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I just posted about Smog City Brewing this month and here they are again with another exciting announcement…
…The Smog Days Series “is a line up of ever changing experimental IPAs that will come out about every 60 days.
Batting lead-off is Torrential Hop Pour, “a 6.9% hazy IPA made with Azacca, Simcoe, and Amarillo hops.” Just mark your calendar for every two months.
I am ever so slowly draining my cellar of beer and a weekend back, I decided to pull up two beers from Smog City. One from 2014 and one from 2015.
Goldie (2014) pours a deep amber color. This beer lets you know it’s big but not in an aggressive way. Cheeks aren’t warm but you can feel the effects of the beer. The bourbon character melds with the strong ale equally. Hint of pineapple and caramel. Slight burn with each sip. A little tiny touch of honey sweetness leads to a dry finish.
Infinite Wishes (2015) Pours dark black but not much head to it. The barrel has left this building. There is some red wine aged notes. Odd that a 2014 strong ale with less ABV in Goldie lasted longer. This may have turned just past the point of maturation. Getting some cherry notes making it a little bit sour. Chocolate is the predominant taste.
In a case of in with old and out with the newer, Zymurgy Brew Works and Tasting Room in Torrance will be closing as of July 31, 2019. The space will not sitting fallow for long though as Smog City will be taking that space over with a projected 9/1/19 opening (don’t write that in stone).
I never visited the Zymurgy location. In ignorance, I thought it was a homebrew store only for a long time. I did try their beers at the L.A. Beer Week Kick-Off but never really learned more about them though they were on my too-long “should visit” list.
The space has “16 taps, a new long bar and a comfortable lounge area”, per the e-mail that announced the closing so that would seem suited to the full range of Smog City beers and not just wild and sours.
With space at SteelCraft in Bixby Knolls, selling at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market and an upcoming stall at a Glendora Food Hall, this new space further expands the empire of Little Bo Pils.
This new sour from Smog City uses second run peaches with a touch of lavender. Pours a yellow/orange color. Peach skin lightly hits the nose. The taste is quite gentle with a peach flesh and close to pie spice mix but the sour really amps the total package up. The lavender is hitting from a different angle. As it warms, it takes on a lemonade quality. One of JP’s recent favorites and I can see why.
I should probably visit Smog City more, I get caught up in trying to catch up with the new, but then every time I head to Torrance, I find a great beer on Del Amo. This year’s Anniversary was no exception.
I started with the two specially brewed beers. 420 Juice Juice and Saison Juice. The former used cannabis terpenes to create flavor and it was big. Sugared grapefruit hits the nose and came on strong in the taste. The latter was a beer / wine hybrid that I wished was stronger in the wine component. It was a solid Saison but lacked the depth that other Smog beers of the style have had in the past.
The next pair of tasters were also new from the Smog City cellar. Quixote’s Quotes quoted a mix of cedar and orange but neither really broke through the tartness. Peaches n Booze was like an overboard peach tea with a touch of bourbon.
I also sampled three of the cocktails since the team at Smog put a lot of work into them. All three that I sampled were fine as creative cocktails, but none really had the beer at the forefront. With the exception of the Bourbon OE which had a really nice boozy strong balance going on and the slightly burnt orange peel added zest as well.
As usual, this was a well run event. Great food choices with Mexican, BBQ and donuts to be had. Fast and friendly service and the weather was perfect cloudy to start but then warming up without getting hot. It should tell you something that this is one of the rare anniversary parties that I attend with regularity.
They’re watching you. They see your every move. Sorry. Got some Hall & Oates stuck in my head. Anyway, I am super excited about this new saison from Smog City because I love beers aged in gin barrels and there are so few of them. This could be a great New Years Eve at home beer.
You could probably safely, have a blog dedicated just to collaboration beers. I feel that 2018 has set a new mark for duo brews. And here is another with the local Smog City crew heading from Torrance to Hawaii to make Star Maps Kolsch. This Kolsch is brewed with starfruit and rises to a fairly high for the style 6.1% ABV.
I will assume that it will pour at Smog City taprooms and that it will probably still be warm in LA when it comes out.
Smog City Brewing Co. not only celebrated their anniversary recently. Also new is that they will be launching 12oz 6-pack bottles of their core lineup starting, well, today!
Little Bo Pils, Smog City IPA, Sabre-Toothed Squirrel and Coffee Porter will all be available at the launch with additional seasonals sprinkled in later in the year. I would suggest the IPA because, strangely, I think it gets lost between the Pils and award-winning porter and the other seasonal hop bombs that are done.
For those of you who haven’t noticed, my writing on Food GPS has morphed from once a week to now every other week or so. The pieces are a little longer, the format is a bit different, a bit of a refresh for 2018.
So if you missed March entirely, here you go…
# 1 – Coolships in Los Angeles. READ
# 2 – Food Halls and Craft Beer. READ
# 3 – Highland Park Brewery in Chinatown. READ
Smog City is refreshing the label look for their two flagship ales. Making their Sheep a little tougher and tapping the hop for all of the lupulin it has inside. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing this in my ‘fridge.