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Coming up on the 16th, the Koreatown Beer Belly will be hosting Our Mutual Friend, the Denver brewery, not Janice from accounting.
For this special Thursday edition of their One Night Stand (#ONS) the following will be pouring…
1. Times Arrow (IPA)
2. Inner Light (Mosaic Pale Ale)
3. Riot of Color (Mango Lime Berliner Weiss)
4. Wicket (Belgian Wit)
5. All Colorado (IPA)
6. Weirding Way (Brett Saison) bottle pour
7. Gratitude Four (Pink Guava Saison) bottle pour
I haven’t talked much about the Beer Belly One Night Stands because I missed a few too many last year and also because there were usual suspects on tap. No less great beers pouring but nothing “newsworthy”, until the February ONS with Tioga-Sequoia who brought some stouts with them.
I started off with the Morning Rush, their base Milk Stout that lends a beer name theme to many of their other beers. It had a nice smoke edge to it that really balanced out the sweetness.
Then I followed that with Cake Rush which adds coconut to the mix. Our waitress suggested it so I followed her lead. Coconut has gotten a bad rap from me in the past because the sweetness is usually too much. But I have had some good ones recently and this one is included. The balance from that first beer was still evident in the second which had enough sweet to work with the malt.
Follow Beer Belly on social media to see who will be featured in Koreatown on the third Wednesday of each month and in Long Beach every fourth Wednesday.
Thanks to Beer Belly ONS Ambassador Rich, I got the chance to crack open the special Smog City and Beer Belly collaboration, Mind of a Fruitcake.
This is a serious fruitcake beer. I can see that people might be divided like they are with the actual doorstop of a holiday treat.
Cinnamon is really prevalent here along with a sticky sweetness. This cola colored ale was aged in wine barrels (red) but that is completely faded to the deep background as the quad and spice take center stage. On a side note, The first “Mind of…” beer felt under peach-ed. Now this one is bold as all get out.
There are some beers that can be drunk with a multitude of foods but this one screams to be paired with dessert. I keep thinking of gingerbread cookies. Something spicy but sharp to contrast against the viscosity of the beer.
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?
Now, that I have talked up Firestone Walker so much, you may be wanting to have some of their beers. You could go to Venice and the Propagator restaurant but if you wanted something tonight, well Beer Belly has you covered with a One Night Stand (ONS) that spans sours to hops to Nitro and the year 2015.
Check out the list below: (My picks are highlighted)
2015 Parabola • Sucaba • Bretta Weisse • Krieky Bones • Bretta Rose (bottles) • Velvet Merkin • Luponic Distortion • Nitro Merlin • Easy Jack • Double Jack • Opal • Pivo Pils
I dare you to not think about hitting up all 11 One Night Stands at Beer Belly in 2016. Lots of good choices for a tap-takeover.
There is nary a clinker in the bunch but the Highland Park and Barrelwork nights intrigue me the most.
I am loath to single out one of twelve excellent tap-takeovers (sorry, One Night Stands) but the Monkish Brewing visit to Beer Belly tomorrow night is one to be at.
I consider myself up-to-date and I still haven’t had many of these beers. By many, I mean most. I might just do a side-by-side “Kisses” taste test. Or I may head to the Shadowboxing Dubbel. Or…well you get the picture.
We got a bit of rain here in L.A. Enough to tamp down one fire but boy we could use a respite from the humidity and heat so that the wider spectrum of beer can be enjoyed instead of just lawnmower beers. But enough gloomy weather talk, a new brewery opened in San Fernando at the tail end of July and it will be reviewed this month along with….
~ e-visits to three breweries in Idaho. No potato beers here. Just Payette, Sawtooth and Portneuf beer.
~ special reviews of beers from just outside L.A. from places like Santa Barbara, Claremont and Temecula
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ Beer-centric podcast review, Strange Brews from WBEZ in Chicago, (also home to This American Life)
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 102 will converge bloggers onto a single topic, this month it is the future landscape of beer
Here are two events to get your August started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) August 7th – Brew at the Zoo
2) August 19th – Phantom Carriage One Night Stand at Beer Belly
In 2014, I think I hit 10 or 11 of the Beer Belly One Night Stands and this year, they have another killer line-up of local breweries coming to Koreatown…
And it all kicks off tomorrow night!
As if the One Night Stands (and the videos that come with them) were not enough. Now Beer Belly is adding a little extra something to sweeten the deal…
“A Gift: We want to thank those of you who make it out to our One Night Stands. Like, REALLY thank you. Those of you who make it to 10 of the 12 events next year will receive a special thank you package. We don’t want to reveal the contents, or overhype what it is….but we think you’ll be pretty surprised.
How to Qualify: Come out to 10 out of 12 One Night Stands next year. We’ll set up a spot at the bar to take a picture to show that you were here. Go ahead and upload that picture to our Facebook album or email it to us at drink@beerbellyla.com”
