Category: Guide to better beer

how to discover new beer to try

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Return Visit – Mt. Lowe Brewing

Ever since I read the distress post from Mt. Lowe Brewing in Arcadia, I wanted to go back and re-visit.  On a recent gray, rain threatening Saturday, I braved the always sluggish 210 Freeway to have a few beers to see what was up.

And I saw pitcher after pitcher going to the Pasadena Rugby Club who apparently are cool with no aroma, flat beer which hopefully helps this at risk brewery out.  I tried out a coffee version of their Hills Are Alive IPA which I quite liked.  A nice balance of coffee notes to hops with neither getting the upper hand.  The two following tasters were less successful and I think I may have gotten the same beer twice and not two different tasters.  Though they were filled right up to the brim.

The beertenders were working hard and there was a steady line to order so maybe folks are in supportive help mode which is good to see.

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Kombine

Collaborations are not just a U.S. craft beer thing, in Belgium St. Bernardus releases the 2025 Kombine a collaboration with Weihenstephan. An “unfiltered Helles blond beer that will be bottom fermented without bottle fermentation—while still staying true to the German Reinheitsgebot rules.” The hops are from both breweries while the famous Weihenstephan yeast will do the work.

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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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FWIBF 2025

Tomorrow, tickets will go on sale and then quickly sell-out for the 2025 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival and this year brewery “lineup includes 15 first-time breweries and marks the most ever for what is renowned as “the best beer fest in the West.”  

Below is the graphic with the brewery list and it makes me happy to see so many names that I do not recognize at all.  One can trust the selection process so much at this point that you quickly enter giddy phase just to see what is up with that brewery named Uncharted.

Firestone Walker will also be releasing the Wandering Don IPA. A “limited-edition official 2025 fest beer made in collaboration with Odell Brewing Company in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. PST, if you have fast fingers and faster wi-fi.

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Superb Owl 2025

This year’s Super Bowl will be contested by two teams who despite getting loads of digital ink spilled about their offensive woes both made it to New Orleans for this years finale to the NFL season.

Reigning champion Kanas City Chiefs will be attempting trifecta of wins while the Philadelphia Eagles behind a monster year from new running back Saquon Barkley will try to snap the streak.

First off this is a long afternoon or long day if you tune in to all the bluster and repetition of football pundits earlier in the day. So have plenty of water handy as well as snacks. The big game is a great time to bottle share so find that hard to find beer and share with whomever is watching with you. I would recommend starting out with the low ABV beers for the first half before moving on to the bottle share portion because sometimes the game is only close in the first half and you want to enjoy that competition and the good commercials too.

I would also suggest having food late in the 4th quarter in case folks feel like jetting off at the final whistle. You don’t want bigger beers on an empty stomach.

I will be posting what I am drinking on Untappd and social media if you want to see what I am sipping.

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Would Love to Try – February 2025

This months beer that I probably won’t see on SoCal store shelves is a beer with a connection to my hometown of Milwaukie. It is a collaborative beer from Breakside with La Cumbre Brewing from New Mexico.

“Up Top! is our take on the unfiltered Pilsners of northern Bavaria. This ‘Zwickel-style’ approach is high-risk high-reward, as it requires crafting a beer that tastes good through its natural maturing process. Up Top! walks this tightrope, rich and soft, with a supple maltiness and notes of pear and green tea.”