Tag: Jon Carpenter

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On a Boat


Carnival Cruise line has partnered up with the Boston Beer Company (more specifically the Alchemy & Science division) to add a brewery on-board its new Carnival Vista vessel.

The A&S Key West-inspired bar, the Red Frog Pub, will be the marketed lead but beers (and the godawful hard soda trend) from Concrete Beach in Miami and Coney Island from New York as well as our local Angel City will be on tap as well.

Friend of the blog and Alchemy & Science brewmaster Jon Carpenter, will be “serving as a consultant and helping to develop the pub’s recipes, Carpenter also helped the cruise company recruit and train Red Frog’s head brewer.”

When the Vista sets sail on its maiden voyage on May 1, the available beers will be the Thirsty Frog Port Hoppin’ IPA, Thirsty Frog Caribbean Wheat, and Frisky Frog Java Stout.

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What’s an Adjunct?

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Wanna get some book learnin’?  Well then sign up for this class at Eagle Rock!  And you can find out why adjuncts (when used correctly) can bring a whole new side to beer.  And Jon will have all sorts of knowledge to drop on you.

“Beer School is in session! This month’s class is all about Adjuncts. Come learn all about this funny/fancy word for the “stuff that you add to beer outside of the 4 main ingredients (water, malt, hops & yeast)” from Jon Carpenter (you might know him from his time at Dogfish Head, Golden Road or now Alchemy and Science). All that experience has lead him to brew many different styles of beers with every ingredient under the rainbow. Find out what adjuncts work well for beer and what additions are a totally bust. Taste, learn and enjoy this highly knowledge friend of Eagle Rock Brewery who’s excited to share what he knows and is a rare person to sit down with in this industry.
The class will take place in the Eagle Rock Brewery taproom on Tuesday 7/20/13 from 7pm to 9pm. As usual, the taproom will be open at 6p for those registered in the class to come in to pickup the course materials and enjoy a pre-class beer. Cost will be $30 per person.”

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Golden Road – the first batches

I had the good fortune to sample the inaugural beers from the new Golden Road Brewing last night at 38 Degrees Alehouse and I am pleased to report that I thoroughly enjoyed both.

I started with the Point the Way IPA. I have to admit that I was concerned due to the brewer’s Dogfish past and the fact that I am not a big Dogfish IPA fan. (I know it’s heresy) But this was a solid effort. Especially considering it’s new equipment and the first batch. It poured a dark orange with a big head on it and the aroma was pure pine. The flavor stayed that way too and for a 5% abv, I got some heat off of it too. Once it warmed up a little some citrus kicked in as well to really round the flavors off.

The hefeweizen also was helped by warming up. And again it was citrus that crept onto the palate. But this citrus had a candied quality to it. And again it really balanced out the big banana flavors and the clove spiciness. This is a great example of the hefe style with a little twist that adds to it instead of overwhelming.

Overall this was a great start for Golden Road. I was expecting some work to be done but these are really good on their own right out of the gate.

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Golden Road Brewing

As if running a successful bar in Burbank wasn’t enough.

As if partnering on the ColLAboration events wasn’t enough.

As if opening a huge 65 tap bar wasn’t enough.

Well now Tony Yanow is really going big. And this will be huge for the LA craft beer community. Last night, I along with other craft beer writers got the sneak peak at the facility and more importantly the team behind Golden Road Brewing.

Jon, Meg and Tony

Jon Carpenter (brewmaster) is originally from San Diego but you may recognize him from the late lamented Brewmasters show because he was most recently at Dogfish Head.

Meg Gill (co-founder and Presidnet) comes from two brewing hot spots Boulder and Oskar Blue’s and San Francisco and Speakeasy Ales and Lagers. Combined with Tony they have taken over three distinctively colored buildings next to the train tracks in Atwater Village (on the dividing line of LA and Glendale).

There will be a pub in the yellow building. A barrel aging facility in the red and the blue building will hold the brewing operations.

The styles are yet to be determined. Too early in the development stage for that but don’t be surprised to see a hoppy California style brew. And it will be canned! The line has been purchased. Obviously with a barrel room their will be aged beers done but again too early to give definitive answers as to what kind though the word sour was bandied about.

If I can be corny for a moment, craft beer in LA looks golden right now.