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I like a small beer festival. I feel like I can actually taste the full rainbow if there is a tight mix of breweries. And Ogopogo Brewing is using their 6th anniversary to throw a little shindig in San Gabriel.
I am especially interested in Craft Coast and Burgeon and what they may be tapping.
Now that it is October we can legally talk pumpkin beers and Halloween. And the first thing I want to do is get a little jealous of Seattle for having Cloudburst Brewing and their beer copywriter who had a great time with this their seasonal pumpkin beers description…
Check Your Worst Nightmare out HERE. If you want to avoid opening another tab, here is the ingredient list, “a milk chocolatey base beer brewed with Libby’s canned pumpkin and spiced with a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and clove.”
This month, as a bit of a scientific lark, I am going to review the same beer weeks apart to see if any differences can be found. I chose Patio Project IPA from Beachwood Brewing as the test subject after picking it for the beer shopping list post last month.
As you can see from the above photo, it was canned up on 8/1/24. For this review, the first can was tasted on 8/16/24. Can two was opened on 9/5/24. Can three was opened on 9/29.
Still pours a bright and light yellow. No visual degradation seen at all. Aroma also coming in strong. The hop bite is still there which is good because this is near session IPA to me and without it, the beer would lose a dimension.
Maybe I shall conduct this experiment again but with a different, not as high quality brewery as Beachwood and maybe take it over a longer time frame.
Sometimes in beer, you may not see a beer style produced very often but one way you can sneak around that is to “imperialize” that style and it helps to have a brewery like Stone Brewing who excel at big beers doing it.
One of my bottle shops stops is Talon Tap & Wine in Eagle Rock. Friendly people, you have a great selection that you can buy single cans of and there is a nice little bar in the back if you want to catch a game.
And this year, they are turning 5! There will be a special day of celebration for it on Saturday, October 5th.
If you saw the John Oliver – Last Week Tonight commentary on dollar stores and how terrible they are, you will understand why the name of the new beer from Paperback Brewing is so scary and fitting for the Spooky Season…
…it is good to see that Black IPA has found a bit of a seasonal niche for Halloween.
Paperback also has a good beer name going with the Beer Snob IPA but they really should have gone for a different IPA sub-style like Brut instead of…
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.
El Segundo Brewing is throwing it back to the ’80s in both beer style and font with their Fresh Wave XPA, Extra Pale Ale. Like most monikers XPA is a bit weird give it is basically just word replacing. Session IPA is a bit cleaner and understandable.
That said, let’s taste the liquid inside and not get too hung up on verbiage. At 4.9%, this is low ABV but that first sip doesn’t give too much away because the hops come in the front door, loud. There is a second wave of malt where the lightness of the body shows up but at the end, it tastes almost like a hoppy Wit as a tropical burst comes in.
I am a beer traveler. When I go to a destination, part of my prep is a list of breweries to visit. That list will always be too long. Part of the reason why is that there are guides like San Diego Beer News that put a lot onto a plate.
And since fall is a great time to travel with fares down from summer highs until the holidays hit, you should check out the guides again since I have already told you about them before.
There are new ones out though!
You can start HERE with the local San Diego breweries.
Then head HERE for the rest of the U.S.
I have another Instagram handle for L.A. craft beer fans to follow. @laaleworks_hermosa.
Los Angeles Ale Works will debut their 3rd location in Hermosa Beach in 2025. You can check out the announcement video HERE.