Add Lawless Brewing to your brewery anniversary schedule as the North Hollywood brewery is set to have a two day celebration for their 3rd anniversary…
Three Lawless Years
Spookee Coffee
I am a fan of seasonal flair added to rotational beers and Basic Witch from Lawless Brewing is just that. Taking their Latte Golden Coffee Stout and PSL’ing into a nitro Halloween treat.
Two Lawless Years
The end of April will mark the observance of the 2nd Anniversary for NoHo’s Lawless Brewing.
It Really Does
I am quite surprised that this beer name hasn’t been used way more, especially here in Los Angeles, I guess that travel from the Santa Clarita area to NoHo can generate it for sure.
Traffic Sucks is the first collaboration between Lucky Luke and Lawless. It “is a snappy hop forward lager. Brewed with Strata hops, this golden clear lager is bursting with passion fruit, apricot and strawberry notes along with hints of the hop plant’s party animal cousin (we’ll let you figure that one out).”
One Law
Lawless Brewing has hit the one year mark in North Hollywood…
…with the exciting news of their first barrel-aged sour beer. If you haven’t visited this would be a good time to start.
From NoHo to Van Nuys
Traffic trumps all in L.A. but generally, North Hollywood to Van Nuys is an easy ride and the breweries representing each valley city have joined forces for, what else? A hazy.
But I do like the evocative artwork on the label and the bottom band that is carrying the info. Might make a good Ho-ho-ho gift.
Lawless Brewing – Take 2
I have checked out NoHo’s Lawless Brewing on opening weekend and now was the tine to give a second visit.
This was on the tab of GoTab which is an online ordering system that Lawless as well as Firestone Walker in Venice uses for contactless orders.
(I promise to talk about the two beers I sampled as well)
You simply point your phones camera at the QR code and you are whisked to the website to order. For Lawless, it also included the food vendor. You choose your beers, enter your credit card and phone number for texts and wait for your beers to arrive.
That is the optimum outcome. I played a bit dumb (not that hard for me) and had one of the GoTab people help me order. That order never came. A good fifteen minutes went by before another GoTab rep ordered on her phone and then my beers came. I noticed that food orders were taking quite some time too.
It comes down to people in the end. This is supposed to supplant going up to the bar yourself or having waitstaff but having to explain the system repeatedly or having people going to the bar to find their order doesn’t really save time for the people. I think it would be more advantageous to have a person walking the order line talking about the beers and being general host help.
I do think this technology is probably coming but for now, it is not going to be a reason for me to go to a brewery or return to one.
Sampled
Dirk Kirkin Barrel-Aged Scotch Ale – nice spice character to this. Good balance of barrel notes to base beer
Bonjour Saison – a good first effort at a Saison. I think it could use a bit more ester quality to it.
1st Visit – Lawless Brewing in North Hollywood
The end of April saw the opening of Lawless Brewing and I quickly hopped over to check it out for a first visit.
The warehouse space outside doesn’t hint at the silver, metallic two floor space inside. There is the usual bar and indoor seating but because of the height it doesn’t seem constrained. Personally, I hope the mezzanine seating is opened because you can get a nice view of the brewing area and have some people watching.
The beer list was split in thirds by pilsner/lager, hoppy and stout. Between myself and beer buddy Richard, we tasted at least one from each category and found the light beers the best of the group. I voted the Mexican Lager winner with the Bohemian pilsner second over the West Coast IPA.
The time we visited issues arose for both their QR code menu and ordering system as well as their credit card system but the staff was friendly and gave updates and were flexible which made all the difference. That is key to return visits which is also helped by a new Single Hop Strata pils that is in the pipeline.
The 27th Will Be Lawless
Looks like Lawless Brewing has settled on an opening date for their NoHo brewery…
Mark your calendar and expect some beer reviews when I can get some to-go to safely taste at home.
Without Law
Well, I must have been asleep at the switch. I totally missed the Indie Go Go campaign for Lawless Brewing Co. which will be taking over a movie equipment rental house in North Hollywood. The brewery will open, sometime in this eventful year and mark the first brewery in this part of Los Angeles.