Tag: Liberation Brewing

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Un-Liberated

Sad news to report, Liberation Brewing in Bixby Knolls has called it a day.

Here is the info from their social media post, “We are closing operations at 3630 Atlantic on April 30th. The financial impacts of COVID were significant and impacted our ability to negotiate a lease extension.

Thanks to all our employees past and present, brewers & breweries, local orgs and beer clubs, friends, family, and beer drinkers like you. You made it such a brilliant ride. Much love.”

I would suggest buying some of their bottles, yes bottles, of some of their Belgian-styled beers, they are quite fun and out of the normal for L.A. breweries.

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Both At Once

Perfect timing for the name of this new Saison from Liberation Brewing in Bixby Knolls, Cautiously Optimistic. Below is the story behind it…

“Loosely inspired by one of my favorite saisons, this one features Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner Malt, German Spelt Malt, and Sterling from the Pacific Northwest. I used my favorite Belgian saison strain and fermented this beer as dry as I could.

It kinda smells like what I imagine walking through a field of wheat smells like. I get a little hay, flower petals, and light pings of coriander, and ocean breeze minerality. The beer is delicate and super refreshing. I know dissolved CO2 is dissolved CO2, but Belgian yeast really does some residual magic in the bottle versus force carbing and serving it on draft.”

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A Book & A Beer -Adjustment Day

I almost put Adjustment Day down multiple times. Pretty much every time that Palahniuk mentioned Fight Club as a meta reference. The central revolutionary thesis is fine and probably plays well to a certain crowd who want to burn Trump down or split away from the 1/2 of the country they don’t agree with.

But I thought the idea that a country needs to cull itself of excess testosterone (i.e. males) to keep the country moving to be a much more interesting tack than the whole “adjustment day”.

I also wasn’t really super keen on any of the characters. I am fine with no central lead or an anti-hero but there was no character that I could really follow all the way through the through-line, as it were. Especially through all the spasms of violence that occur.

So, I can’t recommend this one but I can recommend some beers that would pair with it, if you are intrigued by the book or a Palahniuk completist.

Ninkasi Brewing – Day of the Red
Eugene gets name checked in as one of the centers of revolution so go with this horror themed beer from Ninkasi.

New Realm Brewing – Hoplandia

Part of the book is set in Atlanta, and considering that and the name of New Realm, I had to pick this bitter beer.

Closer to home, the also aptly named Liberation Brewing in Bixby Knolls has an Autonomy Amber that would be a good choice as well.

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1st Visit – Liberation Brewing

I like to sneak in an end of the year brewery visit and this year I took advantage of the holiday light traffic and pointed towards Liberation Brewing in Long Beach for a 1st visit.

The taproom was pretty quiet when I entered so I had my pick of seats at the bar.  There was weird mural-type art around the edges with Star Wars characters the ones that I recognized. Then in another seating area were hung B&W prints on one wall presumably of early Long Beach.

Good music was playing and the staff was quick and attentive in getting my order and my two flights to me.  Each flight was 3 for $8. The beer descriptors were clever with at least on in-joke spotted amongst the 12 beers on tap. I thought the bomb shaped flight paddle was a good touch as well.

On to the beers that I sampled:

Diane – Hallertau Blanc always catches my eye. Pale with a nice light bitterness, light lemon and malt comes through
Roy G Biv – Strata Hop is becoming a go-to as well. Hazy IPA really with a great aroma aroma. Bright and lightly bitter. Little cat pee to it Concord grape
Father’s Shout – milk stout well done. Solid. Creaminess was good
Simon Saison Peach – not much rye. Peach was a little too candy for me. My least favorite of the group
Red Rose Dunkel – good to see a dunkelweizen on the menu. this version was sweet smelling but flavor is sharp and bright. Could be a skosh heavier malt wise
Maddy– new hazy pale nice. A little sharp. Fruit punch. Not sold on the aroma.