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A concise brewery bio
San Pedro Brewing Company (which I, surprisingly have never sampled) has one of the few beer lists that includes many lighter offerings including a pair of pilsners, a kolsch and a lager. With the opening of the new Artisan market in San Pedro, the brewing company might catch a few more visitors.
I will update the blog when I have had a chance to sample their wares.
Our first English stop is a winery! But this winery also does beer. Chapel Down currently offer three curious beers including Curious IPA, Curious Porter and Curious Brew.
I heard about this vintner/brewer from this article in the Guardian.
And if Pete Brown approves then the beers must be pretty good.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As much as I love writing about beer, it must be tough for the San Diego beer blogger to keep track and to keep up.
Here is another brewery that I have failed to mention in the years that I have been blogging, Rough Draft.
Their tasting room is open Wednesday through Sunday and they have a couple IPA’s that caught my fancy Eraser and Frontal Labottleme both clocking in around 7% abv.
Might be another to add to your San Diego brewery crawl. Which at this point is probably a week long affair.
Pipe Dream is still fermenting but the brewery fronted by Brian Holter and Kingsley Toby are all about the “BREW•DRINK•DREAM”
So one day soon, we will be able to taste their flagship ale, Lazy Sunday or Green Dragon Imperial India Pale Ale or the Pipe Dream pale or the Tahoba Summer Ale.
And after trying the gamut of styles that they are creating on their pilot system, I can safely say that these are beers to be on the look out for.
The full story will be on FoodGPS tomorrow…
Brewers tend to be multi-hyphenates. And by that I mean creative or passionate in more than just brewing great craft beer. And that is the case at hyphenated Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co. which “was founded in 2007 with a mission of producing world class beers that could bring awareness and resources to the preservation of the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains in California.”
Beers to select from include: Tamarack Amber, Half Dome California Wheat, General Sherman IPA, Peak Pilsner and Mount Whitney pale. And you might even see a chili pepper beer the next time you visit the brewery in Fresno.
Hess Brewing’s Great Nanobrewery List is an awesome resource.
A listing of (as of January 2012) the 82 Nano’s in operation and the amazing 50 that are on the road to brewing. It’s all alphabetized with links back to the brewery sites.
Take a spin and see if there is one in your neighborhood that you should pay a visit to.