Category: Beer & Food

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Review – Vagabond Cheese + Boomtown Beer


There is a world of cheese out there. In an alternate universe, I could see an alternate Sean writing a cheese blog instead of beer.

Of course that alternate blog would touch on beer, just like I am dancing about cheese now. Vagabond Cheese is showing up everywhere independent beer is at. Don’t believe me? Check out their calendar. It is pretty damn full.

A few days back, I finally did a guided beer and cheese pairing at Boomtown and it was really good. It is the best way to try and find cheeses that you like even though they are spendy, all without breaking the bank.

Here are the four selections that were served up:
Sbrinz AOP with What Gose Around
Ombra with Bad Hombre
Ossai-Iraty AOP with Obscura Guey
Sailnois with Submission
Boomtown meets Vagabond

The Sbrinz, to me, tasted like Parmesan without the grain. The hard cheese and the sour “grated” on me though.

The second cheese was close but not quite white cheddar-y with some butter notes. The cheese outshone the simple beer which did not add much.

The third tasting had it going. A creamy texture meets darker malt which was even better with almonds added into the mix.

There was some grain to final cheese but it also more cheddar notes which here mixed well with the banana esters from the dark Belgian golden. I would have to call a favorite tie between three and four.

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Burgerim – Strike 1

The oft cited example of variety being presented but not really there is the airport bar. I have seen photos where you can see 10 Barrel, Elysian, Goose Island and others from the “High End” on tap handles. It is an illusion of choice since all are Bud owned.

I can face to face with that illusion at a newly opened Burgerim franchise in Glendale. A burger place that offers actual choice in their burgers. You can get beef, dry aged beef, chicken, Wagyu beef, turkey and so on. You have topping options as well as types of fries to have on the side.

But when it came to choice on the six tap handles, you had variety of styles but nothing independent at all. You could almost hear the conversation….

Bud Rep – You only need one delivery. We bring it all. Clean the lines. No fuss, no muss.

Franchise Owner – Well, I’ve got too much on my plate as it is and your prices are super cheap, so yeah.

That is how you get Bud Light, a pair of Goose Island beers, and a pair of Golden Road beers. Considering that Shake Shack has Brooklyn Beer on draft and solid bottle choices, My business will be tilted there.

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Bartz BBQ at Boomtown

I showed up 30 minutes before the Boomtown Brewery taproom opened. Not to tour the brewery or because traffic was lighter than expected.

No, I was there to talk to Dustin Bartz of Bartz BBQ. And, yes, to taste the BBQ too.

You may have seen them set-up outside many local breweries such as Santa Monica Brew Works, El Segundo, Strand, Absolution and L.A. Ale Works

Dustin started serving up his Texas style BBQ at Absolution last 4th of July and has not slowed down since then. He catered the 7th anniversary for Strand and that was the need for his new rotating smoker came around. It has five racks and forty feet of cooking space and is his third and largest cooker in four years since embarking on his BBQ work.


The end product is great especially paired with the Cosmic Charlie Hoppy Brown. The Burnt Ends and pork worked well with the sauce (not a typical Texas thing) and the creamed corn and Mac n Cheese were awesome. And that is only the tip of the menu iceberg.

Bartz will be at Boomtown on Sundays throughout the summer.

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The Phantom Diner

Phantom Carriage is stepping into the beer dinner game with their first effort titled Volume 1 coming up soon on February 2nd.

Here is the menu for $50.00 ticketed event….
Introduction: Specialty beer cocktail made with our barrel-aged strawberry Berliner weisse.

1st Course: Heriloom tomato bisque paired with our “666 Feet Under” Brown Ale.

2nd Course: 1/2 chicken with roasted Brussels sprouts, butter poached carrots, and red wine demi-glace paired with our “Straight Outta Carson” IPA.

3rd Course: “Mole” creme brûlée (chili, chocolate and coffee) paired with our “Speed Demon Calamityville” Coffee Porter.

These will be small affairs, limited to 20 people so make a decision quick.

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Featured Review – Beer for Breakfast from Dogfish Head

At the start of the month, I made a special trip to my local craft beer store, Craft Beer Cellar – Eagle Rock, to spend my gift card bounty from Christmas.

Here is the first review. A beer that I would not normally run out to buy (due to the ingredient list that includes Guatemalan Antigua cold press coffee, Maple syrup harvested from Western Massachusetts and for the quintessential Delaware breakfast touch – Rapa Scrapple and their secret blend of spices), but since it was technically free, I could take a flyer on this hearty stout from Dogfish Head, Beer for Breakfast.

Pours black with a quite foamy espresso/latte head to it. A bit scared of this due to the “scrapple” element. Aroma is pure smoke as in that friend who came in from a smoke break. Off putting to me for sure. Taste is quite strong rauchbier. No ham-iness to it for me. Just smoke. Some coffee grounds poking through but not really bitter. Desperately calls for a 10oz bottle. Quite a warming down the throat bite to it. In the end, I cannot recommend because the aroma is just so off-putting to me.

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Beer & Jerky

Fall has meant beer + food boxes in the mail. First was chocolate, then potato chips and now jerky!
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The beer is from Angel City. LAger to be exact. The jerky is from Lawless. Honey Chipotle flavor. (I also got Srirachelada and Sweet Sriracha jerky but that is too spicy for me, wish I had gotten the Aloha Teriyaki to pair with the Pilsner).

The jerky is well good but damn they could have turned up the honey and turned down the chipotle. The spice just grows and grows. Now I don’t know if the beer got warmed up in transport but it is a bit metallic and I remember the beer on draft was overly grapefruit before. Maybe the heat brings out a different side of the beer though because the honey is coming through clearly and does mitigate the chipotle heat.

OK, so I did try the Sweet Sriracha jerky. Wasn’t half bad. Again the heat overwhelmed my puny tolerance but it was less overtly hot than the other jerky and brought out more grapefruit from the beer too.

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IPA + Chocolate + Pumpkin

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I can be flexible at times. Case in point pumpkin beer. If you are a seasonal creeper, I ain’t got time for you. If it is after September 15th (preferably later) and you aren’t just doing some pie spice seasonal, then I will listen.

Toss in a high quality chocolate bar version of the beer and send me both and I will perk my ears up. Salazon Chocolate teamed with Flying Dog Brewery to do just that.

Here is the review: let’s start with the chocolate. Damn this has a lot going on. There is a rich dark chocolate base, salt kicks in as you as does a green hop bitterness that I had a hard time separating from the chocolate. But the subtle shades of each do show when you focus on it. I can’t pick up pumpkin notes but that is because the one-two bitter punch is just too strong. The beer has no pumpkin problem. I get more gourd than pie spice from the dark amber Maryland brew and it surprisingly works with the restrained hops that are used. The balance is quite well done. It’s not just a pumpkin ale with some hops added in.

I came in thinking that ate least the chocolate would be good but the beer is excellent. I don’t know if I would recommend sampling both together because the dark chocolate is just too bitter and rich. My palate needed water before I could fully enjoy the beer. Which I did.

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Neal Brothers – Chips & Beer Review

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In the mail came a box filled with (4) bags of potato chips. No, I am not a member of a Chip of the Month club, I was contacted by the PR arm of Neal Brothers Foods to pair craft beer with boldly flavored chips.

All four flavors are big. Even the “plain” salted is not just any salt. So I did not want to pair beers with equally vivid notes. Instead, taking my learning from recent beer pairing demonstrations, I went for beers that would play with certain ingredients and not the entire flavor profile. Strong enough to dance but not leading. I opened the two beers watched some football and taste tested.

Let’s dive in….
Starting with maple bacon flavor which has the maple part down. The bacon part is missing though. These are sweet chips. No salt presence to me. I paired it with Bee Line Honey Blonde from Track 7 Brewing. The goal was that the honey from the beer would mirror the maple syrup notes. What worked was that the dryness of the beer brought the sweet down nicely but the chips brought out a more mineral taste in the beer.

Next was the pink Himalayan salt bag, in the helpful pink bag. Not much salt going on here. If you had handed me a chip without showing me the bag, I would have said unsalted kettle chips. Boring but get the job done. The Bee Line added some character to the chip. The beer lost the mineral notes and became a better drinking with this chip.

For the boldest flavors, I opened up Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest. I wanted something bigger but without a distracting flavor. The first chip up was Montreal steak spice. This flavor betrays their Canadian heritage. And when first opened, the aroma burst out. Dill hit me first. Then dill hit me second. Then a smack of pepper. After two tame chips, this one really struck me. The Chico brewed beer held its own though. Decreasing the spice and adding a viscosity.

Before I delve into the last bag. The spicy Srirachup chips were the ones that I dreaded. Not a big fan of heat, am I. Just a touch is all I need. And by a touch, I mean parts per million small. But I told my fear to go away and grabbed a chip. A cross between sweet ketchup and Sriracha. Oddly, it was not the chip that I could eat the most of but I think it was the most well crafted flavor. Too spicy for me but not nearly as scary as I expected. It was well balanced and matched the description on the bag. The Oktoberfest served to add bread-iness that balanced the spice and sweet.

None of the chips blew my mind but it was illuminating to see how the beers helped the chips and vice-verse. I think I am on the right track of pairing beers that are not as splashy but I am thinking about cracking open an IPA and seeing how that works.

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Chili X 4

Select Beer in Redondo Beach will host their 4th Annual Chili Cookoff event tomorrow at their wonderful bottle shop and tap room on PCH.
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The following breweries will be preparing not only beer but chili for the glory of victory:

King Harbor, Brouwerij West, Phantom Carriage, Arts District, Three Weavers (has a chance to be the first two-time winner as well), HopSaint Brewing, Strand Brewing, Smog City Brewing and El Segundo Brewing.