Not but a week into 2022 and a gin barrel-aged beer is on the radar….
Firestone Walker has another cocktail styled beer, this time an imperial blonde ale.
Gin and Daisy
Beer Into Spirit
Thumbing through a copy of Whiskey Advocate, I came across the above article about beers being made into whiskey including notable breweries with a distillery like Rogue but also the Craft Brewers Whiskey Project. Which has and will be partnering with different breweries to create unique whiskies. Captain Lawrence, Jack’s Abbey and Spencer Trappist are on the list. Add to your ISO list.
Take the 5 to the 10
Two anniversaries to alert you to so that you can raise a glass or buy in celebration of. Mostly because parties are probably not in the cards.
Trustworthy Brewing in Burbank turns five this month
Angel City in the Arts District turns ten this month.
So find their beer, take a pic and wish them both happy birthhdays!
Before Texting…
….there was paging (and as of earlier this month Blackberries). To honor that point in time, and hops, Brewyard Beer in Glendale has…
Your Hops Keep Paging Me – “A true Westcoast IPA filled with Amarillo, Simcoe and Cascade Hops.”
Party Tricks
News of a new AleSmith IPA might not perk ears up (it should, their IPA game is on point) but the news that their first 2022 release, Party Tricks will be a six-pack and in 16oz cans should.
Here is the beer description: “Brewed with massive amounts of Strata, El Dorado and Citra hops, this West Coast-style India pale ale evokes a blend of invigorating aromas, brimming with juicy notes of grapefruit, strawberry, and passion fruit.”
2021 – A Look Back
Before we get too far into 2022, I want to re-visit 2021 again and look at my year in beer.
643 individual servings of beer were had and well over half were IPA. I would say bad me but I will save that for another point in this post. Of those IPAs, 114 were West Coasties and 105 were of the Hazed variety. DIPAs were 54 and TIPAs 19.
Pilsners and Lagers combined for 49 entries with Barrel- Aged right behind at 45. Sours, which I seem to be eschewing more and more ended at 15 and the beers from Foreign lands a pitiful, measly, really bad me 7. Right there is one of the reasons why I persist in this Excel exercise. So that I can see the stark numbers.
Speaking of stark numbers, I drank, on average, 158.7 ounces of beer a week. The lowest mark since I have done this. The ABV average was 7.38% per beer.
On to who I drank the most of, it as as follows:
- Firestone Walker
- Smog City
- Stone Brewing
- Radiant Beer Co.
- AleSmith
- Eagle Rock Brewery
- El Segundo Brewery
- Los Angeles Ale Works
- Highland Park Brewery
- The Bruery
Yup, a 100% California list and 50% LA local to boot!
Finally, of note is that each week I “crown” a Beer of the Week. This year, Firestone Walker tallied an impressive 5 as did Anaheim newbie Radiant Beer Co. Smog City racked up 3 for the proverbial bronze.
Põhjala
I probably course corrected a bit much to the local beer buying habit so at the start of each year, I try to nudge that ship into international beer waters. Hi-Lo Market has an option for you and me fromTallinn, Estonia. The brewery is Põhjala and it is one of the largest craft breweries in the Baltic states. It also made the RateBeer “Top 100” list of world breweries.
There might not be many bottles so hop to it or make your next beer buying trip a non US beer one for variety.
Lórien
From the folks that brought us the Strata hop comes the newly named Lórien.
Indie Hops describes this Tolkien sounding hop as follows “aromas and flavors of citrus zest, fresh melon, sweet hay and wildflowers, all capped by a cinnamon spice.” In the Saaz and Sterling realm. Clean with “a complimentary finish of fruity/floral hop flavors.”
Sounds like it would fit into the IPL or Session IPA styles.
Death & Co. – Canned
Death & Co. the popular bi-coastal cocktail spot is in the canned cocktail game and I tried a couple of them recently.
I was kind of suspicious since both that I grabbed have quite a few ingredients listed but the D&C name drew me past that. And I was glad that I did. Both were really good. They are possibly over sweet to some but I liked the big taste of passion fruit in the Moonsail Fizz and the mint / brandy combo in the Aurora Highball. Because of the combo in the latter, I rank it a bit higher. I did see a third cocktail, that I will have to re-find.
PBD
A local canned cocktail option is on the horizon from Long Beach’s Portuguese Bend Distilling.
The Rum Punch sounds good at first glance of the labels.