Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
The Non-Alcoholic beer options just keep expanding for those who want craft but without the ABV. There is a new N/A producer up in the Thousand Oaks area by the cheeky name of SoBear Brewing. Get it?
Currently they have a Hazy Pale Ale out in cans and coming soon are a Guava Sour and an American Light Lager. Though I am starting to wonder why it isn’t the big imperial stouts or DIPAs that aren’t getting the treatment.
I am onboard with Tiki bars even though I am more of a bourbon and gin and not rum pirate. But Radiant Beer Co. has a interesting rum barrel detour…
“Tropical Detour – Rum Barrel-aged Strong Ale – 14.9% ABV. We chose a strong ale that spent almost 2.5 years in Barbados Rum Barrels and blended it with other strong ales aged in Grand Marnier and Chartreuse Barrels. Then, we conditioned the blend on roasted almonds, limes, grapefruit, and oranges with a kiss of cinnamon. The result is an eloquent equatorial extravaganza of tropical flavors housed in a deep brown pour with a touch of tan foam. The aromas are complex, reminiscent of a tiki cocktail with emphasis on notes of citric acidity and rich rum, with some lingering impressions of dark rum and toasty, nutty accents. Take a trip to the tropics; a pinky-up visit to your favorite island.”
Right now there are two breweries that I can say with confidence can nail a Quad IPA. El Segundo Brewing and Pure Project. The latter has teamed with Bottle Logic for a long but funny named QIPA.
“”A Quad IPA? In This Economy?!” emerges with a pale yellow haze, a hugely tropical aromatic output, and a bullish 12% ABV. Our diversified portfolio of Nectaron, Strata, and Citra Cryo hops lends flavors of grapefruit, pineapple, and stone fruit to the palate’s balance sheet, where bold malt sweetness tempers the punchy ABV and eases the hop bitterness into a delicious depreciation.”
Offshoot Beer Co. started as more or less the hoppy side of the Bruery but they are low key adding in lagers like Viaje and now a Czech-Style Pilsner with the punny name of Czeched Out…
I hope you have been keeping up with the frenetic pace of One Batch Dispatches from Stone Brewing, cause another one is coming! With two New Zealand hops in tow.
Angel City is pushing the Arnold Palmer name to the breaking point with Farmhold Palmer, a barrel-aged sour ale with tea & lemon. I am a sucker for beers with tea so I will have to find this one for summer.
Three Weavers is joining the DIPA 19.2 crowd with Gigaton filled with El Dorado and Chinook hops for “bright & dank flavors of pineapple, stone fruit and grapefruit.”
August is filled with lots of, shall we say, interesting posts coming from me. Stay tuned in for the two daily posts for monthly features like where I pair beer with books, podcasts and eve sports stories.
~ e-visits to (3) breweries from around the United States
~ special featured reviews of beers from around the country
~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 The Sullivanians by Alexander Stille
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Who Shat at the Wedding
~ Sports & A Beer returns with bad Womens World Cup vibes
~ 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.
Monrovia’s Hop Secret has a new summertime brew out now, Hop Springs, a West Coast Lager.
Described as “a crisp and clean lager with a burst of West Coast hop flavors at ABV: 5.5%.”
We head to Astoria for a super limited coastal coolship combo of Fort George Brewing and Brothers Cascadia Brewing. Diamond Rain…
“In 2019, Brothers Cascadia Brewing parked their coolship in our courtyard and we brewed a collaborative wort, inoculating it with local wild yeasts and bacteria. The beer sat in oak in our cellar for over three years before we split it into two batches, adding copious amounts of Blackcap Raspberries to one, and blending both with a one-year-old mixed culture saison. We bottle conditioned the two blends for almost a year and now, four years after the initial brew, Diamond Rain is ready to fall.”