Category: LA Craft Beer Events

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Review – #LABW6 in Chinatown

This year’s L.A. Beer Week signature festival moved both temporally and geographically.  From Union Station to Chinatown.  From End to Beginning and from Sunday to Saturday.

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Here are my thoughts on the festival in it’s new regeneration run by the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild.

The weather gods smiled on the crowd of beer lovers and the brewers pouring in Chinatown for the sixth go-round of the L.A. Beer Week festival. A week earlier and everyone would have roasted beet red.

I will leave the review of the fest in general to a later time. This post shall focus on the beers tried and the beers missed. And the beer that missed the mark.

I shall start with the middle option. When I refer to missed. It was not due to a beer running out which I didn’t see happen by the time I left at 6pm, an hour before the fest was due to close.

Vulcanizer from Beachwood and Drakes was there for the taking but I never sauntered over to that booth with an empty glass. I missed Timeless Pints and the Brewery at Abigaile’s entirely. I got a taster of Chandelle from Hangar 24 but did not taste the new Pro-Am beer. Bad me.

On to the more fun topic of what I did taste, I have one word, Monkish. Hem and Haw and Arrivant were spectacular. I told multiple people to get those beers at all cost. The other brewer with two winners was King Harbor. I had been waiting to try their ode to ice cream, Swirly, for awhile. I was not disappointed at all. A not sweet mixture of chocolate and vanilla. Their “50 Cent” grapefruit Belgian was also a treat. Very juicy without being too acidic.

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There were a couple beers that fell into the “I was hoping would be better” category First was the Mai Tai HopTonic and the Longevity Baltic Porter. Both from breweries that I rarely find fault in. The Eagle Rock Baltic porter I will chalk up to the end of day dead palate issue but it was bland to me. Not that I was expecting fireworks from that particular style but for it to be a Pro-Am winner, I expected something that wowed beer judges. The Mai Tai from Smog City was too sweet and too coconut for me. The IPA portion was buried. I wished the base was a tripel or saison instead.

All in all, I wish there was a dinner break and then another couple hours to try the remaining beers that I wanted. It is the sign of a good festival when you leave full but wanting more.

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Yes, more #LABW6 events

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For some reason, the 25th is chock full of events. I have already pointed out two strong choices and yet, there are more!

The Oinkster teams up with Cismontane Brewing for a “Choose your own Adventure” Night with 3 different versions of Holy Jim Falls XPA – 3 different versions of The Citizen California Common and 6 different French fry variants! Think of the flavor combinations!

Or you could head to Plan Check on Fairfax for beer cocktails tailored with the spirits of Ballast Point. You will find the special beers on tap such as
Four Roses Victory
Grapefruit Sculpin IPA
Sour Wench Blackberry Ale
Abandon Ship Smoked Lager

Or, the Culver City outpost of Bottle Rock will be pouring seasonal beers from El Segundo Brewing. Maybe Mellon Collie the Farmer’s Market melon beer will be ready!

Wherever you live or work, there is a killer event nearby.

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Wild Ride Time

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Do you like sour beers?  Do you like driving around LA?  Or are you like me and picking one spot to grab some Firestone Walker beer?

“Walker’s Wild Ride is back during L.A. Beer Week! Join the Lion & the Barrelmeister on Saturday, Sept. 27th as they make their unruly trek in “Olivia”, the ’64 Land Rover, hosting a crazy LA pub crawl with four sour beers in tow! Follow along as we make stops at Tony’s Darts Away (12pm), Library Alehouse (2:30pm), Naja’s Place (4:30pm) & The Federal Bar – Long Beach (7pm).”

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Who Will Win this Year?

Last year, Angel City Brewery received 270+ ideas for their first ‘What Would You Brew?’ contest. The winner was one of my favorite beers and it was Mexican Cola inspired!

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This year’s winner will be selected in October 2014 and that lucky brewer will have:

A) “opportunity to spend a day in the brew house brewing alongside the Angel City team”

B) “have their beer featured during LA Beer Week 2015

C) receive a custom kegerator, complete with a case of pint glasses, tap handle and tin tacker sign. Ideas can be submitted here: . Entries will be accepted through September 30, 2014.

Emily Finch, and her Mexican Cola beer will make a return in a “rum barrel aged version” at the LA Beer Week Kick Off September 20th at Old Chinatown Plaza, as well as on tap at the Angel City Public House.

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#LABW6 – Event Update 2

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More events to look for during LABW6….

Starting on September 21st, MacLeod Ale Brewing will be releasing special one off beers and new additions to their line-up so check out which fleeting beer strikes your fancy. The 21st would be my choice with the seasonal Nutty Broon Nut Brown Ale plus a special Session Gap with added Willamette hops.

September 25th, Highland Park Brewing (another new addition this year) will break out two sour beers for sampling.  Lazy Susan Peach and Nectarine will highlight local fruit and the art of tart beers.

On September 29th from 5pm to 10pm, the Glendale Tap will be hosting a block party for Monkish and Smog City.  Expect some rare and fun taps from these two Torrance neighbors.

 

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Coaster as Muse

L.A. Beer Week had it’s “soft” opening before festivities start later this month with the Coaster Show at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Feliz.  This is the second year of this show and it is a showcase for weird, sexual, and some downright arresting images on the little circle of coaster space.  I highly suggest making the trip before the 20th when events start arriving at a furious pace.

Here are my top choices from what I saw amidst the crowds last night…..

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I like the martini glass theme and the choices for famous faces with them.  Maybe a bit obvious but I think it works as a set.IMG_1622

This is sort of like Magritte meets fractals and nature.  I can’t explain why I like this but I do.  Oddly calming.IMG_1624

This is just a clever idea and I like bears so this makes me laugh on a couple levels.

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Gigantic Mohawk

Mohawk Bend has a guest tap each and every month and this month I was totally geeked out by the choice of Gigantic Brewing of Portland. So of course, I had to be there when brewer Ben Love was in town and to see what goodies were to be tapped for his visit.

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I ordered up the flightso that I could check out a couple beers that I had not sampled from their line-up including the Kiwi-Collaboration PDXNZESB and then just sorta hung out with brewer Ben Love at the bar and chatted. Primarily about his very recent trip to New Zealand as part of Beervana collaboration with 8 Wired brewery and then about his short time in LA as well as some talk about hop contracts.

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Of the five beers that I sampled, the one that I came back for a full pour was the Pipewrench Gin Barrel IPA. It was so fragrant and the gin added a dimension to the hops that really worked. It was more gin than IPA but very distinctive. The IPL and the ESB tied for 2nd in my mind. They also have keg versions of their core IPA and their Volta Saison. It would be well worth the trip tom Mohawk to sample some great Portland beer.

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Select Beer (and chili)

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I haven’t written too much about Select Beer Store in Redondo but one pre-LABW6 event that should pique your interest because on September 13th they will be assembling a great list of breweries to pair their beers with chili.  Now I am not into the flamethrower style of chili but this list of breweries is great:

El Segundo, Monkish, Strand, Brewery at Abigaile, Smog City, Bottle Logic, Golden Road, LA AleWorks, King Harbor and the Dudes.  Now if you haven’t had Bottle Logic, they are firing on all cylinders and are not to be missed, King Harbor has been strong out of the gate and if you haven’t noticed, I really, really like Monkish.  And if they were all out of beer, it would still be a great list.

Plus all proceeds from the day go to benefit the Salvation Army in Redondo Beach so you will be doing good while drinking.

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L.A. Beer Week – First Wave of Events

It is only days away from the initial kick-off of L.A. Beer Week.

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And events are already filling up the calendar.  Here are three to schedule right now ahead of others……..

The Coaster Show 2014 | Beer is Art Opening

September 5 @ 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Meeting of the Guilds

September 25 @ 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Beer Belly Welcomes: Three Weavers Brewing Company

September 25 @ 5:00 pm – 11:45 pm

And yes, I know that two of those events are the same day.  That will happen with L.A. Beer Week

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Blue Palms 6th Anniversary

Brian Lenzo has the anniversary party down. I commended him on the layout for the 2014 version and he told me that he keeps learning and I could tell because first and foremost it looked like he was having more fun this year than in the past and that is probably due to having all the moving parts finely tuned.

But it is to be expected from Blue Palms when they throw any party.

Here is what I liked about the running of the fest itself:

A)     All the notices leading up to the affair noted how hot the party was going to be since part of it was outside. But Lenzo tweaked where the tents were to make a much better flow and utilized more indoor space as well to give people a respite from the sun.

B)      Check in was efficient with mugs and tickets being handed out first so that when the doors opened, people could go right in.

C)      Except for one bar location the signage was great. Easy to see what was pouring.

D)     Good amount of seating. There can always be more but this was a good amount.

Enough of the inner workings, what about the beer?  Two words. Holy Crap! What an amazing list of beers under the super heated Hollywood skies.

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My top two of the day came from Anaheim and Noble Ale Works. With their Tongue Tickles IPA (on cask) and the Cinnamon Roast Crunch being my co-Best in Show. The Cinnamon had the benefit of being a variant of the awesome Naughty Sauce and a bright cinnamon aroma. Tongue Tickles benefited from the cask service which added a layer of creaminess that offset the bite of the hops plus the slow transformation from foam to beer was great to watch.

Next on my list was the Mo Hop from Golden Road and the Southern Tier IPA on nitro. There was no shortage of hops at the fest but these two shone the brightest to me. I also have to recommend the fun tropical beers that Monkey Paw brought from San Diego. A coconut IPA and a pineapple IPA. Both were weird but good if too sweet.

If you weren’t there, by all means head there this week for some awesome “leftovers”.
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