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If you haven’t made any Fest Festival plans for September / October, might I suggest the HOPtoberfest at 38 Degrees? The Alhambra hosts this event on October 21st and they will be “pouring a few dozen of the freshest hoppy ales (IPA,Double IPA,Pale Ales) alongside German inspired Festbiers.”
You can order up a flight or full pours to enjoy with some Octoberfest inspired menu items to get you in the Germanic mood.
If you had not noticed, there is not a lot of lager love out there which makes the first ever 38 Degrees Craft Lager Fest an outlier. Unless lots of people show up on May 20th in Alhambra.
38 Degrees will have a dozen clean and delicous craft lagers on tap. And you can order either sampler sizes, flights or full pours.
Considering our usual and unusual hot weather in May, this couldn’t come soon enough.
…and Ohana Brewing has taps flowing.
With a caveat. You can only order tasters and you are limited to four of them. Even though they have six taps. Which puts smart decision making at a premium.
I had three tasters to test drive their system and they are ready for action. Again with a caveat, the bar space and the space on general is limited. It doesn’t take many people to fill up the space and the space to set your beer down.
As of now, it is geared more to filling your growler and going and it is less a social meeting place. And speaking of, they have plain growlers. Unlabeled 32oz and 64 sizes. Which should be fillable at other participating breweries.
In the future, once they have proven themselves to the city, you might find larger pours and even music (which is now verboten). It will be interesting to see what happens if/when that changes because the space may prevent long stays more than a city limit can.
Oh and the beer was it’s usual strong self. The coffee Black IPA was a nice jolt of caffeine and the Hollenbeck Amber is a smooth and easy ale to sip on. My favorite? The Saison Miel aka the honey saison. Strong and not overly sweet but you get the honey taste for sure.
Tucked away right smack dab against 38 Degrees in Alhambra used to be a Gas Company payment office. Now a much better use for the small space has been found. As a retail outlet for Ohana Brewing.
Due to Ohana’s mandate of not repeating beers (a rule that is bent on occasion) and their small size it can be a touch more difficult to find a representative sample barring a tap take-over event. But now you will be able to get (for now) four ounce pours of multiple Ohana beers at once. Growler fills and merchandise will also be available.
You might even see a combo like this…..
Wee Smokey, Saison Noir and Pacific Blonde.
The L.A. Beer Bloggers are hitting the ground running in 2014 with an event featuring a triumvirate of sources. From the web, will be The Full Pint, from the bar is 38 Degrees and from the brewery is Ohana. BE THERE…..to get three different perspectives on the world of craft beer here in Los Angeles
Thank you Ohana Brewing for not putting a tasting room in an industrial park!
Instead, Ohana will be right next door to another great SoCal craft beer venue, 38 Degrees! Now before you go asking if that is kosher. Ohana and 38 talked before the For Rent sign went down in Alhambra. Plus as an added bonus, you might just find some L.A. Aleworks beers here as well!
Now we wait for it to open!
A few days ago, I received this e-mail.
” Two days ago it was brought to my attention via Twitter and The Patch Carlsbad that 38 Degrees Ale House & Grill was opening in Carlsbad Village at the former “The Catch” location. This is in no way affiliated with my company. I had “The Patch” change this info as soon as I was aware. I am very concerned with the unauthorized use of my brand 38 Degrees as I have put all my passion, blood, sweat and tears into developing what I believe as one of Southern California’s top craft beer bars and New American restaurants. The owner Mayur Pavagadhi has built the façade with an almost identical logo using Orange color as I and Tan/Brown signs stating Craft Beer & American food. My brand 38 Degrees has symbolized and represents an enormous amount of good will in craft beer culture and our community since 2009. Confusion of the proposed Carlsbad location and mine is inevitable as folks were already mislead and commenting on “our arrival” into Carlsbad Village on internet sites. We have made personal contact with Mayur Pavagadhi and he was not accommodating in wishes for him to change name and look in Carlsbad and in fact stated he would seek legal action to up hold his rights to open as a craft beer focused restaurant using 38 Degrees Carlsbad as the DBA. I am writing all of you to consider helping me persuade Mr. Pavagadhi to dis continue this route of business. I do not have an e mail address yet for him but the 38 Degrees website now under “The Catch” Carlsbad will soon be live. If anyone personally knows this person, I strongly urge you to reach out ASAP. I will reach out to many of you via phone as I am very concerned. Let me know if you can have comments or disagree with me in any way.”
I know and repect Clay Harding who wrote this and I totally agree. It appears the whole “name” and “brand” issue is rearing it’s ugly head again. Coronado sues for the name Idiot IPA, not cool. The name Shift is being grabbed and re-used, not cool. Anyone with a grasp of recent craft beer history knows that the bandwagoners fall by the wayside when the boom and growth falter. LIFO in accounting terms. Last in, First out.
Here is the deal. If you are in the same market or same state. Don’t re-use names. If you do and it is an accident, apologize and then collaborate with the person who you wronged (that is called good PR). If you are a nano in California and won’t compete with a similarly named project in Georgia or Mississippi, then ask first (again, good PR, sense a trend?). Maybe it won’t matter and again, you should collaborate. There are many, many, many beer terms that you can use to name your bar, brewery or gastropub. Check out the Oxford Companion to Beer and you can probably find a cool brewery name or two. Due some diligence and don’t be a Mayur.
I know the abbreviation “app” has been used to death but if we are going to overuse a phrase, we might as well overuse it in the cause of great beer.
So break out your mobile devices and upload this app to get the lastest scoop on a great Los Angeles beer destination…
Click HERE to get the scoop.
Last night I had a great beer conversation with Clay Harding from 38 Degrees Ale House in Alhambra. It will be appearing either in next weeks FoodGPS beer blast or the next. (Depending upon my writing speed).
In the meantime, I highly suggest making the trek to Alhambra. Clay has a some really good draught beers and some amazing bottles. Victory at Sea from Ballast Point is on there. Also be sure to ask if there are any special bottles not on the printed beer bible. As you can imagine it is hard to constantly update a list in this ever growing beer world.
When I first moved to Glendale, I was shocked that there was little to no access to good beer. Now this was (dare I say) around 15 years ago and I was a spoiled Portland boy. One of the few places available along with Lucky Baldwin’s (which was nearby) was Crown City Brewing. It was a friendly place and I could easily get to it on the bus which was my main mode of transport out of college. As the years passed and more avenues for beer became available, I went less, but still held a fondness for Crown City.
When I drove by one day and saw that they were out of business, I was sad but not surprised. Their beer had been eclisped by bigger and bolder brews. I wished that I could have raised a final pint to the brewery that got me through the lean times.
And last night I did, a type of wake was held for Crown City (as well as the Dodgers as it turned out). Two of their beers returned, Arroyo Amber and Oatmeal Stout, and the large crowd got to see familiar faces and remember the Around the World beer club and sample from a special tasting menu created for this party.
The Oatmeal stout was mild but very nice after the extreme Green Flash beers from last night. The amber could have used a little more punch to it but was right on style wise. In the end, it was a fitting tribute
Click HERE to get to the LA Beer Week site