Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
The Rare Barrel and their hoppy arm hello friend have taken the Native Land challenge hosted by Bow & Arrow Brewing.
This hazy (brewed on the ancestral lands of the Ohlone People) pours a hazy orange juice color. There is a slight brush of orange juice before a wave of pine takes over. The beer is still pretty soft texturally. I also get a gin-like botanical note as well. All very woodsy.
Angel City honors the past occupants of their brewery with Bridge Builder Hazy IPA.
Their DTLA Public House “was once formerly the John A. Roebling & Sons west coast warehouse, where they would manufacture steel cables to build some of the most iconic bridges across the country.”
Here are details on the beer, it “has an almost vanilla-like sweetness upfront, followed by pineapple, nectarines, fruit punch and strawberries with a full mouthfeel and a finishing tropical sweetness. Brewed in the very same warehouse that used to build bridges, it’s safe to say this brew really “bridges” the gap between our building’s past & present.”
Continuing their feline name trend, Party Beer Co. has a new beer for SoCal, Purradise Lost, “a California-style Hazy IPA loaded with peach, mango, and piney hop flavor and aroma.
I like the Milton nod in the name and hope the label is black and white as well.
Time for another round of which beer is the best! I have four beers to review over the course of this month that I purchased from City Beer Store in San Francisco. (You can subtract the mead, that I will review separately.)
Next up is a muted colorful can from Parliament Brewing in Rohnert Park of Sonoma County. A hazy IPA named Kaleidoscope.
This is my first beer from them and it pours a murky light yellow. Quite fragrant. It has the distinctive fluffy yet fruit hop roughness to it. Has a mix of pineapple and coconut close to a tropical tiki cocktail. Soft, with a bit of vanilla to it.
This scores above the first two with one beer to go.
Hopyard Wildings is a new Hazy IPA collaboration between Hawthorne and Glendale. AKA, Common Space and Paperback. With notes of pepper, peaches and kumquat.
A little extra info on the beer, “Hopyard Wildlings brings together Hazy and Belgians for a big expressive flavor, of a type not currently found in Hazy IPAs.”
I have had a quorum of beers with Talus hops as the main attraction and as of today, not digging it like I am Strata. But maybe, since it is a new hop, the right combination hasn’t been found to unlock it yet. Perhaps this hazy from Common Space will.
Covina’s Arrow Lodge & Inglewood’s Crowns & Hops have a new hazy release, Culture Vulture with Guava and Bird Pick Tea and hopped with Motueka, El Dorado.
Smog City has a new beer coming in their Community Impact Series, tomorrow.
Park Hopper Hazy IPA was brewed with a little brewery you might know, Alvarado Street.
More info: “This 6.8% hazy IPA was brewed to bring awareness to the great work Parks California is doing, a nonprofit we support through out 1% for the Planet commitment.”
Next up from the prolific AleSmith is a hazy IPA that is a jam.
Well, actually a marmalade.
This new release from San Diego pours a light yellow color with not much in the way of haze on view. Getting mango and pineapple on the nose, so checkmark for tropical.
Very light body with a solid kick of bitterness that does linger a bit. Getting a bit of raspberry and orange flavor after the bitter. The end brings a touch of alcohol heat mingling with malt character.
There is a nice juicy mouthfeel and indeed tropical but the haze and the softness I associate with it are not. Nix that word from the label and this beer is spot on.
Culture Brewing has three beachy locations and you can choose your favorite since they have hazies for each one.
You can go for the L.A. Manhattan Beach or choose the more southernly Encinitas or Solana Beach.