This Kind Of Brewery May Be Over

The sad news of a Bay Area staple closing, Marin Brewing Company, brings the feelings.

These kind of places may be over. The 80s 90s era. When brewpubs and breweries were a small underrated community.

Friend and Marinite, Paul has some words about it:

It’s bad enough that Iron Springs had to go down, but the ‘Brew Co’ – as all the locals referred to it – was iconic; one of California’s original pioneering brew pubs. I blame the haze craze more than anything. I’m sure the pandemic didn’t help, not to mention the a-hole landlord that kept jacking their rent. But ultimately I think it’s the fact that people’s taste in beer has changed, and it is getting harder and harder for these old school establishments to survive. I am in the minority. I am getting old and stodgy, and I long for dark and cozy brew pubs where you can get a stout and a side of mashed potatoes all for under 10 bucks on your lunch break. Sadly, those days are long gone. Please take a moment of silence to mourn this loss with me.

Thanks, Paul. It’s the ‘dark & cozy’ that gets me. There is not a lot of cozy left. Being a beer nerd used to be that: a small cozy community.

Find a malty pale (if you can) and pour one out for all the brewpubs and coziness we have lost.

I Had A “Cold IPA“ And…

Last week I made fun of Beer Cruncher seemingly being the only one out there trying to make “Cold IPAs” happen. Then I ran across my first one in the wild.

A colab between Central California’s Alvarado Street and Figueroa Mountain Brewing called “Acapulco Cold”.

It is actually pretty good. I enjoyed it.

If I am to use this one example of the style, I do think there is a slight difference between this beer and an India Pale Lager style beer. Small, but there. The Lager side is very hidden, but still present.

Good if I don’t want the Lager feel, bad if I do.

Is it enough of a difference to give it its own style name like Cold IPA? Well, if I didn’t care about the marketing side I would say this is a sub-genre of IPL – definitely in the IPL family but enough of a difference to acknowledge it.

You can’t blame them for trying to attach it to the Ale side instead of the Lager side, but they are cheating a bit.

Hey, this particular CIPA is a nice beer. If they want to keep trying to make this style work, go for it – I definitely recommend trying one out if you see one, especially if you’re into a hoppy Lager. Honestly, I would have rather had this beer with Ale yeast though. ??

Allagash White (Is A Terrible Tasting Beer)

Allagash White can — Trying an Allagash White on my Beer Bench

So many people love Allagash White. It makes many beer geek’s Top Five Beers of All Time lists. But it tastes terrible to me. Always has. Sorry.

But, hey, what a good beer is can be very subjective. A large community inside Beer Twitter and beer folks in general, adore Allagash White. Some herald it as the perfect beer.

I could never stand the fucker.

A thin, old-tasting beer that feels like it was put through a Randall filled with mushed bananas? No thanks. It’s not Allagash’s fault, I know, it’s the style. Still.

Honestly, though, it had been a long time since I had one. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe my palate had changed. I am wrong a lot so I could be totally off.

So I decided to try this classic beer once again:

Yep. My review of Allagash White is: Still as awful as I remember. Maybe more so. So difficult to drink. Just gross.

Something in my chemical makeup rejects Belgian Yeast. I am sure it’s not Allagash Brewing’s fault. Doesn’t matter what brewer is making it, I assume it will taste bad to me. Maybe all Wheat Beers are bad to me. I am probably the problem.

Allagash Brewing is a great top-tier Indie brewer that I highly respect. But Belgian Wheat beers are terrible, and the King of the style is Allagash White. So, congrats on being the kings of a garbage beer style.

How Many Calories Does Allagash White Have?

Alli’ White is a low-alcohol Belgian-Style Wheat Beer. The amount of alcohol is 5.2%. This means it has 157 calories (give or take a few) for one can or bottle.

Belching Beaver’s Deftones Eight Pack Isn’t The Worst

Last night I was in my local generic grocery store (Yo, what’s happening Save Mart!?), doing my generic shopping for the next couple days. And I needed beer.

I went through the standard section that is 75% Big Beer and the rest Craft Beer. There was nothing interesting to me in the Craft. So I went to the one end-cooler where they have more specialty craft beers.

Sadly, all the interesting ale-based stuff carried a date of four months or older, making it unusable to me.

As I was about to give up and get a six-pack of Sierra, I noticed a new-to-me eight-pack of beer from San Diego’s Belching Beaver. It is a mixed pack of their Deftones beers.

Sweet! This is exactly what I need at this moment. BUT, no date on the box and you can’t see the can dates. Since the rest on the cooler has older beer, it is pretty likely this is old too. But I want it.

Fuck it. I buy it.

I wait till I get home to see if I just wasted $20 on old beer. And when I do, to my surprise, none of the beers are more than five weeks old.

A rare score. I can’t imagine I’ll get so lucky next time.