Category: About the Search Party

General information about the blog.

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In the Tap Lines for November 2018

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As Los Angeles makes the slow transition from summer to late summer before heading to early summer, we can start to look at the bigger beers, the snifter beers. While also searching for the perfect beer to go with the fall sports season. Stay tuned for both this month.

~ e-visits to three breweries in NBA cities.
~ special featured reviews of beers over 10% ABV
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Big Game by Mark Leibovich
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your November started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) November 10 – Three Weavers 4th Anniversary
2) November 16 to 18 – Brewery Draconum 1st Anniversary

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In the Tap Lines for October 2018

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It’s time to PSL your world! Now that we are in October it is officially BSP sanctioned that you can drink pumpkin beers. It is also Doctor Who season as Jodie Whitaker takes the controls of the Tardis and my Blazers start the 18/19 campaign as well.

~ e-visits to three 2018 GABF winning breweries: Cloudburst Brewing, Smylie Brothers Brewing and Wolverine State Brewing
~ special featured reviews of Non-LA beers
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Miss Subways by David Duchovny
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your October started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) October 5th – Hoptoberfest: West Coast vs New England style IPA at 38 Degrees in Monrovia
2) October 6th – Enegren Oktoberfest 2018

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In the Tap Lines for September 2018

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OktoFest beers are starting to show up as if to will us out of one of the continuously hit SoCal summers in memories. Raise a glass to fall coming and to the coming pumpkin debate and other social media debates. Let’s keep talking people. Don’t retreat to a corner!

~ e-visits to three cider houses in British Columbia. Left Field Cider, The Naramata Cider Co. and Dominion Cider
~ special featured reviews of canned beers from Figueroa Mountain
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Taco USA by Gustavo Arellano
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your September started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) September 5th – Stalking Horse 1st Anniversary
2) September 9th – Seeing Double at Angel City

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Beer Stats – 2018 midpoint

Well, past the half-year marker actually but still a good point to evaluate what has been drunk this year. To recap, each year I am reducing the amount of beer for both health reasons and to push me to more fully enjoy the beer I do drink.

Let’s do the numbers….
The goal of 175 ounces per week is being met and then some. As of week 29, I am averaging 169.93 ounces per week or 10.62 pints. Since I take two drinking days off a week, it basically boils down to 2 pints a night (or full day for Saturday and Sunday). Right now the average ABV is 6.58% which is 0.01 from the average for 2017. This is the least volatile stat for me even though I am not an ABV watcher in the least.

46.4% of the beers drunk in 2018 fall outside of the IPA, Sour and Barrel-Aged category. So far, Eagle Rock, Sierra Nevada, Smog City and Angel City are in the lead for brewery ticking with favorite beers coming from Smog City – Awkward Teenager and El Segundo’s Hat’s Off IPA plus anything from Finback. I have had beers from 154 different breweries which puts me in the running to have beers from different brewers each day of the year.

One more update to come for Q3 before the full 2018 recap.

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In the Tap Lines for August 2018

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August. The end of the silly festival season is in sight and maybe we will see an early slide into fall so that we can slide from lighter pilsners over to heavier malty options. Unfortunately, I do not control the weather but I do control the contents of the blog where we will be covering…

~ e-visits to three breweries from New York
~ special featured reviews of a TBD style
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Bonfire by Krysten Ritter
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your August started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) August 4th – SoCal Mead Fest at Great Society
2) August 11th – Chapman Crafted 2nd Anniversary

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A Toast to Tink

After close to 19 years, my wife and I let our little, still baby kitten to me go. It would be easy to post a photo on Facebook or one of the short videos of Tinkerbell doing something weird. It would garner some sad emojis, I guess. But I am not that kind oh share-er.

For these years, we have fed her breakfast and dinner and multiple snacks in between. We have watched her make OCD circles around the carpet before picking just the right spot to sit. A spot just out of arm’s reach and with her butt facing us. She had many other names like ZaZa, Bella, MonkeyB not because of any personality trait. The names just came naturally.

I drank and reviewed many a beer with her on my lap. Not in summer though. Summer she eschewed laps and instead shed fur on to one of her many blankets. Tink was not a cat to pet or to hold or snuggle which is probably why we loved her all the more. We being homebody introverts who prefer the quiet.

She came into my life on a day that I was home sick from work and became “my cat” though I would point out the technicality that my wife had wanted a cat, found a cat and brought the cat home.

I expect that cat videos won’t be fun to watch for awhile. Eliciting more sadness than smiles. That will pass. Coming home from work and not having her greet me at the door will sting but that pain too will subside. And though she had no taste for beer she did like her bucket (yes, a full bucket) of water. I would drink and she would drink and we would sit. That I will miss the most.

R.I.P. little girl.

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Happy 4th of July


The Beer Search Party wishes you a happy mid-week holiday to celebrate our nation. Set aside the politics (please) and have a beer but remember to drink in moderation today.

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In the Tap Lines for July 2017

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This month will be a recovery of sorts from Firestone Walker and L.A. Beer Week. But that doesn’t mean the posts will be any less fun. For July Roadhouse Brewing sent me a “care package” introduction to their beers that will be talked about all month.

~ e-visits to three breweries from Wyoming
~ special featured reviews of Jackson, Wyoming’s Roadhouse
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your July started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) July 11 – Summer Fermantality Dinner at Beachwood Blendery
2) July 22 – DTLA United Festival 4.0

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In the Tap Lines for June 2018

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The first week will be taken up with all things 2018 Firestone Walker Invitational and then, well, wall-to-blog-wall of L.A. Beer Week, the 10th L.A. Beer Week mind you.

~ e-visits to three breweries from the LA Brewers Guild that I have still yet to visit.
~ special featured reviews of the Unity beer for 2018 plus other special LABW10 Beers Lyke the Indie / Hopped LA collab.
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Here are two events to get your June started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) June 3rd – Big Summer Brew at Indie Brewing
2) June 10th – Mumford Brewing Third Anniversary Shindig

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Support(ed) Local

It is May and I thought I would test my local drinking street cred to see how many of the L.A. Guild member breweries, I have had at least one beer from.

Here is my tally:

Now, there are a couple breweries that are not on my radar to try this year, because they haven’t met expectations in the past and we haven’t hit the Guild Kick-Off festival for the 10th L.A. Beer Week where I can tick off quite a few and gild my percentage but overall, not too bad.