Category: LA Craft Beer Events

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From the Hop Fields of El Segundo

If you are bitter about the dearth of wet hop beers in California as compared to say, Portland then you won’t want to miss this hop driven event at El Segundo.
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Three different wet hop beers will be waiting visitors including:
Wet-Hopped Mayberry IPA with “200 pounds of Mosaic hops in the mash and kettle within 24 hours of picking to sexify this already amazing brew.”

Wet-hop Simcoe Pale with the “same recipe you’ve seen in the past iterations of this brew.. but sub in freshly harvested Simcoe!”

Citramongous DIPA “how is it we haven’t made a DIPA with Citra fresh hops yet.. seems a crime. Consider that resolved.”

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Wham, B.A.M., Thank You

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I will tell you that there are few festivals in Los Angeles that are must visit.  Session Fest at Eagle Rock. L.A. Beer Week. Blue Palms and their anniversary bash.  The Downtown L.A. Beer Crawl. PLUS B.A.M. Fest in Santa Monica.

Pre-Sale tickets are now over but you should check this fest out for a few breweries:

Bell’s – Get some damn Oberon!  It’s not all about Two-Hearted.

Boomtown – NEW.  Check their beers out. Give ’em feedback.

Revolution from Chicago – DRINK ALL of their beers!  Unless you travel to 2nd City a lot you won’t see their beers here.

Dr. Jekyll’s – Strange but a fest is a place to try strange.

Santa Monica Brew Works – They don’t stray from the beach so you have to go for them.  You will not be disappointed.

 

 

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A Solid Farewell

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Say it ain’t so! Here is what Eagle Rock Brewery has to say about a landmark L.A. beer: “Our dear old friend Solidarity is going into semi-retirement…. By that, I mean that it’ll be brewed only seasonally from now on. So it’s not “farewell”, but a “see you later”. To send Solidarity off, we’re having an all-things-Solidarity party. Join us in tasting through ALL the versions of Solidarity that we’ve released in the past years (vanilla, deuce, bourbon barrel aged, etc., etc.). It seems only appropriate to have the party on the anniversary of the first batch of Solidarity (and in fact the first beer we ever brewed in this facility), so we’ll be having an epic send-off on 11/14/2015, six years after the first release of this beer.”

Solidarity ranks up there with Craftsman 1903 lager and Strand Brewing 24th Street Pale as the beers that launched the beer scene here. Hopefully you can stand with Solidarity as it goes to seasonal status.

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One Last Hurrah on Telo Avenue

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The original taproom for Strand Brewing is almost done. Only one weekend remains for those who want to order a pint of 24th Street pale ale or other Strand favorites in the Telo Avenue location.

Roomier digs await in their upcoming Dominguez Street where the White Sand and Batch 100 will soon flow and flow faster since they will be able to brew more than double what they do now.

The Final Countdown Hours tomorrow are Noon to 8pm and on Sunday are Noon to 6pm.

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Festival Review – L.A. Cider Fest

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It was yet another scorcher of a day for a beer festival but this time the focus was on cider and the many, many variants of cider that are being made.  Most of which, I simply was not aware of until I wandered through the many booths at the L.A. Cider Fest.

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I was really impressed by the Maryland ciders from Millstone.  Both the peach cobbler and the Hopvine ciders had really light touches to them that allowed the cider to stay center stage.  I also was intrigued by smoked ciders from Alpenfire and Tilted Shed.  Neither would rank as a favorite to my palate but they were well made.  In my effort to touch upon multiple styles, I also tried a couple cider cocktails.  Ginger Cider and gin worked like a charm.  The porter and cider, did not which was no fault of the Jackie Tar from MacLeod’s that was excellent.

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Overall, the selection was great. I did notice that some ciders that were on the website didn’t seem to be pouring (same went for breweries). There was also a couple issues that can be tweaked to make the next installment better. Starting outside, there needed to be signage telling people where to stand and line-up. Especially since there was another line for Let’s Make a Deal. There was also a bit of a traffic snarl at the entrance because tables were set-up right next to the glass hand-off section which just created a bottleneck that you had to punch through. Other than that, the organizers used the stage space well and made efforts to mitigate the heat. (Great to have an ice cream vendor on site!) I would suggest adding this to your festival year. Just do the night session instead.

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A Kinetic Expansion

Brewing in northerly Lancaster has taken a huge square foot step forward as Kinetic Brewing Co. in cooperation with the city will expand from their current brewery/restaurant into a production facility + tasting room + outdoor events space. As with all things brewery related, timetables are kinda fluid but look for this to open up in late 2017.
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Once online and brewing, Kinetic will be able to quadruple their production in the first year alone and then really go big by year three. But the two key items that stand out to me are the potential for a garden with a hop farm and the addition of a canning line. For the environmentally and drought aware, they will be taking aiming to hit the goal of being nearly footprint neutral with the addition of solar power and water recycling.

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ONS with Monkish

I am loath to single out one of twelve excellent tap-takeovers (sorry, One Night Stands) but the Monkish Brewing visit to Beer Belly tomorrow night is one to be at.
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I consider myself up-to-date and I still haven’t had many of these beers. By many, I mean most. I might just do a side-by-side “Kisses” taste test. Or I may head to the Shadowboxing Dubbel. Or…well you get the picture.

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A Week to be Sour

Mark you schedule early time.  Sour Week at Beachwood BBQ (both locations) is coming in just over a month!
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Here is the preliminary schedule:

Tuesday, October 6

Long Beach & Seal Beach @11:30am: Beachwood BBQ SourFest, The Ultimate Acid Trip kicks off

Long Beach @ 6pm: Special Brewers Night No. 1 featuring Avery Brewing Co. from Boulder, CO

Wednesday, October 7

Seal Beach @ 6pm: Special Brewers Night No. 2 TBD

Thursday, October 8

Long Beach @ 6pm: Special Brewers Night No. 3 TBD

Friday, October 9

Seal Beach @ 6pm: Special Brewers Night No. 4 featuring Allagash Brewing Co. from Portland, ME

Long Beach @ 6pm: Special Brewers Night No. 5 TBD

Saturday, October 10

Seal Beach @ 6pm: Shelton Brothers Importers presents a full line up of their sour beer portfolio

Sunday, October 11

Last day to enjoy Beachwood Sour Fest

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5 Years of Mass

Back in 2010, Congregation Ale House opened its Long Beach Chapter for “mass”. Fast forward to 2015 and they have (3) locations AND a brewery.  And the time has come for a party.
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Tomorrow, Saturday, September 5th 2015 all Chapters will be festive. There will be commemorative glassware + 8 different Congregation Ales brews.

Another + the below specials:
Saison Mule – Saison with Ginger and Lime Peel

Passion Tea Kolsch – Kolsch infused with Tazo Passion Tea

Peach Consummatum – Imperial IPA with Macerated Peaches

Quadruple Hopped Batch 100 – Imperial Amber IPA with hops in the KEG

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Drinking Buddies at Angel City

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Angel City Brewing and Jameson’s Irish Whiskey threw quite the shindig on Tuesday night. I’m still recovering from it. The theme of the event was Drinking Buddies and it was a beer release party mixed with whiskey and cocktails plus the back-story on the different blends that went into the final barrel-aged Imperial Irish Ale.
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My drinking buddy Richard and I sampled the three beers that made up the blend of choice and though we may have liked different components of the beers. I personally thought the dryness and woody-ness of the sherry barrel version was the most intriguing, the Jameson’s came through loud and clear in the end.
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Jon Carpenter, the brewmaster gave the rundown on the process and the flavors that each component added after we got a little whiskey lesson from the Jameson rep. It was kinda surreal to see a vey Irish Whiskey juxtaposed against the gritty graffiti and urban L.A. vibe of the brewery but this was a serious party. Plates and glasses whisked away quickly. Plenty of food and gelato and more than plenty of whiskey.
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