English Brewery # 1 – Howling Hops

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As I was paging through a recent All About Beer magazine, I had the thought that for the months of January and February, I would cherry pick breweries to feature from the pages. And this month, we will head to England and peek in at three breweries over there.

We start at Howling Hops which probably makes gruits. Not.

Howling Hops started in the basement of the Cock Tavern. They outgrew the brew cave quickly. Brewing over a 100 different beers can speed that process and moved to an old brick warehouse nearby in the lovely sounding town of Hackney Wick where they now brew and operate their Tank Bar.

They offer beers mostly under 6% ABV with one beer down at 3%!

Here is what I would have in my first taster tray…..

Riding Ale 3.0% – gotta start with the low end and see what it is like
Running Beer 4.0% – slowly work up the beer ladder
Howling Pils 4.6% – to compare against the ales
Ruby Red 5.2% – because me mum’s name is Ruby
IPA 7.5% – finish up with the biggest beer on the list.

I am also intrigued by their Pale XX and the Rye Wit as well.

In the Tap Lines for February 2016

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We head into the second month of the year and more beer around the L.A. area. And a trip to Portland as well to do some new brewery hunting.

~ e-visits to three breweries from the pages of All About Beer magazine (again, but from England) including Brew By Numbers, Tiny Rebel Brewing and Howling Hops.
~ special featured reviews of beers from Founders Brewing of Michigan + a pair of Gose’s
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads a novel co-written by Laker legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 108 covers the topic, “Snowbound”

Here are two events to get your February started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) February 4th – Bell’s Hopslam release at the Surly Goat
2) February – 10th – Bells’ Hopslam at the Glendale Tap