Tag: Sports & A Beer

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In the Tap Lines for April 2024

Spring sprang a day early this year and SoCal has been getting actual weather with slight variations instead of 80 degrees and dry as hell, so time to celebrate the season and bottom left corner of the country.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from San Diego

~ special featured reviews of Spring beers

~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 The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzales James

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to A Crispr Bite

~ Sports & A Beer returns with

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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Sports & A Beer – March Madness

It is easy to get caught up in March Madness. The sheer amount of games, the buzzer beaters and the Cinderella teams, Stetson Hatters anyone. Also the fun of busted brackets, yes fun, no one wins so it is truly a game to play.

The only thing going against March Madness is that a good chunk of games each passing year are played in April. But compared to the shitshow that is the college football behemoth and their three super conferences, college basketball is as pristine as the driven snow.

And making this an even more interesting year is that there is no real consensus best player except for Caitlin Clark. And as much as the boy’s bracket will be tough, the Women’s bracket will feature Clark and the Hawkeyes of Iowa, defending champs LSU and new powerhouse South Carolina. That Final Four will be great games.

There are two ways you can pair craft beer with games. One is to find a brewery that corresponds with each of the four regions and when you watch a game from that region crack one open from that part of the country. You could also select beers based on where games are played.

Another route would be to pick beers from the cities / states where the #1 seeds hail from or if you are here for the upsets, find the #16 seeds instead.

Enjoy the tourney and its shining moments.

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In the Tap Lines for March 2024

Springtime in SoCal as we move into what I jokingly call “early summer”. Hoping to find some bock beers, either strong or dopple would be nice plus the following features this month….

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the newer cities in the NWSL

~ special featured reviews of a potpourri of beers

~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 The Trees by Percival Everett

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Heritage Mezcal

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Thoughts on March Madness

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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Sports & A Beer – What are sports anyway? 

I have been over the Olympics for many cycles now.  Corruption played a part.  NBC never not showing figure skating, even during the summer games a part. But another aspect was the fringe competitions that popped up and then disappeared.  I’m looking at you, flag football.

Ever since Dodgeball the Movie introduced us to ESPN8, The Ocho, it seems your cornhole, your darts, your curling are now considered athletic competitions.  Now before you say I am clinging to an outmoded way of sports thought, they are competitions sure.  It takes skill to throw a dart with pinpoint accuracy but it also is more math as you need to know where to throw it to get the right point total.  

Flag Football is a competition but it is more an anti-concussion one.  And curling is literally sweeping meets ice Bocce Ball.  What’s next, axe throwing as sport?  I know that the streaming platforms are desperate for sports content because unlike the Harry Potter movies that have been on every platform, sometimes at the same time, sports are unique individual events. But they are not going to boost the subscriber base with a mega niche offering like Quidditch.

I have to say that these outliers may be fun, but you will never see Usher playing the halftime show of the Cornhole Super Bowl.

This is an easy beer pairing because we won’t be pairing these psedo-sports with beer.  The next time a dodgeball contest is on and you are watching because you were intimidated by the nearly three hour run time of Part 1 of Mission Impossible, grab yourself a hard seltzer or a smoothie beer that pours like a slurpee from 7-11 and enjoy the weirdness that is the “sports” landscape in 2024. Or you could really zag and find a beer/wine hybrid, that would be the classy way.

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In the Tap Lines for February 2024

Another trip around the sun for this here beer blogger. Time to celebrate with an extra day and some extra special beers along with the usual posts such as….

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Washington State in honor of George’s birthday that he shares with me

~ special featured review my chosen birthday beer

~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 Black AF History by Michael Harriot

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to True Detective – Night Country

~ Sports & A Beer returns with What are sports now anyway?

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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Sports & A Beer – Streaming Sports

There was quite a bit of pissiness this year around one NFL playoff game on Wild Card Weekend. The reason for the eye rolls was that the NFL had sold one, just one, game to NBC who was putting it on their streaming service Peacock.

Now, no one knew that it would be an anticipated game between reigning champs, the Kansas City Chiefs and the high octane Miami Dolphins but now fans, bar owners and the like had to buy a month of Peacock for one game.

Peacock ain’t the only streamer with issues in my book. The Max (formerly HBO Max) has some NBA but not a lot and not every night. Paramount+ has a bit of stuff as does Hulu via ESPN but that here, here and over there nature means the fan has to mark their calendars diligently to follow their favorite teams. Or just buy and hold subscriptions to watch a bare minimum of games.

And with the pro leagues asking and getting bigger paydays each contract cycle, those streaming subscriptions are probably gonna rise.

Which means you will find me watching the highlights on YouTube instead.

For beer, look for the now not spoken of IBUs (international bittering units) and let your choice of high octane hops be the bitterness instead of you having it inside.

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In the Tap Lines for January 2024

We are back around the calendar horn. A whole beer year stretches before us. All sorts of new brews and new news are waiting for us craft beer fans. Starting with…..

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Craft Beer & Brewing’s Best of 2023 Canadian picks.

~ special featured reviews of beers of ciders from 2 Towns Ciderhouse

~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 Roughhouse Friday by Jaed Coffin

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Food Programme from the BBC

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Streaming Sports

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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Sports & A Beer – Where have all the Good QB’s gone?

It has been a pretty dismal year for quarterbacks in the NFL. The hapless Jets of New York have cycled through four already and have probably come to the realization that Aaron Rodgers on one leg is easily their best option. The other New York football club is on a back-up from a QB who wasn’t lighting the world afire either but they must be thanking the football gods that the Jets are getting most of the bad press.

We aren’t even near the worst as the Patriot combo of Jones and Zappe cannot get you more than 10 points in a game as they showed in stunning fashion losing to the yet again underachieving Chargers 6-0. Not even one point!

Even Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs don’t look good. And that is a troubling sign for the NFL. Maybe GMs are thinking that if Brock Purdy can pilot a devastating 49er attack that any old fourth-rounder can succeed but that is so not the case.

The injured list is growing each day. Rodgers, Cousins, Burrow, Jones, Lawrence, Richardson, Pickett and Carr. Other teams are going with the likes of Sam Howell, Desmond Ridder and Aidan O’Connell. Not many Heismans there.

Your beer task for this exercise is to stock your ‘fridge with the C.J. Strouds and Jalen Hurts of the beer world wherever you may be because more QB1s are going to get injured and you are going to need really good beer to talk about because some of these upcoming games are gonna be real hard to watch.

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In the Tap Lines for December 2023

It is the end of the road for 2023. 31 more days until 2024 starts smacking us around. It has been a doozy. Strikes. Indictments. Wars. Inflation. And we are probably gonna run it back again. But, before you say we are doomed, we still have great craft beer and Christmas beers!

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Craft Beer & Brewing’s Best of 2023

~ special featured reviews of beers if I find room amongst the seasonal beers.

~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 Going Infinite by Michael Lewis

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to NPR’s Book of the Day

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Where are all the Good QB’s?

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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Sports & A Beer – Trade Demands

As a lifelong Trailblazer fan, this summer of trades has been bittersweet.  Not seeing Damian Lillard in the red and black is weird.  But what is weirder are the trade demands being made.

I love Lillard but telling Portland that he wanted ONLY to go to Miami felt a little hostage-y.  And I wasn’t the only one to think so as the NBA head office fined him and his agent over it.  But Lillard was an absolute angel in comparison to James Harden who is toxic enough that the 76ers didn’t even want him on a team flight and had security bar him from the plane before pawning him to his third team in three years, the Clippers.

I am way more pro player than pro ownership but a player can’t point and expect to go.  Unless.  The preferred team is willing to actually negotiate in good faith.  Now that we have both had a good laugh, here is what should be done by the player.  Let the team you want to leave know that you have a preferred destination but also give them other less liked but OK landing spots.  My guess is that the reception will be a lot better when not demanding with a capital D.  And the fact that there is a list will incentivize team 1 to deal since other teams are in the running.

Trades can be good or bad.  Try to make them better people.

For beer, I would suggest a fun game.  Bring three separate beers from your ‘fridge and see what you can trade for from a beer loving friends stash.  You can even ask for a beer to be named later.  See who ends up with what and who thinks they won.  See if being super extra demanding works to your benefit.