Tag: A Podcast & A Beer

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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.

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In the Tap Lines for December 2023

It is the end of the road for 2023. 31 more days until 2024 starts smacking us around. It has been a doozy. Strikes. Indictments. Wars. Inflation. And we are probably gonna run it back again. But, before you say we are doomed, we still have great craft beer and Christmas beers!

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

~ special featured reviews of beers if I find room amongst the seasonal 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 Going Infinite by Michael Lewis

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

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Where are all the Good QB’s?

~ 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 – Patented

Most of my podcast recommendations are of new or ongoing series.  Patented is the first one where I found it just as it was wrapping up its run.  Part of the History Hit family of historical podcast, this one was ostensibly about inventions but it was really more about pivotal items or thoughts.

You could get a history of fish & chips and then a show about the patriarchy then one about the thermos.  Wide ranging stuff for sure.  Hosted by Dallas Campbell the show had fascinating tidbits of knowledge though at times the pacing could have sped up.

I would say that you just glance at each topic and see which ones grab you that day and see what you learn.

For beer, I would look for, if you are in Los Angeles, beers from Trademark Brewing in Long Beach since it is the closest to a patent that I could find. For those not near enough, I would look for historical styles and then learn about the twists and turns for that style, or find a flagship beer from a local brewery and learn how that beer, that recipe, came to be.

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In the Tap Lines for November 2023

Fall is well and truly here in SoCal. And with Halloween in the rearview we can focus on the twin heavy hitters of Thanksgiving and Christmas and by that I mean the Doctor Who episodes forthcoming. And also plenty of craft beer talk and general foolishness like…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from NBA cities for the new season

~ special featured reviews of beers to take to Thanksgiving (or not)

~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 Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Patented

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Demanding Trades

~ 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 – Strike Force Five

What happens when five late night hosts have no shows to do but want to help out their staffs? You get the rambling and often hilarious Strike Force Five.

There are three episodes that had me laughing uproariously. The game show with questions for the Late Night wives, the Jon Stewart episode and the Letterman episode. Not to say other episodes were lacking funny but for pure full funny hours, those are the ones to start with.

What beer to pair with funny? I do not stay up late, so I don’t have a midnight beer either.

Maybe what works best would be to go out and get a taster tray of five wildly different beers and put your headphones in and sip from each and then pick a favorite.