Hitachino in Manhattan Beach

Tomorrow, get your Hitachino…..

Thursday, April 7 · 11:30am – 2:30pm

Brewco Manhattan Beach
124 Manhattan Beach Blvd
Manhattan Beach, CA

“Join us Thursday, April 7th to help raise funds for the Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami relief efforts. $20 gets you a flight of 6 different brews from the Hitachino Brewery. All proceeds are donated to the Red Cross. Since the earthquake, the good folks at Hitachino have stopped brewing and are focusing all their efforts to bottle water for those in need. Come in and enjoy these great beers while they are still available and drink for a good cause!”

I recently had their White beer and it was excellent. Tasted of chamomille tea. Buy some to show not only support but give them a reason to brew again.

UPDATE: You can also do this at Blue Palms on Thursday the 7th.

Oregon Public House

Another first for Beervana. A not-for-profit pub!

Oregon Public House is REALLY for the public.

“The customer will purchase their food, beverage, and choose where they wish their individual proceeds will to go to from a short list of local charities. This ground-breaking model for business is literally the first of its kind and we believe this could begin a new wave of business and mission that has the possibility of changing the way we work, spend and care for our communities.”

That is some serious out of the box thinking.

XMAS BEER – Full Sail Powder Stash


Here is what the Hood River beer pioneers have to say about their winter offering…
“To celebrate the newly fallen snow and the predictions for an epic snowfall year, Full Sail Brewing will release a new beer in their Brewer’s Share line up, Powder Stash Pale, brewed by Full Sail’s Pub staff.

“It’s an easy drinking, low alcohol, nitro beer so it’ll be smooth and creamy, just like the powder on the mountain,” says Matt Bowers, Full Sail’s Tasting Room and Pub Assistant Manager. “We decided to brew this beer to contrast the strong, dark and hoppy beers typical of the season. We thought having a nice easy drinking smooth nitro beer would be a great option after a day on the snow. Brewed with pale malt for its drinkability and dry hopped with Simcoe’s for a piney citrus character, it’ll drink light, but will have lots of flavor,” added Lisa Merkin, Full Sail’s Tasting Room and Pub Manager. ABV 5% IBU 50.”

Can you handle the truth?

Being a huge Portland Trailblazer fan, I have longed for more Blazer themed beers in Beervana. I mean, come on, one of best players was Terry Porter. Pun happy brewers could have a field day with that.

Well now, we are getting closer, Laurelwood Brewing (home of Deranger and Vinter Varmer) has brewed “Bald Faced Truth Teller Ale” which is the name of both a radio show and a charity helmed by Blazer beat writer John Canzano. The Bald Faced Truth Foundation funds extracurricular activities for kids by offering grants to children who wish to participate in the areas of arts, music, drama, education, athletics and other enriching activities.

BAM 2010

Yesterday, I told you about the LA Craft Beer Crawl. Well here is the 411 on another charitably beer event happening in Santa Monica…

from the press release:
BAM Fest 2010

“18th Street Arts Center, in association with popular Santa Monica restaurant, Library Alehouse, is bringing the first Craft Beer Festival to the Westside of L.A. B.A.M. Fest, which stands for Beer, Art and Music Festival, is a celebration of locally produced art, music and the finest craft beers around. With 20-plus breweries, 4 bands, 3 galleries, open artist studios, gourmet organic food provided by the Green Truck, and sweet treats from the Big Swirl Truck, B.A.M. Fest 2010 is poised to draw a crowd and become Santa Monica’s next ‘hoppiest’ annual event.

A $35 donation ($30 pre-sale until Sept. 1, 2010) provides you 5 hours of live music, exploration of artist studios and galleries with art for purchase, and unlimited tasting of great beers in the Santa Monica sunshine. All proceeds from the event directly support 18th Street Arts Center’s programs and artists.”

Webiste: http://18thstreet.org/events/bam-fest

LA Craft Beer Crawl

One week from today, you can partake of beer (curated by the Beer Chicks) and food (curated by famed food writer Jonathan Gold)

Beer wise, Deschutes, Unibroue and Eagle Rock are on board with apparently more to come. And even the premier food show here in LA has talked about it on today’s show, so check out Good Food for more information.

Go HERE to check out the crawl info and purchase tickets

Beer Pair(ing)

Here is a heads up. One week from today, the great Library Alehouse is pairing with the Beer Chicks for a beer dinner pairing that benefits What a Pair.
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Here is the 411 and the menu:
“Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune, better known as the Beer Chicks, are the co-authors of The Naked Pint an Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer. They will be on hand to show us their Pair(ings), and guide you through some of beer’s best styles. Come and learn a little about the world’s favorite beverage.

15% of sales from the entire day will be donated to What a Pair.
Cost is $50 a ticket. Seating is limited, please RSVP ASAP.
To RSVP call Tom Kelley, Alehouse Cicerone at 310-383-2329 “

Their will be 9 beers with some small plates for pairings.

Mamma’s Little Yella Pilsner

Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen (bottle)

Allagash White – Gioia Ricotta dressed with lemon and Allagash White

Ballast Point Calico Amber – Semi-firm Cheese TBA

Bruery Tradewinds Tripel – Heirloom Tomato Salad

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA – Fish Taco and mango salsa

Chimay Blue (bottle) – Beef Carbonnade with pommes frites

Rodenbach (bottle) – Chocolate

Coconut Porter – Ice Cream float

Beer + Books + Surly Goat =

bfb

In my ranking of better things in life, beer is near the peak and right near it along with the Portland Trailblazers is books. I read about 30 books a year and would read even more if I could find extra time in the day.

And the Surly Goat is helping me by having them both together!

It’s simple. Buy a delicious beer and money goes to the charity Room to Read.

And, you can do it TONIGHT! I will be doing my small part with a couple of brews. Why don’t you join me?
2-16-10notebooks

The Men’s Room

Elysian Brewing of Seattle had a beer named Loser that was Sub-Pop related now they have another special named after a local radio show. And it is one of the best beer names around. A little gross too but clever.
MensRoom

Here is what the brewery says:
TASTING NOTESAmber in color with a light hop aroma and toasty malt finish.

MALTS
Pale, Munich, Cara-Red, C-60 and small amounts of Special B and chocolate malts

HOPS
Bittered with Chinook and finished with Cascade and an abv of 5.6%

“A portion of the net proceeds from every Mens Room Original Red sold goes to helping support the families of our military vets through the VA Puget Sound Fisher House and Ft. Lewis Fisher House.”

Last weekend….

I am still recovering from 2 big events here in Los Angeles. The best part being that both were food and beer related.

On Saturday was Woodshop 5.1. Held at the Blue Palms and stretching from 9:30 in the AM with beer mimosas.
woodshop breakfast
Along with the mimosas was a great and very unique breakfast. Truffle hash browns, Belgian breakfast burritos, fruit with festina peche beer. Excellent way to start the day! And if that wasn’t enough, we got a special dessert from the new Four Cafe in Eagle Rock
plum dessert
Then it was on to the beer. 24 blind taps. Plus bottle sharing going on left and right. People were very generous. Which I now almost take for a given at these events. I got to sample beer from Flossmoor station. Sours from many different places and an awesome coffee beer from Bell’s Brewing.
woodshop bier
Palate fatigue limited me to only some of the 24 taps but my winners for the day were the Odonata Saison (making it’s first visit to SoCal) and the super fresh Moylans Hopsickle.

Big kudos to Dave, Chris and Brian for putting in the hard work to do this event.

Moving on to Sunday, it was time for Firestone-Walker and Tony’s Darts Away and the Dionicess VI.
dionicess
Great beer and great food for a great cause, The Real Medicine Foundation. Food by the staff at Tony’s and Randy Clemens (who has a new cookbook coming out) and beer provided by Jace Milstead and Firestone.
beer at dionciess
The two selection of fries were my favorites and then there was a little beer at the end with dessert, starts with a “P”.
dessert at dionicess

More details to follow in my weekly posting at FoodGPS on Thursday.