I ventured way south on a Friday night from my valley hub to Redondo Beach to visit a new member of the FoodGPS Beer Blast and two week old bottle shop and tap room, Select Beer Store. I mentioned them in a post a while back and now I can share some photos.
Owners Wes and Heather have taken a spot just on a bend of PCH and made it into what I see everywhere in Portland a folksy and welcoming place where you can get a bottle to take away or peruse the tap list for something to enjoy on site amongst the bottles.
I also met my contact David and he told me about the tinted windows and the beer safe lighting in the coolers and how they have plans to host events all of which I think are great. But what caught my eye was the fact that they sell make-your-own mixed packs too!
Another neat touch is the wall art of old time canned beers right above the boxes of beer. The place is well laid out and designed.
If this was my cellar….
This is the second of two videos of Grant Curlow’s tremendous beer cellar.
There is not better way to end the year.
Holiday Beer Review – Session Fest
The second holiday beer up for review is the 3rd version of the Session line from Full Sail in Hood River, Oregon.
Here is Fest Session….
“When we decided to brew a special Session for the holidays, we knew right away what color it had to be: Red (and full-bodied). Next, we considered what kind of head it should have. Bright white was the obvious answer. And as for the label? Gotta be green, right? So there you have it. A new Session all decked out for holidays, ready to spread joy and cheer. Happy Holidays to one and all! And have a good Session.
Session Fest is a Czech-style strong lager (gotta love the Czechs!) called polotmavé or literally “light dark or semi-dark.” Brewed with 2 Row Pale malt, Munich malt, Caramel malt and Wheat malt and hopped with a blend of Glaciers and Cascades, Session Fest has a medium to full body balancing candy caramel and full malt flavors that are underscored by a spicy hoppiness that provides a nice perfume with citrus and pine overtones and a long clean finish. 6.2% ABV 26 IBU”
Local Peasant
Keep the Gastropubs flowing! I heard about the Local Peasant on the KCRW show Good Food.
You can tell that a gastropub is trying by quickly scanning the draft list. Any local beers? If so, the people are clued in. It is how you propel your craft beer culture forward, faster.
I certainly will be checking out the Local Peasant (probably after LA Beer Week)
LA Beer Week – Day Two – Echo Park Crawl
Night number two and on to Echo Park to walk and drink. Just not at the same time. Here are my thoughts on the Musical Beer Crawl…
which coincided with a beautiful SoCal night. I thought the passport idea was grand because you need one to navigate LA at times. You had your map and the specials in a handy pocket sized guide. And more importantly, I thought the walk and number of establishments was good. Too much more and the amount of walking and drinking would discourage people from doing the whole route.
My other beer bloggin’ friend Richard and I started at Sunset Beer since he had not visited the store before. Started with the Populist IPA from Eagle Rock (see above). At 6pm, we were some of the first crawlers.
We next went to Short Stop (a first time visit for me) where no one knew about the crawl despite being on the map and they certainly did not know about the special keg or special prices either. Though the barkeep did remedy the last part. This could have been avoided with a pre-visit to all the locations by the organizers. So we moved past Lot 1 which wasn’t open and on to El Prado where I had a Duvel Single (see above) and Richard had a $5 Angel’s Share. You read that right $5. El Prado is my kind of place. Chill with good beer choices. I will be returning there. (I totally forgot to give a shout-out to Two Boots Pizza. Two-for-One slices that were really good)
We hadn’t planned on visiting Mohawk Bend because our plan was to visit places we hadn’t been to before. We looked in on City Sip but we didn’t see any of the Stone beers that we thought were supposed to be on tap. So we headed back to a now busier Sunset Beer and had a nightcap.
Overall, this was a good way to introduce people to the craft beer in the area. It would have been better if crawl volunteers could have been posted along the route to assist and make sure events and kegs were working and/or some more signage delineating spots that were stops on the crawl. But for a first year event, pretty well done, and I didn’t even partake of the music.
Tomorrow is the epic DECONSTRUCTED dinner. Gotta pace myself.
Dionicess IX
Over the coming days and weeks, I will highlight L.A. Beer Week events that you should consider attending. Up first is Dionicess IX…..
These are some heavy craft beer hitters behind this event. Just google the names on the above poster and you will see why this will be an exciting time.
And Gev has this teaser, “..the use of beer in the cocktails will be far from trite…sure, most of what we are doing is using an appropriately exact beer for the drink…but the beer component may also incarnate as a beer reduction, a distilled beer and hop-infused spirits.”
You may not know about the burgeoning craft beer and cocktail scene but after Dionicess IX, you will be on the lookout for more.
beer spelling bee – word # 1
Just for a little fun and education, here is your chance to spell the words that our part of our beer vocabulary…..
British Beer Video
Proud of British Beer from Society of Independent Brewers on Vimeo.
I am a fan of each of these short craft beer manifestos and the British “Pride” video is another great addition. I love that they talk to the farmers and the store keepers as well. It really is a chain of people and I like that they bring them into the fold too.I
I know there is backlash at the craft beer videos. I think it is misplaced though. For a couple of reasons, each one is a snapshot of where we are and where we might go in the craft beer industry and secondly, there are still way too many people drinking crappy beer. So if each of these videos add more to the ranks of the good beer drinkers then they do the job.
So be snarky about the line readings or say the music is too melodramatic. But the heart of being proud of craft beer is beating in these videos.
Brewer’s Union Local 180
Some cities and states claim to be the premier beer destination and I don’t doubt their credentials. But for width and depth, the state of Oregon is in a league of it’s own.
Sour ale house. Check.
Belgian. Check.
Cask ale? Check below…
Brewers Union Local 180 is owned by Ted Sobel. His goal is to serve all of his beer, cask conditioned and stored in firkins.
Here is a sample of a past beer list to whet your taste buds:
Wotcha A La Amarillo Best Bitter
Good With Bacon Amber Special Bitter
Cumbrian Moor English Porter
Union Dew I. P. A.
MUTT O. R. A.
Tanninbomb Oak-Aged English Old Ale
Merry Christmas to All
And may there be plenty of great craft beer under the tree!