My Favorite Things

When stores put up Halloween items in July and Christmas sprouts up in October, you need to find a better marker for the end of year holiday season.  Mine is the release of the Firestone Walker Anniversary blend.  

This year the winning blend was done by the trio of Valia From and Emily Miller – Desparada Wines, Russell From – Herman Story Wines and Danny “Fullpint” Becker – Editor-in-Chief, of The Full Pint.  And it has some fun additions to it.

Here is the final blend:
Parabola – Russian Imperial Stout – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (32%)
Velvet Merkin – Milk Stout – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (32%)
Bravo – Imperial Brown Ale – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (24%)
Heavy Things – Barley Wine Made in Collaboration with The Bruery – Aged in Brandy Barrels (6%)
Helldorado – Blonde Barley Wine – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (4%)
Wheat Wine -Strong Golden Barley Wine Co-Fermented with White Wine Grape Juice – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (2%)

I always buy one to age and one to drink now.  It is pretty much the only beer I age now, it is that good.

And of course, as per BSP tradition, I will review 26 next to the blend from five years ago.

Fifteen Pints and A Volcano

The Full Pint blog has hit year 15 and they teamed up with Radiant Beer Co. for not a session IPA, not an IPA or a DIPA but an XPA filled with New Zealand hops like Nelson, Motueka Cascade hops from New Zealand.

Here is the brewery rundown, “Aromatics of melon, Sauv Blanc, citrus zest, and lemongrass open up into flavors of white peach, passion fruit, and delicate lychee balanced with a hint of crackery malt and superbly high carbonation.”

A Full Pint Breakfast

Time to show some love to the fellow beer writers over at the Full Pint, they have riffed on the famous Bacon and Eggs beer with…

“Sausage & Grits was brewed in collaboration with The Full Pint and Pizza Port Carlsbad. This elegant Coffee Porter at 6.5% ABV boasts flavors and aromas of perfectly roasted coffee, chocolate and caramel. Sausage & Grits features the “Daybreak Blend” from Steady State Roasting. This blend consists of Brazil and Colombian varietals.”

Fran and the Full Pint


The Full Pint folks just can’t seem to stop celebrating their 11th Anniversary. This Friday the 26th, the crew head to Highland Park Brewery in Chinatown to debut Franbo Pils, the Franny-ized version of Timbo Pils with 4-packs and their fancy 11th glassware.

The pils is dry hopped with Citra, Mosaic and Amarillo hops and the label is flat out cool.

Brut AF


The Full Pint beer blog has made it pretty easy to help them celebrate their 11th anniversary. They released a beer with Pizza Port, they have another with Faction Brewing coming up and for Angelenos, they have…. BRUT AF.

Here are the details for the El Segundo stop: “And we’re canning this sucker and throwing a party in its honor…Saturday, August 11th, 12PM-10PM, MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The Full Pint crew will be here hanging out and Vella Pizza will be cooking your favorite pie.”

#LABW10 – Oink

It is Beer Week Eve! Here is my fifth event choice for L.A. Beer Week….
From The Full Pint gang hosted by The Oinkster

June 21st starting at 6:30

“To celebrate LA Beer Week 10, The Full Pint crew will be hanging out at their favorite burger and pastrami joint, The Oinkster!

Join Danny, Franny and Jonny for a night of special selected local craft beer and a “One-Night-Only” food menu.

We’ll have beers on draft from our friends at Highland Park Brewery, Green Cheek Beer Co. and Homage Brewing

We just may be popping some rare bottles of beer, you never know.

## Food Menu ##
Danny’s Bacon Patty Melt
Jonny’s Jalapeno Burger
Franny Fries!”

The Bungee Cord Effect

I won’t really be able to top the Full Pint’s takedown of recent “High End” PR campaign. But I would like to add a pair of pennies to it.

America is great at a lot of things. Really shitty at a lot of things too. One thing that we are shitty at is evaluating and then placing people, places or things in their rightful place.

We elevate a brewery or the face of the brewery to a pedestal dismissing along the way the flaws that every person or brewery may have. Once on said pedestal, the process to tear them down begins. Then the negativity lowers the brewery or the face of the brewery way past where it should be. Then the backlash to that backlash happens and we heave back upward again. The way media and the interwebs currently work is basically like a bungee cord or yo-yo. Happens to actors, athletes and politicians too.

But breweries and the people that run them were never probably saints or sinners. They probably were in between in a tighter band of the good to bad spectrum. (See my handy chart below)
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So take with multiple grains of salt too many fluffy pieces about the brewmaster or owner of a brewery and be equally wary of the defensive articles that seem to be part of a counter argument. Keep the focus on the beer itself and what the brewery actually does (not what it says it does).

If we all were better at taking the time and care to evaluate we might have seen that the breweries that are now part of the “High End” were all aspiring to be bigger with better being part of the baggage but not the driving motivator.

Law Firm of

As the pool of super-cool and available brewery and beer names grows smaller, so to will the amount of legal actions taken. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear about a case where no litigation took place. Where two parties talked and worked it out.

Or as the cool guys (and Fran) from The Full Pint put it: “So no cease and desist letter, no venomous email threads, no 20 page forum thread talking about the big guy is going after the little guy, just two sets of hard working dudes who have similar tastes in company names who worked it out in the end.”

No, this wasn’t a case of brewery vs. brewery but it is how the big boys in a business should play. Have your branding and trademarks set, hire a smart but not auto-litigious lawyer, then call to protect your brand with the hoped for outcome of no court dates.

Check out the Full story HERE.