Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Anniversary beers are right up there with collaborative brews for me. I love see the numbers tick by as the industry gets stronger and on firmer footing. So congratulations to Captain Lawrence who should try to visit LA. I’ve had one beer but their full line-up intrigues me.
Orange County is a haven for great beer for us needy Angelenos and coming soon these beers from Noble Ale Works….
Pale Ale 5.6% ABV
Brewed with Amarillo hops giving it a crisp floral nose with smooth finish.
Alpha Red 7.2% ABV
This Imperial Red Ale beer is brewed with Magnum and Columbus hops then dry hopped with Simcoe and Columbus hops which gives it a nice citrus finish to the balanced malt characteristic.
IPA 7.0% ABV
Brewed in the west coast IPA style, this IPA is highly hopped with a full body. Essence of grapefruit with a floral/piney nose.
Dark Sybian IPA 6.5% ABV
Our version of Cascadian Dark Ale, brewed with the new and seasonal Midnight Wheat Malt from Briess Malting.
Hopped with Cascade, Centennial and Magnum hops.
Thanks to a Christmas gift of beer, I can take Arkansas off the list!
This pale ale from Diamond Bear in Little Rock really worked for me. I love finding new beers that hit the spot!
Some cities and states claim to be the premier beer destination and I don’t doubt their credentials. But for width and depth, the state of Oregon is in a league of it’s own.
Sour ale house. Check.
Belgian. Check.
Cask ale? Check below…
Brewers Union Local 180 is owned by Ted Sobel. His goal is to serve all of his beer, cask conditioned and stored in firkins.
Here is a sample of a past beer list to whet your taste buds:
Wotcha A La Amarillo Best Bitter
Good With Bacon Amber Special Bitter
Cumbrian Moor English Porter
Union Dew I. P. A.
MUTT O. R. A.
Tanninbomb Oak-Aged English Old Ale
Americans are awash in great beer. So much so that other locales are ignored somewhat simply because our ‘fridges and interwebs bookmarks are packed with great beer and great beer blogs.
But I suggest taking the time to read the Pencil and Spoon by Mark Dredge.
I talked with Mark briefly at the Beer Bloggers Conference last year and can tell you that he knows and is passionate about beer. And it shows in his writings.
The January suggestions tilt toward the IPA. One that I recently re-discovered and one that is still untasted. I will let you decide which is which. Then to top it off, a good old ale!
Without further ado, click the link to print out the January beers to try.
What I don’t know about lambics could fill a book. That’s why I will be asking for this…
…for my birthday or Valentine’s Day whichever works!
Go to the great Books About Beer to pick up your copy.
Bell’s Brewery has added hawberry to their latest iteration of the Eccentric Series. It was also brewed with maple syrup and other spices.
I have been lucky enough to sample a few Bell offerings, Oberon, the Christmas Ale and I have a Batch 9000 sitting in the cellar. This might be one to snag and try.
Here is what the gonzo brewers at Flying Dog have to say about their version of the coffee stout…
“Ditch the yuppies with their overpriced lattes and pour yourself a pint of our robust coffee stout. Brewed with a secret roast from The Black Dog Coffee Company, it’s the perfect balance of nutty coffee flavors and chocolate malt notes. Perfect morning, noon and night, this stout’s velvety taste will make it hard to ever return to your favorite acne-prone barista. (He’ll live).”
It seems consolidation and ownership changes are once again roiling the craft beer world. Anchor and Anderson Valley change hands and we all hope the quality stays high. But with the merger of Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch, more complicated concerns arise.
Both Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch have a place in the craft community. On the outside looking in due to a general disdain for chains from a consumer base that really values individuality. Their beers are absolutely fine (I would take GB’s over RB but that is because I have not been to Rock Bottom in a long, long time) but they are obviously aiming for the mid-range food eater first. Not a bad thing in a world of much crappier beer and TGI Friday’s. But they have chosen to stay in a comfortable place of above average while other breweries have focused on expanding palates and beer culture.
What I will be watching for in the coming year is how they stay separately branded. Do they combine their recipes? Do they make all the beer in San Jose? Because they dilute the beer world when they make GB the same as RB. We aren’t choosing one over the other because of the garlic fries. My hope is that the brewing operations stay separate and maybe expand to allow brewers the chance to experiment and come up with great new beers. Maybe even a new flagship brew will come out of the mind of someone given the opportunity to test and fail.
That is my first worry. That the beers will be the same in both chains. That would not be good. Not good for the brewers working there and not good for the new to beer crowd. Places like GB, RB and BJ’s are great incubators for brewers and customers. This is the front door to the land of beer with flavor and hops and if that door becomes homogenized it is bad for both parties.
I won’t feel much in the short term but I would like more blog readers and more craft beer consumers which would open up beer job opportunities. Both are not helped by gateways that become corporate.
My message to Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom is to use the strength of the combined companies to create MORE not go into a safe shell.
UPDATE: I finished writing this and after checking a Blazer score read that Van Havig of Portland’s Rock Bottom got sacked for making comments about the merger and consolidation of beer menus. His came with more knowledge of the situation though. It pains me to see a company toss aside a great brewer. Poor form corporate!
UPDATE 2
It appears that the GB / RB owner CraftWorks has begun a defense of both the Gordon and Van Havig situations. First claiming that Oskar Blues was in the wrong for breaching an agreement. Which I can’t comment on since I have not seen the document and am not a lawyer and probably couldn’t read it anyway.
Three issues on their defense of the new, larger company scare me though. They have employed the Merger Defense. You know the drill. Two companies merge and someone in PR says that it is hard to combine two separate companies and that problems can arise. Standard boilerplate stuff to assuage fears. Seems very Dilbert to me
Second they have gone on the attack of some bloggers for reporting what they knew. Very snarkily to me, “Like beer, information is best when it is obtained fresh at its source. So let them chatter all they want…” That is poor form. Comment on the post. Blog your side but don’t passive-aggressive bloggers.
Third, they say don’t take it out on our talented brewers as if it was “our duty” to keep their business afloat. “I implore you to keep on open mind about what “Craft Beer” is and who defines it. We have 68 hard working brewers whose livelihoods and families depend on the wisdom of beer connoisseurs…”. Sounds like someone wrote this while still stewing about previous posts.
All in all, seems a little too defensive to me.