location.
You can read the full adieu HERE but this is a big change. Oceanside is a well beer-ed city, Bagby has a large sprawling location which combined with a general craft beer downturn probably laid the groundwork for the change. A type of change that will be happening more often in 2024.
It is too bad as you will tell from today’s other post that I really liked their beers. Solid quality. On the good side of the ledger, Green Cheek is pretty solid too, can’t really quibble with them taking over.