Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Thanks to a certain virus, I don’t think I have been in Hollywood in over a year, but now there is a reason to visit…
…yup, Stout has created a bottle shop next to their Cahuenga Boulevard restaurant. I checked their online store and they have quite a few aged bottles to buy.
We are living in a to-go curbside contactless world which sucks for browsers like me. But maybe the new Stout Bottle Shop will have a nice robust online shoppe for me to wander through from the seated position. Good to have outlets for both customers and the breweries.
Coming Sunday August 12th….
To me, craft beer in L.A. has always had Blue Palms around but it is still only 10 years young. Raise a toast and head to Hollywood to ring in their next year of beer.
I follow the intersection of food and beer a lot. Usually it is the beer dinner that is at the fore. But I believe that beer and food will have really made it when dive bars to fancy James Beard-y restaurants have three to four taps of local #independent beers on tap. As cities like Portland and Denver do to name just two.
But then I saw this…
The restaurant is an anticipated steak house in Hollywood, APL. The photos I saw of the interior are classy AF. So seeing that they have a single beer supplier and it is Strand Brewing from Torrance is super cool.
L.A. beer needs to continue to embed themselves in restaurants.
The Stout mini-chain has another round of their Beer Fest for Beer Geeks events coming on November 18, 2017
The next “The Rare Experience” will be “featuring about 20 celebrated breweries pouring rare, barrel-aged, funky, sour and often inaccessible beers. The Rare Experience takes place outside of the restaurant’s Hollywood location from 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm..
A partial list of breweries includes “Allagash Brewing, Almanac Beer Company, Epic Brewing and High Water. Local breweries Boomtoon Brewery, Dry River Brewing and Craftsman Brewing will be on deck, while the popular Fremont Brewing and Third Window are making their debut.”
General Admission tickets are $50 and includes unlimited tastings (rare bottle pour tickets available for purchase) with entry at 2:00pm. VIP tickets are $70 and get you access to rare bottles throughout the event, plus an early entry time of 1:00 pm.
When Stout brings out kegs and special bottles for a festival, they are not your garden variety beers. You will find quite a few foreign beers which might be a good course correction after L.A. beer-ing this week.
So you might want to check out the latest beer list for their upcoming July 1st Rare Beer event, right HERE!
Do you want to relive Tatooine’s favorite bar in real life instead of on a DVD?
The pop-up Scum and Villainy bar (somewhere in Hollywood, address unknown) based on the bar from the original Star Wars will open up this winter (with reservations).
Once you make your reservation, and upon arrival, you will get two themed drinks, a souvenir pint glass and a Scum and Villainy challenge coin, whatever that is.
It is unclear if Corellian Ale will be on tap but I am sure that George Lucas won’t be there.
Your daily “alternate” L.A. Beer Week event source is right here. So where are we suggesting today?
Beer & Bingo at the Oinkster in Hollywood. Get some Figueroa Mountain beer to go with your awesome Oinkster burger! And test your bingo skills.
Brian Lenzo has the anniversary party down. I commended him on the layout for the 2014 version and he told me that he keeps learning and I could tell because first and foremost it looked like he was having more fun this year than in the past and that is probably due to having all the moving parts finely tuned.
But it is to be expected from Blue Palms when they throw any party.
Here is what I liked about the running of the fest itself:
A) All the notices leading up to the affair noted how hot the party was going to be since part of it was outside. But Lenzo tweaked where the tents were to make a much better flow and utilized more indoor space as well to give people a respite from the sun.
B) Check in was efficient with mugs and tickets being handed out first so that when the doors opened, people could go right in.
C) Except for one bar location the signage was great. Easy to see what was pouring.
D) Good amount of seating. There can always be more but this was a good amount.
Enough of the inner workings, what about the beer? Two words. Holy Crap! What an amazing list of beers under the super heated Hollywood skies.
My top two of the day came from Anaheim and Noble Ale Works. With their Tongue Tickles IPA (on cask) and the Cinnamon Roast Crunch being my co-Best in Show. The Cinnamon had the benefit of being a variant of the awesome Naughty Sauce and a bright cinnamon aroma. Tongue Tickles benefited from the cask service which added a layer of creaminess that offset the bite of the hops plus the slow transformation from foam to beer was great to watch.
Next on my list was the Mo Hop from Golden Road and the Southern Tier IPA on nitro. There was no shortage of hops at the fest but these two shone the brightest to me. I also have to recommend the fun tropical beers that Monkey Paw brought from San Diego. A coconut IPA and a pineapple IPA. Both were weird but good if too sweet.
If you weren’t there, by all means head there this week for some awesome “leftovers”.
Those that know beer in L.A., know that the Oinkster is part of a beer loving restaurant group that is tied to Maximiliano and Little Bear and that they have added craft beer into their equations which other celeb chef driven spots seem oblivious too. (Looking at you Bourbon Steak at the Americana)
So I was happy to get an invite to the soft opening of Oinkster 2, the sequel.
Thanksgiving Turkey Burger and El Segundo Citra Pale ale. That is how I inaugurated the new Oinkster on Vine. And since I am a fan of the original. This article will be peppered with comparisons.
The new location (years in the making) has six taps compared to four in Eagle Rock. Josh Salinas (who has ably managed the rotating list) will manage both. There will be the same plastic cups that customers are used to as well. You can probably expect plenty of locals like Craftsman and Eagle Rock on tap.
Minimalist design is the motif inside. A bit retro diner meets Ikea. Their is some color mismatch which is jarring with teal on one wall then the classic red tablecloth pattern in one section. Some tables have bench seating and others don’t. Seems a bit random but I am not an interior designer. There is wrap around outdoor seating. It is a nice open space and a dog patio will soon be added as well.
There seem to be more things on this menu that I would repeatedly order (next time I will get the Bacon Cheeseburger or the Bleu Cheese burger) and for the Yelpers who bitch about parking, this spot has its own plus plenty on the street which is a Hollywood rarity.
I can see this becoming a late night spot to grab food when you tire of the scene to the north. And if the smog is light and if you get the right seat, you can see the Hollywood sign in the distance.
