Tag: Ultimate Brown Bag

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Ultimate Brown Bag

On Saturday, Blue Palms put brown bags over their taps and for four hours, us lucky attendees, had to guess what beer they had in front of them. Out of 24, I got 0 exact matches which I expected but I picked 9 of the styles correctly. But I had only half of the beers before in my beer drinking life. And some beers like New Belgium’s Metric 10 defy easy categorization.

My favorite beer of the afternoon was the Green Hill Dry Hopped Blonde. It was sparkly and semi-sour at first but then this cloudy yellow beauty faded into a delightful grainy/oaty taste that contrasted with the sourness extremely well. I also heartily enjoyed Josh Jensen’s chamomile home brew. A really unique twist of a beer that was really well balanced. There were some truly distinctive brews. Ladyface Sauv Blanc Saison, Avery 18th Anniversary Rye Saison to name two.

On whole the IPA’s fared poorly in comparison to simpler brews like the Marin Chocolate Porter or Eagle Rock’s Yearling. Primarily because after one tongue scraper the bitterness can be too heavy. And a beer with bold but palate friendly flavors can really refresh.

As usual, Blue Palms has put on a good show. Time just flew by as people discussed what they were tasting and compared notes.

Here are the photos of the event…..

The schedule of events

...but first, brunch with Consecration Pancakes with Angel Share syrup
1/2 way through
trying to be a discerning beer taster
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Ultimate Brown Bag


The awesome L.A. Beer destination, Blue Palms is holding it’s 2nd annual Ultimate Brown Bag party on June 11th. 24 beers with actual bags over them. Each hour a new set of 4-5 small pours arrives and YOU try to figure out what it is.

I spoke with Matt Olesh from Blue Palms about the event….

1) How do you go about selecting the beers? Do you avoid certain styles or brewers that have really defining characteristics?
The list of breweries that we chose was a result of looking at the breweries whom we support year-round that make consistent & quality beer. We then fine tuned that list with specific beers in mind that would fit into our ideas for hourly themes. There is also a natural proximity pattern, simply because there are so many fantastic California Breweries (which makes it easier to make pick-ups directly form the brewery if need be) but we did include a few out-of-state breweries as well. We did put some effort into avoiding requesting beers that would be over-the-top obvious, but that wasn’t a huge priority.

2) How many beers do you think people will be able to guess out of 24? Do you expect people to reconsider what beers they buy after this?
We’re thinking that it would be reasonable to guess about 4-6 beers, especially considering the speculative conversation that typically goes on in groups for these type of blind tastings. Any more than that, and I’d personally be pretty impressed.

Personally, I have had experiences in the brown bag nights that made me say, “Why the hell am I not picking up this beer more often?!”, and also, “Wow, that really was as good as people say it is!”. We are expecting a spread that will leave room for ‘hyped-up’ and ‘stand-by’ beers, to let people taste and decide for themselves what they like. I wouldn’t say we are aiming to change people’s buying patterns… but we may open some minds to unexpected beers, and to the fun experience of blind tasting.

3) What are some of the hourly themes?
Without giving away too much information too soon, or naming a theme that we may end up modifying, I’ll say that the “Got Wood?” hour is one that I am looking forward to a lot. This hour will introduce 5-6 beers that all have some wood-aged/fermented component to it.