Sean Suggests for April 2024

Time to play, one of these things is not like the other. I am a fan of collaborative beers and so that is two-thirds of the theme this month.

Enegren Brewing / Bierstadt Lagerhaus American Reinheitsgebot – 4.8% – “Being two breweries that share a passion for exceptional, filtered, and crisp German lagers, we decided to brew one of our all-time favorite beers for this year’s American Reinheitsgebot: an American Helles Lager. This classic beer is crafted with American malt and hops, staying true to its style. Make sure to swing by Frühlingsfest and grab a taste before it disappears!”

Santa Monica Brew Works Todo Chido Mexican-Style Lager – 5% – “this crisp Mexican-style ‘surfveza’ is pure golden refreshment. Enjoy the bright, well-balanced taste with delicate notes of orange blossom and a touch of tangelo.”

Wagon Wheel Brewing / Tarantula Hill Wagon Full of Tarantulas –  6% – “We set out to brew a Hazy Single IPA and the resulting brew is a Tropical fruit bomb that is out of this world! Wagon Full of Tarantulas is a Hazy IPA featuring HBC 630 and Mosaic hops. This beer is layered with flavors of papaya, grapefruit and pineapple.”

San Diego Spider

Tarantula Hill Brewing is making a big leap to the San Diego area, San Marcos specifically as the Thousand Oaks based brewery will utilize the space once used by the Draft Republic restaurant.  This news was first broken by Brandon Hernandez at SD Beer News.

Will an outer rim of L.A. brewery fly in San Diego County?

Four Spiders

Tarantula Hill Brewing Co. up in the Thousand Oaks area is turning 4 years old this year and in a bit of a twist of the script are releasing and Anniversary lager which will be coming out June 24th.

If you complain that there are too many IPAs and too few lighter beers, this may be what you need to try.

Review – Sneaky Sips & Juicy Drips

Two breweries. One mission. Use the same hop combo of Galaxy, Mosaic and Cryo Pop.

That is the challenge for Three Weavers and Tarantula Hill and now is the time to see who wore the hops best…

Juicy Drips – pours a light yellow with a light bit of haze to it. Strong stone fruit aroma. Getting peach and nectarine in both the aroma and taste. Also a bit of wine character as well. Body is light as well with a deceptive bitter kick to it.

Sneaky Sips – looks like a pilsner in the glass. Initially this was 100% pine needle with a sharp bitter hit at the beginning of the sip but as it warms up a little bit of fruit flavor kinda like grape adds a secondary note that the beer needed to avoid being one dimensional.

You would not know from tasting that these beers used the same hops, at all. I was more partial to the Three Weavers with that peach fuzz taste.

A Good Drip

The Three Weavers group has a new but different collaboration out with Tarantula Hill Brewing under the name: Code Name. The Inglewood version is Juicy Drips. Word to come on what Tarantula Hill will call theirs.

Each juicy pale ale “was made with the same hop combo, Galaxy, Mosaic and Cryo Pop.” Will we be able to tell the difference?

4S3

Passing on some good news that leads to six months of where you can help. Tarantula Hill Brewing Co. in Thousand Oaks has announced the first round of donations from their 4S3 Golden Ale. The money raised “has been given to Borderline Strong, the entity Borderline owner Brian Haynes created to benefit students seeking scholarships to pursue their dreams! Borderline Strong plans to give 12 scholarships every year to those wanting to pursue trades and activities that were close to the hearts of those who perished in the Borderline tragedy.”

So, whatever is raised from the sale of this beer in the next six months will go to their next (2) recipients. Pick-U a 4-pack.

Coming this year…

There are some new breweries coming to the L.A. area in 2018 headlined (IMHO) by the Chinatown brewery / taproom of Highland Park Brewery.

But there are more in the pipeline that I will be visiting and reviewing, such as….

…and these are just a sample. There might be more in places as far flung as Pasadena, two new ones in Monrovia, literally right next to each other. One in Burbank, at least one in Long Beach.