Almanac Beer Co. has joined the 8 Trill faithful with their Crowns & Hops collaboration, One Love Eight Trill West Coast IPA. Sure to please your charitable soul as well as your hop taste buds.
A Trill Almanac
8 Trilla Gorilla
Last week this time, Smog City Brewing unveiled a new more charitable Gorilla.
Combining with Crowns & Hops and their 8 Trill Initiative and the mission of achieving racial equity in craft beer and supporting up and coming black owned breweries is….
“This colossal Double IPA draws inspiration from our OG ape Amarilla Gorilla, the 8 Trilla Gorilla turns everything up to eleven and beyond. A ferocious infusion of Strata, Simcoe, and Citra hops rampage out of your glass with every sip. Strap in and prepare for an onslaught of amazing grapefruit, passionfruit, and fresh resinous pine so fresh you’ll swear you’re drinking hops straight from the bine.”
CCBG
Usually mergers and acquisitions occur and it is a net negative. Especially when it is the big players in the beer industry. A big brewery buys a small one and then proceeds to water down the product or distributors get bigger and bigger until they cannot service all the beer they have in their portfolio.
But the new Circle of Crowns Beverage Group Strategic Alliance is indeed that an alliance. CCBG includes Inglewood-based Crowns and Hops, Fresno-based Full Circle Brewing and its sister brands Speakeasy Ales and Lagers and Sonoma Cider. All black owned breweries.
The two main prongs of the alliance are a combined sales force bringing not just one brewery but multiple to the table and second Full Circle will use their excess brewing capacity to brew Crowns and Hops beers which, I think, may change once the Inglewood brewery is up and running.
Owning your local market is quite important these days so the fact that each one is in a different sector of California will help as well. But the combined weight might just push growth so that these beers get more placement.
Tart & Trill
The Crowns & Hops 8 Trill Initiative continues with a Great Notion release of Crowns and Axes Tart Ale “made with strawberry, pink guava, sea salt, and coriander.” Unique ingredients for a unique cause.
BiB Volume 2
Black is Beautiful is back with Volume 2 of their Hazy IPA recipe, this time brewed with association with the National Black Brewers Association.
Below is one of the Crowns & Hops labels and it looks really classy. Hope to see lots of breweries taking this recipe on this year.
Fest! Finally!
Now that we are in September, I can commence talking about Festbiers in 2023 and I will start with…
Dopetoberfest from local to L.A., Crowns & Hops.
Second is the Oaky Marzen from Firestone Walker.
Lastly, the classic OktoCollab from Chico, with Hamburg’s Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei .
Sean Suggests for June 2023
We are going full on L.A. Beer Week beers for this month’s shopping list. From two Freaky Friday South Bay friends to a Crenshaw collaboration.
El Segundo Squirrel-Toothed Tiger – 6.7% – “We went hoppier, Americanier, and, dare we say, downright more majestic than a pre-historic squirrel on their best day. Sure, the tiger may look friendly, albeit a little funny, but it remains a tiger with an inherent instinct to kill nonetheless!”
Crowns & Hops / Los Angeles Ale Works Down Crenshaw IPA – 7% – Mosaic, Nelson and Enigma hops headline this dank West Coast IPA Boulevard.
Smog City Smogberry IPA – 7.2% – Smog City re-imagines the iconic Mayberry IPA.
Into the Light
Crowns & Hops is debuting a new IPA series under the Inglewood Sun banner. Make Sure to be on the lookout for it….
Activ8
If you missed Cur8, now is the time to get active.
“Activ8″ is the second beer produced in association with Crowns’ new Eight Trillion Allies Collaboration Series that partners established breweries with Black-owned beer brands to accomplish true representation in the brewing industry.” This time the partner is HenHouse Brewing…
“Proceeds from these beers will go to the 8 Trill Initiative, a development fund launched by Crowns & Hops … that is dedicated to generating opportunities for Black-owned craft beer brands while demonstrating the benefits and fiscal impact of racial equity.”
Maybe Not So Strange Bedfellows – Part 1
Allagash Brewing Company and Crowns & Hops Brewing Co., are bringing Maine to Inglewood with Cur-8. Arriving in time for Black History Month, the new beer mashes up Crowns & Hops’ 8 Trill Pils pilsner with Allagash Curieux. A bourbon-y Tripel-esque pilsner.
Here are more details about the partnership, “Cur-8 is part of the new Eight Trillion Allies Collaboration Series that partners established breweries with Black-owned beer brands to accomplish true representation in the brewing industry. “8 Trill Pils” is named after a statistic from a W.K. Kellogg Foundation report, “Business Case for Racial Equity.” The report suggests that the U.S. stands to realize an $8 trillion gain in the national GDP by closing the racial equity gap by 2050.”