I finally fell into bed at 1:30 am.
That was what happens when you travel from one Goat Group bar to another with Ryan Sweeney and the co-founders of 21st Amendment Brewery of San Leandro & San Francisco.
As with Greg Koch of Stone Brewing, Shaun O’Sullivan and Nicco Freccia have Westside LA roots and this pub crawl was a chance for the duo to tell stories of their early days.
The tour started at the Valley Surly Goat in Encino before hitting Pasadena for stops at The Blind Donkey and Der Wolfskopf (where I joined the group) before the end of the line at The Verdugo Bar. In between there were cans of Toaster Pastry and Down to Earth Session IPA, I learned the backstory about each plus details on a new IPA in the pipeline, Blah-Blah-Blah. I even asked if they would be joining the fruit IPA bandwagon and got a resounding no.
I also heard about a cool and immersive beer dinner that they are planning that involves a speakeasy, being “arrested”, a boat trip to Alcatraz and dinner from the Alcatraz cookbook as interpreted by modern chefs. With 21A beers, of course.
This bus trip proved the point that beer people are cool and learning even just a few tidbits of what is behind the beer can add to the pleasure when you drink one.
