A start date has been published for another Long Beach brewery, Ambitious Ales will start on the 16th of February. Plan accordingly.
Post-Valentine Ambition
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.
Being Fickle
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.
Steady as She Goes
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.
1st Visit – Smog City / SteelCraft
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.
Rasselbock
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.
TM
Trademark Brewing recently signed the lease for a space in Long Beach according to a post that I saw recently on Facebook. (always trust Facebook, right?)
Set a Google alert, or have your calendar on your phone ping to remind you to check back on the progress.
Developing Beer
It is still dreadfully hard to find just the right space for a brewery. Enough space, decent rent costs and not in a neighborhood that is too scary or off the Waze grid.
But there are developers out there who are searching for tenants of the craft beer variety. Case in point, this possibility off the Gold Line in Monrovia…
The original home of Monrovia Lumber and Hardware is in the planning stage of “building into an artisan food, wine, and beer village known as, “The Lumberyard at Myrtle Avenue.” Most neighborhoods and cities in Los Angeles have sprouted condos left and right and Monrovia is no different with 1000+ units that would be in walking distance.
There will be “27,000 square feet of entitled brewery, wine, and food space.” This will also include courtyard space as well. And it has the backing of the city who have re-zoned the area around the Metro stop.
Check out more HERE.
…or this proposed bay side concession in Long Beach…
Down in craft beer mecca, Long Beach the Mayor is proposing revamping beach concession stands that could also include craft beer. Smog City has already been lured to Bixby Knolls. Would another brewery want to open a satellite taproom near the waves?
Now if Glendale could set-up some beer establishments in the 900 (slightly exaggerated) condos in Downtown Glendale.
1st Visit – Ballast Point Long Beach
The northernmost outpost of the Constellation backed Ballast Point Brewing has been out on the pier in Long Beach for quite awhile now. I finally lyfted out to the ocean to check out the menu and location.
And it is impressive. BP has maximized the amount of water view seating around three different bars on two levels. The calming peaceful water views are prime territory. You probably have to grab them when the brewery/restaurant opens the doors. At 2pm on a Saturday with not much in sports going on, there was nary a seat to be found, especially outside.
Next tip, from a one time visitor, is to station yourself at or near the Main bar. You will notice on the menu letters in front of the beer names. They designate where the beer is pouring. Notice all the “M”s? and not as many of the “U”s and “P”s.
So, you are now there early and at the main bar. What to order? Well, readers of this blog know of my issues with “fruited” beers which BP seems to love hard. But there are a good many choices and more exotic beers to choose from. I went with a Nitro Biere de Garde, Azote. The style worked well with the nitro and made for an interesting beer that never got boring. Tangential Entry a Nut Brown with rum chips would have been my second choice. There was a gose and sours to choose from as well as a cask of Sculpin with a single hop addition.
It is a potent mix of maritime views and beer.
ONS – Now in two Locations!
The famed One Night Stand from Beer Belly is now going on in two places?
The first ONS of the year (TODAY) now begins with a kick-off event featuring a taplist of the participating 2017 breweries.
Taplist:
• Smog City (special mystery beer)
• Noble Ale Works Crowler Phil IPA
• El Segundo BBA Standard Crude
• Beachwood Tovarish (Elida Coffee variant)
• Bottle Logic Darkstar November
• Monkish Mind of a Peach (ONS Collaboration Series #1)
• Phantom Carriage BA Broadacres w Peaches
• AleSmith Speedway Stout w/ Coconut & Vanilla
• Highland Park Brewery Good Green
• The Bruery Wineification III
• The Bruery White Chocolate
• Allagash TBD
Start scheduling according to K-Town or LBC….
The 2017 Lineup KTOWN:
• Kickoff (1/28)
• Noble Ale Works (2/15)
• El Segundo Brewing (3/15)
• Allagash (4/19)
• Beachwood (5/17)
• Bottle Logic (6/21)
• Monkish (7/19)
• Phantom Carriage (8/16)
• AleSmith (9/20)
• Highland Park Brewery (10/18)
• Smog City (11/15)
• The Bruery/Terreux (12/20)
The 2017 Lineup Long Beach:
• Modern Times (1/25)
• Eagle Rock (2/22)
• The Bruery/Terreux (3/22)
• Craftsman (4/26)
• Mumford (5/24)
• Three Weavers (6/28)
• Chapman Crafted (7/26)
• Good Beer (8/23)
• Dry River (9/27)
• State Brewing (10/25)
• Brouwerij West (11/22)
• Lost Abbey (12/27)
Anyone strong enough to hit all 24 events?