Tag: Craft Brewers Conference

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The Firkin for May 2023

At the start of this month, the Craft Brewers Conference was held in Nashville, Tennessee. There was a bit of dismay at both the choice considering the hostility towards, well anyone not a white male, in that state as well as disappointment at the Brewers Association for not either moving it (may not have been feasible) or at least using their voice to condemn recent laws.

Let me preface the next bit by saying that I am an over 50 white guy who is trying to be more aware each day and who tries to keep rose colored glasses and blinders away from my face to see the world as it is.

There are some steps to be made that I think will help.

  • Create a city selection committee who will make suggestions based on current optics and politics and not on facilities or hotels or cost and maybe not have any white people on it, just to see what happens
  • Have a grievance list for the city chosen because you can easily find problems in literally every city in this country, then air your grievances like at Festivus
  • March to the state house of representatives and hand them your grievances and let them know that if they are in the red, as it were, that they may not get the conference again until things change
  • Allow dissenters to participate virtually if they feel unsafe going to a city. Or better yet, create an alternate conference where views can be spoken

It is easy to sweep things under the rug. It is easy to just say craft beer is broken. The truth is in the middle. There are great people in craft beer and there are shitty people in it. No one in this country is doing well by women, minorities or anyone not a rich white male. To expect that craft beer will be an exception is naive. But, we can all push the ball forward. Might only be a yard and a cloud of dust but we can all enjoy our beer and make good change.

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World Beer Cup ’18 – California Notes


The World Beer Cup returned and SoCal and the rest of California showed up well. Focusing in on my neck of the extended woods.

The two big, big winners were (and this will shock no one) Beachwood and their growing empire and Firestone Walker. Beachwood picked up (3) silvers and a bronze locking down the coffee categories with Pablo Escobeer and Mocha Machine. FW was really golden with wins for DBA, C-Hops Pale Ale and STiVO Kellerbier along with silver fro Krieky Bones.

MacLeod has had a good awards season so far in 2018 and that continued with Van Ice picking up silver in the light lager category. Speaking of streaks, Figueroa Mountain also scored a brace of awards for their dunkel and Oatmeal stout.

Notable in Orange County was both Green Cheek and Noble Ale Works winning in the IPA and Imperial IPA categories respectively and newcomer Brewery Rex getting the bronze for their Raspberry Rickey in the Berliner Weisse group.

Congratulations to the winners!

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Used Cars, now Craft Beer

If the 2015 Craft Brewers Conference didn’t have enough beer options in Portland, now they have The Drinking Lot a new Pop Up Bar from the minds of Bailey’s Taproom.

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They will be taking over a used car lot that has sat empty for at least the last two visits I made to Portland and they will be open during the conference. They will feature 12 rotating taps mere blocks from the convention center at the eastside entrance to the Burnside Bridge.

You can file this under how to be creative and business savvy.

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#CBC14 State of the Union

With the Craft Brewers Conference drawing the beer industry and fans to Denver, the Brewers Association also extended their reach via the old-fangled telephone to broadcast a state of the union as it were.

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After the call ended, I went through my notes and pulled what I thought was important out for craft beer going forward.  All opinions are mine own.

~ California is the top state for brewery openings and nationwide there were 413 new breweries in operation.

I am sure that is still sustainable but I think the next generation of breweries are going to have to look a lot harder at WHERE they open.  The rent cost is no longer the only factor or majority factor anymore.

~ The Brewers Association supports state guilds (which are now in all 50 states, thanks to the last to the party, Wyoming) but only if it doesn’t contravene the national goals.

This may lead to some uncomfortable, we are going to have to agree to disagree moments over issues like big box stores and what constitutes craft beer.

~ Breweries that use adjuncts in their flagship beers will be welcomed back into the fold

Frankly, I don’t know why that hasn’t happened earlier.  A small, community based brewery that uses all organic ingredients but has a corn or rice beer as their mainstay is not craft?  I am glad that law is out.

~ Export is a growing line item on the agenda.

The BA is playing matchmaker (their words) with those breweries that pony up cash to be part of the export program.  Hopefully they will not send over IPA’s because that may dim the view just like the hop aroma gets dimmed during travel.  I was surprised to see that Canada, Sweden, the UK, Australia and Japan are the top 5 destinations for our beer.

Next year, the conference will be in Portland.  I may attend next year to hear even more scuttlebutt.

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Mikkeller + 3 Floyds x 3 =

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While Mikkeller the nomad brewer was in Chicago for the Craft Brewers Conference, he apparently made another side trip to Munster, Indiana to make another collaboration brew with Three Floyds. The unpronounceable Ruggoop is a 10% ABV “Rye Wine.”

These two eccentric and much loved and followed breweries have been down this road before. Weird names, weirder labels and even weirder styles. Hvedegoop – a hoppy wheatwine was the first collaboration. Second came Oatgoop. That beer was a wheatwine brewed with oats.

Maybe next up will be a brett wine.