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A concise brewery bio
Nickel Beer Co. owned by Tom and Lindsey Nickel who also own O’Brien’s Pub is taking over a former police station in Julian and shooting to open (hopefully before this posts) its tasting room for visitors to start sampling with a pale ale, IPA and stout.
The Nickels are long time craft beer boosters so this new stop will probably get loads of grateful traffic.
The final stop of California breweries (I think I could almost feature California every month) is up north of me. Way north in the Santa Cruz area for some rustic ales from the hard to spell Sante Adairius.
This small but growing saison and more brewery (Has some Solera Method items going on to if I read correctly) has some really cool label artwork too.
Here are the beers that I would put into my sampler tray…..
“Saison Bernice is an exquisitely fermented farmhouse ale. Dry and refreshing, Bernice is made of the freshest on-hand and locally available ingredients. She receives multiple yeast additions, including Brettanomyces, and is further aged in the bottle.”
“Named for our three-legged brewery dog, Tripod is a Belgian-style tripel aged in oak-barrels.”
“Orange, lactic, and bursting with apricot aroma, West Ashley is built for consideration and conversation. While Ashley starts as a simple Saison, careful aging in French Oak Pinot Noir barrels with apricots, our house microbes, and warm encouragement transform her into a tart, complex and delectable beer.”
Not the easiest place to put a brewery down into, are the beach communities of Los Angeles. One word for that – RENT.
But there is a brewery trying to “duck” the trend. Venice Duck which is the brainchild of Christian Warren and John Binder.
They have a few beers listed on their website HERE but the question remains, when will it happen. There is a possible brewery in Santa Monica, Three Weavers is lurking about and King Harbor is working hard and getting permits in Redondo Beach. You would need a Time Lord to tell you when this will come to pass.
Pure Order is another brewery in Santa Barbara! And using a name derived from the Purity Order aka Rheinheitsgebot of Germany. This is a family run business that has started with a solid list of beers including a pale ale, hefe, California Common, porter and a wheat beer being brewed.
Their Downtown Santa Barbara brewery has a tasting area and a hop garden and with the upgrades at Telegraph and the arrival of Figueroa Mountain, there is a nice little beer crawl on the beach!
On the opposite side of this sign, is the entrance to Federal Brewing who have been open in South El Monte for a mere 6 weeks and are already busy and trying to keep up with demand. I headed east from Glendale (where one of their beers, Guerra was on tap at the Glendale Tap) to their brewery on a recent hot November afternoon. I had a sampler tray of their available offerings ranging from their blonde, wheat, amber and an Imperial Red IPA.
The El Dorado hopped Double Bison had the name and hop power that intrigued me the most but the plain named Blonde was my favorite of the group. Nice and crisp. Brewed with Sapphir hops and very refreshing. The Wheat ale – Rio Bravo could have used a touch more wheat but was again enjoyable. The Wolverine Amber was my second favorite. Strong with a slight nut taste to it. Another easy sipper and a blast to the past when microbreweries roamed the earth and had to brew ambers as flagships. The Bison X2 looked great but had a lacking of aroma. Earthy and smooth but lacking a bite. Had a honeydew melon taste going on that I could have used more of.
They have short hours except for Friday and Saturday when they are open from 3pm to 10pm. Monday, Thursday and Sunday they are open from 3pm to 7pm. And if the amount of growlers and grumblers is any indication, people know where the brewery is and are buying. The tap room is spare but the vibe is friendly as are the two folks in charge, Kevin Ogilby and Diego Benitez. They already seem to have regulars. That speaks volumes to me.
If you can’t get to them during operating hours then try Rose City Pizza up the road in Rosemead or check the Glendale Tap. They are too small as of yet to be much wider.
When I think Stumptown, I think coffee and Portland and not a new California brewery. But that is the case….
with this new Guerneville, California brewery, Stumptown.
They are a small brewery so they will only have a few of their beers on at any point in time like the following:
Rat Bastard Pale Ale
Bootlegger IPA
Bush Wacker Wheat
Good to see that beer is making inroads in wine country.
Apparently, we Americans might house the next Trappist level brewery! Amazing, I know.
Under the supervision of the noble Chimay, the monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey are adding a brewery. It will be given the not very saintly name of The Spencer Brewery. And the first beer, will be a “full-bodied, golden-hued Trappist ale with fruity accents, a dry finish and light hop bitterness.”
It will be interesting to see how this experiment plays in America. Will the trappist idea make this a viable project? Who know. But I will be willing to try the beer at the very least.
Looks like the San Fernando Valley is tired of having to drive either N-S-W for their local beer. We have another Kickstarter in process from Hand Brewed Beer. And before you think it is one of those bespoke type of monikers. One of the principals does have the last name of Hand.
I had the opportunity to talk to the Hand, as it were, with the rest of the L.A. Beer Blogger group on Sunday and I can’t urge you enough to kick in because their campaign is almost up and they are still needing some funding. And I think they are worthy. They have a Maltose Falcons pedigree and some solid backing and a consumer base that could use a local brewery or three.
A couple of their beers caught my eye and should get you to pony up some coin to help outfit their (in the future) tasting room in the Chatsworth area.
The Vanilla-Raspberry-Bourbon VRB was a smooth and creamy beer with a nice spirit kick in the back. Like a raspberry creamsicle with a splash of bourbon. I also enjoyed their Erudite Wit which was bright and clear and is one of the better Wit’s that I have had recently.
They have a nut brown ale, an IPA and a pale in the rotation as well. And if you are into spice, they have a serrano pepper infused IPA that I thought was too much on the pepper and not enough IPA.
I flew into Chicago, aka The Windy City (due to the “talkativeness” of it’s politicians), aka The Second City (because it was rebuilt after the 1871 and 1874 fires) with a small craft beer agenda. I really only had 1 day to hit a few of the must-see’s on my list.
To my surprise, like my hometown of Portland, craft beer is on tap and easy to find. From our operational base near Wrigley Field, there was an Irish snug bar Guthrie’s that had local beer taps. The neighborhood pizza parlor, D’Agostino’s had a lovely list and $5 Lagunitas pint nights. (while there, I picked up a pint of the Chicago only Green Line from Goose Island which was very good. A session IPA from Ale Syndicate that was a bit underwhelming and a Hopthesis IPA that was past it’s prime).
The next day, I found a dimly lit bar and a selection of beer to buy (including Three Floyds and Founders in the basement of the massive Macy’s in the Loop. Do the Macy’s here in L.A. have that? Yeah, no. Why not? It would increase my visits to Macy’s by a 100%. And at the Cloud Gate sculpture that is an iconic part of the art scene in Chicago, there was a cafe with a Two Brothers cart! No art in L.A has that.
And the Jewel grocery store had a second level that was devoted to beer-wine and liquor. You could mix and match 6 packs or just pick up a sixer of locals like Half Acre or Metropolitan or 5 Rabbits.
I will get into details of Half Acre and HopLeaf and Revolution in later posts and next month in a Food GPS post I will discuss what Los Angeles can learn from Chicago’s beer scene.
But before I leave you, the favorite beers of the trip….
Lagertown Marzen from Half Acre – Nutty and hoppy with a touch of sweetness. Just great.
Green Line from Goose Island – Super easy to drink wheat beer with a touch of citrus hops.
5 Vultures from 5 Rabbit – A light hand with Ancho Chilis make this Oaxacan inspired beer delicious.
Krankshaft Kolsch from Metropolitan – Light and really fresh tasting. Very zippy.
Tomorrow, I will talk more about my recent beer filled trip to Chicago. But to whet the whistle, as it were, here are some selected photos from the weekend….
First stop pizza at Wrigleyville joint with a list (minus the macros) that I wish I could have returned to…
Oh and the former Marshall Field’s (now Macy’s) sold beer and had a bar!
If that wasn’t enough, the local grocery chain had 5 Rabbits at great six-pack prices…
and there were stops at Two Brother’s, Half Acre and HopLeaf too!
