Tag: Blue Palms

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Farmer’s Market FestivALE

Tomorrow there will be a post on FoodGPS about the proliferation of beers with vegetables and spices in them. But why talk about it now? Because of an inventive day of beer called the Blue Palms Farmers Market FestivALE!!!

is next weekend on May 19 from 2:00pm until May 20 at 1:30am. Here is all the event information:

“The tap list sprouting new additions constantly… [ can’t lay off the puns with this one 🙂 ]

This is the newest addition to our seasonal festival lineup…
Summer: Flip Flop Fest / Autumn: Pumpkin- Palooza
Winter: Jingle Bell Jubilee / And … THE FARMERS MARKET FESTIVALE!

You can expect 12-16 (or more?!) Tasty & seasonally themed brews available to order individually or in flights, ALL of which will include a Fruit, Vegetable, Herb, or Spice.

Growing taplist:
-Stone Mixtape #1 (A blend of Stone Levitation IPA, Smoked Porter and Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, plus library beers including 2011 Imperial Russian Stout and Belgo Anise Imperial Russian Stout brewed the same year… infused with sage, peppers and lemon thyme)
-Almanac Spring Seasonal (Biere De Garde with Fennel)
-Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme (Sour Strong Belgian Dark Ale brewed with Cherries and Aged in Bourbon Barrels)
-Karl Strauss 21st Anniversary Ale (Strong Belgian Ale with Zinfandel Grapes)
-New Belgium Valentine’s (saison, brewed with raspberry juice, orange peel, and rose hips)
-Speakeasy Vendetta (IPA brewed with curacao Orange peel)

No need to buy tickets, simply show up, order what you’d like to enjoy, & MOST importantly, have a GREAT time!

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The return of the Winter colLAboration!


Here is the full info on the re-scheduled Winter colLAboration event.

“Winter ColLAboration is back on! The mobile craft beer garden (from the brains behind Tony’s Darts Away/Mohawk Bend/Golden Road Brewing, Verdugo Bar/Surly Goat, Blue Palms and 38 Degrees) will be revived in the form of a weather-proof, indoor late-winter wonderland on Sunday, February 26th at the Belasco Theater in Downtown L.A. – located conveniently near the Metro Blue Line. 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

As previously planned, the garden will feature a selection of winter brews and favorites from: Anchor Steam, Avery, Bootleggers, Bruery, Beachwood, Cismontane, Dogfish Head , Eagle Rock Brewery, Eel River, Firestone Walker, Hangar 24, Golden Road Brewing, Lost Abbey, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Russian River, Sierra Nevada, Smog City, Stone, TAPS and many more.

Food will be available onsite.

Limited-edition Winter Fest Steins are $15 while supplies last. Any 2011 ColLAb glasses can be used for admission; most beers will be $5 to $6.”

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LA Beer Week – Day Ten – Kern River at Blue Palms


Blue Palms hosted Kern River Brewing last night. And for awhile, their Facebook event page just had Class V, Just Outstanding, Golden Trout pale and the new pumpkin beer (which is reviewed by me, today). But I knew that they would probably have the famed Citra DIPA as well. And I was right. 6:30 came and so did our goblet with one of my favorite beers in it. It is just a tropical fruit explosion especially in the aroma. Personally, I wouldn’t call it a Double because it is so light and effervescent with just a touch of bitterness. I have only had this twice now and each time I am pulled in two directions. Savor every last drop slowly or greedily drink in all the goodness.
As mentioned, there were other Kern beers last night. Including the Golden Trout pale ale which was new to me. Utilizing the Galaxy hop, this was a solid pale. It is such a different flavor profile from Citra. To me there is a somewhat metallic harshness to it. But a nice hearty beer.

Thanks to Brian and Matt and everyone else at Blue Palms and Kern River for bringing the good stuff. Blue Palms will be featuring Beachwood beers tonight. Try the Thrill Seeker IPA!

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colLAboration part 2

If you are a beer nerd in Los Angeles then you had better be in Hollywood one week from today.

The second pop-up biergarten is on the way and this time Avery, Hair of the Dog, Grand Teton, Uinta and many others will be added to the California mix and you can rest assured some goodies will be on tap that you haven’t tried yet.

If you can’t make it. (Better be a good reason) There will be MORE!
Every weekend in July in West Hollywood and then more in various parts of the Southland including an Oktoberfest in September.

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Ultimate Brown Bag


The awesome L.A. Beer destination, Blue Palms is holding it’s 2nd annual Ultimate Brown Bag party on June 11th. 24 beers with actual bags over them. Each hour a new set of 4-5 small pours arrives and YOU try to figure out what it is.

I spoke with Matt Olesh from Blue Palms about the event….

1) How do you go about selecting the beers? Do you avoid certain styles or brewers that have really defining characteristics?
The list of breweries that we chose was a result of looking at the breweries whom we support year-round that make consistent & quality beer. We then fine tuned that list with specific beers in mind that would fit into our ideas for hourly themes. There is also a natural proximity pattern, simply because there are so many fantastic California Breweries (which makes it easier to make pick-ups directly form the brewery if need be) but we did include a few out-of-state breweries as well. We did put some effort into avoiding requesting beers that would be over-the-top obvious, but that wasn’t a huge priority.

2) How many beers do you think people will be able to guess out of 24? Do you expect people to reconsider what beers they buy after this?
We’re thinking that it would be reasonable to guess about 4-6 beers, especially considering the speculative conversation that typically goes on in groups for these type of blind tastings. Any more than that, and I’d personally be pretty impressed.

Personally, I have had experiences in the brown bag nights that made me say, “Why the hell am I not picking up this beer more often?!”, and also, “Wow, that really was as good as people say it is!”. We are expecting a spread that will leave room for ‘hyped-up’ and ‘stand-by’ beers, to let people taste and decide for themselves what they like. I wouldn’t say we are aiming to change people’s buying patterns… but we may open some minds to unexpected beers, and to the fun experience of blind tasting.

3) What are some of the hourly themes?
Without giving away too much information too soon, or naming a theme that we may end up modifying, I’ll say that the “Got Wood?” hour is one that I am looking forward to a lot. This hour will introduce 5-6 beers that all have some wood-aged/fermented component to it.

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Great Divide in LA

If you want to get a craft beer geek salivating then just say the word Yeti. To the normal population, it is just a creature of myth. To the beer nerds it is a beer with many different spins from the Great Divide Brewery in Denver. A favored stop on the GABF tour.

Limited amounts of their beer would make it here to LA but now the bounty increases! And the place to be is Blue Palms on Hollywood. (With their new parking system). You can try out some Yeti and other delightful Divide beer.

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Blue Palms

It is hard to believe that Blue Palms is 1 year old. It seems like only yesterday that Los Angeles was Lucky Baldwin’s and that’s it. Now we have a herd of great places to go anywhere in the sprawling metropolis of L.A. Beer life is getting better!

Back to the anniversary, Brian Lenzo pulled a lot of beer rabbits out of his hat to bring in a wonderful selection of beers. Parabola and Abacus from Firestone-Walker. Sour Rye from the Bruery. Multiple hop bombs from Alpine among others.

They borrowed some of the space from the Fonda Theater next door but that started filling up pretty quickly. As usual the staff of the BP were attentive and cheerful with the huge crowd and Brian was running everywhere to make sure the day would run smooth.

Kudos to Blue Palms and see you at # 2.

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Rubicon Brewing

As part of American Craft Beer Week, I tasted two from the Sacramento brewer, Rubicon.
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First up was Monkey Knife Fight Pale Ale. Now usually, I am not impressed by Pale Ales. To me they all tend to blur together. This one stands above the masses. Has a slight spice taste and not too hoppy.
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Second was the Purple. A helles-maibock. It’s a good solid beer but not very bold. This would be better served with food. Something spicy like good kung pao chicken.
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