Category: Brewery Tour

A concise brewery bio

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CA Brewery Tour # 1 – Narrative Fermentations

Stories in a bottle is how some people describe bourbon but it also holds true for beer, except substitute 16oz can. That is the segue to the first California brewery tour for October, which is Narrative Fermentations.

Here are some taster tray ideas from the San Jose brewery…

Knusprig German-Style Festbier – “a deep yellow German style Festbier coming in at 5.9% alc/vol. It’s malt forward with very minimal hop influence, but still bright and lively. It has a beautifully subtle character of lightly toasted bread dough with the use of Vienna and Munich malts supporting the Pilsner malt base.”

Hippie Couture IPA – “is like eating white gummy bears at a Grateful Dead show. The overwhelming danky aroma is the first thing to hit you….once you get a sip though, big flavors of pineapple, mango, lychee, passionfruit, and light supporting citrus notes fill your mouth while leaving a sticky resinous finish.”

Nectaron 3000 Hazy IPA – “We were able to get our hands on some sweet sweet Nectaron hops and boy oh boy this stuff did not dissapoint! We layered in a little Citra and Nelson for good measure and the result is super rad! Nectaron 3000 is pillowy and pungent! It has big aromas of tropical fruit and dank. On the pallet, expressive flavors of pineapple, passionfruit, peach, and pink grapefruit coat your mouth.”

The Moon Stood Still Blueberry Cheesecake Sour – “This beer is a ton of fun with huge jammy blueberry flavors that’ll make you think you’re drinking a slice of Blueberry Cheesecake! There is a bit of sweetness at an expected level that also tempers the acidity. The elevated ABV also helps those flavors pop in a big way.”

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1st Visit – Wild Parrot Brewing

Out to East Pasadena to visit Wild Parrot Brewing Company which shares a space with Rosebud Coffee.

photo Richard Rosen

The space is adorned with parrots making it a flying twin to Green Cheek Brewing. The brewery just recently opened and has six beers on too plus a SoCal ubiquitous Michelada.

All the beers were solid. No, WTF moments here. Usually new breweries and IPAs don’t mix well but their Pandemonium West Coast IPA was good.

On the other side of the ledger was the Porch Chill Amber which did not build on the momentum from the first two lagers. Was kinda flat and uninteresting to me.

The sour could have been more tart but had a nice lime flavor. The Coffee Stout was more a Coffee Porter but had a good coffee note to it.

The best in show was the Doug Heavy. Light enough for hot weather but Big enough for cloudy skies too.

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Spirited Brewery # 3 – Scout & Scholar

Our last stop is in the Capital of Bourbon, Bardstown, Kentucky and to a brewery that honors the Bard brothers, William aka Scout and David the Scholar.

Scout & Scholar is just off the main street in a very frontiersy building with a large outdoor seating area as well as indoor seating on two floors. The beer list is quite long. So long that they have multiple personalized flights to order, like the collaboration flight that I tried first.

Got You Fam – “This Beer Was Brewed In Collaboration With Marker 48 Brewing Out Of Weeki Wachee, Florida. This Beer Is Know As An ErntBier Or A Harvest Beer. The Grain Bill Consists Of Mostly Vienna Malt Providing A Nice Bready Malt Forward Backbone. Using A Kolsch Yeast Strain And Noble Hops Helps to Cut The Sweetness Of The Vienna Malt For A Dry And Crisp Finish. Never Had An ErntBier? We Got You Fam.”

Post-Boredom Kolsch – “A collaboration between Country Boy and Scout & Scholar, Post-Boredom is our take on a refreshing German-style Kolsch with a heavy-handed dry hop pushing notes of tangerine and strawberry. This is the official beer of putting the past in the rear view and moving on. Tasting Notes: Bread dough, light cereal, slight mineral, strawberry, honeydew, gooseberry, hint of passion fruit.”

Stick and Poke – “Rum Runner Inspired Kettle Sour. Conditioned On Pineapple, Blackberry, Banana, And Key Lime. Then Aged To Perfection In Rum Barrels. Collaboration With Our Friends At Atrium Brewing In Louisville.”

Sage, Scout and Spirit – “This KristallWeizen Was Brewed In Collaboration With Our Great Friends At Log Still Distillery And Against The Grain. Aged In A Monk Road Gin Barrel This Beer Has A Unique Botanical Vibe From Start To Finish.”

I also had their Treading Paper IPA and their Miranda Belgian Dark Strong. Of the six, the Stick and Poke was my winner followed by the Miranda.

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1st Visit – Malibu Brewing Company

The Hopped beer website has been pumping the gas on this new brewery for months now.  None of their canned line has made it over to the Valley so, the first weekend they were open for guests, I headed there with fellow beer fan Richard to scope out the beachy taproom of Malibu Brewing Company.

Here is the 1st Visit report….

Upscale barn meets PCH version of a strip mall. The restaurant and taproom (brewing operations are in Westlake Village) is in a development leaning heavily into the distressed wood look. There is a small bar area and a medium amount of seating inside and out.

There is a two side list of beers which is a quantity not normally seen in a just opened tap list. Granted they have been packaging their core beers for a few months but impressive even if discounting the Zima, sorry, Zuma hard seltzer.

I had a custom flight of a Schwarzbier, plum Porter, IPA and a Hoppy Rice Lager + their hazy DIPA. Pours are not badly priced considering it is near the beach. Look at the ounces key though. All slimmed down. You cannot order a pint!

That said, the quality of my five beers and the consensus of the table was that everything was solid. A new brewery almost always has a clunker or two or a bent to doing one style better than others. This menu had a hatch chile beer and a Rose lager in addition to others and all were good.

Sitting outside was great for people watching and nice after some roasty temperatures. The food was good as well.

If you need an escape from L.A. proper then you will find a lot to like here.

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Spirited Brewery # 2 – Entre Compas

This month I am going to highlight breweries in towns rich in distilleries as well as breweries, in a nod to where I recently went, Portland, we head to the new on the scene Entre Compas.

That phrase is slang for compadre, translating to “between really good friends”.

They do not have many brews out in the world yet but they do have a couple IPA’s out such as Entre Compas IPA and Verano IPA made with Culmination Brewing. They also have a Vienna lager as well.

You can find the beers at restaurant Los Ponchos which is the current home for Entre Compas. They are contract brewing while also looking for their own brewing space in the future.

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Spirited Brewery # 1 – Fermentery Form

This month I am going to highlight breweries in towns rich in distilled history as well as breweries, we start in Pennsylvania where Rye is king at Fermentery Form.

Slo Mo 2020 – “blended from 2 year old barrels from our Solera, and aged on cherry and blackberry purée. It tastes of bright, lush cherries, with just a touch of blackberry jam, finishing light and refreshing.”

Carménère – “a blend of 5 barrels that refermented on whole Carménère wine grapes for around 3 months. The resulting beer has a beautiful purple color, a lovely barrel aroma, and drinks like a wonderful marriage of the grape and the selected beer.”

Vieux Selection – “culmination of 3 years of careful beer preservation and maturation in oak barrels. We’ve been inspired to do much of what we do, but the tradition of Belgian Lambic. Our favorite being Geuze, the blend of 1, 2 and 3 year old barrel aged beers. While our process differs from traditional Lambic in significant ways, the inspiration still comes through in the bottle. This beer has complex layers of flavor that come from the careful selection of barrels to blend. The aroma is earthy, minerally and spicy, the taste is a balance of tart fruits, woody resinous sweetness, and pithy bitterness. While being one of the most complex beers we have ever made, it’s still easy to drink.”

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1st Visit – Orange County – Part 1


I tooled down the 5 on a recent Sunday to check out the new Everywhere Beer Co. To get there, I passed by Angel Stadium as well as the Orange County location of Golden Road and a Karl Strauss.

Everywhere is the project of a breakaway group from The Bruery much in the way that Radiant Beer Co. is.  And both are happy and colorful places for a beer.  Lot’s of colorful painted figures on the wall.  A happy little wobbly circle mascot.  Actual booths to nestle into inside, outdoor seating as well.  Spanish tile creating a warming counterpoint. Views of the brewhouse from most angles.

First beer was Delicious Moments an Italian Pilsner. My half pour came in a cool cylindrical glass that emphasized the dark yellow color. Sharp malty and mineral taste. Not bubbly but not viscous either.

Next up was Gladness, a West Coast IPA is nice a bright.  A burst of hoppiness here that is different from the crowded IPA field.  I get melon and grape notes.  As it warmed the fruit pulled back a bit and the West Coast-iness came out.

The finishing beer was Magnificent Everything a DDH DIPA. Super pillowy soft and fruity.  Getting a strawberry note here. Tastes way less big than the Gladness.  Getting a wheat note here as well.  

The selection on offer was five beers, two sours and two seltzers.  A little more style variety will probably come as the production grows. They also have beer to-go as well to round out your choices.

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NJ Brewery # 3 – Magnify Brewing

Magnify Brewing was started in 2015 by Eric Ruta in Fairfield, New Jersey.

Let’s order up a taster tray…

Raw Essentials – “Helles Lager aged in oak barrels for more nuance and complexity.”

Vine Shine with Lime – “Our year round IPA conditioned on lime for a more refreshing experience.”

Wild Horizons – “Oak aged Saison with Brettanomyces dry hopped with Mosaic and Azacca.”

Lap of Luxury – “Our Reserved Triple IPA with lactose… Massive Triple IPA brewed with lactose for a creamy and bigger mouthfeel and hopped extensively with Mosaic, Galaxy and El Dorado.”

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NJ Brewery # 2 – Twin Elephant Brewing

Our next NJ stop is in Chatham at their first official brewery, Twin Elephant was founded by Cindy De Rama, Tim Besecker, and Scott McLusky are making some of the juiciest IPAs in the Northeast. It is one of a hopefully growing number of U.S. breweries led by a woman.

Time to get a virtual taster flight…

Forever More: Citra British Golden Ale – “hoppy leaning summer golden ale with some British bitter character. Same base as before but pairing VT yeast with 100% Citra from mash to dry hop. Easy sippin’ to session city, pony up and stay forevrmore. This one’s drinking like a trailside beverage. Perhaps an afternoon hiking companion towards the cliffs for lakeside leaps. Or simply your go-to afternoon pub pint hammer. Smells like some sweet crunch, orange kissed graham cracker dust. Tastes like sweet and dry and candy orange, marmalades, clementines, orange tea & Royal Danske (the tin joint) cookies.”

Motley Lou Hoppy Saison – “I hope you know we pack a chainsaw. Hell yeahs and east coast hoppy pours. Built some country loaf with German pilsner, domestic pale and North Carolina grown triticale. Juiced the engines with three saison strains and an all day DH of Belma, Mosaic and Simcoe. Dry on the exhale, wiggles and wobbles with a juicy stretch mid-sip, fruity pulses dancin’ up in the finish. Smells like guava, dried apricots, vanilla, oaked chardonnay. Tastes like OJ, white grapefruit, orange candy.”

Mr. Thundermaker Double White Wheat – “Strums of red, white & raw wheat caught in the crush of Tiki time! Pleasant vividness, light acidity, drier & semi-sweet,  some sourness remains in the jowls. Smells like fresh cantaloupe, lime tang, tropical honey on pineapples, ginger, then lime zest, orange and passionfruit on the inhale. Tastes like a tin can of pineapple juice, spritzy passionfruit drink with a ginger ice cube and a lime wedge.”

The Mighty Winooski DIPA – “Mighty mighty like a bomb jack. Green mountains inspired happy hoppy liquid going down a treat. Like the weightless levitation of wafer cookies cloaked in hazy aura from a toothsome bounce of floral, sweet and citrus Simcoe, Centennial Cryo, Citra and Motueka hops. A magically creamy loving cup to calm the body and mind. Smells like Champlain sunsets dipping into Adirondack peaks, orange blossom sugar cookies, orange lemon & tangerine fruity pebbles,  lemon-lime soda, grapefruit bitters. Tastes like sweet peach, mandarin bubblegum, mango, apricot,  dank red fruit, fresh sweet & orange juicy.”

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New Brewery Alert # 2 – Los Barbones

L.A. has another cerveceria to look for on bottle shop shelves.  Los Barbones has highlighted three cans from brown to lager to hazy that you can check out the specs on HERE.

I checked their beer finder and The Heights Deli is on their distribution list, so I hope to find their stuff there and review on a future post.