Here is the sneak look at the label for the next Share This beer from The Bruery. From Coffee to Mole and now to oranges.
Cicerone Cannibal
Anybody who turns down beer education, well, that’s just wrong. It’s not like taking calculus.
So, if you find yourself in the Culver City area on a Saturday you should check out the beer classes that The Cannibal LA is running with Certified Cicerone Julian Kurland. Each Saturday at 5:30
For $25, you get five pours based on that week’s topic. It can be a style or hot topics like IPA’s West Coast v East Coast.
And they have also added two really cool special events to their calendar
1- “On Friday, January 27 at 7pm, The Cannibal LA will host an intimate tasting in the restaurant’s newly opened private dining room, in collaboration with Firestone Walker’s “Jeffers Drops Acid (Knowledge),” a study in acid and acid fermentation in beer from Jeffers Richardson, director of Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks wild beer facility in Buellton, CA. The tasting ($35* per person) will include three different beers from Barrelworks, which will exemplify how perception shapes the sensory perception of wild beers. The class does not include food and should last about 90 minutes. This is the only iteration of “Jeffers Drops Acid” planned for 2017.”
(I have attended a Drops Acid presentation and it is fascinating. You will not see and taste sour/wild ales the same plus Barrelworks beers are awesome)
2- “On Thursday, February 9, The Cannibal LA hosts The Bruery for a four-course pairing dinner featuring a menu from Chef de Cuisine Jude Parra. The pairings will be focused on wine/beer hybrids, a category that is poised to grow exponentially in 2017, and that Kurland is particularly fascinated by. While the menu is currently TBD, the pairings will include the following beers:”
Confession – sour blonde with Riesling grapes, Bourgogne Blanc – sour blonde with Bourgogne blanc (chardonnay) Grues, Rue Sans – sour rye ale with Roussane grapes, Jurassic Gose – Gose (sour wheat) aged in port barrels with Chenin Blanc grapes and Vindictive (formerly Winefication) – bourbon barrel aged stout with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre.
(Bruery beers pair wonderfully with food and a beer dinner is a great way to try multiple beers that are normally unavailable and kinda pricey)
A Book & A Beer – All That Man Is
Well, NOT All that Man Is might have been a better title for the book of short stories that are thinly connected by author David Szalay.
There are nine men met in this novel, all white European men, most of privilege, or at least set in privileged striving. None of the nine appealed to me. At best they are sad sack navel gazers like the teenagers on holiday in Germany or the pedantic scholar driving to Poland. At worst they are unaware and quite nearly evil industrialist or muckracking journalist. That is fine. Plenty of novels with unworthy narrators out there but I just could not dive into any of the stories. The Men in each effectively blocked me from enjoyment.
That added to the overall downer quotient of the book wore on me and seemed rather invented. All the portent and doom and gloom seemed obvious to me but profound to the characters in the book. Said Russian industrialist who has to sell off his yacht, named the Europa. Oh, is he selling the concept of the men of Europe? Seemed heavy handed to me. As was the early inner mindset of another character who tells himself early on in his tale, that “Life is not a Joke.” Fine to use that, but that character hadn’t even earned it yet.
The final story at least had some earned pathos to it as an elderly man tries to ponder an inscription seen in a nearby abbey: “Amemus eterna et non peritura.” Let us love what is eternal and not what is transient. It is a slog to get to that point though.
To drink, I would start with Orval. It is old and weathered like the older characters in the book and is a classic European pale ale.
Then I would move onto a Berliner Weisse. You probably have a local that does a good rendition. The Bruery had Hottenroth which is transitioning to Frederick H. or you could go with the more accessible Professor Fritz Briem 1809 Berliner Weisse.
And since a Russian is one of the characters and since it is January, a Russian Imperial Stout would be good. Old Rasputin would work or one of the Stone variants.
As a last suggestion, since the characters in the book are all over the map, you could find out which country is the setting for the next story and pick up a beer from that locale indicative of their craft beer scene.
B & BT in 2017
Beer release calendars are not as useful to me as they are for others, I suspect. Now if there were a master calendar that incorporated all of them together, that I would be on board with.
That being said, The Bruery and sibling Terreux have announced what 2017 will look like for the Orange County brewery and the key take-aways in my book are the new and retired:
New:
The Bruery Mischief 2017 with Citra & Motueka — new recipe/label
The Bruery The Order — new beer
A brand new, year-round release from The Bruery, The Order summons The Bruery’s characterful house yeast strain, dates, and a touch of coriander spicing for a Belgian-style amber that’s sure to satisfy fans of darker abbey ales ripe with dark fruit notes. This release introduces a new diecut reminiscent of abbey windows to the Famille Rue lineup.
Bruery Terreux Frederick H. – new beer (has been on tap in 2016)
Frederick Hottenroth was a great inventor, and he happened to be Partrick Rue’s grandfather. His namesake carries on in this low-ABV tart wheat beer that is 100% fermented in American-made oak foeders with brettanomyces and lactobacillus. This brand new year-round from Bruery Terreux boasts a bright acidity and a tropical, fruity aroma and flavor. The label art features blueprints of Frederick’s inventions, complete with his signature.
The Bruery Share This™ – two new treatments during 2017
The third and fourth treatments in this collaborative and charitable imperial stout series will once again focus on a specific region as the ingredient source and donation recipient. $1 from every bottle produced is donated to a carefully selected charity partner. The first 2017 release of Share This will feature chocolate and orange for ingredients, and spotlight its first domestic region: California. #sharethisbeer
The Bruery Hoppy Obligations – new limited release, draft only
A new, rotating series of hoppy beers will be popping up in select markets under the “Hoppy Obligations” banner. It may be an imperial lager, a Vermont-style pale, a hoppy red, or another hoppy brew that doesn’t fit an exact style, but you know it will be delicious and consumed quickly
Retired: Humulus Lager, White Oak, Trade Winds, Rueuze, Hottenroth, Tonnellerie series
Sean Suggests for December 2016
Since the December blog is filled to bursting with holiday seasonals, for the monthly suggestions we will end with what to drink for Christmas morning, breakfast beers as it were.
~LIGHT
Dogfish Head / Beer for Breakfast 7.4% ABV
“A stout tricked out with all sorts of breakfast ingredients including Guatemalan Antigua cold press coffee, Maple syrup harvested from Western Massachusetts and for the quintessential Delaware breakfast touch – Rapa Scrapple and their secret blend of spices. 2-row Applewood smoked barley, Kiln Coffee malt, Flaked oats, Roasted barley, Caramel malt along with additions of Molasses, Milk Sugars (lactose), Brown Sugar, Roasted Chicory lay the foundation for this malty, breakfast-themed concoction. Enjoy huge notes of coffee in the nose and savory layers in the flavor”
~MEDIUM
The Bruery / The Grade 7.6% ABV
“The Grade is in. It’s built on the backbone of a rich, cold-fermented baltic porter made popular in countries bordering the Baltic Sea. Similar to an imperial porter but distinctly different, the baltic porter style is heralded for being full-bodied, roasty and smooth, with overtones of toffee, coffee, caramel, chocolate and dark fruit. We take it one step further and hammer it home with the bold, sweet flavors of maple syrup and a touch of fenugreek, placing it in a different, experimental class entirely. “
~DARK
Epic Brewing/ Big Bad Baptista 12.6% ABV
“Big Bad Baptista is inspired by traditional Mexican coffee, Café de Olla, which is served with cinnamon and piloncillo, an unrefined sugar. The Cinnamon adds another layer of complexity and accentuates the earthy character of Mexican Coffee, but more importantly, it captures the essence of a place and its culture. As beverage geeks we wanted to pay homage to that rich tradition and offer our unique take. “
The Beers of Christmas – Day 1
We start the beers of Christmas with the ninth beer in The Bruery “Days of Christmas” series…..
Share 2
The Bruery layered double meaning into their first Share This beer. Not only was it decidedly high alcohol and super rich and made for sharing with other beer geeks. But $1 from each bottle of Share This: Coffee went to the Free Wheelchair Mission and raised $50,000 or 550 wheelchairs!
For round two “The Bruery looked to the culinary world to provide inspiration for the second installment of their collaborative and charitable Share This® series. Being based in Southern California, we are very fortunate to have some of the best Mexican cuisine in the world. By channeling that local influence and considering all of the high-quality ingredients they could find, Mexico was an easy choice to be the next region. To help The Bruery develop an authentic flavor profile they worked with Chef Anne Conness, herself a Certified Cicerone®. After a lot of hard work (and some delicious tamale pie), Share This®: Mole was born; an Imperial Stout with ancho chilies, chipotle peppers, cinnamon, vanilla and cacao nibs.”
The beer will be available on November 11th
In the Tap Lines for November 2016
We now begin the holiday season. Of course, we still have to get past the election but then we can be merry with holiday ales and big beers by the fireside. So be thankful for our bounty of beer.
~ e-visits to three breweries from the Southern Oregon coast – Defeat River in Reedsport then to Devils Brewing in Coos Bay and finally Chetco Brewing in Brookings.
~ special featured reviews of beers that can pair well with Thanksgiving meals.
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads Inside the Apple
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.
Here are two events to get your November started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) November 16th – Bruery Share This Dinner at Sausal in El Segundo
2) November 20th – Lutefisk & Lefse Dinner at Brouwerij West
#BABeerDay
The duo of The Bruery and Bruery Terreux (now fully separated with their own tasting rooms) have not separated “Barrel-Aged Beer Day” which returns for its fourth year on Friday, October 7, 2016.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate and make it easier to raise a snifter and toast your favorite barrel-aged craft beer.
Added to the festivities this year is The Bruery & Goat Group Collaboration Beer. Here is how the press release describes the blend: it “is a single batch blend of Black Tuesday, White Oak Sap, and Mash aged in Buffalo Trace barrels sourced by the Goat Group.”
This is draft only and can be found at The Bruery in Orange County as well as the following Goat establishments around Los Angeles:
The Surly Goat West Hollywood
The Surly Goat Encino
The Blind Donkey Pasadena
The Blind Donkey Long Beach
Verdugo Bar Glassell Park
Ponder It
Coming out with a dopplebock in this day and age of hops might be a hard sell, but put a Patrick Rue pun in the name and age it in oak barrels and you have yourself a fall beer that people just might pick up.
Would be a good experiment to pick up a classic German version of dopplebock and see how it compares and contrasts to The Bruery’s Orange County interpretation.