Review – Strawberry Dipped Infinite Wishes from Smog City

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.

Tomorrow is Infinite

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”

Review – Moonbow Hazy IPA from Smog City

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.

Murkopy

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.

Go Timbers!

Smog City has entered into a new partnership with the Dignity Health Sports Park home of MLS LA Galaxy in Carson. Quasar Blonde Ale will be available at the stadium in the hot new 19.2oz can format.  “Quasar Blonde Ale is an easy drinking approachable 4.8% blonde ale with smooth malt notes and subtle hop flavor that keep you refreshed the whole match all the way to full time!”

Sean Suggests for June 2023

We are going full on L.A. Beer Week beers for this month’s shopping list. From two Freaky Friday South Bay friends to a Crenshaw collaboration.

El Segundo Squirrel-Toothed Tiger – 6.7% – “We went hoppier, Americanier, and, dare we say, downright more majestic than a pre-historic squirrel on their best day. Sure, the tiger may look friendly, albeit a little funny, but it remains a tiger with an inherent instinct to kill nonetheless!”

Crowns & Hops / Los Angeles Ale Works Down Crenshaw IPA – 7% – Mosaic, Nelson and Enigma hops headline this dank West Coast IPA Boulevard.

Smog City Smogberry IPA – 7.2% – Smog City re-imagines the iconic Mayberry IPA.

Cold in the Park

Smog City Brewing is bringing back their Park Hopper IPA as the first beer in their 2023  1 Percent for the Planet Community Impact Series.

The new Park Hopper is now a 6.6% cold IPA as opposed to last year’s hazy version.

Here is some further (quite important) info, “for the 3rd year in a row, we’ve partnered with Parks California to make Park Hopper IPA to highlight & support the work they do to make our parks more welcoming, inclusive, and climate-resilient.”

California Craft Beer Summit – Report 3

First bit of business is last nights quick and rainy trip to Moksa Brewing in Rocklin.

The beer list was just a skosh unbalanced with one lager and about six IPA’s of various stripes and six stouts of various adjuncts. The Chai Times spiced Stout was excellent and beer buddy Rich had a very rich in chocolate stout that I thought was great. The lager, Da Bier was just the antidote after a day of drinking. Moksa also won the weirdest beer award with Freshie Freeze that was super citrusy but it also had a strange diesel note as well.

Back to Wednesday, the 1/2 day. After a visit to fuel up at the Pancake Circus we headed to a Sensory Session with Omega Yeast. This is where the thiol learning from the day before came in handy, I sampled a test brew and boy was it as advertised. Huge grapefruit and passion fruit, almost too much. Amazing to taste what genetics and Crispr can do.

I also sample the Sierra Nevada kombucha with pizza and had a beermosa with Smog City’s Mango Pango.

Today was the day to hear from Pink Boot’s members who talked about the many benefits of the organization which was a welcome upbeat talk before we got the final session where the Cilurzo’s (Natalie and Vinnie) flanked Ken Grossman to talk about what they did with their breweries in the pandemic times as well as what they have in store for the future. More lagers from Russian River and more alternative drinks from Sierra Nevada.

While they spoke, the audience was treated to two special beers. Special being a bit of an understatement. First up was a 2010 Bigfoot that we tasted alongside the newest version. Next was a little bit of newly bottled Pliny the Younger, this year with Nectaron hops in the mix. Not a bad way to call the Summit to a close.