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Each year Smog City Brewing releases Buzzworthy a “bourbon barrel-aged honey stout brewed with over 600 pounds of raw buckwheat honey…”
Two things have changed this year. First it’s in cans and there is a special red wine barrel-aged variant for 2024. And you know that Smog City does barrel-aged variants quite well.
Let’s get back within my driving radius with holiday beers from SoCal for a couple days. First is the Winter Ale from Smog City Brewing.
“A bold blend of fall-inspired flavors awaits: juniper and pine top notes, sweet caramel and toffee aromas, and a bright, citrusy spruce finish.
Crafted with hand-crushed juniper berries, spruce tips, and a complex layer of crystal malts, this winter warmer is perfect for cozy fireside sips or pairing with your holiday feasts!”
BSP blog favorite Smog City Brewing is primed to celebrate their 13th anniversary of brewing beer in Torrance. There will be a special anniversary beer along with their new ESB made from Infinite Wishes second runnings and maybe even some bottles of Infinite Wishes to buy.
Usually for a collaboration, one brewery takes the lead with the label design and canning. But sometimes, two beers come out of a collaboration.
Smog City and Ogopogo got together and now there are two IPAs out for craft beer fans to try…
Time to get into the time machine and tab the top beers of March before we head into the April drinking session.
Honorable Mentions go to Long Beach Beer Lab for their Brewte (Brut) IPA, good to see this sub-style pop up on tap and this was a nice executed crisp, dry and pear version. Next to mention is the pilsner High 10 from Highland Park Brewery. The menu board had re-brews of past years and there were many High 10s to choose from but I really liked the West Coast Pilsner. I also quite liked the latest Short-Lived IPA from MadeWest brewed with Firestone Walker. Crisp and biting with nice fruit notes.
The March winners was the strawberry whipped Infinite Wishes from Smog City Brewing. Filled with berry notes and a slight touch of vanilla, it was luxury when paired with a bourbon barrel imperial stout.
Imagine my surprise when a delivery person knocked on the door with a box from Smog City Brewing. Inside were two wishes, both infinite.
Today, I will talk about the Strawberry Whipped variant.
Once I got through the blood red wax, I immediately got a rush of strawberry. When I got another sniff, it was like a See’s chocolate with a strawberry middle. Just super berry notes. That perfume follows into the beer but then the milk chocolate takes charge. It is straight up strawberry truffle. This is a decadent dessert beverage. Lava cake would be a great pairing because this beer despite the double digit ABV is still light and would cut the richness of the lava while the chocolate would sync from beer to cake. This is a luxury ale.
As in the annual Infinite Wishes Day at Smog City. I am a bit of a purist so I will be sticking with the first beer on the list but #2 piques my interest as well.
1. OG – “as always the pure, unadulterated Infinite Wishes batch”
2. Almond Joyous – “a little coconut, a little chocolate, all delicious”
3. French Vanilla – “smooth, creamy and rich, a classic”
4. Strawberry Dip – “chocolate covered and sinfully sweet berry notes”
Smog City Brewing does a lot of IPAs and a lot of IPA series as well to keep hop lovers coming back to their Torrance brewery or their other L.A. locations. For 2024, their experimental series is Haze Craze and the # 1 is Moonbow.
Time to haze…
Moonbow pours a darker yellow color with a nice amount of haze to it without being too murky. Light overall tries to be a bit fluffy on the palate but has a bit of strength to it. First note that I get is apricot which is not the usual fruit one finds in a hazy. Getting a bit of green melon as well.
LA County and Orange County team up on a hoppy pilsner. Broken Algorithm is the combo of Chapman Crafted and Smog City Brewing
It will arrive in February, and features a “blend of Citra, Motueka, and Nectaron hops, with a twist of Muscat grape must for a dry, refreshing finish.”
If you do not know by now, Smog City Brewing is REALLY community focused. Be it the California craft beer community or our climate changed world.
Their latest collaborative effort is with, Pure Project Brewing, and the , National Forest Foundation for the release of Forest Understory IPA, part of the Smog City Community Impact Series of beers. Pure Project will counter with Beneath the Canopy Murky IPA.
Every purchase of Forest Understory IPA will have a portion of the proceeds donated to the National Forest Foundation.