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These are the beers that I wish I could taste for the first time.
One of the great sites on the beer interwebs is CraftCans. From time to time, I check out their site and a few weeks back, I did and ran across two unique beers.
First up is a Gose, the old German style brewed with salt that us wily Americans have grabbed and then re-configured in the way we do. It comes from Westbrook Brewing in South Carolina. The can design utilizes simple design elements and a minimum of colors but is very effective.
Now if I only knew someone in South Carolina.
Smog City has debuted a new small batch series by the name of the Forager Series.
The first beers came out this time last month and are “based on the hunt for natural ingredients found and foraged around LA, the Forager Series uses hand harvested fruits and herbs to create unique beers that put a spin on traditional styles.” I missed the first couple (see below) and since these beers are brewed in very small batches they are only available in their taproom in Torrance.
And you can be a part of the beer, “We look forward to expanding this series and further exploring what LA has to offer in terms of ingredients. In the future we plan to brew larger batches for the Forager Series so if you are interested in helping out we’re looking for you!
We’ll send out requests as the recipes develop via the newsletter and of course, if you have an overabundance of fruits, herbs, peppers or the like please email laurie@smogcitybrewing.com and we might just design a recipe around it!”
Fennel Of Love- 5%abv
Sunday we will be tapping our 80 Shilling Scotch Ale brewed with fennel flowers harvested by Porter from wild growing fennel in Playa Vista. These flowers are not to be confused with fennel seed or fennel pollen, the flowers impart a subtly sweet anise character into a lightly malted and fruity beer. The result is a subtle licorice and fruity aroma balanced by a smooth crisp and lightly malty beer ending in the perfect amount of roast character thanks to the midnight wheat for added balance.
King Kumquat- Saison with Kumquats (tbd)abv
In the works and soon to be released is our second in the Forager Series, King Kumquat. Laurie harvested 60lbs of kumquats from the Porter household kumquat tree thereby leaving Porter and the guys with an excellent excuse to buy an immersion blender. New Toy! They then added the whole pureed kumquats into one of our 50gal stainless steel barrels and topped it up with actively fermenting L.A. Saison. As it has yet to finish out, we will all have to wait and see how the beer will ultimately taste.
Whether you participate or not this is a cool idea and a good way to make creative beers.
One of the beers (of many) that caught my eye from the Beachwood SourFest (that I didn’t attend this year) was a lambic lager from Sudwerk Brewing.
Long time readers know that I love a good lager and pilsner and to see a brewery that makes a damn fine one use it as a base for Belgian souring experiments is really quite cool. Maybe I will catch it somewhere else.
First it was Gams-Bart. Not a typical flagship. Then a Chai fusion Kolsch. Next for L.A. AleWorks is a more pedestrian coffee porter. Wait, they have added rye to it. Oh and they asked their Kickstarter supporters what they wanted instead of choosing something themselves.
“Thank you to everyone that participated in the vote for our next batch! In a fairly resounding victory the Coffee Rye Porter known as “Buttress of Windsor” was selected. As brewers we’ve had many excellent coffee porters and we hope this one will do the style justice. Similar to the Karma Kolsch batch, we’ll be experimenting on exactly how to scale up the recipe – so wish us luck!”
“We know how much you all love coffee and so we’ve teamed up with local roaster True & Brave Roasters to create an incredibly tasty and inspired roast especially for us!”
I am looking forward to see how this compares and maybe having a sampler tray of all three to compare and contrast.
One of my favorite purveyors of bitter IPA’s, Beachwood Brewing has been releasing bottles of selected beers from their line-up and they go fast! And probably none will go faster than Amalgamator. One of my favorite IPA’s from Julian Shrago.
Oh and three other Beachwood notes:
1. SourFest is underway at both locations. If you like tart, head there pronto
2. Drake’s Brewing Company and Beachwood Brewing have come together to brew a collaboration IPA, Mind Melder IPA. From the press release, “for his part, Julian offered up his thoughts on the most reasonable brewing methods for bringing the beer to their mutual standards on his system, and John brought in sexy hops, El Dorado and Nelson, to intensify the fresh lemon and tropical fruit aromas to their utmost potential.”
3. Another Beachwood favorite is in the bottling pipeline!
They are certainly busy, industrious folks at Beachwood.
I am starting to really enjoy the Belgian IPA style. And yes, I know, this new Ommegang offering is a pale but I like the interplay of the Belgian funk and the bitterness of the hops. It eases the throttle on both flavors.
I am torn about the new label design though. It does look fresher and more of a brand than before but the graphics are muted to me. Maybe it is the colors that are not to my liking.
Boulevard Brewing Company’s is changing up how you will get their newest beers. It will be in their “Sample Twelve” package which “will feature three bottles each of two exclusive Tasting Room beers.”
I don’t normally buy sampler packs. Space is an issue (because my fridge is usually pretty full). But also because there are sometimes clinkers in the pack. Something you now have three or four of to drink or pawn off on someone else. But….
More from their press release: “The first two new beers included in the pack are Westside Rye Ale, a sessionable beer with a slightly spicy character, and Mid-Coast I.P.A. —at 100-plus IBU’s, the hoppiest member of Boulevard’s current family. Unfiltered Wheat Beer and 80-Acre Hoppy Wheat Beer will round out the initial Sample Twelve lineup.”
Because, we in L.A. are just getting some Boulevard and I happen to see this sampler, it will be all new beers for me and will be good to split with a drinking buddy. (looking at you, Cap’n)
The 12 pack will be “rotated with new selections in early 2014.”
If you think of AleSmith and their Decadence Anniversary beers, and you had to guess as to what style they would brew for 2013, I don’t think that a dark lager would have been amongst your top 3 guesses. And I like it that a brewery can still keep people guessing.
“Decadence was first released in 2005 to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. AleSmith has released a new version of Decadence each year around our anniversary date in late fall. The style chosen each year is different, but you can be sure that it will always fit the description of Decadence!”
So kudos to AleSmith for the offbeat stylistic choice for Decadence this year.
One of the Beer Search Party’s altar ego’s, (Emphasis on ego) is as the compiler of the weekly L.A. Beer Blast list for Food GPS. In that capacity, I will run across beer name spellings that will make me chuckle and then I will cringe when I make an error.
Well, this beer from La Trappe may be a contender for the most misspelled beer name this year. But that won’t stop me from trying it.
El Segundo Brewing went from a bevy of great pale ales to Two Five Left, a double. Now they circle back to a locally named Grand Hill IPA. Here is what one of our LA “bitter” breweries has to say about the new beer, “Named after the hill you have to slog back up from El Porto.. since it is precisely what you’ll be looking for after a day in the surf and sun, and a 1/4 mile climb straight back up to town!