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Suds County. Not a uber classy name in my mind. But if you want to know the history behind what is an uber explosive craft beer scene then Suds County, USA is the movie for you.
And you can download for a mere $5.99! There are beers that are double that amount for 22ozs. Plus you can check out a few clips if you are still on the fence.
Upon hearing that the Beer Bloggers Conference of 2014 was to be in San Diego. I knew that I would be either stopping by before or after. Little did I know, I would go mid-conference to their FlavorDome on Upas Street.
But that is what transpired. The dome has a ceiling of lampshades. Coasters are hard disks. Extra hard disks are re-purposed as art on the walls. The bar has a base constructed of VHS containers and the whole decor screams, Jess from New Girl. You could call it twee or precious but it certainly is designed. What I liked is that the space has big windows for daydreaming and no TV’s to be found.
And there is beer….
This was the taster tray with Universal Friend, Grapefruit tinged Fortunate Islands on cask, Black House on Nitro and a Belgian Strong by the quirky name of New Harmony. The taster pours are ample so be prepared to drink. My favorite of the quad was the Universal Friend. The Pinot Grigio notes were there but were in addition and not blunt force to the palate. The essential Belgian qualities were there in abundance as well. Second in the ranking was the cask. The grapefruit really added some pith to the citric hoppiness already evident in Fortunate Islands which is one of my favorite beers. Black House and New Harmony were the bottom and a bit off from the front runners. I think I expected more from Black House on nitro. It was fine but it didn’t wow me.
With a grain of salt, I had been drinking at the conference so my taste buds may have missed some subtlety but I was quite glad that I visited plus you can order tacos from the hip Perlas nearby and have it delivered to your beer.
Now that some time has passed since the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference finished it is time to post a full review of the event itself. Some items you may gleaned from the daily recaps but I would be remiss if I didn’t both explain further and add my two cents on how to improve next year’s version in Asheville, North Carolina.
(To break the tedium, I will add some photos in between points.)
Above is a real Stone brewer and his photo. Which is which?
On to the conference review, Stone brought their game as did Lagunitas (to an even larger extent). I expected that. But for a conference placed in San Diego, I wonder why Lagunitas was featured. AleSmith. Ballast Point. Pick a brewery. And that is my largest complaint. Why have an event in a city if you don’t show off that city to the max? And this is no slight to the generosity of Lagunitas. It was the highlight of my trip. And it is no slight to Yard House which, in my mind, occupies an important part of the craft beer food chain. But, in my opinion, if the Asheville planning doesn’t include more North Carolina specific locales then I would hesitate to attend.
The only Vaping, I would ever do.
Also on the needs work tab is the scheduling. Too many events could have been improved by being in better time slots. The 8 blogger 5 minute presentations would have made a bigger impact earlier in the conference and not on Sunday morning when the majority of attendees were either hung or tired or both. Same for a couple of blogging technical seminars that were placed between big names like and dinner. I would seriously consider just having a breakfast with coffee beers on Sunday morning and nothing else. Also the Bottle Share HAS to be earlier in the evening. It would have drawn more people and been more appreciated if people weren’t (take a guess) hung or dead tired.
A new and soon to come beer with licorice from Goose Island
That being said. I enjoyed the conference tremendously. It is great to see old faces and meet new ones. The quality and amount of beer is beyond the pale and the hotel and pace of the conference is well done. And to have David Walker, Ken Grossman, Peter Zien, Tomme Arthur and Chuck Silva (who sat at our table for a bit) around is awesome. The generosity abounds and not enough thank you’s will suffice. I wouldn’t go three out of five times if it was a poor. I learned about the history of San Diego brewing. I learned some new tricks and had old ones validated. Most of all I saw the passion of other bloggers and that always energizes me. I think that part of the reason why I needed a month off from beer blogging last year was due to not being at the conference for two years running. That speaks volumes to the quality.
Where else did we go when in San Diego county when not attending the BBC14?
Day 2 in Mission Valley in San Diego, our host for the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference.
Learning day! Multiple break-out sessions either tangentially or directly targeted at bloggers. With the key and most important talk coming from Ken Grossman, the keynote speaker. The man behind Sierra Nevada. He spoke about Beer Camp and the tour that wound it’s way from Chico to Mills River in North Carolina. I think it was better to hear about the bus and the AC breaking down than to experience it.
Before that, we had choices for topics. I went to photography first followed by Beer Blogging Ethics. Both held nuggets of good information but starting with the photo session which seemed targeted at a more PR/Art photography rather than the “in the trenches” photography from a bar or festival. The main take-away was learning your camera and your editing software so that creating better photos becomes second nature.
The ethics session was good in concept but not executed well despite the combined wisdom of Jay Brooks and Brandon Hernandez who have held numerous positions in beer writing. The free flowing Q&A should have been ditched for more questions from the moderator who has a legal and blogging background and could have led the discussion instead of letting go the reins.
Lunch was at Yard House. I was not there. Too sponsor-y to me and I don’t need to come to San Diego for their food and taps. I came for San Diego beer. So fellow blogger Richard and I headed to the FlavorDome. That will be a separate post.
After Ken Grossman concluded his well done speech and announced that BBC15 will be Asheville, North Carolina we went into technical blogging and social media techniques. Me being contrary to all things SEO, I wrote this post instead. Also because I knew that major beer drinking was ahead. That too will be covered later……
Lovely Mission Valley in San Diego played host to the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference.
We arrived near Charger/Qualcomm stadium to meet bloggers and taste beer and learn about San Diego. After a stop Pizza Port in Bressi Ranch of course. Had to fuel up with pizza and beer.
The conference was already started with beers already flowing. Many Ballast Point beers were available like Grapefruit Sculpin and the latest Homework Series beer, a rye hop bomb. Also Belching Beaver and New English ( which was new to me) bottles were being passed around.
We had barely sat down and hadn’t even seen our room when cool event # 1 started. Hop Vaping with Lagunitas. I probably didn’t do it right but it was still cool. Amarillo hops piped into a bag then pushed into your waiting nasal passages. I went back again later that night and just soaked in the aroma from the “Vaping” table.
Cool event # 2 was hearing the true San Diego craft beer history with the titans of SD brewing. Peter Zien from AleSmith, Tomme Arthur from Port and Lost Abbey and Chuck Silva of Green Flash. This panel could have gone on for hours. The blog marketing info presented afterwards was good but really paled in comparison. A poor time slot can make or break a presentation. The beer history was so informative that I will post separately when I talk about the documentary, Suds, County.
A trip to the Karl Strauss tasting room was anti-climactic as well. Solid beers and a lovely landscaped and decorated space but safe, not adventurous.
That adventure came at the Lagunitas nightcap. Aged Olde Gnarleywine from ’09 and ’11. Sucks on tap. And the standout for the night was Mandaraison. Pepper and fruit swirled with Belgian influences. Fantastic. Plus news of their new fresh hop Born a Yesterday Pale.
More to come later…..
Port Brewing Co. “will change up its original branding of a “port hole” and “pint glass”, to a recognizable icon seen on beaches worldwide, the flip-flop.”
And that branding change will encompass the label designs and the newly refurbished website with the Port motto, “Laid Back but Hop Forward™.”
“We’ve been using the Flip-Flop tap handles to brand our draft beer for the past 7 years” said Tomme Arthur Director of Brewery Operations for Port Brewing. “Adding these icons to everything from our new website all the way down to our bottle caps makes perfect sense.”
Agreed. I wasn’t a huge fan of the artwork on some of the bottles and I think a unified image will be better in the long run both artistically and commercially.
Los Angeles has been getting an influx of San Diego canned beers. St. Archer, Modern Times and now Mike Hess is popping up. So, lets see what this 16oz tallboy is like…..
I don’t usually write harsh reviews. Mostly because I am pretty damn picky about the beers that I spend my money on. But I do have breweries whose beer I think is over-over rated and there are others whose beer just underwhelms expectations.
And unfortunately, Saint Archer has twice fallen into that latter category.
Recently, I had a taster flight plus 2 of Saint Archer beers at Beer Belly. I set aside my previous experience with the Pale (which I did not cotton to) and the Blonde (which I really quite enjoyed) as I had heard that quality had improved over time. Which I have found to (sometimes) be true as brewers dial in the recipes. And since Saint Archer along with Modern Times have been blitzing the L.A. market, I felt the time was ripe to re-evaluate the line.
The Blonde was just as good as I remembered so I started hopefully moving down the taster line. The Pale was better though not lip-smacking good. Middle of the Pack. Which isn’t bad in a crowded hop field. Then I got to the IPA which was incredibly soapy to me. I was glad that I didn’t get a full glass of it. Not much bitterness either. The last of the taster was a Scottish Ale that was fine but it did have a touch of wort-ish, not quite done-ness to it at the back.
While waiting for a fellow beer gourmand to arrive, I overheard that the Nitro Coffee Brown was tasty, so I ordered one up. And what I got was certainly a distinct take on the style. It was just not what I was expecting. It was the coffee bean all right but the peppery, unroasted type. So you got much more of that green pepper taste than coffee. Which was a direct counter to the coffee aroma. I can see how others might like it but it just didn’t work for me because of the switch from aroma to taste.
I finished with the Double IPA which much like the Pale was good but not Wow! Good. It was fine but in comparison to the hoppy creations of El Segundo that I had tasted the night before, it just paled in both strength and hoppiness. Maybe my hop palate has an uber high tolerance level but it just didn’t have an effect on me one way or the other.
This experience got me to thinking about expectations. How much of my disappointment is based on the track record of the brewers behind the brand. There are good people at the mash tun so it certainly is a factor. Or is it a comparison to Modern Times whose beers seem on track? Was I hoping for more than a standard product line of blonde to stout ? Or is it just what I expect from San Diego beer in general? Only a psychiatrist could probably find out what percentage of my review can be attributed to those points.
As for now, I can heartily recommend the Blonde but I would suggest stopping there unless you want to do your own analysis.
Modern Times gets the beer review spotlight for January 2014 and we sample their Black House coffee stout…..
Here is the brewery description of the beer, “Black House is an oatmeal coffee stout bursting with coffee aroma and flavor. Modern Times is one of the only breweries in the world to roast our own coffee, which allows us to be exceptionally picky about which coffees we use and how we roast them. The result is an abundantly flavorful beer that’s incredibly complex and aromatic, with loads of roast character and a chocolate-covered espresso bean finish.”