Lost Forever?

Los Angeles has had a bit of brewery loss at the end of 2022. But does a brewery closure mean a good beer is gone? Should it be?

Of course L.A. is not the only one lamenting brewery closures but I would really like to see beers from Indie, King Harbor, Strand and Mumford back for at least a limited time on draft. Perhaps if these brewers end up in another local brewery, they can add it into the brew schedule as an homage.

Or, on a grander scale, would it be possible for a beer festival to have an “in memoriam” booth where you can taste beers that are no longer in production.

If Stone Brewing can bring back beers based on customer voting, I don’t see why a beer recipe can’t just be brewed anew.

The Firkin for November 2022

Both Stone Brewing and Oskar Blues have gone back to their back catalog of beers and re-released beers that had not been on tap or cans for a while.  And while the nostalgic part of me thinks that is a fun idea, I do wonder if the constant stream of new releases from breweries over the last few years will make this idea a non-starter when the hip breweries get to the same age as Stone and Oskar.

Because, you have to build a following for a beer.  You can’t really do that if there were two new beers the previous week and another on the next week.  It is the same long-term issue I have with pre-season seasonals that are off shelves before the season is over.  You disconnect the beer from the time of the year that you are celebrating.

This is not an Old Man Yelling at Clouds post, if a brewery chooses a new, new, even more new path, that is absolutely fine. But that path means that you are bound to lose some nostalgia as well as a chance to have a flagship beer. You will create a new mindset in the customer who will open the door expecting a new beer on tap or in 4-packs.

Maybe the pendulum will swing back to core beers.