Anaheim – Page 4 – Beer Search Party

January 13, 2017August 28, 2018

B & BT in 2017

Beer release calendars are not as useful to me as they are for others, I suspect. Now if there were a master calendar that incorporated all of them together, that I would be on board with.

That being said, The Bruery and sibling Terreux have announced what 2017 will look like for the Orange County brewery and the key take-aways in my book are the new and retired:

New:
The Bruery Mischief 2017 with Citra & Motueka — new recipe/label

The Bruery The Order — new beer
A brand new, year-round release from The Bruery, The Order summons The Bruery’s characterful house yeast strain, dates, and a touch of coriander spicing for a Belgian-style amber that’s sure to satisfy fans of darker abbey ales ripe with dark fruit notes. This release introduces a new diecut reminiscent of abbey windows to the Famille Rue lineup.

Bruery Terreux Frederick H. – new beer (has been on tap in 2016)
Frederick Hottenroth was a great inventor, and he happened to be Partrick Rue’s grandfather. His namesake carries on in this low-ABV tart wheat beer that is 100% fermented in American-made oak foeders with brettanomyces and lactobacillus. This brand new year-round from Bruery Terreux boasts a bright acidity and a tropical, fruity aroma and flavor. The label art features blueprints of Frederick’s inventions, complete with his signature.

The Bruery Share This™ – two new treatments during 2017
The third and fourth treatments in this collaborative and charitable imperial stout series will once again focus on a specific region as the ingredient source and donation recipient. $1 from every bottle produced is donated to a carefully selected charity partner. The first 2017 release of Share This will feature chocolate and orange for ingredients, and spotlight its first domestic region: California. #sharethisbeer

The Bruery Hoppy Obligations – new limited release, draft only
A new, rotating series of hoppy beers will be popping up in select markets under the “Hoppy Obligations” banner. It may be an imperial lager, a Vermont-style pale, a hoppy red, or another hoppy brew that doesn’t fit an exact style, but you know it will be delicious and consumed quickly

Retired: Humulus Lager, White Oak, Trade Winds, Rueuze, Hottenroth, Tonnellerie series

November 7, 2016August 29, 2018

Modern Time at Leisure

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Leisuretown. Some words just sound like polyester pants and that one certainly does. But the extremely rapidly growing Modern Times is using it for a huge new outlet (31,927 square feet) in downtown Anaheim. And it does sound less obnoxious than the Dankness Dojo moniker for the delayed (and smaller) Modern Times – Los Angeles.

Here are the very verbose details from their press release:
• A gorgeous funky/sour brewing facility chock-full of foeders, amphora, and various experimental fermenting vessels, housed in a jaw-dropping old hoop-style wooden warehouse.
• A showpiece Modern Times café & restaurant set in an utterly charming two-story, historic craftsman home
• Stalls serving food from some of SoCal’s most kickass restaurateurs
• A giant frickin’ swimming pool, complete with poolside bar, movie screen, and sweet floaty toys
• A delightful and convenient Modern Times merch store & bottle pick-up location
•A vast and beautifully landscaped outdoor space primed for group gatherings and luxurious beer drinking

Anaheim is on a roll with the addition of Modern Times and recently Karl Strauss too.

August 7, 2016August 29, 2018

Nope-arazzi

I enter each new brewery with hope. No use going to the new and uncharted without it. Most times the beer is fine or above. Some places have more off note beers than others but not every brewery can be fashioning killer beer.

After visiting Bruery Terreux and Bottle Logic in Anaheim, my beer traveler Richard and I walked to the nearby Hoparazzi Brewing.

We ordered up a flight to share and was presented with this:

I purposefully left out the ugliest beer that I have seen in a long time…

Not the worst looking taster tray but compared to the artful beer trays previously seen that day, this was a distant third in looks.

Which would not matter at all if the beer was great. But it was a precursor to the bad aromas and overall lack of care in the beers. For a place called Hoparazzi, you would expect a solid (at least) IPA. The Enlightened IPA which promised Mosaic and Citra delivered caramel and no discernible hops bitterness. And it was the best beer!

The Californication Kolsch started well enough but turned bad halfway through leaving a weird taste in my mouth. Richard suspected poor quality control since this style does not suffer faults well.

But the fruit beers were of a much worse character, just bad. Lemon Twist had a strange smell that was one of the most off putting aromas that I have had in years of beer drinking. La Tarte Granada with pomegranate was not only decidedly vomit-y in color but flat out tasted weird. I hardly ever rate a beer below 2 on Untappd. This beer was below 1.

I will readily admit that most breweries beer would pale compared to Bottle Logic and The Bruery but this was poorly made stuff. Three quarters of the beer purchased was left on the counter.

I would strongly suggest passing on Hoparazzi until such time as they clean up their overall game.

July 28, 2016August 29, 2018

Brew City

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This blog doesn’t cover the Anaheim beer sceneas much as it probably should. (There will be Terreux coverage coming next month.) When I saw THIS post, I knew that I needed to brew it forward with special emphasis on the newbies that will be opening to make Anaheim a true beer destination: Unsung Brewing Co. & Silo Brewing + an outpost of Karl Strauss Brewing Co. too.

May 10, 2016August 30, 2018

Up from the Cellar – Gone to Plaid from Noble Ale Works

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We return to the cellar and in honor of the Noble Ale Works wins at the recent Craft Brewers Conference, I have cracked open a Wee Heavy from the Anaheim based brewery.

Gone to Plaid pours a dark brown with red tinting to it. A woody sweet aroma greets the nose. Initially a little caramel sweet but a light drying bitterness closes the gap fairly quickly. This is a cheek warmer for sure. The label mentions fruit cake, toffee and brandy and I concur with that last descriptor the most. This has the weight of that spirit running through it.

I don’t quite remember when this was purchased or where but the Scotch Ale has been in my hands for close to a year and a half. This beer is based on a recipe from home Brewer Darren Shelton who won best of show at the Anaheim Fest of Ales in 2013.

The beer may have lost some brightness that would have added to the flavor by subtracting out done of the sweetness but I think this beer could have aged into something really port-like with more time.

March 11, 2016August 30, 2018

FirkFest 2016

Amazingly, there are still tickets available for this year’s rendition of Firkfest in Anaheim! You should remedy that situation and get your admit one (or two) for the 19th of this month. It is money well spent and much better than being in a crowded, rowdy bar on St. Patrick’s Day for sure.

So hop to it and click this LINK to purchase.

Here are some of the breweries whose tents you should visit if you already have your tickets: Bottle Logic, Firestone Walker, Legends (new to me) and Monkish (especially if they have the Spa beer again).
firkfest2016

March 23, 2015August 31, 2018

Firkfest Fotos

Firkfest part Deux was this past Saturday. I will cover the beers on a post on Food GPS this Thursday, but for now, some photos from the day….

Josh and Craig pouring the ales of MacLeod.

March 4, 2014September 5, 2018

A Valiant 1st

Hard to believe but Valiant Brewing Company has been around a full year and the last time I was there was at their opening. So myself and beer compadre, Rich drove through the much needed rain to Anaheim.

And I started with the first anniversary offering which pours a golden orange red. A pretty decent strong ale for a stormwatch Saturday. Some Belgian notes to it. A little too viscous for me but the alcohol is well hidden making for a good sipper.

While Rich did recon with a 10 taster package, I next chose the hybrid Lager Barleywine which was a little underwhelming. I didn’t know what to expect but it was thin and a bit watery which is not good for me in a lager yet alone a half & half version. I also had sips of the Guava Cream which gets classified as a game effort. My favorite was the dry hopped Crescendo. A blonde lager that I bought a bottle of on the way out

There was quite the big crowd but the lines were manageable. They had a Pizza truck outside that was doing brisk business. But I felt like the beers hadn’t grown much from that first time I sampled. Some really nice beers like the Mounds of Grounds but more that seemed a few recipe tweaks away from being great.

February 13, 2013September 11, 2018

FoodGPS Teaser – Anaheim Beer Day

As much as I try to promote the L.A. Beer Community, there is also a greater California community to also to talk about.

With that in mind, I visited the soon to open Valiant Brewing and Noble Ale Works in Anaheim and you can read about it tomorrow over on FoodGPS.

For now, these photos will have to do….

The taps and beer menu at Valiant

The Valiant brewing system

The initial tasting flight!

A Noble tower!

The taster tray!

The new look of Noble labels.

March 18, 2012September 12, 2018

Bruery Reserve Society

Normally, I do not go out on St. Patrick’s Day. And if provoked, I will declare that it is a beer beginners night and I don’t fancy my chances on the road from other revelers and police checkpoints.

BUT…(and you all probably saw that coming), if the Bruery is throwing their Reserve Society Celebration that day? Exceptions are made.

Beer buddy Richard and I arrived in slightly rainy and slightly cold Anaheim in the afternoon to get in line for the festivities not knowing how it would play out since it was our first time at this event.

I had heard through the beer hop bines that last year’s party was not optimal. But from the start, this celebration was smooth as 2009 Papier. We were allowed in the tent early to avoid more rain. Check in was quick and painless and after the initial long lines as people targeted their must have beers most lines throughout the 3 1/2 hours were very short. You could walk up and get Chocolate Rain in no time flat.

The choices were ridiculously great. Papier, Coton and Cuir. Black Tuesday. Multiple versions of Carmen and Smoking Wood oh and Eagle Rock brought Libertine and Deuce, Bootleggers had Black Phoenix and Knuckle Sandwich, Hangar 24 had Pugachev’s Cobra and their DIPA and TAPS brought the awesome Imperial Balinese Stout and Crystal Pils.

But this was THE place to have Bruery beers. And my favorite was Sour in the Rye with Kumquats (Thanks Dave for the recommendation). Fruity and tart and well balanced. Just awesome. I had my first taste of ISO:FT and Carmen with Kiwi too.
And for those in the Irish mood, you could get a beer dosed with Centennial hop oil. My green beer was Humulus Lager and boy was it green and hoppy.

Oh and great food from Beachwood (love the blue cheese grits), plenty of water and soda and enough room that you did not feel cramped. I just wish I had more than ten tickets and another couple of days to work through the whole list of beers!