Over the course of two days, I saw 29 Palms Beer Company twice more than I had ever seen it before. Granted, Twenty-Nine Palms is a goodly distance from me in Los Angeles but I would have thought I would have seen it.
There must be a marketing push from somewhere and it is working because I am intrigued now.
The second brewery features in Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival Month is Mountain Culture Beer Co. all the way from Katoomba in New South Wales in Australia. They have some excellent beer names.
Status Quo Pale Ale – “Status Quo is a juicy New England Pale Ale. Made for hop lovers with massive late and dry hop additions, it’s full flavoured and more tropical than the Hawaiian ukulele orchestra.”
Authentic Irish Experience Micro-dosed NE IPA – “For this NEIPA, we’ve leaned on the luck of the Irish to ensure that it’s a banger. We’ve taken their lucky number 7 and applied it to the hop regime, bringing back our cult favourite hopping technique, microdosing, adding 7 different hops across 7 days. This has a created a NEIPA hazier than an Irish Winter’s day with more character than the inhabitants of The Temple Bar.”
Hollywood Hot Sauce West Coast IPA – “The pineapples, peaches and orange rind from the finest Amarillo and El Dorado hops only act to enhance any experience you pair them with. This age-old recipe, handed down through the Mountain Culture family over the years starts with a dank, resinous and yet highly drinkable body that allows the fruits to sparkle from it before rounding out in a moreish, crisp finish.”
That’s Enough Internet for Today NE IPA – “We’ve combined Cryo Ekuanot, Amarillo and Mosaic hops to create a flavour profile akin to fresh squeezed orange juice with a hint of stonefruit. The Cryo Ekuanot leaves a lingering herbal note that adds complexity and brightness making it far more sessionable than the ABV suggests. So be careful, you might find yourself mindlessly scrolling back to the fridge for another one.”
then finish with the barrel-aged barleywine, Remains – “Aged for eight months in cognac barrels, this barleywine has developed a truly unique flavor, while retaining all the best elements of its natural character. “Remains” possesses rich, inviting aromas that open the olfactory portal to smooth notes of dried fruit and toffee-like sweetness, while giving way to a dry, brandy-like finish, courtesy of the barrels.”
Our last stop is in Boring, Oregon but their non-alcoholic beers will probably prove the opposite. LaLa Brewery is owned by Timothy Devlaeminck, a home brewer making the leap up into the N/A space.
You can read more about him where I got the lead for this HERE. But here are the possible beers, “Some of the house beers include: Red Kite, an Irish style Red ale brewed with Falconers hop blend. Super Monk, brewed with Monk Fruit to give a little sweetness and bermented with Belgian Yeast. And, Malt Root Beer, a malted root beer based off a prohibition recipe.”
Our second stop from the New School Beer Blogs upcoming breweries post is at Audacity Brewing which is taking the step of moving from Washington State to Oregon.
Let’s check out some of the beers…
Enksy – “Part of our Trappist-inspired beer series. This underrepresented style goes by many names: enkel, single, patersbier. Fashioned as a lower-strength ale monks drink when they’ve got other stuff to do. With notes of pome fruit, honeyed biscuit, and light spice phenolics, you may find yourself ditching work to get a daily ration.”
Oberwesel – this Kolsch “has a grainy sweetness with subtle bread, spice, and fruit notes.”
Morning Mood – “stout loaded with maple syrup and Velton’s coffee. It’s the ultimate “breakfast” beer, and we are big proponents of the all-day breakfast.”
Before the big 10th Anniversary weekend happens at Boomtown Brewery, I was part of a media contingent that got to peek BtS.
And more importantly, got to taste a few of the beers currently on tap which I will get to in a moment.
We crossed over the causeway into a piece of Los Angeles building history and the current brewing area for Boomtown. The double arched ceilings have seen wine production, munitions and now malt and hops.
The brewdeck is in one corner with brite tanks and fermenting vessels surrounding it. Another corner houses the malt and grist mill. Boomtown does a morning brew and then a night brew so the malt haas to be at the ready. A conveyor takes the malt up and over into the brew corner. Kind of a typical set-up for a small brewery.
I started with the rice lager which was nice and crisp, checked out the flagship Bad Hombre as well as the Belgian Golden Strong Ale, Submission. But the winners of the night were tge Good Boy Decoy Oatmeal Stout and the latest peach tinged Brett Michaels Sour. The former was simple with a touch of sweetness and a delivery system for malt. The latter tasted as if it was straight from a brand new oak barrel.
If anything on the above menu board strikes your fancy, you just might want to visit this 21st through 23rd.
Each year, usually in February, I pore over the anticipated brewery openings list compiled by the fine folks at The New School Beer blog. Go HERE to read the full list.
My first pick is Tiny Giants Brewing which will be heading to SE Ankeny with former Cascade and Fracture brewer Steve Beadouin in the lead. That resume is one reason why I chose it. The other is that they are using a space used by a former brewery while they search for a forever home.
We head to Europe, specifically the Czech Republic for FUZE. A French restaurant in Prague with a brewing operation.
We will go from light to dark starting with TransFUZE the Czech Pils then moving on to FUZEnáč 13 what they call their semi-dark lager and then finish up with InFUZE 14 their dark beer. And while there they also have beers from Brewery Zichovec to compare and contrast.
I am not one for Best of the Year lists, more of a in the moment person so I am grateful for outlets like Hop Culture that go in on the whole look back at a whole year thing. You can read their list HERE and my second choice from the list is Deep Fried Beers in Athens, New York.
Not the most appetizing name for a shop known for their IPAs and rocketing up Empire State best of lists but let’s find a table to set our virtual taster down onto including…
Kilometer Long Stare – “Hazy Double IPA hopped with 8+ lbs / bbl of Citra and Galaxy.”
Built Different Batch 2 – “Hoppy Ale brewed with 8 lbs / bbl of lot selected Yakima Chief Citra, Freestyle Hops Nelson Sauvin, and HPA Galaxy.”
In Da Clurb, We All Fam – “Hazy DIPA hopped with 9+ lbs per bbl of Yakima Chief Citra, NZ Hops NZ Cascade, and Freestyle Hops Nelson Sauvin.”
