Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
best beer for….
This is going to be the all Pumpkin, all Colorado vacation edition of the Best of the Month.
Here are the contenders:
Bristol Brewing Pumpkin Ale weighing in at 5.9%
Our Mutual Friend Porch Pumpkin at 8.8%
Odyssey Beer Works Fluffy Pumpkin lowest at 5.6%
4 Hands Pumpkin Ale at 6%
Odell Brewing Pumpkin Spice Dottie 6.4%
Fluffy Pumpkin edges out Bristol Brewing because that marshmallow and pumpkin combo just had the Halloween vibe, even though Bristol has the most gourd to it.
Even though some of the luster has worn off it is still important to take time to see who won what medals at this years Great American Beer Festival awards.
And boy did L.A. come up gold in some mighty big ways. Highland Park Brewery was the big winner taking home a brewery of the year award for their brewery size as well as gold for Baseball Lager, Timbo Pils, DDH Pillow and Competition IPA, that last one is huge because it is one of the largest categories, American IPA.
Trademark Brewing in Long Beach snared gold in the equally big West Coast IPA category for Codebreaker and earlier in the ceremony picked up silver for A La Playa in the fruit beer category. Fellow Long Beach winners were ISM Brewing with a bronze and Beachwood with a silver.
Another important win came in the Hazy IPA category where Ambitious Ales took the top prize for Professional Human Being IPA.
DTLA got some medals two with Angel City getting a second win for their Apple Pomace Puncheon and Audiograph getting a second too for Bas Clef Strong Ale.
Other fun notes:
Wayfinder Beer won the Krispy King Lager crown for their Hell and Bearded Tang in Orange County won the Alpha King Hoppy crown.
This was a first year for cider medals but it seemed a little weird since there are already great cider competitions out there.
Heard two great beer names during the broadcast: Animals Strike Curious Poses and Polterweiss
Other SoCal brewery of the year winners were Everywhere Beer and Riip Beer.
This month we are going to toggle between Fest and IPA for the best of the month.
My fest best are the always good Oaktoberfest from Firestone Walker and Paulaner’s Oktoberfest Bier. A journey from Germany to Paso Robles.
Hops wise, the Stone 28th Anniversary DIPA strayed a bit from their heavy format to a balanced fruity and big beer. The other is a spooky season named beer from ISM Brewing with Ghost Town Brewing, the 6.66% Death Dealer IPA.
As an added bonus, the Strudel Cider from Benny Boy here in Los Angeles literally tasted like an apple pie. Even though it is not fall yet here, it sure tasted like it.
This month it is the all IPA edition. Which is weird because usually I find most IPAs to be smack in the vast middle of pretty good land. I do my best to taste fresh IPA but even the most ardent hop hunter can fall prey to hops that just aren’t packing the same punch as earlier.
Two were draft and two were canned. In the runners up category was Smog City and their CCBA White IPA, the first of two of that sub-style that I tasted this month. It was bright and light without getting too thin and it had a real nice subtle character to it. The other draft was at Great Notion where I had their Orange Creamsicle IPA. Usually not a fan of the milkshake but this did not have the fake orange and too sweet. It tasted much like the ice cream treat.
The cans were from North Park Beer Co. and from Ambitious Ales and it was a tight call but North Park’s Dead as a Doornail DDH West Coast IPA made me sit up a bit straighter than the Gimme That from Ambitious.
Every once in a while, I like to give some flowers to label designs that show extra effort, are fun and just flat out rise above the cut.
Burgeon Beer Co. takes a diner ticket approach to Order Up.
There are loads of little details. The color is spot on and there is even a binder clip as well. All with enough space and room for the hop bill and the charitable causes logos too. Works on all levels.
I am going to start with two beers drunk later in the month starting in Mount Angel, Oregon at the Benedictine Brewery. Their St. Michael Helles was absolutely on point and very refreshing on a hot day. I do have to add that all their beers were good.
Dewey Beer Moelleux Au Chocolate Stout was the last beer of the trip and my first visit to Function PDX and their newer Alberta outpost. It was also my only “big” beer of the trip. It was super chocolately and very smooth.
Two other beers make the list of the month starting with the 2024 edition of Russian River’s Pliny for President. Not a surprising choice since Russian River hardly ever make a mis-step with hops. Lastly, El Segundo, also known for hoppy beers, came out with Crowner Kolsch which I think is one of their better “alternative” beera.
June is now in the books so it is time to review the best beers that I laid my hands on this month.
It is a tie for first and a tie for second. And each has an IPA and then a German beer style.
Tied for 2nd are Russian River Brewing’s RnD IPA #44 and Human Robot’s Hallertau Pils. The latter is my first beer from the Pennsylvania brewery and boy was it good on a steamy LA day on the Highland Park Brewery patio. And what can be said about Russian River, whenever I see an RnD IPA, I buy it.
Tied for first was the Hana Munich Helles from Headlands Brewing. When someone says malt makes a big difference, this is what I will point to as Exhibit A. A luxury of a beer, Lastly, Monkish Space Cookie IPA just should not be as good considering it is such a weird beer but boy was it, standing out from a festival crowd.
May brought a nice mix of new beers and new breweries and that is shown in the Best of for the month…
Santa Monica Brew Works Flecha Azul Margarita Sour – I have had a couple nice sours recently headlined by this SMBW that smartly combined margarita with sour in a Gose-ish way.
Trusted Gut Kristalweizen – clean and crisp but unmistakably weizen. Perfect for a summer day.
Ghost Town + North Park Ghost Park IPA – Cannot go wrong with North Park even if they are just half of the brewing team.
The big winner for the month is…..
Brouwerij West 8x8x Hazy DIPA – now this was a proper hazy. it was like drinking cream and pineapple and it had an impressive layer of murk to it.
Time to look back on the 30 days of April and come up with some best beers of the month.
I need to start with the stovepipe can of Imperial IPA from Lagunitas that is Tiki Fusion – Zombie. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. It had a plethora of ingredients to Tiki-fy it and although it was a touch too sweet it had the hallmarks of a cocktail inspired IPA.
Switching gears, if not ABV, the Infinite Wishes – Almond Joyous variant from Smog City was really good and a nice counterpoint to the Strawberry Whipped variant. Both had sweetness that was knocked down just enough to avoid being treacly.
Another winner was the 2024 American Reinheitsgebot Helles Lager from Enegren Brewing in collaboration with Bierstadt Lagerhaus. Crisp and clean with just a wee touch of pear to it made for a really good Sunday starter.
The winner for the month came from an unexpected source. Not the brewery. Firestone Walker has been tagged in my monthly round-ups a few times. But it was the fact that it was Wookey Jack. A beer I have a few of in my life and liked but for whatever reason, on draft at the Propagator it really shined. The hops were there but the malt was not sidelined at all. Fresh on draft can sometimes make a big difference.
Time to get into the time machine and tab the top beers of March before we head into the April drinking session.
Honorable Mentions go to Long Beach Beer Lab for their Brewte (Brut) IPA, good to see this sub-style pop up on tap and this was a nice executed crisp, dry and pear version. Next to mention is the pilsner High 10 from Highland Park Brewery. The menu board had re-brews of past years and there were many High 10s to choose from but I really liked the West Coast Pilsner. I also quite liked the latest Short-Lived IPA from MadeWest brewed with Firestone Walker. Crisp and biting with nice fruit notes.
The March winners was the strawberry whipped Infinite Wishes from Smog City Brewing. Filled with berry notes and a slight touch of vanilla, it was luxury when paired with a bourbon barrel imperial stout.