Category: Guide to better beer

how to discover new beer to try

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Review – Trailing West – Firestone Walker Invitational Collaboration

This year the special Firestone Walker Invitational collaboration beer partner is Half Acre Beer. And the beer is Trailing West Pilsner.

First off, I am so glad any time a summer beer festival chooses a lighter beer style for their marquee beer. It is just smart. That being said, this is the first year of the FWIBF beers that I have been really m’eh on.

Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe past beers have set a high bar. Either way this beer is not a favorite of mine. Firstly, it is labeled as a pilsner but it seems more a lager to me so right from the jump, I am on the back foot. It is also got a weird mix of corn and minerality that doesn’t mesh for me. If they called it a midwest lager, I would have rated it higher. But if pilsner was the target, they missed.

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Belgian Beer Week

I know that it was an oversight to not post Craft Beer Week which happened earlier this month and then compound the error by posting about another countries special week.

But I am going for it anyway, why, because we could all do to talk more about Belgian beer and drink more Belgian beer. And maybe do it during…..

…so walk past the cold case of IPAs, then walk past the DIPAs and go get a Belgian beer.

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Two Beer and One Spirit

Here in Los Angeles, we get our fair share of Prairie Artisan Ales, mostly the big stouts which leaves me hopeful that I will see this new release from the aforementioned Prairie Artisan Ales with American Solera, and the third member bourbon maker Pursuit United Spirits drop a 3 Way Beer Collaboration called Not Subtle. “an Imperial Stout aged in Pursuit United Bourbon barrels.”

I have listened to the Bourbon Pursuit podcast and hope to get my hands on a Pursuit bourbon since my visit to Louisville was too early to see their tasting room on Bourbon Row but this beer might be the first I get.

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1st Visit – Trusted Gut

The old King Harbor space on 182nd Avenue did not stay quiet for long as it was quickly taken by Trusted Gut Beverages.  A Long Beach company that does not only beer but seltzer and kombucha too.  It has taken me too long to visit but I finally made it.

And though the space can louden up real quick and the food truck outside was generating a generator racket, the beer list was a happy surprise. Saison, Kolsch, Amber Ale and a Schwarzbier among many styles to pick from. I went Kristalweizen and followed with a Scottish Ale because, don’t know when I will see either on draft in the near future.

Both were solid examples of their styles with the K-weizen being my favorite. I did not the either of the two kombuchas or the POG seltzer but I would come back when next in the Lawndale / Redondo borderlands to hit up some of the other lesser seen beers.

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Made 1K

Every brewery, back in the day, would celebrate not only anniversaries but also when they reached batch number milestones.  You don’t see it as much anymore but MadeWest has their Batch 1000 out now, “a triple dry hopped triple hazy IPA featuring Citra, Nelson and Idaho 7 hops.” With “aromas of tangerine, pink cotton candy and ripe mango.”

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Review – Growls Like a Tiger DIPA from Stone Brewing

Hopefully, I will never know how a tiger growls unless it is Hobbes but the beer version from Stone Brewing is next on the review docket, described as a “Double IPA that features Citra and Talus hops which pounce on your palate with abundant sweet orange and stone fruit notes.”

Growls pours a dark orange. This is sorta heavy. The first third swipes at your palate, then there is a bit of grape and candied orange in the second part and then you can feel the ABV in your throat on the way down. The heavy portions are carried by grassy / woodsy notes. A bit different from past Stone big DIPAs.