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I am a little hesitant about talking about future beer events but hopefully, Smog City will be able to get fully “Canimalized” come May 9th. Laurie and Porter always throw a fun party with loads of rare and fun beers. So mark this on your calendar.
I would recommend driving out of Los Angeles to check out Casa Agria’s tap room (among many in the area) but if you wanna stay in town then Southland Beer will be pouring a mini-tap takeover of beers….
On tap:
Slammin’ at the Club – American lager
Summer in the Streets – hazy IPA
Bliss and Death – west coast IPA
Unseen Dreams – wild ale with apricots
Circumstances (aka Life) got in the way of me attending the Leap Day celebration of IPA at Mohawk Bend, but I did sneak over on March 1st to sample some leftovers.
Tarantula Hills Thousand Oaks IPA
People’s Choice Winner. Good solid bitterness. Nothing jumps out as to why this would make a mark. Pours a solid yellow color. Tea and spice here.
Harland Brewing Leap Year
First beer from Harland. Had the beer a day late. Light yellow. Coconut but light. Strong amount of bitterness. Some earthy pine as well.
Gunwhale Ales California Scenario IPA
My fav of the three. Light. Good amount of bitterness. More earthy but bubbly.
This year’s winners did not include Green Cheek or Highland Park and cover a wide swath of California too. North Park took Gold with Sorta Mostly Dead, Silver to Heal the Bay from ABInBev subsidiary Golden Road and Bronze to Fieldwork for Boss of the Plains.
You know you can’t always have a Hazy IPA, so when you return to other styles, return in a big way. Might I suggest Stout, at Yorkshire Square?
There is a crackin’ list of breweries set to appear at the 2020 edition of N’owt But Stout…
Over 30 breweries pouring including:
Beachwood Brewing
Bottle Logic Brewing
Brewery X
Burnin Daylight Brewing Co
Cellador Ales
Chapman Crafted
Creative Creature Brewing
Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
GameCraft Brewing
HopSaint Brewing Company
Laguna Beach Brewing Co.
Marin Brewing Company
MacLeod Ale Brewing Co.
Mission Brewery
Morgan Territory Brewing
Pizza Port Brewing Co.
Riip Beer Company
Smog City Brewing
SouthNorte Beer Co.
South Park Brewing
State Brewing Co.
Thr3e Punk Ales Brewing Co.
Yorkshire Square Brewery
Quite a few are not seen around L.A. so this is a great chance to check out places normally out of reach.
Here are your lucky numbers for February….
1st Anniversary – Wingwalker in Monrovia on 2/8
3rd Anniversary – Los Angeles Ale Works in Hawthorne on 2/15
2nd Anniversary – State Brewing in Gardena on 2/22
1st Anniversary – Ambitious Ales in Long Beach on 2/29
6th & LaBrea (part of the Stalking Horse, Broxton, Bluebird group) will be unleashing (2) hazies a quarter under the brewing supervision of Ignacio “Nacho” Cervantes. The first duo (dyad?) will be released on the 30th of January.
Hazy # 1 – “Unbeknownst” – “a high-gravity hazy made with Citra, Cascade, and Idaho 7.”
Hazy # 2 – “Knownst” – “a more sessionable version of the same beer, that will still leave you with a little bit of knownstledge.”
Chapman Crafted is now more than just beer. On January 23rd at the more beer than coffee hour of 6:00pm, they will launch their cold brew, drip, and espresso that are made with their house blend roast, which they have named, Composition. Also on tap will be their First Roast Coffee Porter as well as other limited-release coffee beers.
It is always fun to welcome in breweries from other states and on the 25th, Southland Beer in K-Town will be bringing the Arizona brewed beer of Wren House to Los Angeles.
And as a special bonus beer from Arizona Wilderness will be on tap too!
Well, maybe closer to (4) variants of the annual Infinite Wishes release from Smog City. You can buy 2/Max bottles of the following: Regular, Coconut Vanilla, Cinnamon, Double Bourbon and licorice.
Smog City throws a good party and they have the crowd control and lines down too. So head out to Torrance on January 25th and look into the infinite.
There are quite a number of beer related charities out there but one that I am glad has lasted into double digits is Brewbies and on Saturday, February 8th, its 11th annual festival will be held at Bagby Beer Co. in Oceanside. The Keep A Breast Foundation, “an organization dedicated to empowering young people around the world with breast health education and support” will be receiving 100% of the net profits since the first fest way back in 2010, “Brewbies has raised more than $540,000 for Keep A Breast.”
Here are more of the details from the press release, “For the third consecutive year, Brewbies will host more than 50 breweries for its famous Pink Beer Competition, in which favorite brewers such as Pizza Port, Sierra Nevada and Eagle Rock Brewingcompete to create the best pink beer, made specifically for Brewbies.Tickets for Brewbies in Oceanside are now available for purchase, and start at an advanced sale price of $49.”