Tag: Opinion

Posted on

The First Firkin of 2011

One of the enduring theological questions that cause great debate in the craft beer community is the theory that one can drink (insert industrial water lager) and still enjoy craft beers too.

This topic came up this month on the excellent BeerNews website in a rant from an East Coast brewer (amongst other rant targets) that I won’t attack as wrongheaded in this post.

I know that someone can drink the full gamut of beers from the lowliest malt liquor to the highest ABV beer stuffed in a squirrel.

I just don’t know how. My tastebuds do not have a reverse on them. Let me explain what that means. Once I had In ‘n’ Out burgers, I could not reverse and have McDonalds ever again. The taste of In ‘n’ Out is light years ahead of the golden arches. Same with coffee. I won’t be buying a tub of Folgers when I can have Stumptown or Intelligentsia.

I can anticipate the argument that comes next. Price. Yes, Stumptown costs more if you just look at dollars and cents. But if the gaze is widened to include how much more flavor and enjoyment you get then the equation changes.

The same for beer. Yes, you can slam more PBR’s for the same price of two of my craft beer bombers. But I am getting something that is full of complex flavors that keeps me interested. I get to sit and enjoy my beer slowly while the supposedly cost-conscious are spending more on aspirin.

Another argument I don’t buy is that it makes someone less pretentious if they are “seen” drinking the industrial water lagers of the world. You should drink beer because you love it or are curious about it. Not to sell the brand of you via the marketing dollars of a mega-brewery.

That is why no one can call you a snob or an elitist if you drink what you enjoy. I don’t drink Dogfish Head or Stone to be cool like Sam or Greg. (Which they are by the way.) I drink craft beer for the flavor.

Posted on

Session # 47

The first session of 2011 is hosted by Beer47. The topic? Cooking and Beer.

I wish that I had grand culinary exploits to wow the crowd with. Sad to say but my cooking skills are limited to following directions on boxes. So no Imperial porter foam on a beer soaked flourless chocolate cake nor IPA infused garlic mashed potatoes. (though I do have that Sean Paxton recipe printed out on my desk).

And since I do not have many beer dinners under my belt either, I can’t really comment on what works really well and what doesn’t. I do know a good amount about beer floats (but that really doesn’t involve cooking).

That leaves me with proposing my ideal and still unrealized dream beer dinner. Not all choices may be winners or even work but I would certainly like to try it.

So here goes….

APPETIZER
Sharp cheddar quesadillas
BEER TO USE:Strand Brewing Atticus IPA
I like the combo of cheddar and IPA and would like something bold to wake up the tastebuds. The Strand pale ale would work here as well if a lesser hop kick is warranted.

MAIN COURSE
Kobe Flank Steak in a Flanders Red spiked sauce.
BEER TO USE: Cascade Brewing’s Kriek
I don’t know how to make a sauce for steak and it might be sacrilege to use this Kriek but I would to see the contrast between the sour and the butter.

DESSERT
Apple Pie a la mode with an apple beer ice cream
BEER TO USE: Unibroue Ephemere
A double shot of apple. Scoops in Los Angeles makes great beer ice creams/sorbets and I would to have two wildly different forms of apple on the palate.

Posted on

The Firkin for December 2010

It is the last day of 2010,  did you make the most out of your beer year?

I am not talking about how many beers you downed.  I am talking about being a craft beer ambassador.  You don’t have to go out on the street waving a beer pamphlet and trying to convert the water lager drinkers of the world.

I am talking about breaking out of your own beer bubble.

~ Go to beer bar and brewery events

~ get acquainted with your beer seller or bartender

~ tell your friends about great beer

~ ask your local paper to cover beer more

~ get a shirt from your local brewery and wear it around

~ ask your favorite restaurant to carry good beer (if they don’t already)

~ bring craft beer to parties or get-togethers (I think there is one tonight)

You get the picture.  Let’s promote craft beer.  The more people that buy better beer the more better beer you (and I) will get.

Cheers to 2010 and I wish you all an even better 2011!

Posted on

The Firkin for November 2010

Here is my firkin’ opinion for November…..

Let’s be thankful people.

There are issues that raise the ire and fire up the blogosphere.
~The high ABV race.
~Pumpkin beers
~Tickers
~beer blogger bashers

I’m sure everyone has their craft beer bugaboos to add to the list. But unlike the nightly news (which I hope no one watches), we in the beer community should always be promoting the positive more with a healthy dose of constructive actions and not get stuck in the stream of schaedenfreude.

Why? Because constant negativity reinforces the notion that craft beer is for snobs. If we are barking about problems more than we are praising the highlights, then why would people listen to us. No one likes the guy in the cubicle whose “always” bitching about the company. Eventually it gets old. What’s wrong with leading with what’s right in the beer world?

That’s why I only opinionize once a month. And sometimes my opinion is an idea that I think should be implemented and not some foaming at the mouth rant. I firmly believe that there is enough good craft beer news out there in the world to write and talk about.

That’s why you don’t see me on forums like BeerAdvocate. Too much griping. Too much whining. That’s why you don’t see me taking potshots at people from a beer snob tower. Whenever I feel the urge to complain, I open up my ‘fridge and the feeling goes away. Happiness from Pure Hoppiness from Alpine can do that. But some people seem to get off on being cranky.

You can label me a beer Pollyana. You can say that I am naive in the belief that one beer blog can stem the negative tide. I understand. But I prefer to think that I see the pint glass half full.

Of awesome craft beer.

Posted on

Session # 45


Our 45th Session will be hosted by Bruce Tichnor, who runs the Canadian BeerTaster.ca. He’s taking us back to our roots, to spend a cloudy afternoon with wheat beers, or has he describes it:

We wanted to get back closer to the roots of the Session and pick a topic which was simple and yet gives a wide range of interpretations so we chose, simply (or perhaps not so simply), Wheat Beers.

Feel free to take this topic in any direction you like, specific reviews, historical information, or any other twist you’d like to use. Wheat beers are a pretty wide topic and actually cover German style Weizen, Heffe Weizen, etc. along with Belgian style Witbier and even Flavoured Wheat beers.

There are very few guidelines here, just have some fun drinking Wheat Beers in the fall instead of the summer.

Whenever I see or hear the words “wheat beer”, my steel trap of a mind heads straight to the first beer that made me think that beer could be more than plain and watery. Thomas Kemper WeizenBerry which the RateBeer sites describes thusly, “This wheat-brewed beer is bursting with refreshing all-natural raspberry flavor.”

I drank a lot of that beer. Mainly because it was sparkly and fruity and low in alcohol. I did not care one bit of the Weizen part of the equation. It was all about the berry.

At the time it was probably one of the better NW beers out there. Nowadays, it would probably not rank high due to the prejudice against fruit beers and most wheat beers. And truth be told, if I was handed a bottle today, it probably would not taste or rank as well as I remember. Part of me is glad it is not made anymore. A treasured memory can’t be tarnished by your own self or made fun of by others.

Now, wheat beer conjures up a more complicated stream of thought. Which sub-style are we talking about? Is it German or American? Sessionable or not? All good questions and part of my evolution in craft beer but sometimes I wish I could go back to that first WeizenBerry and just really enjoy it, unencumbered by all the thought.

Posted on

High Tech Delivery Systems

Recently, two beer items popped up at the same time so I took it as a sign that I should talk about it.

First, All About Beer magazine had a blurb about table taps. OK, it’s got the marketing name of DraftMaster. Two tap handles rise out of the center of the table so you can pour your own beer.

I can so see why this would go over well with publicans. Saves time. People will order more because it’s right there. Technology probably hits the credit card whenever a pint is poured. But to me it just promotes the drink all you want culture and speed. I try my best not to race through beers. (Some are so good that I do it anyway). It also eliminates the creation of a rapport with the barkeep. But what scares me most is that it, in the end, promotes a homogenization of beer. You could have different beer at each table (that would be kinda cool). But then some tables would always be vacant while others would have lines going out the door. I would not give up an Upright or Drakes table easily.
To avoid that scenario, either each table would have the same beers or at least one common denominator, usually the lowest. And how do you know your table has a full keg?

The second dispensing system has the inventiveness of the first, plus some. But whereas the DraftMaster is a sure fire economic barnburner. The Biero idea may end up being too costly. I saw this earlier in the month on the fabulous Brookston Beer Bulletin.

Basically it takes bottled beer and puts it into a chilled and light protected tube so that patrons can see the beer. From what I have read on their site, they love beer and have thought of most of the technical issues, which shows how far beer culture has grown. But I don’t know how feasible it is. To compete with great tap beer, you would need a hook. The one I see is rare beers or perhaps blended beers. And that could work if they get the price point right. And I would certainly enjoy trying a rare beer that I normally couldn’t get because of price. But is the public ready for what is basically a cellared beer bar? I know Cascade opened a sour beer bar. But I worry that this a good idea ahead of its time.

Posted on

In the Tap Lines for October 2010

Oktober for the Beer Search Party means…..

LA BEER WEEK!!!

A slightly enlarged weeks worth of beery events topped off by a festival at historic Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. You will get your fill (and then some of events on the blog this month along with…..

– unbiased, snark free reviews of canned industrial water lager. Gameday Ice here I come.
– A tour of Alaskan breweries
– Session # 44
– three beers that I strongly suggest you sample
– 50 Beers from 50 states status post
– The monthly tapping of the Firkin, my opinion on the beer world.

Posted on

The Firkin for September 2010

Here is a rant that you may have seen on my other writing outlet, the wonderful FoodGPS. I brought it over here because it got the most comments of all of my posts.

I am growlin’ mad about growlers.

Let me backtrack a little and set the scene. I live in Southern California. I have ONE brewery near me and two or three that are drives to get too under the best freeway conditions. Secondly, I am what economists term as “underemployed”. Not complaining but not swimming in steady cash. Lastly, I do not have unlimited shelf space. I have a small and growing “beer cellar” but I am reaching overload in pint glasses and bottles.

Now I can return to my rant. I would like to have one growler. A growler that I can fill at my local (Eagle Rock Brewing) but that I can also fill at Ladyface in Agoura Hills or Hangar 24 in Redlands or at Nibble Bit Tabby downtown. I don’t A) have the space for separate growlers and B) can’t afford them anyway.

I know that current law is against this. They want growlers labeled in a similar fashion as to labels on beer sold conventionally in stores. It is a pure CYA choice. But why do we want something similar to the sometimes comical and irritating label laws in place? Can the state cover it’s … with a different approach?

Here is my idea to solve the problem and boost the economy:

Step 1 – a “Made in California” growler. It could be sold by Chambers of Commerce or by the California Brewers Association or other outlets. I would refrain from having the breweries themselves sell them so as not to impinge on their own growler sales.

Step 2 – Create a label / sticker that can be filled out on the premises at the time the growler is filled with a link to the beers information on the brewers website. (Maybe via a barcode?)

A California growler would be accepted by whichever brewery wanted to make a $10 sale vs. a sale of $0.00. At least from my standpoint. I couldn’t buy (though I was tempted) a growler from Hangar 24 to bring home some of their Polycot beer (which was great) but if I had a California growler at home, I could have and Hangar 24 would have received $15.00 from me. The same at Stone in Escondido or 50-50 in Truckee. And for those establishments that cannot afford to get approved growlers, this would be entree to a new customer set.

It would also be a great way to promote the great beer you can find in this state. You could do a a great promotion about a growler tour of California breweries. The beer community makes pilgrimages to Russian River and The Bruery. Why not incentivize them to stay a little. You can even promote a design contest for the growler (see my design below). So many possibilities.

That’s my two cents. Poke holes in it. Add to it. Let’s get a discussion going.

Posted on

Session # 43

The Beer Babe has announced the topic of The Session #43 (Sept. 3) and “Welcoming The New Kids” challenges bloggers “to seek out a new brewery and think about ways in which they could be welcomed into the existing beer community.”

How does their beer compare to the craft beer scene in your area? Are they doing anything in a new/exciting way? What advice, as a beer consumer, would you give to these new breweries?

Take this opportunity to say hello to the new neighbors in your area. Maybe its a nanobrewery that came to a festival for the first time that you vowed to “check out” later. Maybe it’s a new local beer on a shelf on the corner store that you hadn’t seen before. Dig deeper and tell us a story about the “new kids on the block.” I look forward to welcoming them to the neighborhood!

All bloggers are welcome to participate. Just leave a link below The Beer Babe’s announcement.

Being a transplanted Stumptowner living in Tinseltown, I see new breweries opening in Portland with an envious eye and palate. Wishing that the same pace was being kept in the much larger market of Los Angeles.

Alas, I have to make do with two small but exciting breweries. Eagle Rock Brewing (which is 10 minutes away as the traffic flys) and Nibble Bit Tabby (which is downtown and in limited release). I have blogged about both too much as I search the past postings on my blog so I thought I would do a general three rules for the new brewer in the neighborhood.

1. Location aka “Where do I park?”
I have been to two community hearings and it seems that parking is the only thing that really pisses people off. You could sell beer anywhere if you have ample parking that doesn’t impinge on nearby homes and business. Why this is the most important thing to people is still a mystery but wow does lack of parking raise a ruckus.

2. Give me options aka “Please give me a growler”
People love to visit breweries so don’t be locked up all day. People love to buy the local beer at the local bar so be on draft near the brewery. And for homebodies who like to sit and watch TV on the DVR, the growler is a must if canning or bottling is too expensive. You get the point. Don’t restrict people from your beer. Most of the country ain’t gonna get to taste your beer so make sure that your immediate circle is fulfilled.

3. Charity is Cool aka “But don’t give it away”
You don’t have to give beer away to every Tom, Dick and beer blogger but make sure you supply ANY worthy cause in your vicinity. Especially now, no charity is going to turn away money because it is alcohol funded. And most love having adult only functions with a local vibe.

I am sure there are other golden rules not to be violated but from my experience, my three really need to be looked at.

Posted on

The Firkin for August 2010

I often try to live by the credo, “don’t complain, construct” Of course I just made that credo up right now but it’s a nice little bit of wordplay.

So instead of bashing ABInBev, MillerCoors and the rest of the industrial gang for their insipid tasting water lagers, I am going to lay out how they get back into the game and stop their downward sales spiral.

1. Stop the actual beer talk in your commercials.
Stick with selling beer to guys with ridiculously hot girlfriends. Stick with humor. Hell, stick with drinkability. But stop the hop talk, don’t mention malt or even discuss the brewing process. All you are doing is confusing the people already mesmerized into buying your beer and seriously pissing off beer geeks who know better.

Case in point – Triple hop brewed. The clever person who thought that up should be demoted. Leaving aside technical discussions of how a lot of better beer is triple hop brewed, why even bring hops into it, let alone three times! Your beer tastes NOTHING of hops. My tap water has more hop flavor than your beer. You are a selling machine, what you are selling, in essence, doesn’t matter.

2. Brew local
Each of your mammoth, gargantuan plants should brew a local beer for the area. A beer that is available only in that area. Beer Geeks LOVE rarity. How about actually setting aside the notion that you have to make a billion bottles of your beer. West coast operations should do an IPA, maybe a wheat beer in the midwest, a saison in Florida. It will instill pride for each facility and could be expanded. Each branch could have a stable of local only beers.

It won’t bring back the craft beer fans who have long since abandoned you but you might slow the attrition rate amongst the disaffected and searching.

3. R&D
You have great equipment, state of the art computers, access to whatever ingredients you want, great brewers. And you have them all doing the same thing. Don’t get me wrong, to make a consistent beer all across the world is an impressive feat. But you are not getting the full talent and benefit of your staff. Cut them loose to do special brews for company functions or trade shows. Unshackle your full potential!

Somehow you all have mistaken colorful mountains or vortexes for innovation. It’s not. It’s packaging and each time you chase it you get a bump then a dip back down. It’s like crack to you people. Innovate with the product instead.

There you go! Salvation. Free of charge.