Costa Mesa, CA. adds another brewery to their list with today’s opening of Gunwhale Brewery on Randolph Avenue. (They also have a cheeky “About Us” section on their website.
1st Visit – Bruery Terreux
Before July turned into August, I made my way to the second Bruery location, Terreux. There will be more on my visit on Thursday over at Food GPS but here are some photos and tidbits.
There is an impressive list of beers and they still have tap room to do more (if the wanted to go obscenely big). My favorite was the sloe gin inspired Imperial Cabinet collaboration with Jester King of Texas.
The amount of barrels here is amazing which makes the choice for where to sit hard. You can grab a table inside and look at what is aging in the puncheons or go outside to their lovely patio and relax.
They have an indoor order counter and an outdoor one as well. Something L.A. should be doing more of. It is a great spot to order the taster tray and compare and contrast what different yeast, barrels and fruit bring to beer. Including Yumberry.
Holiday Ale # 3 – Fugue State
We head to Orange County for a wintry Russian Imperial Stout from Barley Forge Brewing in Costa Mesa. There is also a barrel-aged version aged in Hi-West Bourbon barrels.
Session # 97 – Up & Coming
What are the up-and-coming beer locations that you see as the next major players in the beer scene? That is the topic from Our Tasty Travels.
“For this month’s session, I’m asking you all to share which locations you see as the beer destinations that everyone will be talking about in the next few years. Where are the beer scenes just emerging, or coming into their own? Some may be brand new locations. While others may be old-world destinations seeing a renaissance into the world of new craft beer styles. Some may even be locations where familiar names from around the world are planning on setting up shop to bring new styles to old palates.”
Born in Portland, so it would be easy to just be a homer and say Beervana – Munich on the Willamette. So many breweries, so many styles, beer and food pairings everywhere you turn. You could argue with me that they are a major player now or more in the past but I think they will be in the future too.
Reside in Los Angeles, so it would also be easy to nominate The City of Angels. We are growing fast but we are still catching up and though not openly hostile to breweries L.A., nonetheless, is a gauntlet of paperwork and meetings and hearings and more hearings and more paperwork with a couple more hearings tossed into the mix. It ain’t fun and it does discourage the rational from trying to open a brewery within city limits. But what that has encouraged are the cities surrounding city. That is why Torrance is home to five breweries. That is why there are another trio in Long Beach. Agoura Hills has a pair as well.
If I was a soothsayer, I could gamble and guess that if Los Angeles gets a NFL team (or two) that the cities of Carson or Inglewood might become tailgate destinations and boost the beer scene to major player status but the safe bet is that people will be heading south, but not to San Diego, my choice (after my long winded wind-up), is Orange County.
The breweries are opening fast, there is a solid tradition already there, there are gastropubs, bars and restaurants serving and you can get your whales to if your favorite day of the week is Tuesday.
You want a listicle?
Well, here you go, Orange County has:
The two-time L.A. IPA Festival winner in Noble Ale Works.
Golden Road is building a whole new brewery near the Honda Center under the esteemed Victor Novak.
The Bruery will soon split into two when Terreux opens and probably be twice as full in both tasting rooms.
Bottle Logic has barely been open and already has struck gold at the Great American Beer Festival.
One of the few cask festivals in SoCal, FirkFest calls Anaheim home. (Coming March 21st, be there)
Two other additional benefits position Orange County at a beer destination tipping point. There is a certain theme park in the area that means tourists are already heading this way and there will be hotels to stay at when you arrive. Secondly, you can get a representative sampling of both San Diego and Los Angeles beers while you are there, killing three beer birds with one proverbial stone.
Oh and you have the ace in the hole. The blue skies and warm weather of Southern California. That is quite a draw for people who have to endure snow and ice or grey and gloom.
If I may torture an analogy, San Diego may be the big beer brother and L.A. the youngest but Orange County is that quirky middle child. And I believe that more people will be drawn to the beer scenes that are dotting Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and Fullerton.
The Good Beer Company
Barley Forge is now active in Orange County and now Downtown Santa Ana has their own spot for Good Beer. Now that name doesn’t ring for me but if indeed the beer is good, I will let that slide. I look forward to trying their Saison and Pale Wheat beers and their DTSA Citrus Zest IPA sounds like a winner as well.
You can read more about them in this article from Greg Nagel and Jessica McNew
Cismontane + Santa Ana
Cismontane has been bubbling in the background. Bottles are available but I haven’t seen many events or tap handles of late. Now I may have the reason behind that sorta absence.
They are building a tasting room, additional brewing facilities and a DISTILLERY too! The tasting room will be the first online later this month (fingers crossed on my part). The distillery will be second and very well may be the 1st ever in Orange County. And of course, last will be the brewing kettles and fermenters. They always are.
They address is 1409 East Warner in Suite C in Santa Ana, not Rancho Santa Margarita.
Earthy in OC
Exciting news from The Bruery. They are changing up the infrastructure of their beer brands with the new Bruery Terreux (“Earthy Bruery”), a “brand that will focus solely on farmhouse-style ales fermented with wild yeasts as well as oak-aged sour ales. The Bruery’s original brand will rededicate its focus specifically on experimentation with non-wild ales, modern twists on classic styles and aging beer in bourbon and other spirit barrels.”
All brewing operations will remain as is with the exception of the Terreux wort will be then “transported to their own facility a few miles down the road. All fermentation, barrel aging and packaging will take place at this second facility.”
And the two brands will eventually have two separate tasting rooms by 2015 (if all goes to plan).
According to the new website, the “current brands from The Bruery that are brewed with wild yeasts or bacteria such as Saison Rue, Oude Tart, or Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, will be transitioned to Bruery Terreux. The recipes will remain the same, but will be overseen by wild beer specialists and will be bottled under the new branding.”
I am still processing this change and what it means from a marketing and customer standpoint. But at first glance it seems a change more for streamlining brewing operations. I do see that down the road, some loyal customers may be confused that one person who likes Hottenroth and another that likes Burly Gourd may have to drink at separate locations. Unless beers from each arm are made available at each location. That is all speculative though since this is 2014 and things will probably evolve from here.
More news on this change as it becomes available.
Firkfest
This event stands out on the SoCal beer calendar not only because it is the first one but because of the cask ale angle that is the focus of Firkfest. So I was excited to venture out to the OC for some serious beer geekery.
And there was a delightful array of choices curated by Greg Nagel of the OC Beer Blog on hand
I started with Karma Kolsch with kumquats and Masala chai from L.A. Aleworks then moved on to El Segundo’s Hyperion Stout with rum barrel aging. Down to San Diego and Ballast Point for Sculpin with Wai ti hops.
Bootleggers put their infamous Knuckle Sandwich hop bomb in Rum barrels and Belching Beaver mixed peanut butter with Mexican chocolate. Golden Road had an unnamed pale ale on hand. And I had my first beer from Coachella Valley Brewers. A rye pale.
Lemoncello from the Bruery then Last Flight from nearby Valiant followed by an Amarillo Red from Saint Archer and a chile pale from Bottle Logic. And an apricto Citizen from Cismontane.
And I am still not done! Then it was Haven Brewing with a dry hopped IPL and Eagle Rock with a hoppy Creamsicle. Keeping in the fruit theme, Lizards Mouth from Figueroa Mountain had dried tropical fruit. Then I finished with Manzanita’s Oh Nose Brett IPA and a cask of Simcoe Showers from Noble.
I will discuss what my favorites were and what I thought of the festival in general in a post over on Food GPS in a post this Thursday after I have sifted through my notes and reflected a bit more. But I can tell you now that this was a really well run and fun festival for a first outing.
Firkfest
FirkFest, Orange County’s first cask beer festival, is scheduled for March 22, 2014 from noon to 4.
This new addition to the beer fest scene will be located in the Farmers Park in the Anaheim Packing District located at 400 S Anaheim Blvd, (which was recently talked about in BeerPaper LA).
I will let Greg Nagel the driving force behind this and the OC Beer Blog describe the rest, “Firkfest highlights Old World beer serving technique and blends them with new creativity of today’s burgeoning local craft brewers. Thirty Southern Californian breweries will participate in this unique event that pays homage to how beer has been traditionally served for centuries.
The name Firkfest is a spin on the name “Firkin” which is a 10-gallon cask. A cask of beer is traditionally considered “real ale,” meaning the carbonation is supplied naturally from the yeast finishing secondary fermentation in the vessel. Cask beer is served directly from the vessel in which it finished fermenting and is normally served at cellar temp 50-55F. Cask beer is also a one-time blank canvas for brewers, who typically add specialty ingredients for the one-time serving. The use of extra dry hops, coffee, tea, spices, fruit, and peppers are commonly added to base beers.
“What you drink at Firkfest can never be replicated exactly,” says Nagel.
Restaurants from the much-awaited Anaheim Packing House – ADYA (Indian), The Kroft (specialty sandwiches), Ecco (Italian fare), Wheat and Sons (butcher) – will sell locally-crafted food. The Packing House, due to open Spring 2014, will serve as a culinary center that brings together artisan food producers and purveyors in a public market type setting.”
Hoparazzi Brewing
Thanks to a tip from Greg Nagel from the OC Beer Blog, their is another beer producer in Orange County by the name of Hoparazzi Brewing.
My Google check didn’t pull any information so file this under “still fermenting”.