Drew Beechum's blog

Earlier this morning I wrote an article for ExperimentalBrew.com talking about the recent crossing of the finish line in regards to all 50 states becoming fully legal.

Of course the Falcons feature in the mix as do our newsletters!

http://www.experimentalbrew.com/node/28

Cedd Moses in Brewery Battle

So, what this story says is that LA Nightlife force Cedd Moses is planning a 17,000 square foot brewpub/pizza joint/skeeball alley on the first floor of the old Crazy Gideon's place in the Arts District downtown. He's getting the usual flack for it from neighbors, you know the types.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2013/pr0220_02.html

The US Attorneys office in Northern Illinois have charged two of America's largest honey providers and 5 individuals with illegally importing Chinese honey and selling it as honey from other sources.

The basis for the prosecution is on avoiding the tariff to prevent dumping of cheap Chinese honey. The tariff is based both on protection of domestic honey producers and the consumer, since Chinese honey has contained banned antibiotics and toxic metals.

Brad Smith of BeerSmith fame had me on his show last week to talk SMaSH and the beauty of simplicity. 

Check it out! Beer Smith Blog: Single Malt and Single Hop (SMASH) with Drew Beechum – BeerSmith Podcast #51

If you have any questions or want to tell me how horribly wrong I am, let me know in the comments below!

Yahoo Finance create a list of beer brands that have suffered drastic sales slides since 2006.

Their sales analysis didn't include craft beers or the malternatvie segment, but instead looking at major brands. It is interesting to see that of all the brands to take a hit, the biggest percentage loss belongs to Michelob which from dropped from 2006's 500,000 barrels to 2011's 140,000 barrels or MGD with the biggest volume loss of 1.7 million barrels!

Someone found an "expert" to talk about Champagne beers.

http://www.sfgate.com/wine/brew/article/Mixing-fizz-hops-blurs-the-wine-...

Quite a few folks took advantage of our Fresh Hop Buy and are getting their supplies starting real soon.

Made these for our latest board meeting (hosts prepare dinner for the board) and they proved to be a big hit. The chicken tacos are a healthy and tastily juicy taco fodder. The Beef Chorizo tacos are actually two meals in one - day 1 - classic American pot roast with a little bit of flair - day 2 - meltingly awesome tacos.

All tacos served with pinto beans, onions, cilantro, lime, fresh queso and crema with warm tortillas and a choice of homemade pico de gallo, tomatillo salsa and guacamole..

Poached Chicken Tacos

1/4 c salt

The folks over at Northern Brewer taped my talk and did a little magical editing.  Watch and, well, maybe, enjoy...

http://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/2012/07/drew-beechums-brewing-on-t...

A quick scienitific means of dealing with hangovers. Most of know this stuff, but it never hurts to repeat it!

So watch.. unless you like hangovers.. then you're strange!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soo4f6e1zCs

Ruminate on this for a while:

In the past few months we've seen the following news items:

• Angel City sold to a subsidary of Boston Beer Co.
• Sierra Nevada announces a new brewery opening in Asheville NC
• New Belgium announces a new brewery opening in Asheville NC
• Oskar Blues announces a new brewery opening in Asheville NC
• Lagunitas announces a new brewery opening in Chicago

and now...

From BlogDowntown:

It appears that the relaunch of Angel City is beginning under the new ownership who bought the brewery from longtime Falcon and brewery founder Michael Bowe. The first batch of beer is a Belgian White Beer temporarily called "Test Beer B" and is on tap at a few places around downtown.

(Most of this article originally appeared in BeerAdvocate the Magazine in March 2011. The reprint is inspired by the latest goofiness at SCHF. Read below for more.)

I'm just going to start this entry with an editorial note - I feel like a horse's ass posting this immediately following Bruce talking about his fantastic mead, but sadly.. that's how this entry is just going to have to roll.

Vote for the AHA Governing Committee

AHA Members should get their vote on! There are 3 slots open this year on the Governing Comittee and 9 candidates for the positions.

 This was my 3rd place chili. It's my standard "healthy" chili and truly just a damn awesome meal for a week! (Note.. it tastes even better over time). This version is not the hottest chili, focusing instead on building a world of flavor. Heat is always a bottle of hot sauce away!

Gobble Em Up Chili

For 6ish quarts of Chili:

6 slices of thick bacon, chopped

2.5 lbs Ground "Lean" Turkey (Not the extra lean)

1/3 c. Fresh ground chile powder (made out of dried chiles)

Drug Charge Means No Ale at Ale House

Apparently the fine folks at the Broadway Alehouse (nee The Fifth Amendment), need to take the advice of their name because the bar's been stripped of it's license by the ABC after an investigation found solidity to the rumors of drugs (marijuana and coke) being sold at the bar and a later sting where they sold a drink to an underage decoy.

Lovely!

Need a reason to join a homebrew club? Jenn Garbee of LAWeekly and EatHistory.com drops 5 reasons you should do it. (And of course the Falcons, PG and the Yeastside Brewers all get shoutouts - thanks!)

Top 5 Reasons to Join a Homebrew Club

http://www.foodgps.com/qa-with-eagle-rock-brewery-jeremy-raub/

Jeremy gives the Falcons some love and the Doug King Competition as well!

It's official and announced by Boston Beer Company that their subsidiary "Alchemy & Science" has bought Angel City as it's first brewery. A&S is run by Alan Newman who helped found Magic Hat out of Vermont. (Magic Hat was sold last year to North American Breweries which owns Pyramid, Genesee, Labatts, etc) Michael Bowe, Angel City founder and a Falcon, is staying on for two years. Congrats to Michael for successfully establishing his brand and attracting national attention to brewing in Los Angeles.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1116_051116_brewery.html

Thought this was very interesting... makes me want to work out a spicy chica recipe.

Great Midwestern Beer Run

For those of you who don't know, erstwhile Falcon and brewer of all things "MEGA", Jonny Lieberman, is a Senior Editor at Motor Trend. Basically, he gets handed lots of cars, free gas and an excuse to swear and write funny things about motors in print.

Happy Prohibition repeal today!

Today marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution thanks to the votes in Pennsylvania, Ohio and (oddly enough) Utah. Federal Prohibition officially ended on December 15th, 1933, but the important day is December 5th 1933 as the day it all officially went down.

Google Streetview hits Brew & Grow in Chicago, IL for a little walk around

Google Streetview of Brew & Grow

If you need another reason to buy local on more things check out this report from FoodSafetyNews.com - Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey.

From TheFullPint.com comes news that Dave of Lucky Baldwins passed away today.

While he'd been sick for the past year, this is still hard news. I'm just glad that he beat the odds and opened his third and final pub before things had progressed too far.

Fermilab Anti-Proton Source Termination Device

Sad moment in science the other week with the Fermilab shutting down their collider projects. This was the switch that terminated the last experiments. Think of the can as the connection for a light switch. Remove the can, stop the science, drink the beer in memory of the science.

Remember there was a time when this was the only beer available:

Playboy.com's Retrospective of Old Beer Ads in the Magazine

Personally, I think my favorite is the Country Club "Does it Swing?" ad.

Dealtalk: AB Inbev seen brewing up final mega deal (Reuters)

Another year, another set up rumors about brewery mergers. The name of the game on the big end of the brewing business is all about volume. For all we talk about flavor, passion and craft, it turns out that to be truly successful you need to remove a bunch of the first, have the second for money and use the third on marketing and business strategy as you try and push another 3 cents profit on a can of beer.

Spotted this link on beernews.org just now.

It looks like beer and particularly Belgian beer has become popular enough that folks want to open a chain of cafes here in the US. Think.. well, the Starbucks of beer in a way.