PDX Visit – Ferment Brewing Company

I am not “Wowed” by many brewery taprooms but Ferment Brewing Company has designed a spectacular space I never which to drink their beers. On the Columbia River, a tough four minute walk from pFriem, the brewing space is encountered first on the ground floor. You walk up to a large outdoor space with a large rectangular gas fed fire pit spitting flames. You can gather round or take a seat and look out at the River. Once inside the smell of malt wafted up as I ordered at the bar. The furniture and fixtures were classy metal meets wood.

Onto the beer, the 12 Degrees Czech Pilsner was the best of the classic taster tray bunch. Light and floral and crisp. Neither the Pale or IPA left much of a lasting impression. Neither were super hoppy and both were low ABV. The ESB was another middle pack beer but the Dry Stout was super smoke tilted, and almost Rauchbier adjacent on a real light body. There were multiple special beers but I wanted to get a grounding of their core beers first.

1st Visit – Surfridge Brewing

Block 1

There is no sign, except for a tiny “beer” arrow to indicate that Surfridge Brewing is open.  October 11th was the official grand opening and I jumped in early on a Saturday to both check out the interior and to taste a beer. 

Two things grabbed my attention.  First were cool eco tap handles minus any logo that have a marble look to them.  Quite different from the normal heavily branded practice.  There is also a kid friendly clubhouse near the entrance.  Splitting the difference by keeping kids out of the way from the bar and TV patrons.

There is also a patio with seating and off in the distance is the light blue El Segundo emblazoned water tower.  Food trucks are accessible out through that patio and the whole place has plants everywhere.  Reminding me of Homage Brewing in Pomona.

Currently there are 6 beers on tap, your basic starter brewery menu.  IPA, Session IPA, Wit and Pale.  The Pale was good.  Mostly old school Cascade hop territory.  A bit one note and not subtle but well done all the same.  The Wit has peppercorns and grapefruit which should make for a new twist on the Belgian style.

Overall, the space is calming and large enough for groups to gather, I will have to check back on the beers to see how they evolve but this is a good start.

1st Visit – TAPS Brewery & Barrel Room

This brewery has been on my list for a while and I feel bad that it has taken me this long to make it down to visit. But finally, I took advantage of a free Sunday and headed south on the 5 to TAPS.

Nice big space when you factor in the large outdoor patio.  Medium amount of TV’s and a side games area with a couple games.  The digital menu boards are nice and easy to see and you also get the paper option with the food menu on the flip side. You order food from the on-site TAPS truck at digital kiosks. Being the goof that I am, I kept trying to “dip the chip” only to be helped by a staff member who pointed out that the card reader was on the side. The burger that I ordered was OK but had a chile spice that gave off a weird heat.

There were plenty of beers on the list to sample so I picked out a taster tray plus a ½ pour to gauge the quality.  Below are my quick (at the bar) tasting notes:

The American Cream – solid. Maybe a touch too sweet.  Velvet mouthfeel.

Coffee and Cream – bright yellow in color. Smooth.  Again kinda sweet.

Boise Named Sue – light with a bright hoppy hit. Fades into close to DIPA territory

Rind Games – worst of the group. Weird sweet tart taste to it. Not very hoppy at all. 

Bjorn in the USA – not bad. cereal-centric. doesn’t look unfiltered.

Except for the Boise, the beers didn’t light a fire. The space is nice. I am sure the patio is a big hit and the fact that this is where you can crowler up is cool.

1st Visit – Ambitious Ales

Feel like I am close to knocking out all the new Long Beach breweries as I visited Ambitious Ales recently.

Ambitious Ales is located in the former home of Tuttle Cameras. The concrete floor is offset by the wood striped chairs and bar and the beams high above in the ceiling. Good use of a cool splash of primary colors opposite the taps. There are quirky signage touches and the requisite barrel display.

The beer menu signs are classy and simple if a skosh too small. Would have been good to have some paper menus around to use. I like the bright white backdrop for the unadorned taps and the wordless logo on the glassware as well.

Fleurs
Heavy on the chamomile but real nice. The lavender pokes through but not so much the strawberry. Mocktail adjacent

I Like Tuttles
Simple Saison with California grown wheat. Has the Belgian character right. Clove and tiny banana note.

Hopped on Phonics
Big grapefruit notes. Real nice aroma. Quite hoppy for a session IPA

I have 1st visited a few new breweries this year but this is the first one that has really impressed me. All three beers were excellent, the staff were helpful and they had cold brew coffee and a soda option as well.

1st Visit – Over Town Brewing

I jumped over to my valley town to another (Glendale to Monrovia) to check out yet another new brewery, Over Town Brewing. Here are my thoughts….

I had high hopes upon entering Over Town Brewing for the first time. The outside had the logo high and proud. Nice color scheme. Inside the space is filled with little and big signs of beach and road culture of Los Angeles. Highlighted by a big wooden Hermosa Beach sign that is a prime selfie spot.

Smartly, they were not doing flights or other odd sized pours. Just half’s and fulls. So I went down the list and selected what I thought would be easy hits. Pale Ale, West Coast IPA and a white ale. I skipped over the overly fruity and since it was hot, I also skipped the bigger beers. The plan was sound but the beers were all below mediocre. The Pale Ale had a tangerine puree quality to it. The White Ale needed extra spice push and the IPA tasted young to my palate.

Hopefully, the recipes will be honed with time and feedback.

1st Visit – Border X

Mark visiting a brewery in the City of Bell off my list as last weekend, I made my 1st visit to Border X Brewing.

Right across the street from the Bell House is the expansive corner space of San Diego born, Border X Brewing. The brewery opened this weekend with a slate of festivities from political speakers, a blessing ceremony, some serious drumming skills and big crowds.

The big space has a large balcony a long bar stacked with branded merchandise and lots of great art on the wall.  There is actual parking in back too as well as some unfinished sections of the space.

There were 13 taps flowing at the start and only one was an IPA.  But there was Horchata, hibiscus, pepino, agave and a laundry list of ingredients that you don’t normally see in beer and certainly not in one space outside of say, Pacific Plate.

I should have ordered the taster tray of four.  The tray was well constructed and gave a bridge effect.  I went straight for the Biere de Garde since I so rarely see that style then went back and waited in the slow moving opening day line for the Horchata Golden Stout.  Below are my little capsule reviews:

Biere de Bohrder

pours orange, Big sweet agave notes, Caramel, notes of nuttiness, ABV kicks in with each sip

Horchata Golden Stout

Cinnamon, spice, Big ABV tasting, Not as sweet as expected, A bit silky. 

I look forward to seeing their beers on tap around town and to sampling a wider range of their beers.

1st Visit – Burnin Daylight

I made my first official visit to Lomita recently.  Traveling for beer does indeed force one to parts of Los Angeles that you may see only on freeway exit signs.  This time I am drinking my first beers from Burnin’ Daylight which occupies a new development block on Narbonne Street.

Right off the bat I notice two things: One, they have a kitchen with a short food menu which is nice and second, the place was damn cold.  So cold that blankets were being passed out.  The A/C must have decided to work extra overtime.  There is a nice amount of outdoor over a barrel seating and upcycled malt bag pillows inside that make the place homey.

There was a good spectrum of beer styles on offer from the civic named Lomita Light Lager to a Bourbon-Barrel aged stout and IPA’s in-between. I enjoyed the Wheat Mas wheat driven IPA.  It had a bright hoppy flavor and a bit of strength behind it too.  The Gold Days Coffee Milt Stout was a little green coffee bean tasting for the style but coffee lovers like myself are bound to find it tasty nonetheless.  The Small Town Feel DIPA was on track doubling up Citra and Simcoe though it was a little too tongue scrapey old school West Coast (or I have gotten soft).  The least favorite was the Appian Amber.  This is a style that should be easily executed, clean and crisp but this had a weird aftertaste going on that was not my thing.

Overall, I like the feel of the place and for a new brewery, they seemed to be on track with the beers. They are also not too far from the other South Bay breweries so it is easy to add this to the beginning or end of a trip or to make a specific choice to come.

1st Visit – Liberation Brewing

I like to sneak in an end of the year brewery visit and this year I took advantage of the holiday light traffic and pointed towards Liberation Brewing in Long Beach for a 1st visit.

The taproom was pretty quiet when I entered so I had my pick of seats at the bar.  There was weird mural-type art around the edges with Star Wars characters the ones that I recognized. Then in another seating area were hung B&W prints on one wall presumably of early Long Beach.

Good music was playing and the staff was quick and attentive in getting my order and my two flights to me.  Each flight was 3 for $8. The beer descriptors were clever with at least on in-joke spotted amongst the 12 beers on tap. I thought the bomb shaped flight paddle was a good touch as well.

On to the beers that I sampled:

Diane – Hallertau Blanc always catches my eye. Pale with a nice light bitterness, light lemon and malt comes through
Roy G Biv – Strata Hop is becoming a go-to as well. Hazy IPA really with a great aroma aroma. Bright and lightly bitter. Little cat pee to it Concord grape
Father’s Shout – milk stout well done. Solid. Creaminess was good
Simon Saison Peach – not much rye. Peach was a little too candy for me. My least favorite of the group
Red Rose Dunkel – good to see a dunkelweizen on the menu. this version was sweet smelling but flavor is sharp and bright. Could be a skosh heavier malt wise
Maddy– new hazy pale nice. A little sharp. Fruit punch. Not sold on the aroma.

1st Visit – Imperial Western Beer Co. at Union Station


I chose a rare wet and windy day to Gold Line myself to Union Station to make my first visit to the new-ish Imperial Western Beer Co. Part of the 213 Hospitality Group and sister brewery to Arts District Brewing a few blocks away. I had super high hopes for ADBC which is fine but hasn’t really super impressed me. That left me wondering how the beer would be here. On the flip side, the photos from various websites were fantastic looking Well, expectations are just that. The space is smaller and less grand than the shiny photos made it look. Don’t get me wrong, the space looks really nice. There is a good amount and different seating set-ups and you can’t go wrong with the look and architecture of the space. There is a weird little front bar that is part (not working yet) coffee bar and host/hostess stand that I think would be better utilized for more seating. At the rectangle bar near the kitchen there is a businessman with ear piece, travelers coming in for a quick beer and local workers. The oyster special seems a big draw, saw three sixers of the slimy things go by. (Not a oyster fancier am I)

And while the surroundings were fine the four beers from the quite large selection sampled were good to above average. I would pick IWBC or ADBC based on this initial taster tray. Below are my quick takes on the beers…

Table Manners Patersbier
Nice Belgian character. A little sharp. Banana prominent. A bit viscous on the palate

Calliope Hazy IPA
Bright fruit character. Haze has left. Concord grape. Nice medium hop hit.

Union Station Pale Lager
Lots of grain and corn. Smooth and easy to drink. Really light yellow.

Fred Harvey Hefe
Not super hefe’y. The Table Manners has more banana. Might have gotten the beers flipped? Couldn’t quite tell from the color.

Lastly, I tried the new…
Some S’mores Stout
Arts District will do the More version. A serviceable Stout. Some chocolate notes. Expecting more flavor components to it.

Next time I go, I will test out the Streamliner bar which wasn’t quite open when I visited.