Eastern Sierra Ale Trail is a new passport for the breweries that stretches from Bishop to Bridgeport along US 395.
Participating Breweries ~
If the Mountains are Cold
Needed or Not? – Peanut Bar
You know what I haven’t been waiting for for 53 years, a giant peanut dive bar on wheels but yet, Miller Lite has joined up with Planters to create a 26-foot nut bar.
The installation also includes: (because it has to by influencer law)
- A selfie wall that only needs red string to make super creepy
- A dropped ceiling littered with dollar bills to create the feel of a bar that no millennial would be caught dead in
- A nut-shaped jukebox with I assume power ballads about nuts?
- A warm nut machine (also the name of my ska band)
1st Visit – Eagle Rock – The Landing
RIP to the Empire Tavern, gone too soon, a victim of the Covid scourge. But now the space in Burbank has been reborn as The Landing.
It is a cross of a specialty market, bottle shop and Eagle Rock Brewery. Multiple taps of Eagle Rock beer with a couple guests as well as wine.
The space is warm and bright with bright colors on the wall. And it has the same welcoming vibe as the OG Eagle Rock taproom.
When you are done shopping at Ikea or you find yourself in upper Burbank, you should drop in.
New Location Day – Booming Boulevard
Boomtown Brewery is getting on the Walk of Fame.
They recently announced on social media the news of their first satellite taproom in Hollywood. Currently the space in the Centro? Building is empty so don’t expect beers on the boulevard for 6-8 months.
New Location Day – Paperback Exchange
Paperback Brewing is (with the City of Glendale’s help) going to see if they can breathe some life into the moribund side of the Exchange buildings with their beer and a selection of murals based on their beer labels.
It is slated as a pop-up on Artsakh Avenue in Glendale’s (so-called) Arts and Entertainment District for six months unless the response warrants staying.
It is under ten walking blocks from my HQ, so I will be visiting.
From LA, Now to OC
OC Beer Week is fast approaching and if, like me, you are in Los Angeles, it is A-OK to attend another county’s festivities. Even though they overlap by a day or two. Because, I assume you attended a few or two LA County beer events during their week.
FWIBF 23 – Photo Day
Time for one last look at the fun at the 2023 edition of the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival, this time with more photos…
FWIBF 23 – The Day After
After a night spent with an unhappy tummy courtesy of the sour beers consumed on Saturday, I made a short hop from my bucolic Creekside Inn to the Booker Wines for the Wine Down brunch.
And it did not disappoint (except for one thing), the Booker compound is amazing. At the end of the road with multiple other wineries, the vineyards surrounding the hill. The architecture was super fancy. I can easily imagine an extra fancy wedding being held here. All open air and great views. I hopped up when they said they were doing a cave tour but it was more a quiet walkthrough the cave which also had a special room with the limestone on one side. Food was great as usual but it was time to say goodbye, but not to Paso Robles just yet.
Then just down the road was Bethel Rd. Distillery. More on that in a distillery post in a day or two.
Next up was KiloKilo, where I eavesdropped on the owner expound on the beer industry and what makes a festival good. The Cold IPA was my choice, Frosty Little Nugget. It was what I needed before heading south.
I made two stops on the way home. One to reacquaint myself with Figueroa Mountain in Buellton and two for a first visit of Bellringer Brew Co.
FigMtn has a lovely outdoor patio and the same weirdly situated indoor seating. A tiny little room with a cubby for taps overlooking the brew deck. Food pick-up in another room which is weird. Recommend the outdoor bar.
I drove further south to the somewhat new Bellringer Beer Co. I get worried when the brewing equipment is tucked tightly into a space as it is here. I had half pours of the Galaxy IPA and the Ringer Pilsner. The IPA tasted a little old, hop-wise. Murky in flavor but not in color. The Pilsner was better for sure so I hope the equipment is being dialed in.
I took a little walk around Ventura then has one last beer….
FWIBF 23 – The Day
The common talking point amongst beer scribes is, what is the angle when talking about this festival? You can talk best booth decor. To me Green Cheek with their photo frame and slushie machine was tops. Or you can talk amount of beers. Bagby brought a ton of stuff, all of which looked great. You can talk lines, which present wasn’t omnipresent this year compared to my last fest in 2019.
In the end, it comes down to the beer. And the beer, uniformly is fantastic. You can quibble about the breweries invited or the mix of light beers to big ABV beers but the choices are just great. Whatever you pick, it is not anywhere near mediocre.
That said, there were some beers that really, really stood out. So, I am going to highlight those. My best was a Green Cheek beer. Not one at their rightly crowded booth but a beer poured at a Thiol conversation just wowed me. Evan Price poured an IPA that was good, then a second beer was brought, Forcing Natures Hand. Damn, it was as if you cut a passion fruit under my nose. Price said that he liked a blend of one and two. I dis-concur.
Other winners was the Earl Grey lambic from Oud Beersel which compared to the blunt force of the lapsang souchong smoky version was an exercise in subtlety. I was excited to try FW Brewmasters Collective beers, and the best of my tasted trio was the Pirate Sour. Maybe too sweet for some but very tiki to me. I had two beers from Leeds based Northern Monk and both were my favorite hoppy beers, pils and hazy.
I spoke with a few people about their viewpoint on the day and each one was impressed by something different. That is the festival in a nutshell. Impressive.
FWIBF 2023 – The Day Before
When you go to the Firestone Walker Invitational, the day before can be a lot and if you sneak in a distillery visit, it becomes a day.
I drove up from June Gloom L.A. to bright and sunny Paso Robles and went to work with a stop at The Backyard for a beer (Wild Fields Cosmo Canyon Red) and a sandwich before heading to CalWise Spirits for a comprehensive tasting of their products, some of which were started at Firestone Walker. My favorite was the flagship gin with the orange liqueur second.
I moved north on Ramada Drive to pick up beers at the FW Emporium and then checked out the new barrel room and had some beers before taking a tour with scion Nick Firestone around some of the environmental initiatives at the brewery from solar panel fields to CO2 improvements,
From there, the Friday night water park dinner awaited where I nearly choked on some food before recovering to enjoy seeing luminaries like Bob from Highland Park and Henry from Monkish before crashing as I type this.