Tag: firkin opinion

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The Firkin for December 2018


I just read that Democratic Presidential debates will be starting in June of 2019. So next year will certainly have even more weirdness than Washington DC has produced in the last two years.

Weirdness will also be front and center for beer. Cargill has decided to stop providing malt for brewing, an equipment manufacturer has gone under along with brewery deposits and Sam Adams got another exemption carved out for their tea and seltzer business. That was just this month.

I label myself a positive skeptic. I analyze and look at a situation with an eye to the sunny side. But I think that 2019 is going to be bumpy. Below are my predicted reasons why….

1. More breweries are trying the hard seltzer route even though it is a niche within a niche that they have not sold in before
2. Regional breweries are going to contract in both employees and product offerings (see Deschutes)
3. A new IPA sub-style will dent the hazy train enough to slow the 16oz brewery only release.
4. Successful breweries will start taking over flailing ones to expand their footprint
5. Some breweries will break off from the Brewers Association citing lack of support for their size of operation in comparison to the larger craft breweries.

Check back with me this time next year and we can see if my Magic 8 Ball was correct.

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The Firkin for September 2018


This month brought the bad news that Pacific Plate was pulling out of its Glendale taproom only location and that was followed by Kinetic Brewing up in Lancaster was closing up shop as well.

As I mentioned earlier this month, as nice as the PacPlate space was on the inside, it was stuck deep at the south end of Brand in a no mans land between Atwater Village to the sound and the Americana part of town to the north. It was small despite a nice patio that I bet many people didn’t even know about in the back.

Kinetic seemed to lose steam as Lucky Luke and Transplants along with GABF medal winner Bravery were the most talked of breweries from the land way up the freeway. The explosion of Ventura breweries probably did not help as did the additions of San Fernando and 8one8 and Hand-Brewed lured people to new destinations.

Churn is going to happen and it needs to be a word to add to your beer dictionary because it will happen more. Up to now, the only example we have had of it here in Los Angeles is when a brewer leaves for another brewery. But spaces are going to go open and equipment will be sold and it is a matter of whether the location didn’t work or the beer didn’t work or the marketing of both didn’t work.

The churn will open up opportunities for others. Kinetic could become a new brewpub with new owners and brewers. The PacPlate space, now spiffed up, could become a #independent beer bar or maybe (my (probably impossible) dream), an L.A. Brewers Guild Bar where you can taste rotating taps from places far and wide in Los Angeles. Mostly so I wouldn’t have to drive to far flung tap rooms.

With more breweries on the horizon, the amount of beer still is high for the consumer but the status quo won’t always be the same.

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The Firkin for June 2018


This month, instead of a rant or a tip of the hat, I have a task for the beer people out there. If you are a Yelp’er, unlike me who find the service completely un-helpful, please rate your favorite breweries and craft beer bars with actual helpful reviews.

No more 1 star because somebody looked at you wrong after you had one beer. No deducting a star because the food truck outside was slow. Conversely, no 5 stars with no explanation as to why.

Instead, put some detail into it. Are the beers rotating or standard? What are your favorite beers? What are your least favorite? Explain what the strong points of the beers are. Add in how many times you have visited to add context.

As with most things on the interwebs, the extremes seem to be the meme that is cited the most. If enough people put enough detail into reviews, then maybe we can sway the debate away from the “stars” system which invariably stand at 3 or 4 for everything no matter how good or bad, to a conversation.

If good, solids details are there, then you others can reliably use your information and not automatically discount it. If rational details are there, Yelp might not have such an easy time hiding reviews.

Maybe the beer world can help fix Yelp and other review sites.

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The Firkin for May 2018


It is easy to be divisive. Buttons can be pushed with a simple push of a button. But it is time (past time) to stop or to at least ignore it. Or, you can go one step better. Show gratitude.

Sounds hippy, new age? Why is that? What is wrong with telling your beertender thanks? I am not religious in the least but would it be bad to say a little prayer of thanks before the first sip? It is quite the miracle that we have beer and even crazier that we have good beer after so long with just boring mass market water lagers.

Instead of letting your circle of same opinions know about the groups same opinion, how about breaking free and sitting at the taproom bar and listen to what other people are saying. Then go to another brewery and do the same. What I bet you hear won’t be hating on glitter beers or hating on a beer website or hating on whatever is an easy target.

What you will most likely hear are discussions, jokes, recounting the days gone by or the bad day at work. Talking beer shouldn’t be verboten but it can be done without starting a Twitter war. And I will bet that if you start every beer with a thanks to the brewer, making a snarky comment would seem out of place.

So let’s regain the appreciation and let the haters hate. Enjoy the beer you have in front of you and let the fun back in, there will always be time to discuss the inside game of beer.

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In the Tap Lines for January 2017

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Good riddance to 2016! Let’s get 2017 off on the right foot with some rays of light and hope and great craft beer in the L.A. area.

~ e-visits to three breweries found in the pages of the Complete IPA book by Joshua Bernstein
~ special featured reviews of beers that I bought with my Craft Beer Cellar – Eagle Rock gift cards from Christmas.
~ 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 All That Man Is (and I did not care for it)
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your January started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) January 8th – Cheese and Beer Tour with LA Beer Hop and Vagabond Cheese
2) January 28th – L.A. Beer & Food Festival

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The Firkin for November 2016

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2016 has been called out in general by Last Week Tonight and John Oliver….

…and it hasn’t been super great for craft beer either. I know there is a month left but I am left to hope that 2017 will be better.

Among the items that disturbed me this year:
-the unstoppable fruit IPA trend. I remember talking to the folks from 21st Amendment and they were dismissive of it, then they released one.
-SABInBev buying into homebrew supplies. Really? Trying to choke off innovation or just cashing in (late as always)
-rising prices. Each year it seems that I and other consumers need to be smarter shoppers.
-slow response to born on dating. Come on. If you are scared your IPA won’t sell because of it then you should make a better one.
-declining growth. Not that decline but the response to it. Why does everything have to grow double-digits every year. That’s how you end up chasing illusory dreams.
-whale hunters. I will have to add them to every frackin’ yearly round-up. And it irks me every time. But hey, some people like standing in lines.

Come on 2017. I like Canada but I don’t wanna do all that paperwork.

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The Firkin for September 2016

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Glassware glut. First let’s backtrack a little. I went to a brewery sponsored event recently. Got to taste the beers from a lovely Picasso-esque, sharp angle, almost a wine glass branded subtly with the brewery name on it.

Upon leaving said event, I was asked if I forgot my glass. Now I had a choice to make. Honestly answer that I literally had no place to put another glass. Or I could go with the snappy comeback of my wife would crown me over the head with it if she found out that another glass had found its way home. Maybe christen is the term instead of crown but either answer is correct.

Hats and shirts and bottle openers as swag has been replaced with a branded glass of late. A person who goes to one event a month could wind up with a full display collection in one year. I probably land in the upper middle of the glass collectors and I have one large storage container filled with all shapes and sizes that just do not get used at all. Not to mention the ones in the back of cabinets that are a bit dusty as I type this. Or the glasses that I have gifted away. All in just seven years of blogging about beer.

Keep in mind that the number in storage could be higher if I hadn’t left more glasses at events or handed them off to others. Over the last year, unless the glass was of a style that I could actually use or had sentimental value, I would leave it on a table at the exit and go on my merry way without the souvenir. In my recent trip to the California Craft Beer Summit, three glasses were used over the long weekend. I only brought home two and almost decided to just bring the one fancy wine glass.

This avoidance comes from a person who fully understands that certain makes and models of glassware can bring out different aromas and can show off the true color of a beer. I received a Bruery Terreux glass that I think is so pretty and fits my hand so well that I have hissed people away from using it.

I guess the time will come (probably already has and I have ignored it) when I will have to take a box of shaker pints to Goodwill. The one plus from Golden Road selling out was that I could take those glasses out of the mix without feeling bad.

But even with that, my space limit has been far surpassed and I fervently wish that breweries would start swagging socks or pencils instead.