Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
I know you are probably tired of Festival info by now but for those in SoCal who are looking into going to the California Craft Summit Beer Festival, this brewery LIST should be perused.
And here is my choice of breweries to check out that day…
Bike Dog, Burgeon, Moksa Brewing, Seabright, Seaward, Temescal and Urban Roots have me the most interested.
Tomorrow is the day that you can get your tickets to the Long Beach 2019 version of the California Craft Beer Summit festival. 170+ Breweries in attendance on Saturday, Sept. 14 at Marina Green Park in Long Beach
Early Bird Prices on Sale May 14:
General Admission: $45.00 (After July 19, prices increases to $60.00)
VIP Ticket: $60.00 (After July 19, price increases to $75)
Feel like I am close to knocking out all the new Long Beach breweries as I visited Ambitious Ales recently.
Ambitious Ales is located in the former home of Tuttle Cameras. The concrete floor is offset by the wood striped chairs and bar and the beams high above in the ceiling. Good use of a cool splash of primary colors opposite the taps. There are quirky signage touches and the requisite barrel display.
The beer menu signs are classy and simple if a skosh too small. Would have been good to have some paper menus around to use. I like the bright white backdrop for the unadorned taps and the wordless logo on the glassware as well.
Fleurs
Heavy on the chamomile but real nice. The lavender pokes through but not so much the strawberry. Mocktail adjacent
I Like Tuttles
Simple Saison with California grown wheat. Has the Belgian character right. Clove and tiny banana note.
Hopped on Phonics
Big grapefruit notes. Real nice aroma. Quite hoppy for a session IPA
I have 1st visited a few new breweries this year but this is the first one that has really impressed me. All three beers were excellent, the staff were helpful and they had cold brew coffee and a soda option as well.
For those who haven’t heard the exciting news, the California Craft Beer Summit will be held in Long Beach this year. The most outward facing portion of the Summit is the festival featuring breweries from all over the state but, even more fun than that, at least for me, are the seminars.
And over the weekend the schedule was released, HERE. You can get tickets for one day or both or both + festival. But if you want to take your beer journey a little deeper, this is a good start. Tickets on sale in May.
A start date has been published for another Long Beach brewery, Ambitious Ales will start on the 16th of February. Plan accordingly.
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.
Long Beach is getting more cider. In addition to Great Society and their strong selection of ciders there will be Ficklewood Ciderworks sometime in mid-2019. The Ciderworks comes from Joe Farrier and Stefan Enjem. It will be pouring at 700 E Broadway on the eastside of Downtown.
Ficklewood will be focused on the dry or semi-dry ciders. More to come when the open date gets closer.
Today, on the BSP Blog, we head to Long Beach to highlight new goings on.
First up is Steady Brew Beer Co. which just had a soft opening that slid by my radar on July 6th.
Check their social media to see what hours are or will be so that you can plan your visit.
It took me far too long to finally make my first visit to the 2nd location of Smog City Brewing, SteelCraft.
My first thought as I entered the space was that my credit card was probably glad that I didn’t have a space like this too close to me.
Having the four food groups of coffee, bacon, pizza and beer made choosing food and then matching Smog City beer to it hard.
In the end, the pizza was a no brainer with Death by Hops Triple IPA and then followed that up with a lemon and raspberry waffle with a German pils.
The layout and shade and choice of food vendors was perfect. Now what to pair with ramen when I pay my next visit.
https://www.rasselbocklb.com/
This month, i gave a lukewarm review of one German tinged restaurant only to find out that there is another down in Long Beach and from a quick perusal of their tap and bottle list, it seems a little better.
I saw the following strong choices:
Kloster Andechs Dunkelweizen
Brouwrij Rodenbach Grand Cru
Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock
Though it is hard to break out of the Beer Belly, Beachwood, Congregation core. This might be worth the trip.