Category: Guide to better beer

how to discover new beer to try

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MORE LABW 2024 events

I promised posts about L.A. Beer Week and here is another one with some BSP picks for the almost here celebration of L.A. beer….

All month the Stuffed Sandwich will have an L.A. brewers flight available.

Monday, June 17th – Cellador Ales

Cellador Ales has a tap takeover in Virgil Village at Alma’s Cider. And if you can’t attend that event, then…..

Wednesday, June 19th – Cellador at Southland Beer

“LA is not only blessed with great beer but is also surrounded by agriculture and a great way to showcase how those two factors meet is with Cellador’s sour beer program. We’ll have a selection of beers never before seen at Southland, and Cellador will be in the house telling the stories behind those beers.”

On tap:

Oogum Boogum – Wild Ale with Murray Limequats, Fukushu Kumquats, 2nd use late harvest Masumoto Le Grand Nectarines, vanilla & elderflower.

Raspberry Beer – Wild Ale with Raspberry, Blood Orange and 2nd-Use Nectarines and Apricots

Bottles:

15 Petals – Wild Ale with Roses and Masumoto Rose Diamond Nectarines

Nouvelle Pêche – Tart Saison with Masumoto Baby Crawford Peaches

Thursday, June 20th – Lincoln Beer Company

L.A. Beer Week Collective Brew – join the team and be a party of the brewing process. Brew with them, smell the hops and vote on your favorite and get your signature on the can.

Friday, June 21st – Farmer’s Market Bars

El Segundo Brewing and Three Weavers Brewing tag team at the historic Farmer’s Market for a one night tap takeover.

Saturday, June 22nd – Brewyard Art Festival

Come out and support your community of 20+ local artists and vendors. There will be so much good food, live music, DJ’s and of course, special beer releases!

Sunday, June 23rd – King of the Kolsch

Arts District Brewing hosts Wave 2 of their Kolsch contest between L.A. brewers starting at Noon

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MacLeod at Ten

After the trials and tribulations of the last 4+ years, MacLeod Ales has hung on and has reached the double digit milestone of 10 years.  That achievement alone should push you to a trip to Van Nuys to have a pint, maybe even a cask ale. 

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Five Tarantulas

Tarantula Hills Brewing in Thousand Oaks has hit a significant milestone.  Saturday, June 22nd is their 5 Year Anniversary.

Festivity Details include:⁠ (yays and nopes are mine)

5th Anniversary Beer + Brewer’s Special Keg⁠ – yay!

Smoked Old Fashion Cocktail⁠ – yay!

El Rey Oyster Shooters⁠ – nope

Great Lineup of Live Music⁠ – OK

Birthday Sundae flavored Ice Cream⁠ – yay!

5th Anniversary Merch⁠ – OK

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The Ditch

The Torrance Beermuda Triangle is gaining another tenant as HopSaint Brewing Company will be expanding to a location HopSaint @ The Ditch.  I would probably ditch that moniker to match up better with the delicious beers that HopSaint puts out.

I will follow up with news about when and where when opening is closer.

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Review – Wheater Melon from Los Angeles Ale Works

Even though one can buy watermelon practically all year round, it still remains, stubbornly, a summertime fruit to me and with summer just a few June Gloom days away, it was time to taste Wheater Melon from Los Angeles Ale Works.

Right off the bat, back in childhood with a watermelon Jolly Rancher. The beer is light orange in color. That candy blast comes in strong and then leaves just as strongly, leaving a watery and light finish. Was hoping for a bit of wheat backbone here. Would be quite enjoyable on a hot day by the pool but I fear it would clash or be drowned out by most summer BBQ foods.

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Selected Daisies

Hard to believe that Daisy Cutter from Half Acre Beer is 15 but time does fly.  In honor of that anniversary comes DC Select Double IPA, a collaboration with Sierra Nevada Brewing.

“For Daisy Cutter Select Double IPA, both teams hand-selected special lots of freshly harvested Centennial from CLS Farms, a fifth-generation family hop grower in the Yakima Valley. All agreed on a selection that presented punchy notes of sweet, bright citrus, with a touch of background earth. We used it to build a recipe that echoes the ages – Classic IPA.”

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1st Visit – Western Station

After driving by it many, many, many times, I finally made a point of stopping at Western Station a mostly wine (but also beer) bar in Eagle Rock.

It is a small and dim but not dark space with a group setting in front but mostly bar seating. The beer and wine lists are chalked up in frames on one side. There is also a side wall with bottles of wine and a couple coolers with a small but nicely curated choice of beers. Any place that has Duvel bottles is a step ahead of the game.

The small draft list had Highland Park, There Does Not Exist and a pair of Craftsman beers and since I had not had the famous for Los Angeles 1903 Lager in quite some time, I went with that.

File Western Station under where you want to go when you have bi-curious beverage groups. Wine fans will find something and beer fans will too.

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Fire Two

Sierra Nevada is expanding their torpedo fleet by two with the upcoming release of Pacific Torpedo a West Coast IPA featuring Magnum, Chinook, CTZ and Idaho 7 hops and also Dank Torpedo a DIPA that the brewery says is “packed with sticky golden lupulin”.