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Cool TV show callback from Smog City Brewing with Krieks & Geeks.
Here is the description of this Cellar Series beer, “This oak-aged saison is all about fruit! Deliciously crisp, dry, and tart is the name of the game in this 5.6% beauty. Our little nod to fruity lambic beers from Belgium, we incorporated heaps of Balaton and Montmorency cherries to sweeten up and balance out the saison funk.”
Built in 1903, the Masonic Temple on Pine Avenue in Long Beach will (fingers crossed) become Altar Society Brewing later this year. Brewery in the basement. Coffee shop and restaurant at street level and then more space in the floors above. More news when opening is closer. This project has been in the works since 2020 and was obviously slowed down even more than the usual for a brewery.
This summer will bring a new little brewery to Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, Wild Parrot Brewing.
You can hear more about the brewery over at the Experimental Brewing podcast with Drew Beechum and Denny Conn. Quick points are that the brewery has been a long time in the making and will aim for late July and looks to do more on the lighter side of the beer style spectrum.
Feathered Serpent has jumped from their original location and taking their place is….
Burning Bridge Brewing will take over the space. Headed by Ruben Leon president of the SoCal Cerveceros so it has good pedigree behind it. As usual, follow their social media to learn opening dates.
La Jara Brewing opened yesterday, marking the first brewery in Norwalk. La Jara is headed by partners and co-owners Jason Sullivan, co-head brewer Derek Johnstone, as well as Derek’s dad, Randy Johnstone.
Despite recent losses, LA is a large metropolitan area that still has pockets where local beer is still absent.
I will plan a visit and report back on the beer and tasting room.
Edgar Preciado is making the leap from collaboration beers with breweries, most notably the late Indie Brewing, to his own brewery connected with Border X Brewing in Bell…
Beer Thug Life Brewing. There is a WeFunder underway so you can donate to the life.
For those who wondered what would happen when Modern Times shuttered locations, well, one space will see new life. Actually a third regeneration, when Modern Times PDX (formerly The Commons Brewery) will become Living Haüs Beer Co.
Founded by former brewers at Modern Times Beer and the highly regarded pFriem Family Brewers. Now wait to see if the other locations can find new brewing life as well. Most notably for my purposes, the narrow DTLA space that could serve a brewery with some rent money nicely.
Well, not quite done and ready but there is another brewery coming to DTLA in the future. Skyduster Brewing was pointed out to me by Food GPS.
As further news arrives, I will keep you updated.
I am working on a piece to submit to Beer Paper LA about Benny Boy that will have backstory, impressions and big words so in this post, let’s talk about the beer and cider that was pouring.
I had six of the seven opening week beers. Poured straight from the tank by the way. I saved the IPA for a follow up visit.
I was most taken by the top two on the list. Mexican styled lagers are, at times, purposefully plain. Lincoln Heights Lager is light yellow in color so I thought it might fall into that category as well. But it had a nice spice (almost rye) as well as a deep corn flavor to it. The Other Lover is a low ABV delight as well with a lemon verbena note and almost easier to find your glass empty as the lager. I also want to mention the Midnight Swim which is a nice example of a Belgian Dark Strong ale.
Cross the courtyard over to the cider (and natural wine) building where you will find higher ABVs than in the brewery. These, I tasted all of and I came away very impressed by the two dry ciders at the top of the list especially. You could instantly taste the apple, peel and all in the single apple version and the double apple, you could taste both. In my experience the actual apple is sometimes covered by carbonation or other flavors. Not so here. Even the pineapple and pomegranate versions were decidedly apple forward, to the point that I wanted less apple.
This is a strong opening. I don’t say that often. Beer fans will be found here this year.
It looks like a brewery is on progress for Pasadena. Social media shows a bit of life to Driven Beer.
Automotive themed from the looks of it. Joining Upshift and All Season in search of car hop pubs and beer names. More to follow.