Tag: A Podcast & A Beer

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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.

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In the Tap Lines for October 2023

Fall is probably my favorite season even though the biggest holidays of the year (my birthday and Christmas) do not fall (sorry) inside its months. The switch from SoCal summer to milder temps and the Festbiers just make me happy. Enough about me, let’s get to what will be covered this month…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Richmond, Va.

~ special featured reviews of fall 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 Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Strike Force Five

~ Sports & A Beer returns with re-aligning college football

~ 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 – Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers

I know it is the tail end of the family vacation season and that means it is time to look back at that vacation and then listen to Seth and Josh Meyers as they talk vacation memories with celebrities.

There is a great rapport between the two and you can tell that they enjoy each others company as well as their parents who are frequent targets of jibes. The guest choices are good too. Timothy Olyphant was really funny questioning their questions and, as usual, John Oliver was very funny and sharp tongued.

I also like that the last question is Grand Canyon – Yea or Nay? It just leads to interesting answers.

For beer, check out your local bottle shops or online purveyors for beers from cities or vacation destinations that you want to go. For me Prague is up there so I would be looking for Czech Pilsners. Or, since Maui has been in the news for the wrong reason, you might pick up some of their mainland beers as a nod to one of the great American vacation spot that will hopefully get tourists back sooner rather than later.

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In the Tap Lines for September 2023

California has been in weird times lately. Hollywood strikes, a tropical storm for the first time in 84 years and robotaxis wild in San Francisco. Let’s get back on sturdier ground in beer…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the new trendy beer city, Pittsburgh

~ special featured reviews of Oktoberfest 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 Circe by Madeline Miller

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers

~ Sports & A Beer returns with too many hot takes

~ 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.