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If you are a fan of Farmer’s Markets, well, you will be a bigger fan after hearing this. The Torrance brewery will be bringing Smog City beer to the Hollywood Farmers Market!
Owners Porter and Laurie at their will have a booth at North Cahuenga and Selma Avenue and will be open between 8am-1pm on Sundays.
First beer list has the following available:
Coffee Porter
Smog City IPA
Sabre-Toothed Squirrel
Little Bo Pils
Bourbon O.E.
White Peach Saison
June Lady
In case you forgot to check out the fantastic food coverage on the Food GPS website, then you may have not seen the beer coverage either.
Here is your handy link spot to read what I covered in Brew & You in April….
April 4th – Ventura Beer Tour, Ventura Light from MadeWest + Smog City 4 20 Celebration.
April 18th– Bite Sized Beer News, Ginger Saison + #LABW11.
Make sure to get your tickets because when Smog City does an anniversary party, they bring a big list of special beers.
On January 19th, Wishes will be granted as Smog City returns their Bourbon Barrel-Aged Infinite Wishes. The stout has “spent over a year resting in bourbon barrels collecting intense aromas of vanilla, sweet bourbon, cocoa, cinnamon, and cooked sugar.” My suggestion: I would try a taster (take notes on how it smells and tastes) and then buy a bottle to try later this year.
As a bonus, Smog City will be releasing some special variants too.
I will be in Torrance for two straight Saturdays and the first stop is the Wood Cellar of Smog City as they blowout their barrel-aged beers.
Here is my report:
I had (5) tasters and it was tough choosing what to have. But I had two really great beers on contention for my Best Of 2018 list starting with…
Citra Quercus – Bright hop presence to this blended beer adds lemon notes to the sour creating a near lemonade taste that is fabulous.
Super Spittin’ and Cussin’ – Great spice character and heavy on the sour in this “Ice wine” styled brown with just a little bit of anise to add complexity.
The other three Wood Cellar beers were more interesting and fun but did not reach the heights of my “winners”…
Spiced Summer Saison – mild spice, little lemon, smooth
Moroccan Cuddlebug – very spice forward. Sour comes through but the fruit is lost
Enoki – earthy, funky, nutty
The other highlight was the tour of their wild area that included meeting Cesar, the barrel whisperer and Toby, the inoculator. Hopefully I will be able to glean more Wood and Wild notes from them at a less busy time. We also saw their extra hard work with persimmons.
As usual Laurie and Porter were great hosts. Going out of their way to make sure people were not only having fun and great beer but also being challenged and educated too.
Yesterday I was in Torrance to congratulate Smog City on reaching another anniversary milestone.
Here are my personal highlights from the day….
I was able to try quite a few new beers, most of which of the saison persuasion and though the Awkward Teenager was really good, balance on the edge between rustic and hoppy, I have to say that Floret 2.0 a wild saison with seven different flowers was my top beer. And when their new outdoor patio is complete, that will be the perfect beer to enjoy for as long as it lasts.
Some sour beers are heading our way on October 14. Smog City will be releasing two! This Sour Future is the sour brown with only 1200 bottles. And even more limited is the release of Tall, Darth and Handsome, an experimental sour porter.
May 20th Smog City will celebrate another year of serving up beers (now in 2 locations!).
Here are the details:
“Saturday, May 20th, we will be hosting our annual VIP session from 11-1pm and general entry from 1-10pm. Our awesome team brewed a special anniversary beer for this very special occasion. This year it’s a Tart Saison with Tangerine! Keep an eye out, our VIP session is ticketed and limited to 200 attendees and this year we have a couple tricks up our collective brewer’s sleeves. Tickets on sale at noon on April 19th...link to come, join our newsletter (through our website) for special release info!”
Get it? Good.
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.
What happens when a Portland native works the beer industry in SoCal and then moves back to Portland?
Well, in the case of Robby Roda, who spent time at both Monkish Brewing and Beachwood BBQ and Brewing, you open up a distribution company in Portland to bring select beers from L.A. to the NW.
And to make the L.A. connection tighter, name it after the El Segundo Brewing special Day One IPA releases. Day One Distribution has scheduled to get El Segundo Brewing onto Portland taps already with Monkish Brewing, Smog City Brewing and Phantom Carriage planned to roll out too.
Day One will begin weighted to California but will add other breweries in a slow and small fashion. In a move that seems counterintuitive to traditional distribution the amount of beer will be kept purposefully small and will make the effort to sell out within thirty days of delivery.
That is a market that could work if kept small and tightly controlled. Might even be a template for what future distribution can be.
You can read more about the new distributor at The New School. I hope to hear how our beers are received up north.