Category: LA Craft Beer Events

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Hangar 24 + Tony’s Darts Away =

What you see in the glass is the third in the barrel roll series from Hangar 24, Pugachev’s Cobra. It was in attendance last night at Tony’s Darts Away along with a bevy of beers from Redlands.

Joe Savage & Rafael Hurtado from the brewery were in attendance too. Talking to the crowd that grew as the night progressed. (Side note – It has been good to see large turnouts for this and last night’s Library Alehouse FiftyFifty night. Especially in a holiday week)

I started with a sampler tray….From left to right, you have the winter warmer, Amarillo Pale Ale, Anja and the Helles. I was most surprised by the Helles. It was light and bubbly and filled with grain notes from start to finish. It really tasted fresh and alive. But my favorite of the tray was the Anja, a pro-am Belgian ale that had that light bubbly-ness with some fruit and spice notes and a touch of vanilla. I will order that again.

I did not partake of the Double IPA, yet. I am heading to the brewery itself on Christmas Eve to pick up a bottle or two but I did end the night with a bang. The aforementioned Pugachev. It was thick and viscous. Poured a dark black with an espresso colored head. It was maple syrup sweet at first and then some roasted notes and bourbon crept in to balance. It did not taste like 16.5% alcohol though some aging will probably smooth it out even more. I am glad I have a bottle to store away.

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Strong Ale Festival at Library Alehouse

When the shopping and tree trimming start to get you down, you need something strong to lift you back up and the Library AleHouse probably will have it on tap during their strong ale festival. Below are the details:(truncated a bit because the list was soooo damn long!)

“It’s our favorite time of year for beer at Library Alehouse. The weather cools down and the ABV goes up. It’s as though the universe is telling us to stay in inside and sip strong, dark beers. To that end, we are proud to announce our 2nd Annual Strong Ale Holiday Fest, running December 19-31, 2011. We’ve been stashing away big beers all year long and we’re finally ready to unleash them upon the drinking public. We expect the list to include the following beers:
• FiftyFifty Totality
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Elijah Craig 12
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Four Roses Single Barrel
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Elijah Craig 18 (Bottle Pour)
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Brandy (Bottle Pour)
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Grand Cru (Bottle Pour)
• FiftyFifty Eclipse Rittenhouse Rye (Bottle Pour)
• Lost Abbey Ad Lib
• Eagle Rock Jubilee
• Stone Double Bastard 2011
• Karl Strauss Two Tortugas
• North Coast Grand Cru
• Alaskan Smoked Porter 2010
• Alaskan Smoked Porter 2011
• Scaldis Noel 2011
• Bootlegger’s 78 Anniversary Ale
• TAPS Barleywine 2010
• Ommegang Adoration
• Ommegang Three Philosophers
• N’ice Chouffe
• Bruery Cuir
• Bruery 4 Calling Birds
• Bruery Melange #3
• Bruery Burly Gourd
• Bruery Smokin’ Wood
• Anchor Our Barrel Ale
• Anchor Christmas 2010
• Anchor Christmas 2011
• Anchor Old Foghorn
• Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Brewers Reserve Grand Cru
• Deschutes Black Butte XXIII
• Deschutes The Stoic
• Deschutes The Abyss
• Uinta Labyrinth
• Oskar Blues ODB
• Ballast Point Victory at Sea
• Ballast Point Indra Kunindra
• Dupont Avec Les Bon Voeux
• Evil Twin Christmas Eve in a NYC Hotel
• Emelisse Jack Daniel’s Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
• Emelisse Jack Daniel’s Barrel-Aged Barleywine
• De Dochter van de Korenaar Oak-Aged Embrasse
• Great Divide Hibernation

But we couldn’t stop there. We’ve also got an amazing series of events
lined up during the fest:

Monday December 19th, FiftyFifty Brewing Kickoff Event:
For our Strong Ale Holiday Fest Kickoff Event on December 19th, we welcome FiftyFifty Brewing from Truckee, CA and local ice cream
producer Sweet Rose Creamery to the Alehouse. We will we have FiftyFifty Owners Andy and Alicia Barr in the house, along with several
varieties of their much sought after Eclipse Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout and the base beer, Totality. Here’s what we’ll be pouring and serving:
DRAFT:
-Eclipse Four Roses Single Barrel
-Eclipse Elijah Craig 12
-Totality
BOTTLE POURS (Extremely Limited):
-Eclipse Elijah Craig 18
-Eclipse Rittenhouse Rye
-Eclipse Brandy
-Eclipse Grand Cru
FROM SWEET ROSE:
-Bacon Bourbon Sundae
-Spicy Chocolate Ice Cream
-Salted Caramel Ice Cream
But we didn’t quit there. Any Alehouse customer who purchases any serving size of any variety of Eclipse on the 19th will be given access to a special menu just across the street at our new neighbor Areal (2820 Main St). We’ve partnered with them to bring you the opportunity to taste the whiskeys that came out of the barrels in which Eclipse was aged. They have prepared a special menu, allowing you to taste a full flight of spirits, or try them a la carte. They’ve even prepared some special savory pairing bites for the occasion. It promises to be an excellent evening.

Wednesday December 21st, Ommegang & La Chouffe Keep the Glass Night:
On Wednesday, December 21st, we’ll play host to Ommegang and Brasserie d’Achouffe. Sales Representative Stuart Knight is bringing
three strong dark Belgian beers with him: N’Ice Chouffe, Three Philosophers and Adoration. We’ll have a limited amount of glassware
for you to take home with the purchase of any of those beers along with an available flight of all three.

Friday December 23rd, Horrible Holiday Music and Ugly Sweater Party:
We couldn’t just have an ugly sweater party, so we decided to dress it up with some terrible holiday music too! Come revel with us in the cheesiest fashion possible, listening to elevator music renditions of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and glam rock versions of “Frosty the Snowman.” Don’t forget to don your most hideous of holiday garments as anyone who sports an ugly sweater that evening will receive. $2 off their first draft beer.

Tuesday December 27th, Anchor Our Barrel Ale Release:
You know Anchor for their classic Christmas Ale, but they’ve also quietly started a superb barrel-aging program. They’ve blended together some of those barrel-aged beers to make “Our Barrel Ale”, a beer previously only available for purchase at the brewery. We’ll have a small keg of Our Barrel Ale along with Old Foghorn, Christmas 2011 and Christmas 2010 for this special event. A flight of all four beers will be available. We also welcome LACBC to Alehouse this night, with 10% of sales going to the charity. So if you love bikes and beer, or just one of the two, make sure you come by on the 27th.

Thursday December 29th, The Bruery Belated Christmas:
A Strong Ale Fest wouldn’t be complete without a visit from those masters of all things high-ABV, The Bruery. We saved a keg of Autumn
Maple for this event and we’ll also have Melange #3, Smokin’ Wood, Burly Gourd, 4 Calling Birds, and Cuir (Anniversary Old Ale). Beer
flights will only make the evening tastier.

As though all this weren’t enough, we’re holding a Glassware Garage Sale for the entire month of December. We’ve amassed quite a collection of tulips, pokals, pint glasses and goblets over the years and we’re giving you the opportunity to add them to your collection (or to someone else’s as a gift). Premium glasses will be $4 each and all others will be $2 each. Spend $25 (before tax and gratuity) in a single visit to the Alehouse and buy up to two premium glasses for $2 each or any two others for $1 each. Spend $100 or more in a single visit and buy as much as you want at the reduced rate. Also, be on the lookout for keep the glass promotions littered throughout the Beer Menu during the garage sale. The glassware selection will change every day so make sure you visit often.”

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A Christmas ColLAboration

Who says L.A. can’t do Christmas? We may not have the biting cold, or frost, or snow and we may be able to walk around in shorts on Christmas Day but we can do the winter warmer.

Just in beer garden style, one week from today, thanks to the hardworking people behind ColLAboration. “This time around, the garden will feature a selection of winter and holiday brews (including 2 special releases from Golden Road), along with old favorites from: Golden Road Brewing, Eagle Rock Brewery, Cismontane, Hangar 24, Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada, Eel River, Firestone Walker, Stone, Russian River, Lost Abbey, Dogfish Head, Oskar Blues, Avery, New Belgium, Bootleggers, TAPS, Bruery, Beachwood, Smog City and many more.”

Check out the details on the attached flyer below.

PLUS – Golden Road will be premiering two new beers from their Brewer’s Choice line!

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Holiday beer at Sunset

In a little over a week, one of the new craft beer hot spots in Los Angeles, Sunset Beer, will be hosting a ……

“Kinda-Sorta Holiday Beer Class A.K.A. Our Inaugural Beer Tasting Class!

Here at Sunset Beer Company, we plan to host many beer tasting classes, but we can only have one first! For this one we will be exploring some of our favorite year-round beers along with some of the best for the holidays. And they’ll be paired with cheese!

A little about that whole cheese thing: When most people think about cheese they think about wine. Yet most of the cheese experts I’ve met swear that beer is a much better match. So we’ll be exploring just how great of a match they can be. Hurry up though, as this is already filling-up very quickly!”

Here is part of the line-up Gouden Carolus Noel, Alesmith Yulesmith,
Avec Les Bons Voeux de la Brasserie Dupont and Port Santa’s Little Helper . . . and maybe some rarities from their new and growing cellar.

Here are the details if you want to check and see if there is still room.

Tuesday, November 29th
$35/person or $60/couple
7-9 pm

RSVP TO: (213) 481-2337

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L.A. Beer Week 2011 Wrap-up


L.A. Beer Week – Year # 3 is now safely in the books. I careened from one part of town to another in search of great beer and here are my impressions.

It is hard to top the Deconstructed event that Firestone-Walker put on with the Home Brew Chef, Sean Paxton. Damn good (and exclusive) beer, excellent food and gracious hosts in a cool Hollywood venue.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Beer Float Showdown as well. For some of the same reasons as I enjoyed Deconstructed. Great beer paired with creative food. I could see that the float makers were both working hard and having fun.

I also enjoyed the three year vertical of Ten Fidy that Boneyard Bistro provided. The array of stouts and big beers they had that night was amazing and I wish I had more nights to have tried out a few more.

The big, big plus of the last two weeks was the sheer volume and variety of events. There were huge pairing dinners and simple meet the brewer nights, there were new beer releases and celebrations of our local brewers. There was something for every beer geek across the area. But within that bounty were some missed chances.

I would love to see a “New to craft beer” event that roved from bar to bar. A welcome mat of an event that would encourage people to try a variety of beers to acclimate palates to the good beer of the world and be able to get questions answered.

I would also like to see more signage with the L.A. Beer Week logo that could catch the eye of the passersby, if you will excuse the rhyme. Maybe an official L.A. Beer Week stop sign to hang in a business window or a sandwich board outside. Having an Untappd badge and the other social media kicking are great but I would like to see outreach to the non “in-the know” folks. And if people see enough of them as they drive around L.A., they might get curious.

Lastly, as much as I liked the plethora of beer, two weeks was a bit much. I know America is the land of outsized ideas but by the end on Sunday, I had heard the lament of “ready for Monday” many times and not just from myself. I am a proponent of the 10 day week. Coming on the heels of the Great American Beer Festival and before the November San Diego Beer week, ten days allow some rest for the wicked. Not that everyone attended an event a day like me but I think that L.A. has enough of a craft beer culture where we can start having mini-festivals throughout the year to augment the many other events that are happening so that beer can gain a momentum that a once a year event cannot generate.

That being said, kudos to all the organizers for taking on the extra workload and less sleep and loads of driving to bring beer to me and to all of the people of L.A. The city is better for your efforts.

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L.A. Beer Week – Day 14 – Union Station


What a beautiful Sunday to have a beer festival. There were three “must” attend events for this two week bonanza called L.A. Beer Week. One was Deconstructed, the second was the Beer Float Showdown and the third was the festival finale.
First on my list was to sample the beers from L.A. newcomer Ohana. They were pouring their new Black IPA by the gritty L.A. name of Black Dahlia. As well as two versions of a Muscat barrel lambic. And as good as the IPA was to this hophead, the lambics were great. One was milder and really showcased the grape tastes with a bit of tart. The punchier version was much more Belgiany and pucker inducing. I liked both equally precisely because they were so different but with common flavors.
The other spot that I honed in on was the Pro-Am area. And I was lucky to get the last of the collaboration of Strand Brewing and the Beer Chicks. It was a combination of hops, nuttiness and caramel that I really enjoyed. I ended up trying close to (15) samples while alternately hiding in the shade and warming up. But there was just too much good stuff being poured. From Beachwood…. to Craftsman…. …to Dogfish Head…. and many more inbetween.

The first two iterations of the festival, I volunteered. But this time around, I played the role of media and got to see the event from a new perspective. There was quite the equal representation. Both genders and all ages in equal amounts. This was definitely not a Beer Geek dominated party. There was also a wide representation of beer with a nice amount of focus on SoCal. I was really impressed by the amount of beer that Craftsman brought too. Angelino Weiss, Ruddy Bloke, Sour Grapes among the many they were pouring.

On the downside, water stations were nowhere to be found and I walked around a few times looking. At a festival with unlimited pours, there needs to be easily accessible water. There was a hiccup getting people inside but that was an unforeseen complication that was not the fault of the organizers.

Overall, it was easy to navigate and get beers. Not many lines and the ones that were there were fast moving. Couple that with the selection and the weather and this event was a winner.

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L.A. Beer Week – Day 13 – Beer Belly


It has been a long Week(s) but the finish line is in sight. But instead of looking past a day, I and beer buddy Richard headed to Koreatown and Beer Belly for a night that featured the beer of El Segundo and the social networking of Untappd.

I got to try the new Picket Fence Wheat IPA. Which is another winner from El Segundo. Rob and Tom from the brewery made the eastside trek to be on hand as well as Untappd to celebrate.

I also had the Double Dry Hopped Nelson which is really tremendous. The Nelson hop balances out the bitterness that really is strong on this one without being overpowering.

Oh and both Richard and I got badges tonight!

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LA Beer Week – Day Twelve – Dionicess


Dionicess is hard to explain but easy to love. You just can’t pin down what will be on hand when you walk in. Beerimasu and Firestone-Walker one time, partnering with Eric Greenspan and the Foundry restaurant another.

This time the pairing of Gev, Randy Clemens, Dave Watrous and Matt Biancaniello has tackled beer cocktails. And an eclectic group of cocktails they were.

How about Lambic Pentameter with strawberries, elderflower liquer, white balsamic and rare distilled lambic? Or let’s get crazy and have a smoked beer with rum, lemon, sage and pumpkin air. Or the Cascading Hophead. with Thrill Seeker IPA from Beachwood, grapefruit, lemon, honey and hop infused gin?

I simply do not know how one goes about pulling those ingredients together into one recipe. It is like musicians knowing just the right notes to make a song, well, sing.


The great thing about an event like this and Deconstructed from last week, is that I was forced to try food that I normally wouldn’t. Figs! I ate a fig. Probably won’t again for a while but it didn’t kill me. My favorite though was the Risotto Lollipop with rice, sage, hazelnuts and parmigiano-reggiano. Delicious.


Oh and the proceeds go to charity, The Real Medicine Foundation.

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LA Beer Week – Day Eleven – Ultimate Flight Night


A night in Alahambra, sipping at the L.A. Beer Week version of Ultimate Flight Night thanks to 38 Degrees…. That photo shows only 1/2 of the plethora of flights you could have ordered last night. I chose to not go that route and tried the Eagle Rock Barrel Aged Equinox, Stone 15th Anniversary with espresso beans and The Bruery’s Birra Basta. My beer buddy Richard stayed on program and got the Beachwood BBQ Brewing Flight. His favorite was the Thrill Seeker IPA.
Jeremy Raub was in the house along with Kern River and Mitch Steele from Stone as well. Oh and FoodGPS Josh, Alex Villa, The Full Pint guys and Dan from L.A. Weekly too… Who gave me the lowdown on the proper toast.

Thanks to Clay Harding and his flight crew for the evening!

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LA Beer Week – Day Ten – Kern River at Blue Palms


Blue Palms hosted Kern River Brewing last night. And for awhile, their Facebook event page just had Class V, Just Outstanding, Golden Trout pale and the new pumpkin beer (which is reviewed by me, today). But I knew that they would probably have the famed Citra DIPA as well. And I was right. 6:30 came and so did our goblet with one of my favorite beers in it. It is just a tropical fruit explosion especially in the aroma. Personally, I wouldn’t call it a Double because it is so light and effervescent with just a touch of bitterness. I have only had this twice now and each time I am pulled in two directions. Savor every last drop slowly or greedily drink in all the goodness.
As mentioned, there were other Kern beers last night. Including the Golden Trout pale ale which was new to me. Utilizing the Galaxy hop, this was a solid pale. It is such a different flavor profile from Citra. To me there is a somewhat metallic harshness to it. But a nice hearty beer.

Thanks to Brian and Matt and everyone else at Blue Palms and Kern River for bringing the good stuff. Blue Palms will be featuring Beachwood beers tonight. Try the Thrill Seeker IPA!