Tag: best beers

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Best Beers of May 2024

May brought a nice mix of new beers and new breweries and that is shown in the Best of for the month…

Santa Monica Brew Works Flecha Azul Margarita Sour – I have had a couple nice sours recently headlined by this SMBW that smartly combined margarita with sour in a Gose-ish way.

Trusted Gut Kristalweizen – clean and crisp but unmistakably weizen. Perfect for a summer day.

Ghost Town + North Park Ghost Park IPA – Cannot go wrong with North Park even if they are just half of the brewing team.

The big winner for the month is…..

Brouwerij West 8x8x Hazy DIPA – now this was a proper hazy. it was like drinking cream and pineapple and it had an impressive layer of murk to it.

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Best Beers of February 2024

Well, if you read any of my Portland beer posts in the last week, then you know that this post is all about Duality Brewing in Portland.

And it wasn’t that they smashed a West Coast IPA or Bourbon barrel stout out of the park. No, they put Bergamot tea and Satsuma tangerine into a wheat beer and both featured ingredients shined like a laser, Then they took a Saison through a gauntlet of barrel aging, pine needle filtering and blending in cider and it was really excellent. Get thee to Duality!

I will say that a couple other beers deserve honorable mention. Radiant Beer Co.’s 3rd anniversary TIPA – All the Things We’ve Done was top notch and Santa Monica Brew Works Low and Slow Helles in partnership with Bludso’s BBQ was the perfect brisket accompaniment.

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Best Beers of December 2023

I believe this will be a first for my Best of… lists. No IPA or barrel-aged stout taking the top spot.

But first, the runners up:

Enegren Brewing’s Single Hop Pilsner with Talus hops which I have had twice now and both times it sparkled. Next is Five Point Five Brewing and their Nitro version of their Proud Mary Irish Red which just showcased the foam and cream. Finally, Fremont Brewing’s 2023 B-Bomb. An old-school throwback bourbon barrel-aged monster.

But the winner was a draft taster of Bagby Beer Co.’s collaboration with Bierstadt Lagerhaus on a Weissbier, wEYESsbier. So good that I grabbed the last single can in the cooler.

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Best Beers of August 2023

OK, bit of a change-up for this month as I am picking the beer that was the most memorable upon first sip instead of my usual, rubric of best from first sip to the last.

Before we go there, here are my excellent runners up:

El Segundo / Enegren Gemeinschaft lager – great reddish tinted color and a malty easy drinker.

Chapman 7thAnniversary Dry Hopped Pilsner – I applaud any non-IPA anniversary beer

Bottle Logic A Quad IPA in this Economy? – big but not just in ABV. big on haze and fruit as well

Winner – Fremont Gose with cucumber and sea salt. You take a sip and that cucumber just hits you. Then you get a gentle touch of salt and a little tang of acidity. A wonderful spa Gose as it were. You will not forget the first sip.

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L.A. Scores in Best Of…..

….Craft Beer & Brewing’s annual round-up.

Here are the Los Angeles winners…

Readers Top 50 Beers – #23 Highland Park’s Timbo Pils

Readers Top Breweries – #13 Monkish, #15 Highland Park, #17 Beachwood

Editors Best Beers of 2022 – Highland Park Competition IPA, King Harbor Choco-Latte

Readers Best in Styles – Hazy IPA #8 Monkish, Abbey Ales #16 Monkish

Other friends / almost local Winners – Green Cheek, Figueroa Mountain, Bottle Logic, Firestone Walker

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2021 – A Look Back

Before we get too far into 2022, I want to re-visit 2021 again and look at my year in beer.

643 individual servings of beer were had and well over half were IPA. I would say bad me but I will save that for another point in this post. Of those IPAs, 114 were West Coasties and 105 were of the Hazed variety. DIPAs were 54 and TIPAs 19.

Pilsners and Lagers combined for 49 entries with Barrel- Aged right behind at 45. Sours, which I seem to be eschewing more and more ended at 15 and the beers from Foreign lands a pitiful, measly, really bad me 7. Right there is one of the reasons why I persist in this Excel exercise. So that I can see the stark numbers.

Speaking of stark numbers, I drank, on average, 158.7 ounces of beer a week. The lowest mark since I have done this. The ABV average was 7.38% per beer.

On to who I drank the most of, it as as follows:

  • Firestone Walker
  • Smog City
  • Stone Brewing
  • Radiant Beer Co.
  • AleSmith
  • Eagle Rock Brewery
  • El Segundo Brewery
  • Los Angeles Ale Works
  • Highland Park Brewery
  • The Bruery

Yup, a 100% California list and 50% LA local to boot!

Finally, of note is that each week I “crown” a Beer of the Week. This year, Firestone Walker tallied an impressive 5 as did Anaheim newbie Radiant Beer Co. Smog City racked up 3 for the proverbial bronze.

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Best Beers of August 2021 + IPA Standings

Time to check out the best of August. Since, I do not imbibe on Mondays and Tuesdays, beer August is done for me.

On to the best, all but one being hoppy including one that lands on the top 3 IPA list.

Starting with the barrel-aged stout collab between Mumford and Finback. Yes, it was overly sweet and some ingredients didn’t seem to break through the veil of sugar but this was a sticky, syrupy change of pace.

Staying with collabs, The Highland Park and Cellarmaker and Coleman Farms IPA, simply named Coleman IPA was bright and fresh with citrus notes. Smog City and Alvarado Street’s Park Hopper IPA was very well done and rose above other fine Smog IPA options.

But let’s get to the beer that cracked the IPA rare air…

I was concerned about the ABV and the five different varieties of hops but this was fruity with just the right swagger of bitterness to it without going overboard. So it grabs the three spot.

  1. Beachwood / Highland Park Natural Born Shredders
  2. Offshoot Beer Co. DDH Visions
  3. Chapman Crafted Old Towne Block Party Year 5 DDH DIPA
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Best Beers of June 2020

This month the Best of battle boiled down to two styles. IPA vs the barrel. Four beers were in contention and placing just out of medal Reach was Infinite Wishes from Smog City. This was a luxurious beer and the ABV was hidden behind that so well that the chocolate and bourbon had the forefront to themselves.

Bronze goes to Firestone Walker and their latest Luponic Distortion. #16. A swirling mix of peach and pear with just the right amount of balancing bitterness. The other IPA comes from Bearded Iris. I had never heard of them but Jimmy at the Glendale Tap pointed them out to me and Homestyle IPA was fantastic. Big aroma. Hops everywhere but no palate wrecker.

Which brings us to the winner….

Firestone Walker’s Cherry Barrel Blossom. This was such a layered beer. A touch of smoke here, Cherry note there, salt perking up the beer. Then the final barrel impact just made for a fantastic beer.

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Best Beers of the Month – January 2020

Each month, in addition to highlighting cool beer names and labels, I will do a quick rundown of the best beers drunk during the month. Why? A list at the end of the year of beers that are no longer available just isn’t as useful (though still a good exercise). Granted, some beers drunk early in January might well be gone too but the chances are much better.

Here are the best of this month…

This month, I was “wowed” by the East Coast. LIC dropped cans onto Sunset Beer and the one that I picked up, Hollows was a winner. Big bouquet and a consistent taste all the way through. Plus a unique can design as well. I reviewed the Spencer beers and all but the IPA were excellent but the pilsner and the Trappist ale were the too close to call winners of the (4) beers sampled.

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Top 10 beers for ’10

Here is my best of 2010 list.

My only rules
I had to have tasted it for the first time in 2010.
Only 1 beer per brewery.

Kern River Brewing – Citra IPA
Southern Star Brewing – Buried Hatchet Stout
Anchor Steam Brewing – Our Special Ale 2010
Duck Rabbit Brewing – Milk Stout
Eagle Rock Brewing – Stimulus
Rising Tide Brewing – Ishmael Alt-Bier
The Bruery – Loakal Red
Peace Tree Brewing – Hop Wrangler