Category: LA Craft Beer Events

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Porto’s and Beer


One of the SoCal secrets is Porto’s Bakery. Specifically their desserts and their potato balls. Whenever I drive by the Glendale branch, it is always hopping with a line snaking around the interior.

What does a bakery have to do with beer. Well on Sunday, April 29th from 2 to 4pm, you can attend a pairing event at the Craft Beer Cellar in Eagle Rock.

Here are the details: “Enjoy four of Porto’s Baked Bites paired with a flight of four 4oz pours of delicious craft beers carefully selected to compliment the flavor of each baked good respectively:

Potatoe Ball
Ham Croquette
Meat Pie
Guava Cheese Streudel”

Order up your tickets, right HERE.

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Love Me Some Pils


There are few beers that I will bypass new or hyped beers for but the Pils from Birrificio Italiano, Tipopils is one of them and now they have teamed up with Firestone Walker at the Propagator for the Pils & Love event on July 28th.

From 11am – 4pm, over 40 breweries from around the world will be pouring Pilsner. Nothing but Pils. Brewery list to come.

Tickets on sale Tuesday, April 24th at 9am and will cost $65 per person with “food plates from Chef Justin Lewis available during the event for additional purchase.”

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Bootlegger’s Turns 10


One of the old school Orange County breweries, Bootlegger’s is hitting the big 10 year mark and will be celebrating at a special location, The Fullerton Arboretum.

There will be flowers and foliage and also special releases, barrel aged, & archived beers from Bootlegger’s as well as guest brews from Bottle Logic, Barleyforge, Cismontane, Hoparazzi, Green Cheek Beer Co., Left Coast Brew Co, Stereo
and MORE..)

Food will come from two trucks Dos Chinos and Luna’s Catering

Tickets for the April 7th event can be purchased for $50 or at the door for $60 (while tickets last) and Designated Driver tickets will be available for $15.

Proceeds from this event will go towards The Orange County Brewer’s Guild

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Recap – Firkfest 2018

The 2018 Caskaway Tiki Beer Fest aka Firkfest is in the books.

Here is my beer and photo recap from Anaheim….

I went into the fest with the express purpose of hitting the Orange County breweries that I have not tasted from. So 3 Punk Kids, Towne Park, Stereo Brewing, Lost Winds and Asylum were all tasted. I also snuck in a new beer from Firestone Walker and Los Angeles Ale Works as well.

But the best drinks on the day were beer cocktails. There was a dedicated Orange Count cocktail tent and I had a rum and coke with beer called Midnight Oil as well as a coffee and rum cocktail, a style Coffee Colada with Unsung beer added. Lastly, Beachwood Brewing had a beer cocktail of their own called the Dark & Squally that was really good too. I would have happily camped out to try all of the hourly releases

As to be “expected” now, the location is great, the rain stopped for the day as well. It was easy to get whichever beer was wanted. And the brewery list was well curated. But I seemed to pick beers that were more 2oz sippers and less “go back for more” beers. Firestone Walker’s Corn ‘n’ Oil tasted way too young. Others were fine but even ones that I liked more, had either an ingredient or balance that could have been improved.

I think the Tiki can be stored away and a return to creative casks (maybe IPA only)or a further backtracking to straight up English styles might be in order. But keep the cocktails!

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Tiki-Firk


I have brought it up already, but make sure you get your tickets to the 2018 edition of Firkfest (second year with the Tiki theme).

Need one more reason to come? The OC Bartenders Cabinet will be there making Tiki cocktails.

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Recap – IPA Fest 2018

Rainy (for L.A.) weather did not dampen the spirits of fans of the hops as the 5th L.A. IPA Festival was as crowded as ever with lines before the roll up doors went up and a line when I left after sampling 5 IPA’s and wishing that I could have tasted more.

I was lucky enough to be on the media side of the back Ramona Room where I could watch the judging take place in front of me while IPA’s were also placed in front of me.

None of the beers that I tasted which included the eventual winner from Green Cheek, Don’t Die on Me really lit my palate up. They all inhabited the vast middle ground but my clear favorite was from the Tony Yanow backed The Bell Marker, Not F…ing Hazy was a clear and well done straight up West Coast Dank IPA.

Now I had a long list of IPA’s that I should have swapped in like Arrow Lodge and their 3 Wheel Motion, Bagby’s Boy Wonder, Societe’s The Fiddler and Burgeon’s Time Sensitive.

I think that I still like the day after though due to the smaller crowd and the availability of flights. One small change I would make would be to reduce the glass size or the tap list size. I (or you) could attack that list in so many different ways but when the pours are 6 to 8oz, there is no real way that you can fully appreciate that last beer or the beer before that. I would say going to 4oz would be good and might quicken the turnaround as well.

That said, if I were you, I would check out Mohawk Bend this week. Plenty of great IPA will be flowing.

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Light the Cigar

Cigar City Brewing is the newest brewery of note that will be distributing in the Southern California market. Stone Distributing trucks will be hauling beers including Jai Alai IPA, Maduro Brown Ale, Florida Cracker Belgian-style White Ale and their newest year-round offering Guayabera Citra Pale Ale.

Market opening launch events will be popping up onto calendars for late February, March and April. Cigar City Brewing reps will be coming in from Florida to spread the word about their beers.

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Upcoming Anniversaries

There are 60+ breweries in the L.A. County Brewers Guild, which means that there could conceivably be an anniversary each and every weekend of the year with more to spare.

So, here is a quick Anniversary rundown for the next month+…(including some Orange County friends too!)

March 3rd – Noble Ale Works – 7
March 3rd – Brouwerij West – 2
March 3rd – Pacific Plate (Glendale) 1
March 10th – Monkish – 6
March 17th – Phantom Carriage – 3
March 24th – Sanctum – 4
April 25th – Smog City – 5