Tag: A Book & A Beer

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In the Tap Lines for October 2024

We have entered Q4 of 2024. As always, the year just swings by before you know it. Before the calendar switches, we need to pack in fun like a trip to Colorado, which I will be posting about later.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries that won at this year’s GABF

~ special featured reviews of Halloween inspired beers

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Blocks with Neal Brennan

~ Sports & A Beer returns with WNBA and NBA expansion to Portland and maybe Seattle

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

When I started reading The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley, I had no idea it was book one of what is a three book series so far.

And I do not think that I will be taking in books two and three. This book is set in Victorian England approximately and we follow a government worker, Nathaniel (annoyingly called Thaniel) along with Grace Carrow a physics student at Oxford and Keita Mori, the titled watchmaker formerly of Japan.

The story has a bomb plot and a supernatural plot and an HG Welles mechanical invention side plot and none really coalesce into a hole. Oh and Gilbert and Sullivan make an appearance too. All that would make for a fine ramble but the characters are just sketches expect for Nathaniel who is just a dithering lump who makes book plot choices and not strong character choices.

For beer, be on the lookout for a brewery doing a series of beers. Be it in a variety pack or a quarterly series and crack one open and do your best to forget the book and that you have other beers and see if based on the one beer, you would order up the rest.

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In the Tap Lines for September 2024

Here in Los Angeles, September is the last real dry and hot month and I am so happy to see fall on the horizon. Except that fall brings the always too soon Fall Y’all Pumpkin Spice nonsense, followed concurrently by always too soon Christmas. So let’s do our best to stay in the present and keep our eye on all things Oktoberfest.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries in Colorado in anticipation of GABF

~ special featured reviews of Oktoberfest beers + tips on Fest Biers to buy in SoCal

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to the NPR 4th Grade Podcast Challenge

~ Sports & A Beer returns with beer prices in the Premier League

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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In the Tap Lines for August 2024

There was a lot going on in July out in the wide world, August promises no respite for that. But in BSP World, there is a lot of fun, including….

~ e-visits to (3) new breweries in Pennsylvania from listening to Lew Bryson’s Seen Through a Glass podcast

~ special featured reviews of beers from Lagunitas, remember them?

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads You Like it Darker by Stephen King

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Ringer-Verse for Deadpool and Wolverine

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Hard Knocks

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – The Napoleon of Crime by Ben MacIntyre

Fiction sometimes echoes facts and such is the case with James Moriarty, arch nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. He was partially based on an American gentleman thief named Adam Worth. And his story is told in The Napoleon of Crime by Ben MacIntyre.

From faking his own death in the Civil War to London, Paris, New York and Johannesburg, Adam Worth live a full life despite not making it to 57 years old. He stole diamonds, money, pickpocketed and ran a gambling den but is most famous for s more spur of the theft of the famous Gainsborough painting, The Duchess of Devonshire.

With each chapter you wonder who else can be stuffed into his man’s adventure. The Pinkertons, Scotland Yard, Pierpont Morgan, criminal nicknames galore and Sherlock Holmes. The face you see on the book jacket provided the idea for Moriarty. Now famous as the ultimate arch nemesis. But he was a gentleman through and through. Barely resorting to violence and always striving and always spending his ill gotten gains as fast as he took them.

It is a fast paced book with a lot of twists and turns, highs and lows and a lot of transatlantic boat travel.

To beer pair with this historical tale, I would suggest selecting beers that say they are on style but really are something else. A good example being Widmee Hefeweizen which is actually a really good wheat beer. Or perhaps there is a DIPA that is a really a Triple IPA.

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In the Tap Lines for July 2024

For me, May Gray and June Gloom are the best time in SoCal but I know that I am in the minority and that most people love the sun. Whichever Angeleno you are, please make July – Visit a brewery month. It is really needed beer fans.

~ e-visits to (3) new breweries in my home state of Oregon

~ special featured reviews of barrel-aged beers from Lough Gill Brewing in Sligo, Ireland

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads The Napoleon of Crime by Ben MacIntyre

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Finally! A Show About Women That Isn’t Just a Thinly Veiled Aspirational Nightmare

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Sports and climate change

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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In the Tap Lines for June 2024

June is L.A. Beer Week Time so the BSP blog will be celebrating that all month long.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Sister Cities of Los Angeles

~ special featured reviews of whatever is in the refrigerator throughout the month

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Curious History of Your Home

~ Sports & A Beer returns with NIL thoughts

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

This one is a recommendation from my Mom and when I went to check it out from the Glendale library, I was a bit startled by how many pages it was.  Around 575.  But there are short books that are slogs and doorstops that breeze by and The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles glides by like a Studebaker on the highway.

It tells the tale of Emmet and Billy Watson.  Two brothers in the middle of the country going on a trip to find their mom who left them many years previously.  Other characters come in and out like the Duchess and Wooly, Sally and 

This was a pleasant enough book but all the characters seemed very soap opera thin. You had the noble leader, the stalwart gal, the wise younger brother, the wild card and the dim but lovable character. The crazy thing that I though of was the book reminded me of the later Back to the Future movies where everything got very broad and you could see where a scene was going to go from miles away. So if a safe needed to be cracked you knew the wild card would fly off the handle, and the preternaturally smart kid would figure out the combination.

But the end of the book threw me for a loop. I did not see that level of casual disregard to happen.

Anyway for beer the obvious way to go would be to Google the Lincoln Highway route and see which breweries are close that route and have those ready. I would add that finding some Bay Area beers would be a good choice too since the end destination is San Francisco. Maybe a Pliny the Elder would do for the wise kid.

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In the Tap Lines for May 2024

With the Craft Brewers Conference in the rear view, it is time to prepare yourself for summer beer festival season. Though not as busy as in past years, there will be plenty to do and plenty of souvenir cups to collect. Below is what is currently planned for the month of May here on the blog.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Central Coast of California in advance of the Firestone Walker Invitational

~ special featured reviews of whatever is in the refrigerator throughout the month

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Tales from the Tardis

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Drafting for QB1

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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A Book & A Beer – The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

If you have the actual Specter of Death in your book, you better make the most of the character and Elizabeth Gonzalez James does in the time sprawling The Bullet Swallower.

There are two tracks in this book, one set in 1895 with Antonio Sonoro a restless bandido and the swallower of a bullet off to rob a train and then in 1964 with descendant Jaime Sonoro, a singing cowboy. And of course, death is along for the ride as well.

I have a hard time deciding if one half was better to me than the other. 1895 was very action-y but Antonio was not a super likable character to me as much as the people he encountered. Whereas 1964 was a slower pace but I truly liked the inquisitiveness of Jaime.

For beer pairing, I would suggest finding a brewery where past brewers have left to start their own breweries and having one from old and new. Or if you know of a brewer that has brewed at multiple stops, find beers from each stop. Then you can track changes and see which you prefer.