Review – J Wakefield at Beer Belly

Beer Belly has been reaching further for their One Night Stand program this year as evidenced by Florida brewery J Wakefield pouring last Wednesday.

Here are my first impressions of their beer…

DFPF Berliner (Florida Weisse) Pours a bright fuschia color.  Fruit juice aroma.  Quite tart.  A bit of wheat peeks through at the end. A bit of a kool aid experience. 

The Man with a Golden Churro – Quite the simalcrum of a churro.  I taste burnt caramel.  Burnt high ABV at the end. My favorite of the three tasted.

Brewery Royale – very Heavy tasting. Lots of coconut.  They must have gotten a bulk sale of the stuff it was in every beer. A spice hit but did not scream cinnamon.

My cohorts for the night both did not like the El Jefe. Something about the coconut mixed with the clove that created some weird faces on them.

Tioga Sequoia at Beer Belly

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.

Review – Mind of a Fruitcake from Smog City & Beer Belly

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.

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?

ONS – Firestone + Barrelworks

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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 WeisseKrieky Bones • Bretta Rose (bottles) • Velvet Merkin • Luponic Distortion • Nitro Merlin • Easy Jack • Double Jack • Opal • Pivo Pils

ONS in Koreatown

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.
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There is nary a clinker in the bunch but the Highland Park and Barrelwork nights intrigue me the most.