Tag: A Podcast & A Beer

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A Podcast & A Beer – A Crispr Bite

Cultural anthropologist Dr. Lauren Crossland-Marr hosts the five-episode spanning podcast A CRISPR Bite. It takes a look at gene editing with a critical eye but also with hope too.

I like me a limited podcast series where a topic can be presented and a deeper dive can be made and this cleverly titled food podcast does just that as it clears up the difference between GMOs and gene editing as well as discussing the long term implications of changing, say, tomatoes to have more of a certain vitamin. The episode about creating cows with no horns was particularly thought provoking.

Since this topic is in the agricultural weeds, I have three drinking suggestions for you. First is cider, second is mead and then third, a little harder to find, a single malt or hop (SMASH) beer. Anything that has an easy link to nature.

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In the Tap Lines for April 2024

Spring sprang a day early this year and SoCal has been getting actual weather with slight variations instead of 80 degrees and dry as hell, so time to celebrate the season and bottom left corner of the country.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from San Diego

~ special featured reviews of Spring 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 Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzales James

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to A Crispr Bite

~ Sports & A Beer returns with

~ 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 Podcast & A Beer – Heritage Mezcal

This month we listen to stories of Mezcal at Heritage Mezcal with host Chava Peribán.

It is a unique spirits podcast in that the coverage is wide ranging and not just mezcal. Rum and coffee are talked about but so is overall happiness and logistics and just the general vibe around mezcal.

Peribán has a good solid agave knowledge and is very enthusiastic to the point of partially getting in the way of some interviews but in a charming way. He even sometimes asks questions and says you don’t have to answer.

To pair with this podcast, I would be as eclectic and bubbly in the beer selections. Have a sparkly pilsner and then a rum barrel-aged beer or pick up a Mexican craft beer or a cocktail beer. Anything goes.

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In the Tap Lines for March 2024

Springtime in SoCal as we move into what I jokingly call “early summer”. Hoping to find some bock beers, either strong or dopple would be nice plus the following features this month….

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the newer cities in the NWSL

~ special featured reviews of a potpourri of 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 Trees by Percival Everett

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Heritage Mezcal

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Thoughts on March Madness

~ 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 Podcast & A Beer – True Detective: Night Country

True Detective is back in creepy form with the 4th installment, aka Night Country. The sign of a good show and a talked about one is when the streamer also plumps for a podcast as well.

And care has been taken from the jump by having an indigenous member of the Alaskan community serve as host. Alice Qannik Glenn is an activist and podcaster and does a good job moving each episode along and pulling information about both the process of creating this show as well as additional information about Alaska and its peoples. I kinda wish they would delve a bit deeper into the Easter Eggs and possibilities of what’s to come but it is a small quibble about a good companion piece to the show.

Obviously, the best choice would be something from Anchorage Brewing or Alaskan Brewing but we hear in SoCal do not see much of those brands. Ditto for anything from Iceland where the series was filmed. The next obvious choice would be to have a new cold IPA each episode to match the corpse-sicles in the show.

That leaves me thinking about the dark, since the show is set when the sun is not shining. Russia has made weird claims on Alaska recently plus Putin is a dick so we will steer away from a Russian Imperial stout and instead look for Baltic Porters.

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In the Tap Lines for February 2024

Another trip around the sun for this here beer blogger. Time to celebrate with an extra day and some extra special beers along with the usual posts such as….

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Washington State in honor of George’s birthday that he shares with me

~ special featured review my chosen birthday beer

~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 Black AF History by Michael Harriot

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to True Detective – Night Country

~ Sports & A Beer returns with What are sports now anyway?

~ 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 January 2024

We are back around the calendar horn. A whole beer year stretches before us. All sorts of new brews and new news are waiting for us craft beer fans. Starting with…..

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Craft Beer & Brewing’s Best of 2023 Canadian picks.

~ special featured reviews of beers of ciders from 2 Towns Ciderhouse

~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 Roughhouse Friday by Jaed Coffin

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Food Programme from the BBC

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Streaming Sports

~ 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 Podcast & A Beer – NPR’s Book of the Day

If you need to know just two things about me.  I like books and I like my podcasts short.  I can’t believe that it took me so long to find the Book of the Day podcast from NPR.

Basically, book segments from other NPR shows packaged up neatly into a bite sized under 20 minutes.  It is a wide variety of books to, not just best sellers but a little bit of everything.

That short running time is key because there are a lot of books on my “to-read” list and it would be easy to see a 45 minute episode and take a pass but now I can take a quick dip to really see if it is something that I want to check the library for.

If you are in L.A. then a very obvious choice would be to pick-up a mixed pack from Paperback Brewing. A deeper cut would be to check past episodes and see if you can find a beer that pairs with that episodes book or author. There was a memoir episode that talked to Henry Winkler and Arnold Schwarzanegger. So you could find an Austrian beer or find a beer to match Happy Days or Barry.

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A Podcast & A Beer – The Wedding Scammer

If you want to get my wife’s podcast attention, there are two topics that will succeed. One is cults. Second is scams. And the Ringer Podcast Network has one of the latter, The Wedding Scammer. A seven part series hosted by Justin Sayles about a character that you just can’t make up. And a shit ton of aliases.

And what is good about this series is that Sayles is in on the whole true crime podcast tropes. You get a peek behind the curtain and see how it came together while you also get the story. You will rip through this in no time, it is that engrossing.

I would look for beers from all of the cities and states that the villain of the piece has moved through. Los Angeles, Oakland, Houston, New York and rural Pennsylvania too. Have a different style for each of the different names used.