Yasuke

Glendale’s Brewyard Beer Co. has been putting out some interesting lagers of late with Asian ingredients, add to that list a black lager with Matcha.

I do not know how that potent green tea flavor will pair with a dark malt profile but I am down to try a pint. Plus the brooding label is cool.

In the Tap Lines for November 2022

Halloween just passed, Turkey Day a’comin quick and before you can blink, Christmas. All of that means holiday beers and winter warmers and IPAs dressed up cold for the snow. Plus, this…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Brewseum Breweries

~ special featured reviews of the Sierra Nevada Bourbon Barrel Bigfoot Barleywine

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Endless Night by Agatha Christie

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Briefcase featuring Casey Holdahl

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

Lighting

When I was a kid, my soccer team was named the Winterhawks probably in a homage to the minor league hockey team, the Portland Winterhawks. Fast forward to 2022 and the WHL Winterhawks have partnered with Backwoods Brewing Company partner on a West Coast IPA with the great name, Light the Lamp.  If it was a soccer beer for my old team, it would be Wait for VAR.

A Smog City Duo

Smog City Brewing has been a big proponent of 1% for the Planet and their next beer in community impact series benefits The Bay Foundation.  It is Forgotten Forest Hazy IPA.  Buy a 4-pack to help the environment.

As much as charity beers are my favorites, Smog has another beer coming soon that intrigues me even more, ” The creative masterminds (mad scientists?) behind our Wood Cellar collection of beers have done it again! With Dubbel Old Fashioned, our latest Wood Cellar beer, they’ve pushed the boundaries on what a beer can be.”

Violet

You will not see a lot of milkshake on this blog but this one from Stone Brewing has extra interest behind it…

“Stone Violetta Iris Mikshake IPA This beer is named for a breast cancer survivor Violetta Iris Dirkmaat, the mother-in-law of our Senior Manager of Brewing & Innovation Steve Gonzalez. It’s pleasantly sweet (like her!) with an unexpected combination of vanilla, blood orange and raspberry, and a lesser-known New Zealand hop variety called Moutere. Raise a glass of this rose-colored beer to the strength of survivors, and Violeta’s motto: Volharden.”

Replicant

Well, not only was the Arroyo Parkway Shell station (yes, a gas station) a low key haunt for beer geeks looking for Bottle Logic and Great Notion beers, as well as other rarities but now they are getting in on their own brand, Replicant…

I like the crazy (and expensive) idea to have a brewery out of state send brewers to replicate a beer here in California. Long term might be more of a seasonal series. But if it doesn’t sell out, I would love to try.

There will be more replicants coming.

P.S. – You might also look for the Bottle Logic / Shell collaboration too, Fuel Up is a dark lager with Ethiopian wate gogugu coffee.

Petri Dish

Science.  A large part of beer making.  Which is why the name and label of this new Long Beach Beer Lab beer is so great. King of the Petri Dish is a West Coast IPA collaboration with King Harbor Brewing using Citra incognito, cryo and mosaic Hops. 

Here is the beer description, “This experiment is super fresh with aromatics of grapefruit, wine must, and diesel dankness. On the palate flavors of white bread, grapefruit, orange, smooth bitterness, crisp carbonation and a clean dry finish.”