Tag: Opinion

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The Firkin for December 2020

How will “dry”uary fare next month? Will seltzer keep rising? Is there a new IPA sub-style waiting in the wings? When will we be back at beer festival? If a year has started with more question marks, it has not been for a long time.

The biggest question being, the economy in the immediate vaccine aftermath. How long before life starts clicking like it was back this time last year?

I don’t have any good answers. The second set of stimulus, the brewery taxation and Save Our Stages bills got held up by the Child in Chief because of lack of magazine covers or some other imagined slight. That going into effect would have gotten us back at least a week early.

My prediction is that August is the month where we can stride to a brewery and have a pint at a bar. There will be sanitizer everywhere and people will be wary and some may even still wear masks even though that is the last safety measure that we should let go and not the first like I believe it will. Until that point, all other bets are on pause.

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Aftermath – Part 9

It is not too often that folks will openly let you know that their establishment is not safe. But everything is bigger in Texas, including hubris.

But this post is not about knowing that this bar will soon be on the news as a virus hotbed. It is about the smaller signs to look for when going to a bar or taproom.

A. Tables should either be removed or blocked from use.

B. Doors should be open to avoid contact.

C. Windows should be open to avoid recirculating air.

D. You should see hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies around and being used.

E. There should be a restricted amount of people inside.

F. Masks should be on

Here is a way simple analogy. You do not go to a car dealership and ask for a car with either seatbelts, airbags or anti-lock brakes. There is no OR, it is AND. Same with virus safety. A mask and six feet is safer than just a mask. That is why you need to look and see first before sitting down.

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The Firkin for May 2020

I have to say that the moves that the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) have made during this pandemic have been mostly smart and effective. They moved with decent speed to allow beer sales to reflect the curbside and on-line ordering marketplace. Let breweries ship beer within the state and have loosened restrictions so that sidewalks and parking lots could be used as seating for patrons to keep that distancing effort alive.

But I am at a loss about this food and alcohol rule. Otherwise known as The Stuffed Sandwich for the great deli and beer lovers spot here in Southern California that operated under the weird rule that you could not purchase beer unless you ordered food.

Now that seems to be back on a larger scale for breweries wanting to re-open their taprooms. But what if I am a vegan and it’s a BBQ truck, or it’s a seafood truck and I am allergic to shellfish or if I just want a beer? Maybe they are looking to force breweries to help out restaurants?

Whatever the reasoning, I see people buying the lowest cost item and then not eating it. It has a two-drink minimum comedy club vibe to it. And it seems to put brewpubs into better position than taprooms.

Or am I reading this rule incorrectly?

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Aftermath – Part 8

Grand RE-openings. There are going to be quite a few if people in Texas and Wisconsin are any indication when given any sort of quasi-approval to open the doors again. Previously, I talked about the simple ebb and flow problems that will arise when a taproom reopens but what about bigger parties?

There are breweries that were just about to open, breweries who will be ready this summer and a backlog inventory of missed anniversary parties in the second half of the year. 

How do you creatively balance the celebration aspect with the safety aspect?  On Mother’s Day not only were people viral video complaining about the wait times at Red Lobster but they were going to church, sick.  Less than a week later 200 people were sick.  From 1, one person.

How do you get beer fans to your brewery and then keep them safe and in a fun mood?  I do not have the answers.  I have been visiting breweries to pick-up only with a mask on but I understand if people are not comfortable with gatherings. 

I would say that providing branded masks would be a good start.  Having a hosted video of parties would be good as well with options for VIPs to get beer and special video.   Sending beer to EMTs or hospitals would be good. Maybe doing a drop off for the hardworking grocery store workers.  Creativity will need to come to the fore. 

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The Firkin for April 2020

OK, rule breakers. If you were allowed to sit in a taproom today, would you? I would feel safe that breweries or restaurants would not keep a sick person serving because the backlash would be really bad. But if the normal seating capacity of a space was, say, twenty people and there was already more than five there, I would hesitate.

Partially because I do not want to go this far without catching the virus and then get it on the rebound. But, obviously, I am in the minority. If a beach is open , people will flock together no matter if someone dressed as the Grim Reaper is walking with them mocking them.

I will be taking it slow and steady. As restrictions are eased, I will go out a little more, maybe travel to a further away taproom while traffic stays lighter than usual. But I won’t be returning to my normal clip of visits until the second wave has passed. And that first brewery party or fest is going to be real weird for sure.

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Aftermath – Part 6

Will delivery be normal after the virus has passed? Will to-go orders and curbside pick-up remain an option?

I would say that both will eventually phase out. In-state delivery is just too costly not to mention bad for an environment healing from lack of cars on the road. Plus, with travel opened up, visiting breweries will more than like return if the stir crazy mood of Americans is any indication.

Curbside though might hang on longer as fear and worry slowly dissipate. Eventually though, the keg trade will reclaim its position and there will be less cans and bottles to pick-up and run with.

Where it may linger a bit more is in the delivery apps. They are either going to struggle with being profitable or struggle to pay a workforce that will increasingly call for more money and alcohol might be a big ticket item that could be used to pay back investors and contractors.

The taproom experience is clearly something people want so that means back to the sidelines for delivery.

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The Firkin for March 2020

This has been a shitty month. No sugarcoating it. But part of human nature is to make lemonade out of lemons and memes out of Michael Jordan crying, so it is no surprise that quarantine named beers have started popping up.

I get it and some are quite clever but part of me thinks that this may be a thing to stay away from or now. Granted, I have thought that a brewery should Barrel-age a beer they normally would have sold immediately and name it Newsom’s Private Reserve or Mayor Garcetti’s Non-Essential ale.

But neither would get the joke and would just fall back on their safe public safety arguments while we who are left feel the brunt of the economic fallout zone they pushed us into.

So, instead, I think it would be great for breweries in Los Angeles to collaborate on a beer or two to honor the breweries that did not make it through this crisis. Not something bitter or sour, but maybe a golden ale. The Sun is Out Again rings true to me.

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The Firkin for February 2020

Beer Advocated purchased by Untappd. To be more precise, by Next Glass, the owner of Untappd. And no, they are going to merge their ratings systems. They know better than anger that fan base.

This follows upon the “other” beer rating website (RateBeer) being bought by SABInBev. Quite frankly, I have not used RB’s site since I do not want Big Beer to grab any of my beer data and since the Beer Advocate magazine stopped, I haven’t really dropped by their website either. I have had subscriptions for pretty much every beer magazine down the pike, included Craft Beer & Brewing currently but minus Beer Paper LA and blogs, the writing game is pretty scattered now.

Which means a more than likely, money or time losing situation for a passion project (like this here blog). I can’t fault Beer Advocate for going this route. It will allow them to focus on events or other projects that could not have been done due to the lack of cash or hours in the day.

The question is, what is the future of sites like Beer Advocate and RateBeer. Both have passionate defenders but I feel the initial rush of giddy beer drinkers has passed and the middle ground of fans no longer deep dives into topics like they once did. I certainly do not even add everything I taste onto Untappd, and that really just requires wi-fi and a working finger.

Perhaps, there will come a time when there are different levels of beer rating services catering to passionate niches of people. Who knows what the future will hold.

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The Firkin for January 2020

Beware the beer snob who tells you that the beer that you ordered is not really beer. The truth is that: Beer is beer is beer. There are some beers like the industrial monolith really yellow cheap stuff that I just do not like and I think is a hollow imitation of a really great style of beer, there are pastry stouts that have enough sugar in them to ferment again and there are green beers that just didn’t reach take-off velocity.

All are beer, just some of it is better to my palate than others. And that, in a nutshell, is what happens. Enough palates get together and a style becomes popular but that hazy IPA you had a few years ago might not hew to the 2020 palate. The hops might be better or worse or just different. The brewer might be different. The brewery might have invested in a new cold delivery truck and now that IPA that you disliked is suddenly fresher and better and it could be because of all the above reasons combined or just the damn truck being cold.

So, we all need to get better at saying that this current beer is not working for us today and not the alternative of ripping it to shreds or dismissing it. Even though the latter may be more fun. This is not like a finished movie or song that can be objectively and subjectively judged, a beer is a moving target and will continue to change as the years pass by much like we all are. Because not only is there a “drift” in palates, there is a drift in beer styles and a drift in the beer industry and the unthinkable becomes common and then fades away.

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Peel the Label – Ignorance?

Scrolling through Facebook, I read an exchange between two beer fans (one being a writer) about a craft brewery that is owned by what is left of Miller Coors. One side theorized that it is easy enough for people to know who is brewing your beer and the other somewhat admitted defeat to the tune of the majority of people don’t really care enough to look.

It got me to thinking because in beer circles, you hear the mantra of education. Get that newbie into the tap room and then you can give them the spiel and they will be turned to the Jedi way.

Personally, I think that the low hanging customer fruit has been plucked. If the hard seltzer craze has taught us anything is that people will drink what other people are drinking. You can posit that it is an effort to be cool, or maybe to put it on social media but I do not think so. I think it is easy. Plain and simple. The majority of alcohol drinkers will drink what is in front of them. If they are at a brewery tap room, they will drink what is on the menu board. If they are at a bar, they will drink something from the menu.

And trying to educate this group is kinda pointless. You can tell them that Golden Road is Anheuser-Busch but they will drink it if they are at a party and that is what is in the cooler. Factors like taste or price don’t really matter because the choice has been filtered down to location.

Not to say that you shouldn’t try but don’t expect that the person will seek you out and come to your festival. If you wonder why influencers have, well, influence, it is because there is a vast swatch of food and drink and clothing and etc. consumer who just wants to be told what to buy. If you can get that person’s attention, then they will more than likely buy if it is right there for them but if they have to move even a smidge or put out an effort, not gonna happen.

Peel the Label is an infrequent series with no photos or links. Just opinion.