Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Tomorrow night you get the chance to ” Meet and Greet” Dominique Friart from Brasserie St Feuillien at Little Bear in DTLA.
And a special “9L Salmanazar of St Feuillien Triple will be popped in celebration of St Feuillien’s 140th anniversary and La Blanche, Saison, Triple and Belgian Coast IPA will be on tap with suggested food pairings crafted by the culinary artists at Little Bear!”
Beer Bloggers, meet Ensenada Brewing Co. Food Bloggers meet Colonia Taco Lounge.
Join us on Saturday, November 16, 2013 from 12 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. as we welcome Ensenada Brewing Co. Cerveza Artesanal (craft beer) from Ensenada, Baja California – Mexico. Rep from this brewery will be present 3 of their beers and discuss the rise of craft beer in Mexico.
Red Agave IPA – 6.8% ABV
Smoked Piloncillo Porter – 6.0% ABV
Horchata Obscura – 6.0% ABV
What better way to combine the exquisite selection of Ensenada Brews, than pairing them with tacos? Not just any ordinary tacos, but the savory eats of renowed Angelino chef Ricardo Diaz. The mastermind behind Cooks Tortas, Guisados, Bizarra Capital and now the newly opened Colonia Taco Lounge. Chef Ricardo Diaz recognizes the importance of pairing his menu with artisan craft beer and employs a selection of taps that range between local beer, as well as imports at both Bizarra and Colonia.
What: LABB Summit No. 8 featuring Colonia Taco Lounge and Ensenada Brewing Co.
When: November 16, 2013 – 12PM to 3PM
Where: Colonia Taco Lounge: 1234 Valley Blvd., La Puente, CA 91739
If you are a fan of bottle shares, (more and more are popping up around L.A.) then you need to head to buy a ticket for the
Here is the information on the 8th Annual Woodshop Tasting
It “will take place on Saturday, October 26th, 2013 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM as an indoor-outdoor event at The Hermosillo Club in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles..”
For $40 per person, you get “unlimited draft beer pours, lunch, specialty beer-and-food pairings during the event, 1 commemorative custom logo beer snifter, and access to the massive bottle-share that takes place throughout the day. As always, we encourage all guests to bring a bottle or few (or more) of the best beers from your cellar to share with any and all in attendance. We like to think of this tasting as a community-building event and the perfect occasion to sample those special bottles you’ve been saving for just the right moment. Share with friends and make new friends in the free-flowing celebration of craft beer.”
(Personally this next bit would be worth $40)
The specialty draft beer list on tap for this event will feature around 15-20 different beers in unlimited pours, including these world premieres and highlights:
– Highland Park Brewery Stonefruit Berliner Weisse – Berliner Weisse with Peaches and Nectarines
– Hoparazzi La Tarte Raspberry – Sour Ale with Raspberries
– Noble Ale Works Fig Poppa – Brandy barrel-aged American Strong Ale with dried figs and Brett Brux
– Almanac Dogpatch Sour – Wine barrel-aged Flanders Red with Rainier cherries, wild yeast, and souring bugs
– Firestone Walker Stickee Monkee – Barrel-aged English Barley Wine, part of their Anniversary blend
– The Bruery Grey Monday – Bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout (Black Tuesday) with
hazelnuts
Last Saturday, I got to taste along with a hundred others, 8 examples of coffee beers at the Pasadena outpost of Intelligentsia Coffee.
The event was titled Uppers & Downers and was brought here via the the beer website Good Beer Hunting. We started and ended with Stimulus from our own Eagle Rock, in two different versions. Regular and fully leaded with a shot of Intelligentsia espresso! Both were my favorites of the night. Primarily, because both were coffee forward in comparison to most of the other offerings which were more coffee accented.
In between, beers from Goose Island, Angel City, Stone, Firestone Walker, Port all made with varying degrees of coffee were poured as the brewers or brewery reps extolled the process of adding coffee to different styles of beers.
But the most anticipated by the crowd was Dark Lord from Three Floyds.
Multiple vintages of the famed beer were in bottles, randomly my beer companion Richard got 2008 and 2010 which we shared and disagreed over which year was best. I preferred the older because it had an additional “jammy” note that added to the wallop of sugar whereas the 2012 required a dental visit, it was that sugary. Gotta say that this beer is quite over rated in my book. I would go with Zombie Dust or Robert the Bruce or (name a 3 Floyd beer) before Dark Lord.
My anticipated beer was from Solemn Oath in Naperville. I had my first beer from them on my Chicago trip and enjoyed it. Less than a week later, I was having their None More Than Black, black IPA and talking to the brewer while enjoying it. It took home my second favorite of the night award. Of which there is no plaque.
The event had a nice showing and the venue worked as coffee practically hung in the air. Mitch Steele from Stone and David Walker from FW talked with me for a bit, if I can be allowed to name drop. Plus the assembled brewers regaled the crowd with their take on mixing coffee and beer. The beer was fairly easy to get with minimal waiting which is a good sign for a new event in a space not primarily used for beer service.
Eagle Rock’s taproom has a special guest for this month’s “Hangin’ with Our Homies” on the 24th starting at 7pm, Craftsman will be in the house! Now you can sample the two pioneers of the brewing scene in one spot!
More info from the brewery:
“Pop on down to the taproom and check out our homies from Craftsman. You might recognize them from beers such as 1903, Triple White Sage, Summer Sumac, Sourdough and many more!”
The party to be at for Halloween, and I don’t say that lightly because….
a) I hate dressing up and won’t do it
b) There is no B, just see point A
Anyway, here are the instructions for the night:
HALBREWEEN PARTY at NOBLE ALE WORKS!
Hey Ghouls, Witches and Hop Heads. Beers in Paradise and Noble Ale Works are teaming up to throw an epic Halloween Party at the brewery on Friday, October 25th.
Come dressed up and join us as we enjoy a live music, delicious food trucks, costume contest, and a special cask release from Noble Ale Works specifically for this party!
When: Friday, October 25, 2013 – 7pm to Closing
Where: Noble Ale Works – 1621 S. Sinclair St., Anaheim, CA 92806 – 714.634.2739
Admission is free and dressing up is highly encouraged! Prizes will be given out to the most ingenious costumes. So tell your friends and join us at Noble Ale Works this October 25th.
For the weekend of the 19th and 20th, Atwater Village will become a California-ized version of a later than normal (on the calendar) Oktoberfest. Here is the information and most importantly, the brewery list for the event.
LINK N HOPS OKTOBERFEST!
Saturday and Sunday, October 19th and 20th, from 1 pm-5 pm each day
“Join us for our first annual Oktoberfest as we celebrate the fall season with craft beer and great food for two days in a row in Atwater Village! Sip on a variety of seasonal specialty beers by four amazing Southern California breweries and munch on a savory sausage with Belgian fries. Enjoy the cooler fall weather of Los Angeles at Atwater Village’s own sausage and craft beer spot, Link N Hops.
Each brewery will feature Oktoberfest- or Fall-inspired specialty beers like Pumpkin and amber ales. The breweries involved include Bootleggers, Hangar 24, New Belgium, and Golden Road.”
Here are your pricing options and the site to buy the tickets is HERE
A $27 ticket gets you six tasters of 6 ounces each, plus a food option, which includes a sausage sandwich plus fries (one day per ticket).
A $20 ticket gets you six tasters of 6 ounces each (no food, one day per ticket). At the door prices will be higher.
Eagle Rock Brewery is one of two breweries in the LA area that reaches across the aisle to raise craft beer awareness to women. And for their Women’s Beer Forum for this month, they will tie that cause to help benefit the Keep A Breast Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
According to Ting Su from the brewery, “We’re going to be featuring a bunch of pink beers…. Don’t worry, not gross ones. The line-up is actually going to be pretty amazing, particularly since we’ve got Craftsman, Ladyface, Pizza Port Solana Beach, The Bruery, Angel City, and Goose Island participating at the event. And everyone’s bringing out some really fun stuff for it.”
So use the hashtag #DRINKPINK for the event to remind people that it’s for Breast Cancer Awareness that is a much better use of the pound sign!
The cost is $22 and it includes a commemorative Women’s Forum Glass with pink logo, flight sheet, mingling time with brewers/brewery reps to talk about the beers they’re trying, a flight of 7 pink beers.
If you love Stimulus from Eagle Rock and have enjoyed Groundworks Coffee Porter from Smog City then this event is for you…
“October 19th, Intelligentsia in Los Angeles is partnering with Michael Kiser, the author and photographer behind Good Beer Hunting to bring together some of the industry’s most famous beers and brewers to discuss, discover, and drink what coffee and beer truly have to offer.
Kiser will lead a panel discussion with visionaries from Three Floyds, Solemn Oath, Lost Abbey, Stone, Firestone Walker, Angel City, and Goose Island. During the talk, we’ll be sharing tastes from a variety of styles, processes, and formulations for coffee beers that represent both the benchmarks and the future of the art. Because as good as some of these beers have gotten, there’s so much more that can be done when we understand the origins, characteristics, and processes of the ingredients in the glass.”
That is an eclectic list of breweries for one event. And just the mention of Three Floyds gets beer geeks running. But I am interested in seeing what Solemn Oath is about and what Angel City will bring to the table.
Tomorrow on my bully pulpit of Brew & You on Food GPS, I will give a quick rundown of the opened, soon to open and future brewery openings in the Los Angeles area. One of which is Boomtown from the Stout chain of Burgers and Beer.
But I wanted to give an early warning about a beer festival that flew under the radar a few months back but I heard great things about. but is coming back again. BeerFest for BeerGeeks will be at the Studio City location and here is the lowdown for the November 3rd edition:
“There will be 18 hand selected breweries that will be pouring 2 beers per brewery. All the beers will either be barrel aged, sours, or unique one-offs. These beers will never be seen again or very hard to get, so don’t miss out! Every attendee receives unlimited 2 ounce pours, a souvenir glass, and appetizer type food.”