Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
above photo by Gary Friedman of the Los Angeles Times
As is evidenced by my post on traveling with beer, the VinniBag might be a help to the traveler with a special, rare beer that must get home safe. The cost is $28.00 and it appears to only hold one bottle so this isn’t the tool to get vast quantities home. But if you have a beer that MUST get home then this will probably do the trick.
The craft beer scene in Los Angeles had an eventful weekend. First, the news that Angel City was now owned by Alchemy and Science and then following that the distressing news that Blue Palms Brewhouse might be forced out of their location through no fault of theirs.
Thankfully, the beer community has rallied to the aid of one of our favorite beer spots and the new landlord has given a three day extension to work things out after seeing the outpouring of support. The hope is that they won’t have to close down and find a new location after building such a loyal clientele in the Hollywood community.
I was there last night because, if it was the last day, I wanted to occupy Blue Palms one more time. I ordered up a Sierra Nevada Beer Camp beer called The Dude. A cherry accented brown ale. Quite nice and fitting since the first Beer Camp beer that I ever had was at this spot. It was good to see a large crowd there including the Steeler fans who were not having a good day.
To stay in a celebratory mood, I cracked open an expensive wish list beer. Almanac 2011 Plum Ale. It was good and lived up to the price and my high expectations. I have now added their Blackberry beer to my wants/needs list.
If you haven’t paid your respects, I strongly suggest heading over on one of these three nights to show the powers that be that a new agreement would be beneficial to everyone.
Tomorrow night, you hop heads might wanna be at….Steingarten LA
Please join us for a special night featuring:
FIVE AMAZING Bootleggers Brwery BEERS:
• KNUCKLE SANDWICH DOUBLE IPA
• ELIMINATOR INDIA PALE ALE
• ROCCO RED
• GOLDEN CHAOS
• OLD WORLD HEFFEWEISEN
We will have a representative on hand from the brewery to talk about the beers. A special pairing menu will be available so come hungry.
7:00 PM Monday January 9th 2012
Steingarten LA
Other people have posted the news, but in case anyone in Los Angeles has not heard, here is the latest news from Golden Road Brewing…
After opening the brewery doors in October and introducing their first two signature beers, Point the Way IPA and Golden Road Hefeweizen, the Golden Road team immediately focused their energy on three things: brewing as much quality beer as possible, getting a can line up and running (look for Golden Road cans in stores early 2012!), and putting the finishing touches on the pub space. Explains co-founder Meg Gill, “From the start, we’ve wanted to make the brewery a destination and really invite people into our process. People can come and see where the beer is made and then immediately taste it, which really lets you appreciate the craft and care that we put into it.”
When searching for a chef for this extension of the brewery, co-founders Tony Yanow and Meg Gill looked high and low for someone who would be able to create a menu that would complement and showcase the Golden Road beers. As a passionate home-brewer, Chef Adam Levoe possesses an impressive mix of beer and food creativity, which made him the best candidate for the job and a wonderful addition to the Golden Road team. After graduating from the California School of Culinary Arts in 2001, Levoe worked throughout Southern California at a wide range of casual and fine-dining establishments, from Roxanne’s Raw Vegan Cuisine to Medeline’s Wine Bar and Bistro in Pasadena, and, most recently, Quadruple Brasserie in Pasadena. For The Pub at Golden Road he has crafted a menu with plentiful vegan and non-vegan options, each designed to pair beautifully with a cold brew.
After opening with limited hours and an abbreviated menu in mid-December, the pub is finally ready to open its’ doors wide. With an expanded menu that now features a full array of
bar-friendly items, salads, sandwiches and entrées, and new daily hours from 11 AM – 11 PM, the brewery will have something to satisfy any craving at any time of day. Customers can come for a beer and a steak, or a quick lunch to go and a growler for the road. The pub also has signature Golden Road gear available for purchase, including glassware, recyclable bags, t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and, starting mid-January, cans of the Golden Road beers as well.
The spacious, newly renovated warehouse features a take-away deli case for quick lunch pick-ups, where adventurous salads like the vegan Coconut ‘Noodle’ (shredded young thai coconut with julienned vegetables, spicy cashews and an almond chili sauce), and ‘Miso Crabby’ (blue crab meat with shaved cucumber, bell peppers and cherry tomatoes with miso vinaigrette) will be available along with sandwiches, including the Roast Beef (roasted in house with caramelized onions and peppers and blue cheese mousse) and vegan Bahn Mi (pickled carrots, jalapeño, cucumber, bell peppers, fresh herbs and tofu with Sriracha mayo).
Comfort foods such as meatballs (served with spicy vegan cornbread), twice-baked potatoes and an assortment of fritters (all available in vegan and non-vegan iterations) are all offered on the bar menu. For heartier entrées, the main menu features a Braised Pork Shank (braised in whatever extra beer specials the pub available week to week), a Sloppy Joseph (with Porter braised beef short-ribs and house made BBQ sauce) and a vegan Crispy Sundried Tomato Polenta, among other items.
With high ceilings and an industrial grey interior, small touches like the chalkboard menu behind the 30 foot bar announcing new brews on tap in bright colors, the vintage beer logo lights and the dark wood tables really bring the room to life, making the spacious warehouse feel comfortable and warm. An automated jukebox allows the space to transform with the clientele, with music ranging from Johnny Cash to The Grateful Dead at any given time.
Of course, the heart of the brewpub will be the twenty bar taps, which will house all of the Golden Road brews (five to start, but more as they produce new varietals), and up to fifteen guest taps, reserved for breweries that the Golden Road team holds in high regard. Says Brewmaster Jon Carpenter, “Our beers will not just be from California, but will primarily stay in the USA. All beers will come from friends of ours, as we want to support people that we respect and admire such as Dogfish Head, Oskar Blues, Firestone Walker, Avery, Stone and Hangar 24.” The goal for the pub is to provide a space for patrons to experience the best that craft beer has to offer, locally and nationally, with great food and a great vibe to match.
The new pub will seat approximately 80 people, with space for an additional 72 on the patio. The Pub at Golden Road is located at 5410 W. San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, CA 90039, there is an ample parking lot adjacent to the building, and street parking available.”
I have eaten and (had beer) there a few times now and I really like the space (especially the patio) and the club sandwich that I have ordered twice now is quite good. It doesn’t hurt that it is a 25 minute walk from my apartment either.
From a recent Lost Abbey press release, “Get ready to crank the stereo up to 12. In January 2012, The Lost Abbey will begin a year-long series of special edition beer releases inspired by classic rock anthems invoking Heaven and Hell. Each month the brewery will release one new beer, culminating in December with a complete boxed gift set of all twelve. Each “track” released will be limited to a total of 450 bottles and available exclusively in the brewery’s tasting room.”
Sounds like a great idea. Blast the tune while mashing and hopping. Fits with the sinners and saints thing they have going.
“The Box Set releases are divided into three collections of four titles each:
Re-Masters – Barrel-aged spins of The Lost Abbey mainstays
Re-Mixes – New blends created from The Lost Abbey archives
Fresh Tracks – All new beers brewed specifically for Box Set”
Very High Fidelity but a good way to keep the creative juices flowing.
“Each release will be offered in a 375ml corked, hood-and-wire format and include its own original art. Beers will represent the full gamut of The Lost Abbey’s signature stylings, including fruit and spiced beers, wood-aged brews, sours, wild, and spontaneously-fermented ales.”
This is a great part. No need to go the monster size bottle route here.
“Because of the extremely limited nature of these beers, there will be no general distribution of Box Set releases. Individual tracks, priced at $15 each, will be available exclusively in the brewery tasting room on a first come, first serve basis and will be required to be opened and consumed on premises to prevent unauthorized re-distribution. Empty bottles may be taken off premises but will include measures to prevent counterfeit re-packaging.”
OK. Seems a bit extreme. But what “measures” are they going to do to the bottles? Why bottle it at all? Just keg it and give people a label sticker and let them collect them like baseball cards. Saves you TTB trouble too and anyone who buys a bottle with that sticker on it will eventually find out they have been suckered.
“The first track, an ode to Van Halen’s 1978 anthem, “Runnin’ With The Devil”, is scheduled for release January 21, 2012. Details will be available on The Lost Abbey website in mid-January. Subsequent tracks will be released the third Saturday of each month throughout the year, culminating in the release of the full 12-bottle packaged gift set in early December.”
Do you have to drink the gift set in one sitting in the tasting room? Good choice of starting song though.
Big news for the Los Angeles beer world, Alchemy & Science which is a new division (?) of Boston Beer Company has purchased Angel City Brewing which had recently moved to downtown LA last year.
Before I opine on the matter, here are the posts from the great BeerNews.org that detail what happened. # 1. # 2. # 3.
This seems to be uncharted territory as far as I know in the beer world. There is the Craft Brewers Alliance and the Magic Hat group where there is a pooling of resources but those are different from what appears is going on here with Angel City and A&S. The first question that I have is, and should always be the first question in any analysis of a business deal, will the beer quality improve? If Michael Bowe is allowed to just brew and someone else does the marketing and distribution, will that be a change for the better? Only time will tell, but my initial gut instinct is that it will.
Angel City, in recent years, had been eclipsed by Eagle Rock, Strand and El Segundo in buzz and number of tap handles. And Craftsman beers were always more highly regarded especially from a keeping the craft beer flame lit in Los Angeles perspective. Will the big business and dollars behind the new Angel City be a turn off to the craft beer crowd? I think it might.
One good thing is that the craft beer spotlight is now shining on Los Angeles for a bit. Can we as consumers and bloggers and lovers of craft beer keep that focus on LA?
I saw this handy graphic on the Brookston Bulletin and it really shows where the breweries are no matter the methodology in getting there. There are some empty holes on the map that need to fixed! (Especially if I want to ever finish my quest to have a beer from each of the 50 states) Thanks to Brooklyn Growler for putting this together.
P.S. Click on the graphic to enlarge it.
The first session of 2012 comes from Mario over at Brewed for Thought…..
“So as we are all incredibly interesting people, and almost always drink beer, let’s talk about what we drink when not drinking beer. Maybe your passion for coffee rivals that of craft beer, or it could be another alcoholic beverage such as scotch. My daughter being a root beer fan would appreciate her dad reviewing a few fizzy sodas. Maybe you have a drink that takes the edge off the beer, be it hair of the dog or a palate cleanser during the evening.
Beer cocktails, wines, ciders, meads, you name it as long as it’s not beer. Try to tie it in with craft beer in some way for extra credit. Be creative and I’ll see you guys in the new year.”
I must admit that I am just a dabbler, pinkie toe in the cold water type of guy when it comes to other beverages.
I can tell you that Dr. Pepper made with actual sugar is unarguably better than the mass produced stuff. I often enjoy coffee from the folks at Intelligentsia on lazy weekends. And my extremely tiny liquor cabinet is primarily populated by smaller batch distillers.
But beyond that? Well, I just don’t know that much. And it is because my passion is not there. And/Or, I just don’t have the cranial capacity to hold The Oxford Companion to Wine and the Companion to Beer in my head at once.
With the preamble now out of the way, there is one tipple that even though I am not a beverage multi-tasker, I enjoy most often when craft beer is off the table. A simple gin and tonic. Compared to my favorite brew, I feel freer when drinking a gin and tonic because I don’t have to analyze and then over analyze each little sip. I can simply enjoy the subtlety of the gin and the fizz of the tonic at the roof of my mouth.
And there are some tremendous gins out there from Junipero from Anchor or Hendricks that lightly trip across the tongue. And maybe it is that effervescence and complete lack of beer-i-ness that keeps me coming back. Or maybe it was instilled in me by my father and our trips to the bar at the Empress Hotel in Victoria B.C. Whatever synapse fires when I order one is darn close to the one that goes when I select a beer. Just writing about it is making me wonder if I have any tonic at home to go with my Aviation “eau de vie de Genievre”.
Now let me get back to my GinAdvocate magazine and rating the latest on RateGin.com.
Have you ever wanted to join a beer of the month club but the shipping costs were too much. Well, if you are lucky enough to be in Los Angeles, you can join the Sunset Beer Company club and get expert beer choices. Here are the details:
“There have been many requests, and we’ve finally worked through the logistics and are starting our beer of the month club!
The membership will get you a monthly selection of beer with accompanying literature to memorize and one-up your beer nerd friends at beer nerd parties (we wouldn’t mind an invite, either…thanks).
There are two levels to the club $30/month and $60/month, where the higher level gets twice the beer! . . . well, that and one free pour at the bar each month. Perhaps you’d like to drink a beer when you come to pick up your club selections? Beer club members will also be on a special email list to get first dibs on special releases!
But wait, there’s more!
If you commit to six months of the club, you’ll get an uber-rare, special edition, limited run, official Sunset Beer Company hat! (we’re in a giving mood)
To join, come to the shop and complete the form, or send an email to: info@sunsetbeerco.com”
Laurelwood is going to be bottling a quad style beer that they have aged in barrels with the name of Cardinal Sin.
Looks like something I will have to look for when I get up to Portland in February.