Start looking at your December calendar and blow off the company Christmas party for…..
Brewyard Beer Co. will be breaking out a specially made for the occasion beer and will have outdoor seating as well.
Review – Shackmeister Ale from Brooklyn Brewery
My adopted residence of Glendale recently opened up a Shake Shack. The 2nd in Los Angeles and with it comes their house beer brewed by Brooklyn Brewery.
This is the only beer from the borough that you can get west of Las Vegas. Here is the review of Shackmeister Ale (along with commentary on the burgers).
I have now had the special bacon burger and the regular ShackBurger. Both of which are really flavorful though the cheese sauce on the special was no great shakes. They are small for the price and won’t give In-n-Out a run for speed + flavor. The surprise was the really good chicken sandwich. Nice kick of spice and really tasty. Shakes and ice cream will wait for when the heat and crowds die down.
Onto the Shackmeister Ale courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery. It is a rather plain ale. For a bit, I thought I may have mistakenly got the Oktoberfest that was also on draft. There is a tiny bit of hops but this is much ,ore a light malt beer. More Helles/Blonde than Pale Ale. Fits well with the burger but doesn’t really add much to it. But the $5.69 price makes it a better deal than the food.
SteinTime
Oktoberfest continues deep into October over at Brewyard Brewing tomorrow, the 15th where they will premiere their new Oktober Steinfest Beer. It is a Rye Ale’d Lager fest bier with “100% German Grain & Hops bill that has a deep and smooth malty flavor with subtle hints of caramel. A slight spiciness and a silky mouthfeel is present from the addition of German Rye Malt.”
And you can put that beer into your own stein or boot (if you have one somewhere) for a mere $7. Plus if your stein is super cool it might be a winner in their “Coolest Stein” competition. Check out their Facebook page for all the rules.
Fliphouse will be food truckin’ and live music will be playing and they will expand their space for a little outdoor seating as well.
Shakin’
When my wife and I heard that Shake Shack was coming to LA, we were excited. Years past, on a visit to NYC, I went to one which was so crowded that I was forced to find food somewhere else. Then our excitement was doubled when we learned that the franchise was not only coming to West Hollywood but also, literally a ten minute walk from BSP HQ in Glendale!
Yeah, I will be trying the LA specific burger cooked with beer but the other exciting news is that beer is available at Shake Shack along with Concretes and fries. Firestone Walker, Ballast Point, Figueroa Mountain and Angel City along with the Coasts (Lost and North). Now I just need to get Brewyard on tap there.
(Oh wine will be there too, but this is a beer blog)
So Close to Brewyard
My first visit to Glendale’s Brewyard was for an interview sans beer. Now, I can say that I know more since I have been back and tasted the tap offerings in their Western Avene tap room.
You walk into the industrial space underneath the Western Avenue overpass and you immediately see a design theme. I had a similar feeling when walking into Phantom Carriage. In the case of Brewyard, it is a prohibition old-time feel to it with the centerpiece being an old truck with a flat-bed that can be used as a central gathering place. The brick makes the space comfy as well as make the bathroom almost look like a jail building from a western.
Three beers were on tap covering a wide swath of styles. I started with the Soul Cal, a hoppy California Common. It had a nice earthy bitterness to it and like all the other beers was easy to drink. My second beer was my favorite the Black Sunrise dark lager had a lovely malt taste, was light and very thirst-quenching. Nothing fancy. Last on the docket was the Tropico Saison, named for a long ago neighborhood in Glendale. This Saison was full of passionfruit. The aroma had a green/young fruit nose to it which faded into a really fruit forward beer. In time, with a lighter fruit touch, I could see this being a fan favorite. An IPL was also in the works but not quite ready. Oh, and root beer was on tap too. Yup, they made their own.
You never really know if a new brewery will be good. My initial hope is that the beers are better than just OK. It is disheartening to see a brewery start below that and know that they have a lot of work to dial in a recipe. That is not the case here. To have a really good beer and two that with tweaks could rise quickly is where you want to be.
Brewyard-A-Go-Go
Thanks to boundary lines, the two closest breweries to my home in Glendale are actually in Los Angeles. Brewyard will be in Glendale near the edge of Burbank finally giving my adopted city a brewery for the first time since GlenCastle which was way, way in the past.
But first, the Brewyard folks need a little extra help to get set-up in their digs, which will include a vintage truck INSIDE the taproom.
Check out their Indie-Go-Go campaign and help out HERE.
No NIMBY, this time YIMBY
I have lived in Glendale for quite some time now. Going on 20 years if my math is correct. And in all that time, there has been a total of one brewery that attempted to make a go at brewing in the Jewel City. The long, long gone GlenCastle which became a Don Cuco’s Mexican restaurant for a short while and is now vacant. I don’t remember the beers being world class but the location and interior were nice and if the fallout of brewpubs hadn’t happened maybe it would still be here today.
You could argue that Golden Road or Eagle Rock, though technically both LA, are so close to Glendale that it makes the need for a brewery moot, it would be nice to have a coaster from a brewery that said “Brewed in Glendale”.
Come 2015, it might become a reality.
Though the irony is that though the proposed Brewyard Beer Co. would be located in Glendale, it is probably closer to a majority of Burbank residents than Glendale ones. Myself included. But for those thirsty souls who work at Disney and Dreamworks and ABC7, they will have beer close to hand.
For the time being, it is follow them on social media to gauge their progress. The duo behind the brewery Kirk Nishikawa and Sherwin Antonio have a home brewing background and hopefully the moxie to make Glendale home to a local beer again.
Glendale Tap
I get to write about beer that is actually located in the town that I live in! No offense to Golden Road which is literally across the street from Glendale or Eagle Rock which is right next door as well but they are both technically L.A.
This EaterLA article lays out what is happening but hopefully it will open soon and I can give a proper review.
UPDATE: They open on October 24th. Wednesday at 5pm.
On tap at Red Carpet
It has arrived!!
Red Carpet in my adopted hometown of Glendale is making the jump from bottle shop (with wine and spirits) to adding some tap lines too! “We are unveiling our new draft system. We only have 6 beers on tap. Still working on getting more. We will be officially pouring starting at 2PM Friday June 15, 2012.”
Draft Beers:
Stone IPA
Eagle Rock Brewery Populist
Epic Brewing Brainless
Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Sierra Nevada Hoptimum
Side-Bar
Not only has Glendale gotten a BevMo. We also have a place of our own to drink some quality craft beer.
Side-Bar is on a busy street near the first apartment that my wife and I had in Glendale. It is dark inside and a little low behind the bar but a warm and inviting place to sit on a comfy couch with a great beer.
Oh and did I mention that the tap beers are $3.00 for the rest of December? Kern River Rye Holiday for $3.00. Port Brewing’s High Tide for $3.00.
