Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
I wish that more people would pay attention to the results of the Great American Beer Festival but alas the other 95% as I call them seem more interested in people (who are purported to be stars dancing) or people who can’t sing singing.
The best place to check out a digestible set of results for me has been the Brookston Beer Bulletin. So check out his summary HERE.
Suffice it say that I am glad that California (adopted home is # 1) and that my ancestral home of Oregon was 3rd.
One of my favorite books of the last couple year’s was Daniel Okrent’s Last Call. And that is the jumping off point for the new Ken Burns series with the name of Prohibition.
Premieres October 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2011 at 8 PM on PBS. But check your local PBS station for more information.
Here at BSP headquarters, we are working on these posts for the ghoulish month of October. Ghoulish because of the morning’s after all the L.A. Beer Week events.
Also, again thanks to Charissa Santos, for the above logo. If you like the look of it, check out her site HERE. She does branding, print and web design and she is easy to work with and she really made me take a hard look at where I am going and what my design does to help me get there.
~ e-visits to three breweries in Australia
~ video reviews of Halloween themed beers
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 56 will converge bloggers onto a single topic
~ plus many more posts about new beers, beer products and breweries
Here are three events to get your October started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) October 9 – B.A.M. Beer-Art-Music in Santa Monica
2) October 10 – L.A. Beer Week kick-off at Naja’s Place
3) October 18th – Oskar Blues TenFidy tasting at Boneyard Bistro
Above is the third of three new logos designed for me by Charissa Santos. If you like the look of it, check out her site HEREstory on the black market for craft beer.
What caught my attention were the last two paragraphs, “Last September, Russian River released Framboise for a Cure, a raspberry-flavored beer that it sold for $12 per bottle to raise money for a local breast cancer treatment center. The beer sold out in a day, and soon somebody sold a bottle on eBay for $400. Then someone else put one up for sale. “We contacted that person,” Cilurzo says, “and we said, ‘This is absolutely ridiculous, because we donated 100 percent of this for charity.’”
The seller didn’t budge. “The guy said, ‘I have to support my habit somehow.’ ” Not heroin or cocaine. He meant craft beer.”
I do not think that I am going out on a limb to say that this guy will not be served good beer in the afterlife and that he forfeited ALL of his good karma as well.
Anyone who thinks that working the e-bay alcohol sale loophole to their benefit need to be stopped. And it shouldn’t fall onto a brewer to scour the listings and devise strategies to get a limited amount of beer to the maximum amount of people. E-Bay needs to forbid the selling of beer unless it is done by the brewery or the brewery’s distributor. Or if they wanted to go all “Leverage” on these sellers, they could allow the sale to go through but divert all but the original cost of the beer to the intended charity. Do that enough and people will stop.
But this wink-wink “collectible” rule would only benefit these sellers if there are people buying. So. Here is my plea to all those in the beer world who are dying to try the “it” beer of the moment. STOP! Get on the internet, befriend people in other parts of the country and trade with them if you cannot live without Pliny the Younger or Black Tuesday.
Yes, those are excellent beers but American in 2011 is filled with great beer everywhere and I will bet that the fresh beer at your local will be BETTER than a PtY of dubious provenance. And if that doesn’t halt your craving then fly out to California or to Indiana or Minnesota and get the beer there. If you are buying overpriced beer, then a plane ticket isn’t that much more expensive.
The upshot of this? I want the brewers brewing. Not playing police.
Our final Oregon beer is from the growing Lucky Labrador Brewery, the beer is Super Dog…..
Looks like we are getting some good Zwickel in the U.S. for this year’s Octoberfest.
“Mahr’s Brau Ungespundet Hefetrub It pours with a big, creamy, long-lasting, head; has a golden-bronze color; a wonderfully fresh, perfumy; hop aroma; a remarkably smooth, almost oily, malty, palate; very fresh flavours; and a spritzy finish. It is beautifully balanced, but leans to the dry side. This is a delicious, appetising beer and a true taste of Germany’s fast-vanishing artisanal tradition.”
Our final stop takes us to another brewery that is set to open in the near future (you know how dates are moving targets in the craft beer world).
Check out this recent article on Bruce Dir and like Tighthead on Facebook to stay in the loop on what happens next.
Hopefully you have gotten your tickets to the Union Station finale of LA Beer Week.
~ All three Lucky Baldwin’s will be pouring Stone and Craftsman beers for the week.
~ The Verdugo will celebrate it’s 4th Octoberfest
~ Golden Road Brewing will grant a sneak peek.
~ Dionicess will visit Steingarten
~ Cismontane and Tony’s Darts Away feed our caffeine needs
and that is just a smattering of the fun we will be having in LA!
Here is the full spiel:
“The ever-growing horde of Los Angeles craft beer fans can again rejoice as LA Beer Week makes its triumphant return on October 10. Cramming so much win into seven days proved impossible, so the event organizers decided to slightly alter the definition of the word “week,” opting to extend the festivities through October 23, spreading the gospel for a whopping 14 days.
This epic celebration of local beer culture will take place throughout Los Angeles & Orange Counties (and their respective environs), highlighting an array of focused tastings, educational seminars, and beer pairing dinners at bars, restaurants, bottle shops, and breweries throughout the area. These resplendent activities will culminate with the signature LA Beer Week Festival on October 23, from 12-4pm at the historic Union Station. $45 pre-sale tickets for the flagship festival are available now, which entitle attendees to unlimited 4oz. tasters of beer from over 70 of the world’s most respected craft and artisan breweries, including some rare and special releases.
One special find that will pop up around town throughout LA Beer Week will be Unity, an autumn saison brewed with tamarind. The recipe, developed by Eagle Rock Brewery’s Jeremy Raub and Craftsman Brewing Company’s Mark Jilg, and brewed by a team of the event organizers, is reflective of the collaborative spirit behind LA Beer Week as well as the camaraderie present within the craft beer industry.
The team is rightfully proud of the diversity of the local beer culture and community, and looks forward to once again promoting and celebrating it with a larger audience. A framework and calendar for individual establishments and breweries to promote their own events, as well as information and tickets for the LA Beer Week Festival, are available at LABeerWeek.com.
Proceeds from the LA Beer Week Festival will be benefiting The Spero Foundation”
I had the good fortune to sample the inaugural beers from the new Golden Road Brewing last night at 38 Degrees Alehouse and I am pleased to report that I thoroughly enjoyed both.
I started with the Point the Way IPA. I have to admit that I was concerned due to the brewer’s Dogfish past and the fact that I am not a big Dogfish IPA fan. (I know it’s heresy) But this was a solid effort. Especially considering it’s new equipment and the first batch. It poured a dark orange with a big head on it and the aroma was pure pine. The flavor stayed that way too and for a 5% abv, I got some heat off of it too. Once it warmed up a little some citrus kicked in as well to really round the flavors off.
The hefeweizen also was helped by warming up. And again it was citrus that crept onto the palate. But this citrus had a candied quality to it. And again it really balanced out the big banana flavors and the clove spiciness. This is a great example of the hefe style with a little twist that adds to it instead of overwhelming.
Overall this was a great start for Golden Road. I was expecting some work to be done but these are really good on their own right out of the gate.
I want to thank all of you who voted send me on a trip to Canfest in Reno, Nevada.
Because of your votes, whether they came through Facebook, Twitter, Flicker or just plain old e-mail, I will be able to report on all of the canned brew festivities.
It may have taken just a few seconds to vote but I really appreciate that in this social media age that you took that time on my behalf.
And I also want to thank the other bloggers who made it a tight, tight race. The Blager, Daily Beer Review, Hoppy Beer Girl, Washington Beer Blog, Pints and Panels, Road Trips For Beer,
Girl From Arizona and especially BrewDad. I would have been disappointed but glad if any of you had won.
So stay tuned to this blog for more canned beer coverage in November.
P.S. I better see 7 Seas, Good People Beer and Sixpoint Ales at the festival. I will give Golden Road a break this year because they will start canning after the festival.