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It is high time that Los Angeles craft beer fans get a 10 year brewery! And that brewery is Highland Park. The bifurcated Highland Park / Chinatown brewery will have “special High 10 releases” between March 25th – March 31st.
What is so special, you ask? Well they will “be re-releasing past High anniversary beers each week.” Leading up to High 10.
Time for my first beer shopping list for 2024. It is doubly toasted and very serious and all California brewed.
Highland Park Brewery Toast Points Czech Style Lager – 5.9% – “brewed with our pals Moonlight Brewing. The crew at Moonlight are one of our favorite American lager producers & we couldn’t be more stoked to create a lager with them. This is also the first time we’ve done a decoction mash on our system in Chinatown. Decoction is a process that involves taking part of the mash, boiling it separately, then mixing it back into the main mash to raise its overall temp. It can darken a beer’s color, impart richer malt flavors, give it a smoother mouthfeel, & even result in more stable foam.”
Paperback Brewing Siri-ous Problems Hazy IPA – 6.8% – “anything but a problem to your taste buds, with an overload of juicy hop aroma snd flavor. Zamba, Citra, and Azzaca hops lend themselves to creating juicy tropical fruit notes, such as pineapple, mango, stone fruits, candy, and orange tangerine.”
21st Amendment Find Your Fortune – 7.5% – “our newest Imperial Toasted Golden Ale is embellished with a QR code directly on the can so drinkers nationwide can scan the code and open their own virtual fortune cookie! Who needs horoscopes when you have a beer like this?!
With toasted sesame, vanilla, and lactose, Find Your Fortune is a complex beer that offers a delightful blend of flavors and aromas. The toasted sesame adds a nutty and slightly savory note, balanced perfectly with a sweet aroma and flavor of vanilla, followed by a silky smooth, creamy finish.”
Fresh off a bunch of pils being poured at Highland Park Brewery, they will pour festbiers for a week…
For me, the best night is the guest tap night. A really good way to taste a bunch of different marzens at once which doesn’t happen often.
Timbo Week returns at Highland Park Brewery starting on August 4th.
And here is what the brewery has in store for Pils fans…
“Of course we’ll have fresh Timbo to kick the week off but we’ll also have some other Timbo favorites including a couple draft only variations.
We’re planning on going big this year with Timbo Service, a timbo corner, golden ticket, & even a Tim appreciation day for all the Timbo fans named Tim!”
The festivities run through August 11th.
Highland Park Brewery is heading toward their 9th anniversary soon which means two things.
Highland Park Brewery has a new westie IPA, Fellow Humans a collaboration with Orange County’s Everywhere Beer Co.
“Fellow Humans is a 6.2%ABV west coast IPA with lots of fun hops! This clear beer uses NZ Cascade, Eclipse, & it’s also our first time using the hop Nectaron! We’re so excited to experiment with this rad new hop, especially on this beer! bursts of intense aromas like Orange Tic-Tacs, mojito, Big League Chew Bubblegum, & clementines.”
Love HPB beers but toning down the from left field, weird flavor descriptors might be needed though.
Did you think I would NOT review a bourbon barrel-aged beer this month? I specifically hunted a good choice to start with and who better than Firestone Walker who collaborated with Highland Park Brewery on the excellently named, No Ends, Only Beginnings.
This is a simple and effective beer. No bells. No whistles. There is a lovely sugary, caramel aroma here. Not much in the way of oaky barrel. I could see comparisons to brown sugar or a restrained vanilla cupcake. The booziness is really held in check by the sugar. If tasted blind, I would not say bourbon but I would rate it highly.
If you haven’t been to the original Highland Park Brewery, here is a reason to head to…
“Our pals at The Hermosillo have been with HPB since day 1, literally! We started off brewing (& still brew) in a tiny space in the back of their spot on York. We’re so excited about their 10th anniversary & so excited to share Hermosillo Lager with y’all!
Hermosillo Lager is a 5.2%ABV lager made in collaboration with The Hermosillo to celebrate their 10th anniversary! Ross & Michael asked for something crisp & hoppy with a focus on more Noble hops, including HopHead Farms Zuper Saazer.”
Time to give the verdict on the 2022 Unity beer, an IPA from Highland Park Brewery.
The label has a Muppet feel to it which is cool with the logos on the left but not so much with the reaching hands from the word Unity.
The beer pours a dark orange and right off the bat loads of Concord grape here. A lemon note backs that up. Medium to low bitterness level to me. This review is from first day of release so it was at freshness peak. It is light and refreshing and as it warms up more tropical flavors appear.
Mark your calendar, Highland Park Brewery’s Timbo Week 2022 kicks off this year on June 10th with a canned release of Timbo Pils plus more pils-y fun.
Bob Kunz and crew are busy making as much as they can since last year they whipped through the stock in three days. To make it last longer they are brewing up a batch at the teeny tiny original location too. Last time they did that was back in 2018!