Best Beers of June 2023

This will be sort of a mini-re-hash of the Firestone Walker Invitational at the start of the month. When you have that many good breweries together, you are going to run across something stellar. But I will highlight one other beer from the rest of the month.

For me, what stood out was the Leeds based brewery Northern Monk. Their Very Stable Genius hoppy lager from their Patrons Archive was just bright and tasty which is saying something because the festival is home to a ton of fantastic pilsners and lagers.

Second was the Wild Pirate tiki-esque sour from the BarrelWorks program at Firestone Walker. It had a nice balance of vanilla sweet and fruit sour to be a hybrid of both.

Lastly, no homer-ism but I really took to the Artifex Beer Paper Pale Ale. Yes, I contribute the odd piece to the beer periodical but the beer itself was flavorful and 3-D.

Featured Review – The San Francitra Treat IPA

What better way to kick off a month of Orange County featured beer reviews than with a triple collaboration. Artifex, Bottle Logic and Unsung Brewing have concocted a hoppy treat.

I picked up my can at Vendome in Toluca Lake introgued by the blue can and the fact that rice was used. Learning later that, African Queen, Azacca, and Citra hops were probably playing a more prominent role. The DIPA had a great aroma pour out with the opening of the can. Very fruit forward. Tropical to be more exact. It veered more to IPA than DIPA to me and though honey was also added, I did not pick up on it. I would certainly pick up a second can if seen on store shelves.