L.A.s own Beer Chicks will be hitting the small screen with…..
“Eat This, Drink That, a special on The Cooking Channel starring The Beer Chicks, Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune airs Sunday March 4th! They travel to New Orleans to taste local craft beer, go shrimpin’, eat fantastic food and down some artisanal cocktails, then return to LA where Food GPS’ Beer Float Showdown is underway. They team up with Chef Ilan Hall of The Gorbals and Jonathan Porter of Smog City Brewing. Watch the competition go down at Eagle Rock Brewery featuring local chefs and brewers!”
The premier air date of the special is March 4th at 8pm on The Cooking Channel. You might even see, yours truly, in the background at the Beer Float Showdown! And I sure wish I could go to New Orleans because that food must be amazing with beer.
Learn about Hops
I briefly mentioned the Simple Earth Hops people a while back and now Matt Sweeny has announced 2-hour educational “Brewing Up a Community Hops Webinars” in March, April and May of this year, on the third Saturday of each month with a morning and evening session on each day.
From the press release, “commercial topics to be covered include marketing local hops, establishing a commercial hopyard, processing hops, how to use earth-friendly growing practices and lots of time for questions and answers. The cost for each webinar is $20, tickets are available at Eventbrite” and a full schedule is available online.
Find the Best
I have certain “go to” sites when I need beer information. Usually I try the breweries website and if I get nothing there than BeerAdvocate and RateBeer for more information. As a last resort I will punch it into Google and see how many kajillion hits I get.
But now there is another tool for your arsenal at Find the Best. You can go HERE to compare beers or HERE to compare breweries.
Give it a spin the next time you are looking for information on a rare beer or the beer that you have in front of you.
One More Trappist?
I saw this on the fabulous Brookston Beer Bulletin site. Jay Brooks writes,“Currently there are seven Trappist monastery breweries authorized to use the “Authentic Trappist Product” label by the International Trappist Association. Six are in Belgium, one is in the Netherlands. It looks like an 8th monastery is applying for authorization to brew beer under the official designation. The monastery of Engelszell Stift has filed an application and expects to be notified of the ITAs decision in 4-5 weeks.
According to Trappist-Beers.com, the Engelszell Stift monastery was “founded in 1293 and needs financial input to recover the old paintings, fresco’s and paintings” and has decided to start a small brewery to raise the necessary funds. It is located a little over 120 miles from Munich in Austria. According to Wikipedia, it’s the only one in Austria and is located in the northwest part of the country known as the Innviertel.”
I wonder how the whole application process is for this designation? Are there check-ups from inspectors? A letter grade like restaurants in California? And most importantly will this open the floodgates to more?
Session # 61
The Hoosier Beer Geek is hosting the March edition of the session. The topic I’ve been thinking about is local beer. The term is being used by just about every craft brewer in the country. What does it really mean though? Is it more of a marketing term or is there substance behind the moniker? This month I want to think about what makes local beer better? I’m not just talking about the beer itself, although it’s the focal point, but what makes local beer better? My connection to local beer is far from thinking that my beer is actually “local.” Maybe you don’t agree with me, and you can write about that. Bonus points for writing about your favorite local beer and the settings around it being local to you.
We now enter the wonderful word of semantics which as Wikipedia puts it, is “a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation.” First, I do not think there is a universal idea in the craft beer world when the word “local” is uttered. I frequent a fabulous beer bar in Burbank (shameless plug for Tony’s Darts Away) that only serves California brewed beer. Is it all local? To some yes and to others no. Personally, I only care that they serve a varied list of great beer and the carbon footprint of delivery is of lesser though still significant importance.
To others local denotes freshness. That is very important in an IPA but if I am partaking of a barrel aged sour at (shameless plug # 2) Eagle Rock Brewery then it doesn’t really matter. And local can mean the watering hole closest to you that you frequent the most. The Cheers to your Norm as it were. And it could be a brewery, bar or bottle shop. Then you have the whole issue of locally sourced ingredients to ponder.
If you have gotten this far, you may probably be saying, “Well, what is your definition of local?” And the answer is all of the above. Even I don’t have one overarching idea. There is my idea of “locally brewed”, my idea of “locally distributed” and my idea of “local destinations” but to me they are all minor considerations to me when I make a beer purchase.
I guess that it is because I firmly believe in widening ones horizons. Travel far and wide. Sample the craft beer bounty that others before us were not so lucky to have.
It might seem anti-eco to say this but as laudable as the whole “local” movement is, and as much as I admire the Sierra Nevada’s and Rogue’s that grow their own hops and barley’s, I find it more important to focus on being creative and exposing the world to the tremendous bounty that we should all responsibly enjoy.
Bring on your organic, bring on the discussion of terroir, grow it all within yards of the brewhouse but also keep brewing. Be it a simple German pilsner of some exotic beer with kaffir limes and sake yeast. I will drink local, close to local and international as long as it is craft beer.
The Canny Awards
“The best can graphics in the craft beer industry will be recognized as part of the first annual “Canny” Awards, a competition to promote craft beer in cans and highlight the high-quality, captivating graphics on canned craft beer. Awards will be presented during the Craft Brewers Conference, May 2-5 in San Diego, Calif.
The “Canny” Awards honor craft beer and the distinctive graphics created in an industry known for unique brands and brews. The competition is sponsored by four leading suppliers to the canned craft beer industry – Ball Corporation, Cask Brewing Systems, Hi-Cone and Mumm Products.
The Canny Awards is open to any canned craft beer in North America. Entries are now being accepted through March 31. Craft brewers can submit up to three entries per brewery and may choose from seven categories to enter. One design may be entered in multiple categories (up to three).
Independent judges will award an Overall Can Design trophy to the top three designs, as well as first-place awards in each of the seven categories:
Best Shelf Presence
Best Graphics Design
Best Use of Color
Best Seasonal
Best Character
Best Illustration of Beer Name
Best Local Tie-In (State, Town, Geography, Local Activity)
Winners will receive a custom Canny Award trophy that includes their can graphics and recognition at the Craft Brewers Conference and in industry publications. For a complete set of guidelines and rules and an entry form, search for “Canny Awards” on Facebook and Twitter.”
I certainly hope that Golden Road picks up at least the Best Local Tie-In award. And the Cavatica Stout from Fort George should get best use of Spiders.
In the Tap Lines for March 2012
~ e-visits to three breweries in Ireland
~ video reviews of three beers purchased during my recent trip to Portland
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 61 will converge bloggers onto a single topic
~ plus many more posts about new beers, beer products and breweries
Here are two events to get your March started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) March 21st at Beer Belly in Koreatown a One Night Stand with Golden Road Brewing
2) March 30th From the Barrel hosted by Firestone-Walker Brewery
The Firkin for February 2012
This month, I want to implore the craft beer masses (Which aren’t massive yet, but maybe soon) to use the month of March to sample a variety of beers from a style that they usually eschew.
It is easy to hop from hoppy IPA to the next and revel in the extremes that craft brewers in the US (and increasingly, everywhere) take our palates. But I think we all should re-educate ourselves with classic styles that we might be under appreciating. And I lump myself in that group too.
I have recently taken to buying more alts and stickes and dopples in an effort to re-acquaint myself with styles that are not my usual go-to’s. Rather than complaining about and buying yet another off kilter BIPA or Cascadian or whatever it is being called this week.
So far, I have had Hopworks Secret Alt, the Sultan quad from 8 Wired and I have a Mediator from Heater-Allen awaiting me as well. And if I find one on tap, I will grab a pint of Cismontane’s Dopplesticke too.
Now why am I doing this? Drinking beers that I would normally look over? Because I think it is important to keep a wide angle on the beer world. Just like I firmly believe that travel, even if it is just one county or town over is vitally important to keeping your worldview open. I believe that I cannot truly appreciate the sublime taste of a Nelson Sauvin saison without comparing it to the latest brett sensation or an English mild.
But I also believe that we cannot just leap from trendy beer to trendy beer in some mad dash towards the next “it” beer. There are reasons why kolsch is still around. There are good reasons why there are such a following and passion surrounding simple session beers and there are really great reasons to have a well crafted pilsner. Because, damn if it doesn’t work so well with a pizza. If you don’t believe me head to Ken’s Artisan Pizza in Portland and have an Upright Pilsner.
So pick the polar opposite to what you currently have in your fridge. Give two or three different beers a whirl. Pick up an Old Peculiar or a German hefe because the goal is to have as MUCH CHOICE as possible. Others have had none and we should not take for granted the great craft beer times that we live in.
2011 Brewery # 3 – Kane Brewing
Our last stop in our February tour of breweries that opened just last year is Kane Brewing.
This coastal New Jersey outfit brews up offerings like Head High IPA, Afterglow Rye Pale Ale and Driftline Oatmeal Brown. Focusing on American and Belgian influenced offerings. Slaking the thirst of Northern New Jersey!
The Beer Tasting Tool Kit
Hopefully, on our craft beer journey’s we all have been to a blind tasting. Personally, I love seeing how totally off base I usually am. And also by now, we probably have all had at least a tasting or two (informal or not) at home to show off some great beer we just got.
Now, there is a handy pre-made kit to help you do your own blind tasting at home. Check out the full story HERE at the Beervana blog (which is one of my daily reads)