Category: Beer Reviews

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The Beer Search Party Reviews Wildfire Relief Charity Beers

Taking a short break from the We Love L.A. banner of charity beers for the Eaton Canyon and Palisades fires to support three beers outside the main push.

Cerveceria del Pueblo and Arts District Brewing – Flowers for the Canyon

Glad to see an XPA beautiful bright yellow color.  Getting a Concord grape note in this.  Has a nice bite to it as well.

Paperback Brewing LA Strong IPA

Pours a dark yellow with loads of rising bubbles. Piney and dank. Tastes more like a DIPA. Lots of hops here. 

Los Angeles Ale Works ReBuild IPA

This is a prototypical West Coast IPA in 2025.  Leaning into the citrus realm while pouring a sharp yellow color

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Review – Double Riwaka Daydream from Other Half

We are lucky in Los Angeles to get a lot of good stuff dropped into distribution and one pretty pink can from Other Half Brewing caught my eye….

….Double Riwaka Daydream, which pours with some serious haziness going on and a tiny little layer of foam to top it off. The aroma is a mix of pine and fruit. The first taste is orange creamsicle. Lots of cream in this one. The oat cream is earning its keep. And lurking behind is that pine note and a quite sturdy backbone. A unique beer for sure.

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The Beer Search Party reviews We Love LA beers

There has been such a fantastic outpouring of support for Los Angeles by breweries far and wide in the wake of the devastating wildfires of this past January.

There are so many beers out and still coming out from the program spearheaded by Common Space Brewery that it is now time to tell you what beers I have sampled so far.

Here are the first three that I have had, let’s get going….

HopSaint Brewing – Blonde Ale – Light yellow. Malty touch of citrus. easy drinker

HPB – Hello LA DDHd with Nelson Sauvin. Quite a hop pellet kick with grapes following.

Ambitious Ales – hazy pale ale.  proper hazy this.  nice pillowy mouthfeel.  good sharp bitterness. 

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Review – MadeWest 9th Anniversary

Hazy IIPA conjures up a double digit ABV beer. For MadeWest Brewing, their 9th Anniversary beer is down the scale a skosh at 8%. More DIPA range to me.

Boy, oh boy, there is some pineapple flying off this in the aroma and in the first sips. You can taste the strength as well. A bit fluffy in the mouthfeel. Some other tropical notes come into play as you drink it.

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Review – Lucky Chicken Red IPA from Kizakura Sake Brewing

I will admit that a cute label occasionally overrides my normal beer buying thinking, it doesn’t hurt if the beer style is left of center too. Such was the case with the Lucky Chicken Red IPA from Lucky Brew aka Kizakura Sake Brewing.

This is from Kyoto, Japan and who knows how fresh this will be so take the following review with a grain of malt. It pours a real dark brown color with a worty malt smell that comes on hard. Sorta tastes old to me which doesn’t jibe with the aroma. Not locating much in the way of hops and in fact, this tastes more English than anything.

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Review – IPA from Rancho West Beer

There has alway been the smallest of slivers of organic brewers out there. It is not an easy road to take paperwork and sourcing wise and considering how the word organic has been pushed and pulled like salt water taffy, makes it even less desirable a road to take.

But Rancho West Beer has been testing the organic market for a bit now most notably at that high end smoothie emporium known as Erewhon, so I thought I would give their IPA a run.

The can says Malibu, CA but the beer is brewed south, in San Diego. Where exactly, Google and its AI would not divulge. The West Coast IPA pours a bright orange color and gives off a solid pine aroma. Decent amount of bitterness here but also an undercurrent of oily viscosity on the palate. A bit one note overall but if you are looking for organic options, this is not a bad choice.

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Review – Capital of Craft SD West Coast IPA

A bit late to the 2024 party but when I saw an October canned San Diego Brewers Guild IPA, I thought it would be a good opportunity to review a hoppy beer a couple months on and if anyone could do it, it would be six San Diego breweries.

You have Black Plague, Ketch Brewing, Blah Brewing, Hoponymous Brewing, Fall Brewing and Hodad’s Brewing involved this time.

The Beer pours a light orange color with a dried citrus aroma and a pineapple note. There is a nice creamsicle taste to this with a firm malt backing to it. Nice and light but not anywhere near watery.

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Review – Lifeblurred from Stone Brewing

SoCal has had a tiny not cold spell which has allowed me to thoroughly enjoy darker, heartier beers like Lifeblurred, an imperial brown ale from Stone Brewing.

Per Stone, this is a biggie. 11% to be exact and though at first it doesn’t seem alcohol heavy, by sip three, you feel it. I would describe this as British ale seen through a Black IPA glass, then bulked up. Very woodsy and oaky with an ever so slight citrus hop note. It is a russet and brown colored ale with a hint of a dark caramel taste to it.

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Review – Cool River from Pure Project

I have only had the murky side of Pure Project up to this point so when I saw a  Cold IPA on the beer shelf, I plucked it to review.

Cool River pours a super light orange color or dark yellow.  Very crisp on the palate with grain notes being the first to make themselves known. The hop kick is quite potent.  I get honeydew melon and some dankness as well.  Tastes stronger than 6.5% as well.

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Review – Mere Visions West Coast IPA from ISM Brewing and Brujos Brewing

Gotta powerhouse hype combo for the review today, ISM Brewing in Long Beach have paired up with Portland’s Brujos Brewing on a straight up West Coast IPA, Mere Visions.

This has got to be one of the lightest straw yellow IPAs that I have come across. Hopped with an impressive roster of Columbus Cryo, Mosaic Cryo, Strata, Simcoe and Chinook. Very well balanced overall. That Simcoe smell comes through. There is a medium hop hit before a soft bed of wheat notes. You could call this a White IPA as well.