St. Sebastian


Just the other day I was attempting to explain craft beer bottle sizes to an interested but not “into” craft beer person who was with me up until my switch from 22ounce bombers to 750mililiter large format bottles. I am glad I didn’t go into details on the ceramic bottles like the ones used by Brouwerij Sterkens for their St. Sebastiaan line (or the fact that there are two “A”s in Sebastiaan)
Thankfully Belgian styles don’t need too much explaining especially the blonde, strong Belgian pale and Dubbel in these huge “crocks” that I have started to see at local BevMo’s in L.A.

Sept-OctoFest

Events are starting to pile up in anticipation of the 4th L.A. Beer Week and here is one to add a Teutonic twist to both September and October.

“Los Angeles German restaurant and beer garden, Wirtshaus, will be celebrating Oktoberfest from Saturday, September 22 through Saturday, October 20, 2012. The official Oktoberfest “kick-off” at Wirtshaus is 3:00 PM on September 22, when a surprise German celebrity guest will tap the restaurant’s ceremonial Oktoberfest keg, which will be “on the house”; guests who are seated and purchase an entrée, drink for free from that first keg until it runs dry.

Wirtshaus’ Oktoberfest plans will include regularly-changing food and drink specials during their four-week celebration (specials will be posted in the restaurant, and also announced on their Facebook and Twitter pages); live traditional German music on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout the celebration; and accompanying Erdinger-sponsored décor and giveaways.

Beer Geek Radio


When I start updating the weekly L.A. Beer Blast or I am preparing some dinner, I like to listen to podcasts to stay in touch. Now I am picky about what I listen to so a host needs to be engaging and a little funny but also move people along. That’s why I don’t listen to call in shows. So I listen to Good Food on KCRW and This American Life and Planet Money.

Craft beer wise, things get dicey. But I recently checked back in to the world of beer podcasts and found one that holds my attention and though it still has the “two guys with in-jokes talking beer and drinking” which isn’t a great audio combo. There is still more than enough “there” there to make it a good choice to listen to. It is called Beer Geek Radio and you can get it on iTunes or pick it up via their website. August found Brad and Steven knee deep in DIPA’s but there are other shows about beer ticking, summer beers and great but common beers that I found diverting and I think you might too.

September Brewery # 1 – Offshore Ales

When I think of Martha’s Vineyard, my first thought isn’t craft beer but thanks to Linzy Mahoney of the Edible Westside (Los Angeles) magazine. I now know about Offshore Ales.

And they cover a gamut of beer styles from an ESB (Extra Sensory Beer) to a few different IPA options to a Breakfast Porter as well. And it is a brewpub, so you can get food too as you sample from the 10 beer lines and 2 cask engines.

It is good to see craft beer penetrating every nook and cranny of the U.S.

Deschutes in L.A.


Having secured a taste of both the Chainbreaker IPA (though it should really be a Belgian tea-inflected blonde) and Black Butte XXIV and finding both to be quite tasty, I thought I would give a month long heads-up to what the Bend, Oregon brewery has in store for Los Angeles before and during L.A. Beer Week.

9/10 Deschutes pint night at Link N Hops in Atwater Village
9/12 Deschutes pint night at the Bruery’s Provision shop in OC
9/15 California Beer Festival in Ventura
9/22 Septemberfest at the Santa Monica Pier
9/29 Beer brunch at Boneyard Bistro in Studio City
9/30 Union Station even for LA Beer week

2 Beer Books on the horizon

There are two books on the near and far horizon that will appeal to craft beer fans and especially to the lot who have been bitten by the home brewing bug. And though the Amazon site has been glitchy with me. I have ordered one in Kindle version to arrive next year. But first…..

Mitch Steele – IPA. It makes sense. Stone has a definite bitter style and this book which includes both history and recipes. As the liner notes to the book go on to explain, “Explore the evolution of one of craft beer’s most popular styles, India pale ale. Loaded with brewing tips from some of the country’s best brewers, IPA covers techniques from water treatment to hopping procedures. Included are 48 recipes ranging from historical beers to recipes for the most popular contemporary IPAs made by craft brewers such as Deschutes Brewery, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Pizza Port Brewing and Russian River Brewing Company.” And even if you are not a brewer but a fan of the style the recipes should be interesting from the vantage point of which hops are used and how much.


Ken Grossman – Sierra Nevada. I wish I didn’t have to wait until 2013 to read this one but I will. I hope this is a harbinger for more books on craft beer pioneers. I read a slim tome about the famous Bert Grant that did not meet expectations and I think there are quite a few newbies who can stand to learn about the old guard. I know the outlines of the Sierra Nevada story but I hope this book digs a little deeper.

Enlighten Me


Urban Chestnut in Missouri has begun the Enlightenment Series with Kaldis Coffee Sertãozinho Weiss. Which the label describes thusly, “The very specific purpose of our first coffee-bier collaboration was to unequivocally break the convention of traditional heavy-roasted, dark coffee beers. To do this we’ve taken a berry-nosed and earthy Brazilian coffee (Sertãozinho) and merged it with a traditional, clove and banana-estered, Bavarian Wheat Beer (Weissbier). The result – a stimulating infusion marked by overtones of sweet and tart fruit balanced by a subtle-but-not-bitter roast of rich tannins.”

I like to see specialty ingredients break away from one style and start spreading around. If the roast on the coffee is good then this could be a winner.

I can Pickle That!


This was not inspired by the Portlandia episode. It was only inspired by one of those peanut butter & chocolate moments when Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head was pairing his iconic 60 Minute IPA with an artisan pickle from Brooklyn Brine. One call later and …. “a first-of-its-kind culinary leap of taste: the Hop-Pickle.The all-natural, earthy Hop-Pickle is made with Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, caramelized onions and Cascade hops and is packaged by hand in Brooklyn Brine’s small artisanal kitchen.”

You can also partake of whiskey or bourbon pickles too! But you may need a NY hook-up. The Brine’s operations don’t include the West Coast yet.

Session # 67


Session # 67 topic comes from Ramblings of a Beer Runner and requires putting on our Karnac the Magnificent hats to predict the future….

“There’s been much cheering and fanfare reverberating throughout the brewing community about the latest brewery numbers recently released from the Brewer’s Association, who counted exactly 2,126 breweries in the United States. To put that into context, you have to go way back to 1887 when the United States had that many breweries. It’s an astonishing 47% increase from just five years ago in 2007 when the tally was a mere 1,449, despite the United States slowly recovering from a serious recession over this period. And according to the Brewers Association, another whopping 1,252 breweries are in the planning stages.

Where is it all going? The growth shows no sign of stopping and the biggest problem most breweries have is that they can’t brew beer fast enough. But can the market really absorb all these new breweries? Are we headed for a cataclysmic brewing bubble where legions of brewers, their big dreams busted, are left to contemplate selling insurance? Or is brewing reaching a critical mass, only to explode even more intensely in a thermo-nuclear frenzy of fermentation?

Now you have a chance to weigh in on these questions. For this month’s Session, tell us how many breweries the Brewer’s Association will count five years from now in 2017, and why you think it will be that number.

We greatly appreciate international perspectives on the US brewing industry and look forward to predictions on US brewery numbers from outside America’s shores. Or if they prefer, they can make a similar prediction about the brewing industry in their home country.

Feel free to use complex mathematical econometric models, top secret brewing industry information, or your favorite dart board, and post your prediction on Friday, September 7th. Share your link in a comment to this post, or send it to me in an e-mail from a link you’ll find here. I’ll post the round-up a few days later.

And for incentive, if five years from now your prediction is the most accurate one, in addition to enjoying beer blogger bragging rights, I will personally buy you a beer.”

When I have been asked about the future of craft beer, either by doe-eyed optimists or sour pessimists, I give the same answer. But let me backtrack a little. I have no stats (damned lies in many instances) or hard facts to back any of this up. This is just the gut feeling of one guy in a corner of the craft beer world. But I think in this session that the closest guesses will be of the hunch variety.

After disdaining the use of stats and facts, I will base my estimates on only three numbers and one immutable fact. I was never fond of math and did whatever I could to get away from that building in college. So this will not be trig or algebra.

#1 – 2,126 The “now open” number
#2 – 1,449 “fermenting” breweries
#3 – craft beer market share 5.7% as of 2011 numbers from the Brewer’s Association

Fact – The major industrial water lager brewers will continue to not know how to or refuse to brew a craft equivalent beer

Taking that in. I see growth over the next five years. Maybe not the velocity that we currently enjoy as writers covering this sector but I see continual upward growth. My personal tea leaves see that the current craft breweries are not making enough beer (see expansion to Asheville or lowered distribution efforts). SO that means there is a void for new. I would guess that maybe 1/2 of the crop that want to open will make it. Probably augmented by some not currently counted. Some of the open ones may falter but I see around 3,000 functioning craft beer sites in 2017. That 3,000 may still be not enough to fill the pint glasses because….

….I see this as a long-term trend, I firmly believe that way more than 5.7% of people want to drink more than corn water. It may not be a majority but I do see 15% as not out of the realm of reason. Now some places like the NW are already past that and others (like L.A. where I am typing from today) have catching up to do and the laggards are where the bigger growth will be. But there will be an upper limit to craft beer. (And those will be interesting times to write in, let me tell you).

Masters of graphs and excel spreadsheets will surely be able to figure out that if the market stabilizes at 15% then X amount of breweries producing Y amount of barrels will need to be in operation based on population and drinking habits. I think that number will probably be north of 3,500 but I don’t think that number will be reached in 5 years.

But to the doomsayers or those worried about a second bust cycle, I present the one unbending fact. Since New Albion (pick your pioneering brewery and insert here) flung open it’s doors oh those many years ago, the big boys have yet to make a craft beer.*

Oh, they have tried. American Ale from Budweiser was watered down Fat Tire. But they have mainly stuck to what they are great at. Marketing and distribution. At some point in the future, I see the MillerCoors ABInBev suits just throw in the towel and distribute craft beer en masse to get in on the money that they are unwilling to create from scratch.

The case for growth in this industry is actually easy to see because the cause of craft beer is rippling around the globe. England has new breweries as does Italy and New Zealand. As the majors have taken over market share, the inevitable rise of the small has followed in it’s wake. The brewing epicenter may not be the U.S. in years to come but it will look an awful lot like it.


*I will agree that Blue Moon is the closest to the mark but they are kept quarantined away from Coors proper like Brett from a winery.