Tag: Opinion

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The Firkin for December 2019

Many people approach the New Year as a chance to project what new adventures can be embarked upon. Travel is an obvious one as are improving ones future health or finding a new job or just general steps forward.

I see that view but also look at the calendar change as a chance to leave 2019 things in 2019 and not re-visit them. Don’t expect me to say “OK Boomer” in 2020. And there are quite a few beer things that need to stay in the past….

Sexist beer names and the social media shaming that comes with it. If you are still finding any body part humor funny, well, I cannot help you and I am not going to publicize it either.

Lining up for special release beers. We should all agree that there is literally more than enough great beer out there that waiting to buy your max amount possible is not the best use of time.

Dryuary. Oh, how the articles about you are all the same. I felt better. I lost weight. But I didn’t have as much fun and didn’t socialize as much. Blinding glimpse of the obvious the whole experiment is.

Bagging on Untappd. I understand that the reviews may not be helpful but at least it isn’t as bad or mercenary as Yelp. Take it for what it is, a small form of free advertising when I post what I am drinking.

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The Firkin for November 2019

The only constant is change. Nothing stays the same. Your favorite beer or local brewery may not be the same next year.

And we as beer consumers need to lean into that. We need to be pro-active and not get stuck in ruts just because they are easy and safe. If you stay in the rut, you will soon not be impressed by anything and you will miss out on beers that you really should be trying.

The rut might be of chasing hazy IPA or eschewing new beers for classics or just being loyal minus critical attention. Whatever path you are on, you need to add more paths to your repertoire. Hike them all and store that knowledge for later.

If you are the same beer drinker in a year as you are today, then all of this beer plenty we have will have been for naught.

I am thankful for all the choice and all the beers that I have had (even the bad ones) and I hope that #independent keeps on changing and evolving with me.

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The Firkin for September 2019

Best of Show. Considering that to truly find the best IPA brewed in the US would probably take you years and thousands of dollars and your liver, I am finding competitions less illuminating and below that are the internet Best in Style pieces that pop up from time to time.

Recently the California Craft Brewers Association held a Cup but only a 1/3 of breweries participated and none sent their full range for obvious logistic reasons. I have no doubt that the winner was a damn fine beer but “BEST”? Methinks the sample size is not full strength.

Same with a recent Vinepair Top 15 IPA list. There are so many variables at play. Availability, freshness, judging styles, palate fatigue but one each from Washington and Oregon with the Washington one being Elysian? That strains credulity. I can’t imagine trying to crown a best IPA in Los Angeles. There are too many. Some gone in a blink of an eye.

Maybe if I was made of money and had a Tardis to get me to that just tapped moment, I could do it. But until that day arrives, I just don’t hold much stock in these lists.

Currently, I prefer the personal, party of one list. The totally subjective form where one knowledgeable (hopefully) person submits what they like.

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The Firkin for July 2019

I may have to petition that some emojis be struck from use. I have a list but right now the top culprit is the popcorn emoji. First and foremost because that stuff is way overpriced in movie theaters.

Seriously, when I see that emoji on a Facebook post or re-tweet, I know that someone behind it is just trying to stir the pot. And yes, sometimes that pot needs to be stirred, but most of the time, does it really?

It is far too easy to trigger someone these days. So I don’t know what thrills can be had by eliciting a response on Twitter. I don’t tweet often and since I do not like confrontation rarely post inflammatory ideas. I responded to a tweet about hard seltzers with the preamble of “in my opinion” and got a response questioning why someone would marry me. I had to get up and walk around because I was laughing so hard that someone got that worked up. Maybe other people get energy from it in a way that I cannot fathom.

Also, most of the popcorn posts don’t offer any solutions and most don’t post anything but negativity so all they end up being is basically a sewage pipe of lewd labels, questionable word choice and everything from barely rude to extremely offensive. It may start out as funny but eventually it becomes wearying.

I listen to a podcast called Dumb People Town. If it were not for the humor and the actual friendship between the hosts and their comedy guests, all it would be was a catalog of human stupidity and sadness. Beer social media needs that addition. I don’t know what emoji that would be but maybe something like and fun, like a beer emoji.

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New Model – Reviewing

We have all seen the reviews that start with, I hate this style of beer. Part of me wants to scream. (see above tweet) But part of me wants to give some credit for trying a style again and again. It would be so much easier to just give up.

But maybe as we wait for the Untappd app to load up and find your beer, we need to press pause and really think before starting to type. I know this is a Tweet First, Ask for Forgiveness later society but just stopping for a moment or three will make all the difference. A new flavor might pop out as the beer warms, that descriptive word you had on the tip of your tongue might reveal itself or you might overhear what another tap room patron is saying about that same beer.

Use that time to find a way to describe the beer that does not involve a preconceived notion. Maybe use only three or only five words to best illuminate the aroma and flavor and mouthfeel. Hell, just use emoji’s if that is your jam. But find a way to inform the person that stumbles upon your mini-review about the beer. What about the grapefruit is rubbing you the wrong way? Too much pith? Does it taste like grapefruit candy and not actual citrus? Are the hops muted by the fruit?

In that downtime before typing, remember that people may be reading who aren’t reading to learn about YOU but about the BEER.

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The Firkin for May 2019

It is not going to be hard for me. I am boycotting beer from Alabama, Georgia and Missouri and any other state where old white dudes legislate women’s bodies.

It is not going to be hard for me to not write about beers from those states. And I am certainly striking those states off the list to visit until the laws are reset.

It is not going to be hard for me to donate a little to groups that are fighting to let people make their own GD health choices. It will not be going to beer purchases from those backward states. Sorry Boulevard.

It is not going to be hard for me at all because I am a straight white man. I can skate through life without dealing with this shit. But I would gladly change that to give some of these sexist assholes a taste of the pain that they cause.

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The Firkin for April 2019

I really, really hope that someone is writing a book about the rise and selling out of Golden Road Brewing because this month saw a screeching left turn in the narrative.  Salacious details aside of what may or may not have happened involving, a-hem, mergers and acquisitions, the one detail that struck me was how ABInBev allegedly had (6) attorneys helping one of their high-up employees in a matter that is clearly personal, divorce.

When people ask why I am dismissive of this corporate giant, I can now point to this as a glaring example of the shady shit that they seem to always do.  Is it illegal?  I don’t know and probably not.  But does it show that they are out to protect their own and their own money?  That would be a yes. 

Let me say, straight away, that small, independent breweries are not inoculated against shitty people and poor behavior.  But what I do know is that with great money power comes great responsibility.  The owner of a small brewery in Los Angeles just won’t have the money and time to pair with vengeance to send a battalion of attorneys out to secure the best deal in a divorce for one of their employees.  But ABInBev can and apparently will.  (probably not if you are a drone in sector 7G though) Heaven forbid that they stay out of the divorce, put someone new in charge of the Golden Road purchase and perhaps re-evaluate their plans.

That would probably not get through all the layers and divisions that make up this corporation the same way that brewing a good beer hasn’t made it through either.

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The Firkin for March 2019

Outrage.  Easy to muster but it needs to be targeted otherwise the outraged become more and more invisible and those who would rally to the cause just get worn down to the nub.

I say this because on Orval Day (which should be an easy day to celebrate) Jester King Brewery commissioned artwork that had a nude woman on it.  Thankfully, there was not the usual large OMG response.  I assume because of the brewery reputation and the tasteful nature of the artwork.   And the fact that the artist was a woman as well.

But I don’t want to speak to that, Jester King and the artist covered that ground very well.  What I want to talk about is how to react to something on the interwebs.

  1. Step away from your keyboard.  Take a walk, drink a beer, whatever you need to do to get back to the un-outraged version of yourself.
  2. Then open a Word document or notes or compose whichever way works best.  Just not in the social media app.  Too easy to hit send and feel vindicated.
  3. Read up on the brewery.  Read up on the artist.  Have either been called out in the past?  Is this a first time issue?
  4. Go back to what you wrote and compare your research to your words.
  5. Calibrate your outrage to what is called for.  For this example, no response is probably the best bet because fanning flames is only going to get more people to view it and Orval Day is, to be honest, not a big deal (wish it was but it ain’t).  People had already moved on to April Fool’s jokes. 

The goal with outrage is to create a movement for change.  But if your outrage is only to create anger amongst like-minded friends then maybe re-think a new way to approach the situation.  A few comments on Twitter commending you are just that, nothing more. 

It is easy to say that you need to fry the bigger fish.  There is always bigger fish to fry though.  You can comment on the smaller (less egregious) issues as well.  Just comment with the appropriate amount of fury.

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The Firkin for February 2019

When lactose started showing up in beers, I wasn’t aghast. It is just another ingredient in the brewing cupboard.

When labels started showing up on cans that mimicked cereal, candy and other sugary treats, I was more wondering about the lack of creativity in the designs.

But this morning, I broke. I saw a conceptual design for a bar that had swings. Like a playground. As I typed on Facebook, “We are at peak kid-ification.” Or as Yorkshire Square Brewmaster, Andy Black said….

The American palate has certainly shifted to massive sugar levels. (As well as massive caffeine and spice levels) which is part of this surging trend but the marketing push hearkens to a certain nostalgia which makes for a formidable selling duo. As we saw, Make America Great Again as stupid and un-factual as it is, worked on many Americans.

But to me, this pastry/milkshake/cereal thing is a bit of a devolution. More chasing taste buds than creating new styles. I am not going to be so brazen as to tell a brewery what to sell but I feel like tossing in gummy bears or Trix is not about creating a balanced multi-dimensional beer and I have trouble believing (unless proven otherwise) that a brewing team would kick back at the end of the day drinking one of these diabetes bombs.

And to add kid zones to places where you drink? That is just weird. We can be young and old at once, we hold multitudes as the (butchered by me) saying goes, but let’s not forget what age we really are. Adding a swing to a bar may seem whimsical but in reality, its someone falling off and hurting themselves after a couple beers.

Finally, let’s take stock when countermeasures such as Flagship February start popping up. Because those are course corrections to prevailing winds.

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The Firkin for January 2019

As the first month of 2019 comes to a close, I am still waiting for the next trend to appear. I know one is lurking out there and I probably should have asked Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery what he thought was coming next but I was geeking out a bit too much while talking with him to ask.

I hate to burst the lager bubble but I think it is going to remain the choice of brewers more than consumers. I think the Milkshake is going the way of the White IPA while Brut is more ascendant at the moment but the out of the box new variant hasn’t shown its face.

I know it is there in the shadows, in the corner of my eye but for the life of me I can’t pick it out. Each beer year has a signature and 2019 hasn’t picked one up yet. But not to worry, still 11 months to go.