Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
In case you forgot to check out the fantastic food coverage on the Food GPS website, then you may have not seen the beer coverage either.
Here is your handy link spot to read what I covered in Brew & You in March….
March 7th – Beer in Temecula, Border X + Dry River Triple Can release.
March 21st– Monrovia Beer, the Cellador Famille + 8 Bit in K-Town.
I don’t know much about kombucha and it does scare me a little but I am on board with the other two parts of this Dry River initial can release, especially seeing La Roja in canned form. I am a big proponent of putting all kinds of beer styles in cans, not just the hazy.
Do you wanna up your holiday cocktail game? Well then this new Beer Lab at Dry River Brewing might be of assistance.
You will be using the following (3) beers to make some cocktails….
Lady Roja – Botanical Saison – Tart with a subtle wild side. Brewed with hibiscus, tamarind and a touch of California sea salt. Elegant and effervescent, with bright red hues and soft aromas of red fruit.
Yuzu Funky Saison – Saison brewed with yuzu citrus and jasmine, keg conditioned. Dry saison, with bright citrus notes complimented by deeper tropical notes from our house cultures.
Xibalba Sour Chocolate Stout – Brewed with raisins, dates, Mexican vanilla bean, cacao, chicory, Xibalba is a blend of several dark base beers, bright milk chocolate aromatics, supported by deeper dark stone fruit notes, and a tannic, dark chocolate finish.
I would head for the last because that is one of my favorites from Dry River.
On October 4 from 5-8pm, Dry River Brewing will host a Beer Lab with their brewing team and release a Super, Duper rare beer Reishi Rosa “a wild ale aged with raspberries, reishi mushrooms and rose petals.” There are only 96 bottles available and the wild yeast was “foraged from an area now destroyed by wild fires. A VIP ticket to Beer Lab is the only way to pre-order a bottle, so get your tickets HERE.
Let’s do an “Aplets and Cotlets” post for this month’s recommended beers. With peaches, guava and walnuts from all over the globe.
~LIGHT
Dry River / William Guayabo7.50% ABV
Barrel aged golden sour ale with pink guava.
~MEDIUM
Dieu du Ciel / Péché Mortel9.50% ABV
Péché Mortel (French for “Mortal Sin”) is an intensely black and dense beer with very pronounced roasted flavours. Fair trade coffee is infused during the brewing process, intensifying the bitterness of the beer and giving it a powerful coffee taste. Péché mortel is brewed to be savored; we invite you to drink it in moderation. This stout style, high in alcohol and bitterness in order to favour preservation, was historically brewed to support the long and arduous voyage necessary to export the beer from England to Russia. The word Imperial comes from the fact that the beer was specially brewed for the Russian tsar’s court.
~BIG
Jackie O’s / oil of Aprhodite10.00% ABV
Oil of Aphrodite is an American double stout brewed with Integration Acres black walnuts and Belgian candied syrup. English, German, American, and Belgian malts are accompanied by Pacific Northwest hop to create a sweet and rich spring board for deep nuttiness. Lay this beer down for a while and share with friends and loved ones.
All of these beers can be found at Sunset Beer Co. (unless they got bought up real quick)
On this last day of L.A. Beer Week, let’s look ahead to July!
I know we are all recovering from the previous days but in just one week Dry River Brewing will be celebrating their 1st year in their cool little space.
Another stark reminder of the devastating fire to the north of Los Angeles is yesterday’s release of Ojai Wild.
The beer is a collaboration of all the DTLA Brewers United that used wild yeast captured in Ojai, during the group’s annual brewery camping trip for Extreme Beer Festival.
Alas, the area that the yeast was plucked from was destroyed by the fire, which makes this almost a historical record of the flora and fauna of the region.
Look for it at the Dry River taproom.
I have waxed rhapsodic about the well curated taproom of Dry River Brewing before. It has a steampunk meets old-timely barn vibe that makes the small space seem lived in and welcoming. But what is even better is that the bathroom continues that decorating theme.
Most beer facilities are utilitarian. Keeping them clean is the basic goal which means spartan decor that is easy to clean and stock with supplies. But DRB has a bathroom that is stocked with little tchotchkes and art as well as a bowl of “something” that I assume is what makes it smell so good. There are local L.A. growlers on a high shelf. All of it takes your mind off the business at hand.
Why post about it? Well, I believe that breweries and bars can do a lot better with their bathrooms. Make them fun and architecturally inventive. Add artwork of bears with beer. Beer people are forced by nature to spend plenty of time in the loo, so make it fun!
Dry River has three new beers to tempt you with…
Morena: “A rich, multi-dimensional, Sour Stout, brewed with ten specialty malts and lightly hopped with Saaz. Twice barrel-fermented with Lacto, Pedio, and Brett C. High attenuated dryness and layers of flavors deliver a pleasant and cleansing tartness. Notes of stone fruit pits, coffee, & chocolate.”
Azula: “Barrel-aged farmhouse Saison with blue berries, brewed with Golden Promise malt, Winter wheat, and Nobel hops. Aged in Merlot barrels on blueberries for 6 months with house mixed culture, then blended with 2 year Belgian golden strong and bottle conditioned.”
Mangosa Escura: “Dark Mango Gose. A twist on a old recipe Naga used make back in Bahia where Mangos fell from the sky and littered the ground. Brewed with Patagonian Black Pearl malt, Himalayan sea salt, and organic mangoes. A luscious dark sour with tropical funk and a hint of saltiness.”
Of the trio, the Morena strikes me as the one that I would be ordering first.
Finally, after months of waiting, Dry River Brewing will start to have limited tap room hours! Now they won’t be the only brewery without fans inside trying the beers.
Days & Hours
Friday & Saturday 4pm to 10pm
Sunday 1pm to 6pm
Specific Days
July 1st and 2nd
July 14th, 15th and 16th
August 4th, 5th and 6th
August 18th, 19th and 20th
September 1st, 2nd and 3rd
September 15th, 16th and 17th