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Highland Park is adding to both their stable of pilsners as well as their collaboration cred with the new Crosbo Pils a 5.8% ABV hoppy Pilsner. Crosby came south from the farm to the city to help create this new beer that the brewery describes as having “Big flavors & aromas of red berry, tropical fruit, & lemon zest!”
The Helpful SoCal Allagash Brewing crew paid a visit to Highland Park Brewing to do up a collaboration and come October, you can taste ½ of it. Below are the details from HPB…
“We got together & brewed up a hoppy lager using Loral hops as well as Roy Farms 1940 hops. Part of this brew will get canned & kegged for a future release. Another part of the brew will be put into oak barrels to finish fermentation there. Keep your eyes peeled for this beer to get released sometime in October.”
Highland Park Brewing snuck in their Chinatown branch opening into the weekend of March 10th.
I snuck in on weekend # 2 and boy do I like it.
The location is across the street from the Historic State Park with its walking trails where you can watch the Gold Line trains heading into Union Station one way and Pasadena the other.
There is outdoor seating, barstools, tables and tall tables. There is even a dedicated cans, bottles and crowler order area. The inside is bright with light (almost opposite the dark interior of the Hermosillo). The long empty former warehouse has a sloping bar on one end and bright red tile. Everything is just light and open.
There is a short but fun little food menu so you can drink and eat right next to the tanks that are making the beer. So far, Good Smooth DIPA, 90 Hour Weeks Hoppy Pils and Four Pillars IPA have been brewed at the new place with Timbo Pils on the way.
This is just the type of place that I like and I am sure it will become very popular.
After reading the label and seeing the words “fermented in French Oak Puncheon Barrels” and with a name like All the Yeast, I was not expecting a very light yellow and very clear beer with a lovely effervescence to it. This saison from Highland Park Brewing with the Metro trains on the label reminds me more of champagne than beer.
There is a rough hewn woody note that sorta lingers in the background but there is a lively tannic white wine note that is the conductor of this train. It also has a touch of viscosity to it that steps up after a few sips. I know that sounds at odds with my earlier comments but they seem to work in concert.
I am amazed at the vast differences in the saisons that Bob Kunz seems to coax out of the teeny-tiny brewery that he is working in.
For those wanting more definition of Puncheon since the ol’ Google just wants to say that it is a floor support or a tool. A Puncheon in the wine business is generally a barrel holding 500 liters of wine. Generally not as big as a tun but bigger than a hogshead or a barrel.
Others have beat me to reviewing the beers from Highland Park Brewery that have trickled out so far, but I will add my two cents here on my reaction to their beers……
Refresh – They call it a house beer. No style mentioned. A basic lightly hopped beer with a little vegetal bitterness. Light yellow green colorin the darkness of the Hermosillo. Will be a base for other beers like…..
Lapsang – Smokey tea comes out stronger as you sip. Quite crisp. Not overpowering on the smoke, you can taste the tea underneath.
Vacation – Big grapefruit taste here mixed with Belgian notes. A base beer that HPB will use to create variations like….
Staycation. Sage on the nose and a strong taste of grapefruit juice. Seems a bit over the top. Dialing back the sage and juice would balance this beer.
Yowza Sour – Tart opening to this sour. I get a leathery cherry set of notes. A bit of spice lingers in the background but this is a pucker inducing beer.
Arroyo Sour – Pie cherry from beginning to end. Not grab you and make you flinch tart but good. There is a brief wheat ending which is surprising and good.
Hello LA. – Solid IPA. Good bitterness. Some citrus. Floral notes. This is a tough category to get into at this stage of the game. Not a bad hop bomb but I would have liked to seen something as exotic as their other beers.
Double dry hopped Hello LA. – Drying cotton mouth sensation at the back of this IPA. Bitterness is solid and the DDH had a better initial taste but overall, I would go with the regular.
Wake-Up. Great aroma almost an iced coffee. Really good. This beer really showcases the coffee.
Wake-Up at Michaels – I was really unsure how this would work but it does. The lavender isn’t at potpourri levels so the aroma is awesome. But the coffee comes through in the flavor.
Coco Noche – Too sweet coconut explosion. Coconut is hard to add to beer without getting sticky sweet.
Koko B. Ware – Scared to try since I have had a couple spice bombs lately. This one is fine though for fans of heat.
Behind this pretty cool bar in Highland Park,
Bob Kunz is busy creating Highland Park Brewery. In LA parlance, that means filling out forms and attending political meetings and then filling out more forms. Bob seemed ready to go when I saw him at the Blue Palms 5th Anniversary and if the cookie crumbles in the right way, they could be brewing in the next couple months and you might be able to order a new local neighborhood beer at the Hermosillo.
So keep your finger crossed and knock on wood.