food pairing

Photos from the Wild Beer and Cheese Pairing at King Harbor Brewing

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at King Harbor Brewing, in Redondo Beach, where Head Brewer Phil McDaniel hosted a wild beer and cheese pairing. The ticketed event had about a dozen attendees and featured pairings of King Harbor’s Radberry Wild, Ride the Wild, and Grand Cru wild ales with cheeses from Four Fat Fowl, Cyprus Grove, and Cheeseland.

It has been suggested that I am an anomaly in the craft beer world, in that I am not particularly fond of pizza or cheese. I discovered that I was not alone, as a couple of attendees confided that they were not really “into cheese” before this cheese pairing; by the end of the event I think we were all convinced that we just had not tried the right cheeses. I spoke with one person that was not a fan of wild ales at all, but the cheese paired with them made them quite enjoyable. Continue reading

L.A. Beer Week 11 Continues with Pizza and Beer

These photos were taken Wednesday evening at The Slice and Pint in El Segundo, where they held a pizza and craft beer pairing, Pizza & Beer – Things We Knead. The LA Beer Week 11 event featured pizza and beer pairings suggested by seven Certified and Advanced Cicerones and the head chef of The Slice and Pint.

The Cicerones participating included Tom Kelley of El Segundo Brewing Company and The Slice and Pint, Cindy and Hal Mooney of LA Beer Hop, Jace Milstead of Craft LA, Jonathan Porter of Smog City, Greg Bechtel of Simmzy’s Restaurants, and Blanca Quintero of Firestone Walker. The Slice and Pint’s Head Chef, Matt Ranney, also included his favorite pizza and beer pairing. While most of the pizzas were paired with beer from El Segundo Brewing Company, The Slice and Pint has several guest taps, three of which (Smog City, Oxbow Brewing Company, and Cellador Ales) were also included in the pairings. Continue reading

2018 Great American Beer Festival – Day Two

These photos were taken Friday, September 21, which was day five of my Craft Beer Tour 2018 and day two of the Brewer Association’s 2018 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) which is being held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

Friday began with a Media Brewery Tour, which was put on by Discover Denver. We visited three Denver breweries to give newcomers to Denver an idea of the scope of the craft beer revolution in Denver. We visited Oskar Blues new Denver location, Oskar Blues Grill & Brew, the new Odell Brewing RiNo Brewhouse, and Call to Arms Brewing. Continue reading

Paddle and Pour and Doughnuts at King Harbor Brewing

These photos were taken Saturday morning at King Harbor Brewing Company’s Waterfront Tasting Room where they held another in their continuing series of Summer Party Crew 2017 events; this week being their Paddle & Pour (+ Donuts).

The morning began with a dozen or so attendees renting stand up paddle boards for an hour out on the water. After they worked up their appetites, everyone headed to the Waterfront Tasting Room for a pairing of King Harbor Brewing Company beers and Blue Star Donuts.

The pairing began with a pour of Future Waves IPA paired with a Blueberry Bourbon Basil doughnut. The mellow grapefruit bitterness went well with the sweetness of the blueberry. Continue reading

Great Society Cider & Mead Welcomes Moonlight Meadery

These photos were taken Thursday evening at Great Society Cider & Mead in Long Beach when they held another in their continuing series of “Meet the Maker”; where cider and mead aficionados get an opportunity to meet the owners behind the cideries and meaderies that produce the brews that are the primary focus of Great Society Cider & Mead. Thursday evening’s event featured Michael Fairbrother, founder of the world renowned Moonlight Meadery.

The evening was broken up in two sections; the first was open to the public and everyone was able to enjoy a Moonlight flight or any of ciders and mead that completed the 20 tap list while chatting with Fairbrother. It was obvious that many people had come from as far away as the San Diego area for the opportunity to speak with him. Some people just wanted to tell Fairbrother how much they enjoy his product while others brought samples and came with questions on the process when it comes to making cider or [especially] mead. The second portion of the evening was a private event featuring five pours of various Moonlight products paired with specific appetizers. Continue reading

Jimmy’s Bar & Grill Beer Dinner Featuring Scholb Premium Ales

I guess the word has gotten out to the craft beer fans and foodies in the South Bay area; Jimmy’s Bar & Grill in Redondo Beach is the place to be on the second Wednesday of the month for their outstanding beer dinners. These photos were taken at Jimmy’s July beer dinner last night featuring the latest production brewery to open in Torrance, Scholb Premium Ales.

When we first started attending Jimmy’s Beer Dinner Series back in September the attendance was probably about 30 people. In the months following the numbers fluctuated a little, but I don’t recall there being more than maybe 50 people at any of them. Yesterday afternoon, Jimmy’s announced on their Facebook page that they had sold out at 60 attendees. I guess not everyone got the message because by the time all was said and done they had over 75 attendees at the dinner. It really was a sight to see. Continue reading

Firestone Walker Beer Dinner at Jimmys Bar & Grill

When I stop to think about it, I only have two things that I do every month like clockwork. One is Business & Beer which we will be celebrating four years of in a couple weeks; that has the second Thursday of every month dedicated to it. The other, more recent addition to my routine are the beer dinners held the second Wednesday of every month at Jimmy’s Bar Grill in Redondo Beach. In the past we have enjoyed co-owner/chef Marc Dix’s delightful food pairings with beers from Smog City Brewing, El Segundo Brewing, Avery, Bell’s Brewery and a night of Belgian ales. They have all been great experiences, but I admit I got a little giddy a month ago when I saw that Firestone Walker would be the featured brewery for this month’s beer dinner. As I started trying to guess what might be poured that night I knew one thing for sure, this was going to be a great meal; I was correct.

Joe Cartlidge, LA Market Manager at Firestone Walker Brewing Company, was there to give a little history of Firestone Walker while we enjoyed our welcome beer, Pivo Pils. I know Dix likes to open up our taste buds with a hoppy brew and the Pivo Pils did the trick. Continue reading

Jimmys Bar & Grill Beer Dinner Featuring Bells Brewery

Wednesday evening we went to Jimmy’s Bar & Grill in Redondo Beach for their monthly beer dinner; this month featuring Bell’s Brewery. As it was the one year anniversary of Jimmy’s first beer dinner, with Absolution Brewing Company, there was Bell’s Brewery swag and Jimmy’s gift cards for all the attendees. That was on top of what promised to be another outstanding meal.

I have mentioned before that Jimmy’s co-owner/chef Marc Dix puts a lot of thought into his pairings and Wednesday’s dinner was no exception. If you did not know, Dix is also a co-owner of the Barley Hops Grill and for this dinner he brought in co-owner/chef Alex Bouffiou to help out in the kitchen; and they did another great job.

As the dinners always consist of five beers and four courses, attendees were all welcomed with a Two Hearted Ale to wake up the taste buds; they were not going to want to miss a thing. Continue reading

Photos of The 3rd (Occasionally) Annual Froth Awards and Beer Experience

That was one busy Saturday, there were beer events going on all over the place; it took some careful planning to attend the events I did. One was a scheduling conflict between Phantom Carriage’s 1st Anniversary and Easy Reader’s 3rd Occasionally Annual Froth Awards and Beer Experience that was held at Saint Rocks at the same time. After lots of bouncing back and forth in my mind about which event to attend first, the Froth Awards won out; if for no other reason than I could stop by Monkish after Phantom’s event ended.

In the beginning, the first Froth Awards paired our five local breweries with five local restaurants and created a friendly competition between the breweries with the attendees voting on which pairing was best. The winners were those of us that attended. The Awards continued the following year, with five breweries again being paired with five restaurants. This time there was no voting because we all knew that we were the winners once again. Continue reading

Belgian Beer Dinner at Jimmy’s Bar & Grill

These photos were taken Wednesday evening at Jimmy’s Bar & Grill monthly beer dinner. This month’s dinner was a little different than the others Jimmy’s puts on in that instead of featuring one brewery, it featured five breweries from Belgium. When it comes to beers from Belgium, probably one of the most knowledgeable local guys is Select Beer Store owner, Wes Jacobs. Anyone that has visited the Select Beer bottle shop has inevitably noticed the vast variety of Belgian ales they have available there. When Jimmy’s co-owner/chef, Marc Dix, decided he wanted to do a beer dinner featuring Belgian brews, because Belgians are meant to be served with food, it was not a difficult decision to approach Jacobs and ask if he wanted to curate the beer served.

Jacobs readily agreed and told Dix to provide the menu and he would come up with the beers; but that is not how Dix works, he tailors the food to compliment the beer. You will not find the dishes served at the beer dinners on the daily menu. That meant that the first thing that had to be done was to figure out what five beers would be served at the dinner. As you might imagine, that was quite a task in of itself. As I recall, it took about two months of sampling, with up to eight people assisting in the decision making process. Once the beers were chosen, Dix was able to do his thing; and did he ever. Continue reading

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