Category: Brewery Tour

A concise brewery bio

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English Brewery Tour # 3 – Bristol Beer Factory

10 Days ago we e-visited Magic Rock Brewery that I saw in a column from Tomm Carroll in the Celebrator magazine. Now another brewery he noted in that column is our final stop in Great Britain, Bristol Beer Factory.

The first beer that caught my eye being that I live in the Golden State was “The Bitter Californian is a hybrid between a traditional English Best Bitter and the wonderfully aromatic Californian Pale Ales. Our brewers, Chris (the bitter one?) and Brett (the Californian one) have combined their love of English malts and American hops to create a delicious new beer.”

I also love seeing a style like the Milk Stout being produced, “Sweet, black and extremely full-bodied. Unfermentable Lactose sugar (added during the boil) sweetens the Chocolate and Black Malt derived roast / burnt flavours.”

If you are an independent drinker you might want to visit and drink one of their independent beers from the old Ashton Gate Brewery.

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English Brewery Tour # 2 – Magic Rock

I read about this West Yorkshire brewery from Tomm Carroll’s article in the most recent Celebrator magazine.

“Magic Rock Brewing Co. is the result of three peoples passion for beer. Brothers Richard and Jonny Burhouse aided by head brewer Stuart Ross were inspired to start the brewery by their love of great beer and the burgeoning U.S craft beer scene in particular. Driven by a desire to bring exciting characterful beers to their local market and beyond, brewing commenced mid 2011.”

The whimsical labels for their range of beers are fantastic and sound delicious as well….

Dark Arts: Surreal Stout “6% Dark Arts blends 4 malts and bags of whole hops to deliver a decadently deep and indulgent experience. A luxuriously smooth mouthfeel, is followed by spicy hop notes and full flavours of chocolate, liquorice, blackberries and figs. The finish is rich and satisfying with a lingering roasted bitterness. Our stout will convert you to the dark side.”

Cannonball: IPA “7.4% Cannonball is an India Pale Ale in the true tradition, high in alcohol and massively hopped to survive a long sea voyage. We don’ t want you to wait though, crack the cap and let the flavour explode on your palate. Tropically fruity, resinous hops compete against a sweet malty backbone, while a rasping bitterness builds to a mouth puckering crescendo. Our hop bomb might just blow you away…”

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FoodGPS Teaser – Ventura’s Surf Brewery

Taking a day trip for craft beer from Los Angeles could keep you busy for a long, long time and I finally got around to making one up to Ventura to visit the tasting room of the Surf Brewery…

The owners looked long and hard to find a suitable location in Ventura and after 13 tries found this nice spot right on Market just off the 101 freeway.

Many draft options. I tried the cask, the anniversary and the Rye & Black blend of two of rye beer and black IPA.

The cask version of the Shaka XPA with Palisade hops.

The 1st Anniversary Imperial Brown to round out the journey. Learn more about the Surf Brewery tomorrow on FoodGPS.

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FoodGPS Teaser – Barley Forge

Last week I profiled the brewers behind Pipe Dream Brewery and this week yet another profile of another westside homebrewer who is looking to go pro.

This week over on FoodGPS is Barley Forge….

I had the opportunity to taste Greg Nylen’s beers at a home brew evening at the Craft and Folk Art Museum on Wilshire. He had two versions of the Santo amber brewed with two different yeast strains.

I also sampled the Double Imperial pale called Delicious and two versions of Black Dahlia a Belgian strong ale.

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Ohana the Tiki Brewer

This month I have been focusing on California and more specifically SoCal breweries. I have gone from the still fermenting Pipe Dream in Culver City to Ladyface in Agoura Hills for their brewery tour, to Hearst Castle and Cambria as well as further north to Fresno and Tioga-Sequoia with a stop in Lancaster on the way back to LA where we end the month at Ohana an “urban brewery with island attitude” and two of the youngest brewers in the country.

I had the opportunity to sample their wares at the Union Station finale of L.A. Beer Week 2011 and was impressed by the sour beers that I tasted as well as the Black Dahlia.

The waiting for all the inspections and permits has come close to the end and soon we will have more beer being brewed in L.A.

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Kinetic Brewing Company

Earlier this month, I and craft beer buddy Richard made the trek an hour+ north of Los Angeles to Lancaster to sample beers for the first time from Kinetic Brewing (which has been recently added to the L.A. Beer Blast over on FoodGPS)

The brewpub is located on a newly remodeled and beautifully tree-lined stretch of downtown Lancaster that has electrical outlets by each of the parking spots. With the help of the city they have taken an old car stereo store and completely re-done the site to make a lovely and large gathering spot for beer lovers.

We talked with co-owner and head brewer Steve Kinsey while trying the full Kinetic repertoire. He explained the reason behind the name (it is defined as pertaining to motion) and how it is woven into the logo design, the gears that are in the impressive stone bar and the beer names. We moved on to their Tuesday series where they add a new ingredient (or more) to a beer from the regular line up to show off the creativity of beer. (the basil version of White Thai is a great pizza beer) And we also learned about their bar at the Lancaster JetHawks minor league baseball stadium.

My favorites from the sampler tray were the Potential Blonde kolsch which was a lovely shade of yellow and had a good mix of sparkle with some fruit notes. Their White Thai with lemongrass and kaffir lime hit my palate well and the Fusion porter was a nice coffee way to finish off the visit. And I got an Untappd badge as well!

Once their tap handles gain governmental approval, you will be seeing Kinetic beers in L.A. and not just at the brewery.

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Bravery Brewing

As of July 4th, Lancaster (just north of my base in Los Angeles) has 2 breweries!

Joining Kinetic Brewing Company is Bravery Brewing.

The tasting room is open Wednesday through Sunday and in the mold of places like Eagle Rock and The Bruery is BYOF. Or check out the food cart that may be stationed outside.

What caught my eye on a recent perusal of their website’s beer list was a citrus bitter as well as a pineapple wheat beer. Very intriguing for the dry July weather.

A visit to Lancaster is now in the planning stages.