Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
One of the darlings of the Los Angeles beer scene, Cellador Ales will be opening the doors of their Tasting Room on Saturday, October 12th starting at Noon for their 3rd Anniversary
Expect multiple Anniversary beer releases and maybe some of their cocktails as well, and you need to bring cash as pours will be cash only.
Saturday comes and I am trundling down to Long Beach from Glendale for the third time for the festival that ends the California Craft Beer Summit…
First, the line of tents for this festival was an impressive sight. It just kept going off into the distance. So, yes, there was a lot of California beer being poured
Let’s dive into my best and worst of the small percentage of beers that I could safely sample:
My Best in Show
1. Temescal Brewing Belgo Belgian Pale Ale
2. Cellarmaker Wild Gooseberry Chase IPA
3. Original Pattern Scotch Ale
The Belgo was so good, that I almost wanted to camp at the Temescal booth and have all three of their beers (I did have the Pils which was quite good). It had a big Belgian yeast character married to a Pale and touch hoppy ale. Cellarmaker had a trio of IPA’s in cans. I tried two and again almost went back for number three. Gooseberry was a crushing hit of Nelson Sauvin hops. Lastly, Original Pattern brought a freshly kegged Scotch Ale that was lovely and balanced.
The M’eh List
1. Karl Strauss / Russian River New California IPA
2. Flatland Brewing Middle of Somewhere Else Sour
When you pair anyone with Russian River, the beer should be great. This IPA would have been boring for a British IPA. No hop presence at all. The dry hopped meets apricot sour from Flatland was just butter and apricot. Pastry sour?
San Gabriel’s Ogopogo will be hitting the one year mark and on September 21st, they will be celebrating their mythical creatures beer list. Follow their social media for ticketing information and beer information.
The California Craft Beer Summit started yesterday but the first full day of events in Long Beach start today and to celebrate 30 years of California brewing, there is a celebratory beer, 30 Years Strong brewed with a group led by Three Weavers.
The third in the Beer & Food Series from the L.A. County Brewers Guild arrives next month, October 19th. This year the festivities take place at the L.A. Arboretum. (personally, I much prefer a nature site to the hard pavement, so I am cheering the choice)
50 of our independent breweries will be on hand and there will be a selection of nibbles as well so you can hone your beer and food pairing skills.
But what is best is that the admission fee will unlock tours of the Arboretum. Everyone in Los Angeles knows about the Huntington Garden or Descanso Garden but many have not visited this botanical spot.
More details to come.
The SoCal Cerveceros are back for numero DOS. The Latino focused homebrew club SoCal Cerveceros & Cerveceras is coming back “to Plaza De La Raza for the second installment of CYC FEST a homebrewed craft beer festival featuring over 30 Latino homebrewers, commercial breweries, a curated lineup of local food vendors, live music, DJs, art and artisan craft vendors.”
The festival is slated for Saturday Oct. 19, 2019 from 2PM-7PM. VIP includes 1 hour early entry at 1PM.
100% of ticket sales will be donated to both Plaza de la Raza and El Centro de Ayuda in an effort to help support their continued work. $25 Single Tickets Pre-Sale
$100 VIP 4Pack Tickets
For more information and to purchase tickets, head HERE.
The festival after the Summit activities has a lot of breweries, consider this your primer on which booths you should target during the fest….
I have compiled 20 beers to try (plus a duo from the White Labs booth) not in any particular order that caught my beer eye.
Blaker Brewing – Vanilla Bean Milk Stout
Burgeon Beer Co. – Clever Kiwi Nelson Hopped Pilsner
Cellador – Clockworks Rustic Saison with Orange Zest and Cardomom
Cellarmaker – Christopher Riwakan Pale Ale
Device – Rice Crispy Boi Rice Lager
Dionysus – Rest in Funk 1 – Black Currants
Faction / Anchorage – Diverge IPA
GameCraft – A-wa-wa-wa-wa! Italian Pilsner
JackRabbit – Czechmate Pilsner
Karl Strauss / Russian River New California IPA
Moksa – Hop Collage NE IPA
New Glory – Ubahdank IPA
Poseidon Brewing – Ironclad Irish-Style Red Ale
Rare Barrel – Blurred T Tart Saison aged in oak barrels with Tempranillo grapes
Seaward Brewing – Sea Plus Dry Hopped Pilsner
Skyland Ale Works – Saison Sans Gluten
Temescal Brewing – Pils
Ten Mile – Jamaican Monk Belgian Tripel aged in Jamaican Rum Barrels
Wave Maiden – Comber Damiana Herbal Ale
Yolo Brewing – The Riceman Cometh Rice lager
and then White Labs has (2) NE IPA’s with one big difference, the yeast.
Tortilla Cantina in the Old Torrance neighborhood will play host to the 5th South Bay Tap Takeover, appropriately enough on the 5th of September. 45 taps of beers from one of the busiest sections of the L.A. brewing scene will be on tap along with a mega collaboration IPA, Better Sweater Weather that was created by a group of 20+ breweries and cideries in the area.
Thanks to the new production facility in Windsor, Angelenos have been getting a nice, steady supply of beer from Russian River Brewing. And that means that we will probably see more tap takeovers, like the one coming up at Mohawk Bend on August 29th.
As that date gets closer, check the social media to see if any tap list emerges but I would recommend starting with STS Pils.
3 weeks from today, Pacific Plate is going to go all Tiki for their 6th anniversary because 6 is the tiki year, right? Follow their social media streams to make sure you get all the details.