California Lagers (2024)

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll pick some up myself.

 

Looks like North Coast is reviving the Acme Beer label (a brand they've owned since the 1990s but used for other styles of beer). Joining the scores of other revived AALs that have come and (mostly) gone over the past few decades.

Acme Beer was the largest selling brand in California after Repeal into the WWII era, operating breweries in SF and LA, with 20-25% of the market.

And even after the demise of the company in the 1950s (sold to Liebmann (Rheingold) which only lasted on the West Coast for a few years) it was resurrected in the 1970s (contract brewed by General and by Blitz Weinhard) and again by the short-lived craft brewer, Xcelisior of Santa Rosa, in the late 1980s.
Nice video, though, including a nice segment on Acme's hop ranch in California:

 

Thanks, I’m looking forward to trying that one. Did you ever get the version of Acme from the 70s? This probably isn’t a recreation at 30 IBU and the ad indicated that North Coast did not have an exact recipe.

 

Yeah, I found the Blitz-Weinhard-brewed Acme, in a bottle, in a small deli in LA in the mid-1970s. I was surprised to find it, because I was not finding many PNW beers (other than Olympia, of course) in Southern California at the time. I even wrote Rainier complaining about the lack of Rainier Ale and they sent me the names of their distributors there.

The Acme Beer contract-brewed by General (Lucky Lager) Brewing Co. and BW might have gotten a slight boost when the can was voted the best design by the beer can collector's organization but not sure that really helped much.

Well, in 1950 Acme Brewing Co. brought old a new flagship beer, Gold Label, which the brewmaster described as a "distinctively lighter and drier premium quality brew" but, oddly, it doesn't appear that they changed the basic look of the labeling of the beer (which Rheingold would do a few years later), so it was more a recipe change than adding a new product. But local and regional brewers changing their recipe/adding new beers in that era usually meant "We've done enough research to find that drinkers are finding our beer to be too hoppy and heavy and we're losing market share to the lighter national brands..."

That does look like a lot of hops they're adding to that 450 bbl. kettle, 2 good sized (30 gallons or so?) containers, during the 12:00 mark in the video...

Of course, that can be deceptive without knowing the actual weight or how many hop additions their recipe called for. Still, I like this comparison below of a brewery in the 1950s adding hops (probably Duquesne in Pittsburgh) and an Anheuser Busch brewery several decades later.


Also, if that AB photo wasn't of the brewing Budweiser, it might be hop pellets in that plastic bucket, too.

Yeah, not unusual. I think the new Narragansett did "consult" a former Narrangsett brewmaster and Pabst also did the same when they revived both Schlitz and Ballantine India Pale Ale but I often wonder how much someone can remember from 50 years previous. (Not even 20 years into my retirement, and there's not much I can remember about anything. "Who? What? When? We did?" Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.")

Throw in different breweries using modern equipment and processes, new strains of barley, new hops and even older hop strains grown in different regions under different storage conditions and using new processing methods and different alpha acid content, etc., no beer is going to be the same.

 

I've seen the Acme beers on the shelf but haven't pulled the trigger. I'll probably give a 6 pack a shot but I'm not sure what I'll be hoping for.

In very good lager news, Noble Tendencies from Lost Abbey is a very good and very classic pilsner. Great stuff

 

I gave the new Stone Pilsner a try, maybe it’s psychological on my part, but it has a pretty strong sulfur flavor that’s similar to some Japanese lagers I’ve had in the past. There wasn’t either a new world or noble hop flavor that I could detect, none of the big fruit flavors found in “modern” Pils, but the hop bitterness is pretty much perfect. It’s not what I expected, I have a feeling that it won’t be around for long, maybe it would do better with Sapporo branding? It’s seems to be more Sapporo than Stone to me.

 

I tried to stop into Enegren today after the wife dragged us to Moorpark for something, and found out when we got there that it was a festival type of event day with the whole street and alley being taken over. You couldn’t just sit and order beers like normal and she wasn’t feeling it (we were hoping to order a pizza next door), so we left and grabbed some food somewhere else… was able to grab a Lightest One there, but man I was really looking forward to crushing some top notch pilsners on their patio.

 

Sounds like a lot of lagers from IPA breweries.

 

I agree, they are on the high end of pricing. I don’t buy any of their lagers since they’re not in the same league as Enegren and more expensive. I do however buy their WCIPA’s since I really enjoy them but even then, I rarely buy more than a couple of cans of any particular release since they’re so pricey especially in distro where most stores here in socal charge no less than $5.99 per can.

 

Party Cup is about as good as it gets for that type of lager for my tastes. But it's a heavy Mosaic hopped lager so it makes sense it would be what they do well.

It was like $15 or $16 from them, which isn't terrible for a heavily hopped beer and, for me, there aren't a lot of comparable options available

 

Game Craft is a bit weird. They were my local brewery when I lived in Aliso Viejo, but I only went like 3 times. Their beer is nothing special, but it was still solid. The taproom was pretty weak. It was always undone with construction going on, and not my thing with people watching other people play video games and such. On top of it (I really believe in this), their can artwork was hideous. So much so that it turned me off from purchasing them at times. If I knew their beer was great - whatever. But just above average? Yeah, I guess I’m going with Beachwood

 

Been there 3 times after they opened. My brother in law lives there in Lake Forest. So when we’re visiting we’d stop in. For a pour and sometimes food. They didn’t have much of a selection for IPA’s back then. Yes, mostly lagers and pils. They were just okay. Co founder and head brewer started at RiiP when he was a kid. Still looks like a kid. He left and went to Europe for brewmaster schooling. So when they opened we checked them out. Haven’t been back since. I heard they’ve opened a second and third location throughout Orange County. On my way to Everywhere I pass by their Anaheim location, as well as Gorden Road Brewery. Never stopped in either places. No need. When I’m in need of a lager or pils I’ll head over to Green Cheek or Beachwood or pick up some Enegren cans.

 

they were supposed to open a second location in garden grove but that fell through and they eventually opened location #2 in anaheim in the old backstreet brewing spot

gamecraft to me is the definition of incredibly average. i'd rather just go to karl strauss if i'm in that part of anaheim and in the mood for a lager