Tag: Cellador Ales

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Cellador 2.0

Here is your Cellador Ales update. Promise that it is great news. Alex Ourieff is taking over the reins of the wild ale producer and they have 1/2 a new home….

“We’re excited to announce that the new home of Cellador Ales’ brewing operation is at Smog City Brewing Co!

The folks at Smog City have welcomed us in to share their dedicated sour beer production space. While our team will continue to handle every step of our own production process, working at Smog City will give us access to a dramatically better workspace as well as tools, equipment and climate control that’ll let us fine tune our process the ways we’ve always wanted to. Through our new relationship, our brewery and our team are about to be better equipped than ever to put some truly exciting beers out into the world.”

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Cellador Update

Coming off of their anniversary party yesterday, here is your Cellador Ales update: Their current taproom in North Hills will run until just before Christmas, December 23rd to be exact.

They have a production space with “an (unnamed for now) LA Brewery, and plan to sublease space from them as our barrel warehouse.”

They are also on the hunt for a new taproom which may or may not be in the San Fernando valley lime they are now.

The more you know.

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LABW13 – Cellador Friends Festival

I actually went to a beer festival! The first one since 2019! Cellador Ales hosted the kick-off event for the 2022 L.A. Beer Week and here is my rundown…

Before I start with my best beers though, I want to say that I love the fact that Cellador has embraced magnum pours. They had a whole “magnum island” booth plus bottles were being walked around the festival alley.

On to the beers, this was not a sour only event as in years past, but there were sours aplenty. Rare Barrel had Space Jellies with Strata hops, Craftsman had some barreled Flors and many others had bottle or can pours at the ready.

That said, some of my favorites on the day were from North Park who brought their historically named DIPA’s …

Probably a notch above was the Green Cheek version of Timbo Pils which was bright and hoppy and refreshing on a hot day.

Another stand-out was Craftsman Brewing, OG in L.A. bringing their famous 1903 Lager as well as three barrel-aged ales including 3rd and 4th Flor. I tasted 3rd which used Sherry yeast and was different from every other taster I had.

I like the set-up lots of colorful branded pop-up tents in a row with food at one end and wine and cider inside. I was hoping for more seating and shade options. It was telling that the slim strip of shade near the building quickly became a hang out spot.

I will need to get my festival legs back. I was like a kid in a candy store who hadn’t had sugar in a bit but was also was too wary of crowds. But, my pacing and technique will improve as I get back in the swing of things.

Thanks to Kevin and Fran for setting up a great return to festival action in Los Angeles.

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Delayed R.I.P. – Cellador Ales

Most closures spool out over a month or two, but in the case of Cellador Ales, the end date is further on the horizon 12/31/22, but no less sad for the Los Angeles brewing scene.

This will allow everyone to trek out and have a final wild ale ir purchase tickets to their L.A. Beer Week festival.

What struck me about the announcement was this section..

But…something I can’t quite put my finger on has been rippling through the industry in 2022; It has unexpectedly been the toughest year since the pandemic started, for us, and apparently many other small breweries.

Makes one wonder when the other closure pennies are going to drop.

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World Beer Cup – Los Angeles medals

The World Beer Cup spent Cinco de Mayo passing out medals.

Beachwood was the big local winner with three medals. Figueroa Mountain picked up a pair which I count as L.A. because of the Westlake Village outpost. Below are the Los Angeles area medalists:

Gold

Highland Park Brewery – Hello, L.A. – International Pale Ale

Silver

Lincoln Beer Co. – Mosaic Pilsner – American-Style Pilsner

Cellador Ales – Akimbo – Fruited Wood and Barrel- Aged Sour

Beachwood – Full Malted Jacket – Scotch Ale

Bronze

San Fernando Brewing Co. – Imperial Death Star – American-Style Imperial Stout

Beachwood Blendery – Funk Yeah – Belgian- Style Sour

Beachwood – Mocha Machine – Coffee Stout

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Not Yellow

If you are a fan of orange wine, then you will probably enjoy the latest beer/wine hybrid from Cellador Ales.

Orange Sunshine “features Falanghina grapes. It’s juicy and has lots of wine character, but also leans hard into the farmhouse/earthy/lambic part of the beer spectrum. We basically made an open-fermented orange wine (what you get when you leave a wine made from white grape varieties in contact with the skins for an extended period of time after pressing them) and blended it in to barrels a blend of base beers, before allowing it to continue aging for several months.”

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Two Wild Ale Reviews

My interest was piqued by the idea of a Saison that is headlined by melon.  The use of Ogen melons in half of two melon saisons recently released by Cellador sent me to their tasting room.  The other being a Chapo? melon version which was not on draft to compare side by side.  I had no previous experience with either melon.  There is a really nice light green melon taste here.  Honeydew without the sweeter finish, more crisp.  It has a nice tartness that takes it a bit further afield from Saison but as a Wild Ale is just right.  Has a nice spritziness to it that accents the sour.  As it warms, the grain starts to peek through to good effect as does a slight salt note.

Gourde Fumee.  Bourbon barrel-aged sour with hot smoked Kabocha squash.  Right off the bat is smoke.  Then a sour hit follows that.  Then the alcohol burn combines the two.  Not getting squash notes and any bourbon is well hidden under the smoke which is probably closer to BBQ than campfire.  As more sips are taken, I start to get cherry notes but that burn comes back.  Maybe the palate is acclimating to the smoke because it recedes fairly quickly but it is still pretty spiky. I do wish the bourbon came through to add a needed layer to balance out the two strong flavors.

From those two paragraphs, you can probably easily tell which of the two that I preferred.  It was not really close.