These photos are from Smog City Brewing Company’s Bourbon O.E. Barleywine and Goldie Golden Ale bottle release that was held Saturday afternoon at the Smog City tasting room. I got a somewhat late start, not arriving until a couple hours after they opened, but photos I saw on my Facebook feed indicated that there was a line of Smog City fans waiting outside when they opened. By the time I got there the tasting room was still pretty crowded but the lines moved quickly for those that came for bottles to go, and for those that wanted to try the new releases.
To be honest, my main concern with my late arrival was that the bottles might be sold out; luckily, they bottled about 500 more of each than the last time and there were still bottles of both left when I left. Since Smog City is closed today, Easter Sunday, there might be some bottles available if you show up when they open their doors next Wednesday; I highly doubt they will last much longer than that.
If you do show up at Smog and they are out of bottles, do not despair as there is plenty on tap. They are not selling growlers but a bourbon barrel-aged flight would be highly recommended. They brought out last year’s Goldie to compare to the newest release and the difference is pretty noticeable right from the start with the nose revealing that the bourbon is going to be pretty forward. I believe Belgian Bourbon Candy was the phrase I heard most often. Continue reading
While the current list of breweries is still incomplete and is subject to change, because sometimes things happen, it is shaping up to be a very fine event. The breweries that have confirmed attending as of this date are Absolution Brewing Company, Alosta Brewing, Angel City, Bravery Brewing, Claremont Craft Ales, Congregation Ale House, Cosmic Ales, Eagle Rock Brewery, El Segundo Brewing, Enegren Brewing, Golden Road Brewing, Hand Brewed Beer, Kinetic Brewing, King Harbor Brewing, Ladyface Ale Companie, MacLeod Ale, Monkish Brewing, Ohana Brewing Company, Phantom Carriage, Red Car Brewing, Santa Monica Brew Works, Smog City Brewing, Solarc Brewing, Strand Brewing, The Dudes’ Brewing, Three Weavers Brewing, Timeless Pints Brewing and Wolf Creek. There are a few LA area breweries that have yet to respond but there are high hopes that they will before it is too late. Some breweries just do not have enough beer on hand to participate, so we will have to wait until next year for them.
The L.A. Local Craft Beer & Artisanal Food Fest will be held at the Alpine Inn Restaurant in Torrance on April 18, from noon until 4:00 PM. General admission is $40 at the door, however if you purchase your ticket online and use PROMO CODE: LALOCCZ you will receive $5.00 off each ticket! You can purchase your tickets through Admit One Products or Eventbrite; be advised that Eventbrite has a little higher service fees so you might want to use Admit One Products. You should also know that Designated Drivers get in free, but they can purchase food tickets and non-alcoholic beverages. Continue reading
Joel Elliott presented the request to the Planning Commission and addressed an email correspondence from one Torrance citizen that was very animate that she was against the idea of a “bar” moving into the neighborhood with its noisy drunks wandering into people’s homes by mistake. He agreed that if this was the case he would not want it either; but anyone that goes to Strand Brewing Company or any local tasting room, knows this is not the case. Fortunately, there were six letters in favor of approval from neighboring businesses, customers, a charitable organization and a mix of all of the above. In addition, there must have been 10-15 supporters in the audience, four of us who spoke in favor of approval including Monkish Brewery owner, Henry Nguyen. Smog City Brewing owner Porter was in the audience in support of Elliott and Marcello’s request.
After I gave my prepared speech, Planning Commission Chair Steven Polcari mentioned that three or four had been sitting on the commission when Strand Brewing first applied almost six years ago. It was Commissioner Steve Skoll that asked the question everyone in the room wanted to know; “When are you opening?” Elliott said that he hoped for the end of May 2015, to which Skoll said he would tell everyone June. Elliott smiled and thanked him. The Conditional Use Permit was approved unanimously. Continue reading
For the past 12 years, at the end of March or beginning of April I have gone to Tempe to photograph an industry trade show. Last year I spent some time visiting Sun Up Brewing, Arizona Wilderness Brewing and The Perch Pub & Brewery. When I left LA I had full intentions of re-visiting Arizona Wilderness because I know a lot has happened in the past year; and I wanted to stop by The Perch because last year they had not begun brewing yet and I know they are now. But plans, like rules are frequently broken. By the time we arrived in Tempe the traffic in the area was so bad that I just did not have the willpower to head out to Gilbert or Chandler so I decided to visit breweries that I had not yet visited.
We started off at Four Peaks Brewing Company, a massive brewpub that opened in April of 1997. It is my understanding that they have three locations now; the brewpub in Tempe, another location in Tempe that brews for distribution only and a pub in Scottsdale. I would guess that their most well-known brew must be Kilt Lifter as it is found in almost every venue I visited in the area. The parking is pretty much non-existent but that did not keep them from being packed by 5:00 PM on a Wednesday; I suppose their proximity to ASU has something to do with that.
We split a flight which consisted of their Sunbru Kölsch, Kilt Lifter, Oatmeal Stout, 8th Street Pale Ale, Raj IPA, Hop Knot IPA, their Hefeweizen and Peach Ale; they gave me a taster of their Short Hop ISA which is their session IPA. Of the batch, Hop Knot was definitely my favorite. We also had a burger and fries which were okay, but the people sitting next to us had some very nice looking plates; since they were regulars I guess they knew the best meals to order.
Four Peaks Brewing Company is located at 1340 E 8th Street in Tempe and is open seven days a week; Sunday from 10:00 AM until 1:00 AM and Monday through Saturday 11:00 AM until 1:00 AM. Continue reading
On Saturday afternoon I happened to notice a post on my Facebook feed that there was a bottle share planned for 4:00 PM at Zayna Flaming Grill in Redondo Beach. There were a couple things that caught my eye; the first was most likely the photo accompanying the announcement that included ISO:FT by The Bruery, a Russian River Beatification and a Cigar City Hunahpu’s. The other was that it was being announced by Adam’s Fine Wines & Liquors. You see, the first time I met the owner of Adam’s, Kevin Olson, was at the first bottle share I ever attended back in July 2012 at Sophie’s Place. We had such a good time that I knew this would be a great one to attend; it turns out I was right.
As it was a last minute event, there were only a handful of attendees, only a couple of whom I knew; but after a couple hours everyone was chatting and sharing as though we had been friends for years. That is what craft beer does; it makes strangers into acquaintances and acquaintances into friends. There may have only been a few of us, but the beers that were brought showed that everyone involved enjoyed only the finest. The bottles that were shared included:
Sour in the Rye (Kumquats) (2013) by The Bruery
Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout (2013) by Cigar City Brewing
The Abyss (2013) by Deschutes Brewery
Apricot Ale (2013) by Cascade Brewing Company (USA)
Noyaux (2011) by Cascade Brewing Company (USA)
Batch #100 by Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
Sanctification (Batch 112812) by Russian River Brewing Company
Supplication (Batch 092414) by Russian River Brewing Company
Beatification (Batch 006) by Russian River Brewing Company
Bourbon County Brand Stout Vanilla Rye (2014) by Goose Island Beer Co.
Darkstar November by Bottle Logic Brewing
ISO:FT by The Bruery
Veritas 013 by The Lost Abbey
These photos are from Absolution Brewing Company’s one year anniversary party that was held at their tasting room this past Saturday. While Absolution may have gotten off to a shaky start with their Grand Opening that found several brews tapping out before the day was over, I do not think anyone that has watched their progress over the past year can deny that Absolution Brewing has weathered the storm and have established themselves as a brewery that will be here for the long run.
When Absolution Brewing first opened the initial goal was to gain acceptance with the style of beers they brewed. Using “Old World styles and New World ingredients” their beers are not your typical “west coast” style; for example, you would never confuse any of their IPAs with any of the others brewed around here. Variety is what prevents over-saturation, so their style was welcomed by me and obviously many others as their tasting room always seems to have a nice group sampling their beers.
In November their original head brewer, Wes McCann, moved back east as his wife was transferred; so Absolution was forced to find a replacement which they did by bringing in Bart Bullington. The change in style and recipes was noticed almost immediately; Bullington’s tweaks to McCann’s recipes seemed to be just what Absolution needed to satisfy the palates of South Bay beer drinkers. Continue reading
In early February, El Segundo Brewing Company’s Hammerland DIPA was chosen as best in show at the 15th annual Double IPA Festival at the Bistro in Hayward, California. El Segundo Brewing Company had already planned on bottling Hammerland but with the awarding of their first ever medal they decided to turn the bottle release into a party.
They opened early Friday for those that had the day off and the tasting room began filling up as soon as the doors opened. They had a big party scheduled for Friday evening, which was undoubtedly a great time but I already had other plans so I headed down there early.
There is still plenty of Hammerland DIPA available, so head on down to El Segundo Brewing Company this weekend to try some; it is delicious. Congratulations to the entire crew at El Segundo Brewing. Cheers! Continue reading
**ATTENTION: NEW PROMO CODE FOR ONLINE PURCHASES BETWEEN APRIL 1 AND 18 IS NOW: LALOCCZ – SAVE $5.00 PER TICKET**
Alpine Village in Torrance has announced the next in their continuing series of craft beer festivals, with this one concentrating solely on the Los Angeles area craft breweries and featuring a wide variety of artisanal foods made locally. Appropriately named the L.A. Local Craft Beer & Artisanal Food Fest, this event will be held Saturday, April 18, 2015 in the Alpine Inn Restaurant in Torrance and is expected to include more than 30 L.A. area craft breweries and more than a dozen food vendors all included in the price of admission.As home to the biggest and longest running (almost 50 years) Oktoberfest this side of the Mississippi River, there is no doubt that Alpine Village has long been known as having one of the South Bay’s best selections of German and Czech biers; what has not been realized is what an outstanding selection of American craft beers they have. After their 2012 Alpine Bier Fest, which had almost as many craft beers to choose from as attendees, Alpine Village General Manager Otto Radtke confided to me that his intention was to make his craft beer festival grow into an internationally recognized beer festival. To that end he has had two more American craft beer festivals and last July they had their first Euro Bierfest. The L.A. Local Craft Beer & Artisanal Food Fest will feature Los Angeles area craft breweries and local artisanal food vendors. Continue reading
Last night we joined the Crude Brew Crew (CBC) Homebrew Club whose March meeting just happened to fall on St. Patrick’s Day this year. The event with was held at CBC member Noel’s home and featured the brewing of a Heady Topper clone that smelled delicious with its almost one pound of hops added. In addition there was an Irish Kissed Ale that was homebrewed by Michael last month and an outstanding Wild Smog City that Noel brewer from wort obtained at a Smog City Monster Brew. There were also a few bottles shared including The Bruery’s Mocha Wednesday and Kern River’s Citra that Keith and April brought along with them; if you have not had a chance to try that yet it is fantastic. The club’s president Jules brought his Kiwi’s Big Adventure that he brewed with Phantom Ales and he brought the fixings for some delicious corned beef tacos. We also got an opportunity to try Leprechaun Balls, clipped and prepared by April. They are even better than they sound.
If you are a home brewer and do not belong to a homebrew club you should really consider joining one. It is a great way to interact with others that share your passion for brewing and they are always willing to help you learn to brew better beer. You can learn more about the Crude Brew Crew by visiting their Facebook page. Cheers! Continue reading
Last week I was invited to participate in a beer tasting put on by Craft Beer Guild Distributing and hosted by STACKED: Food Well Built in Cerritos. I know that I frequently discuss location when it comes to the invitations I choose to accept and Cerritos isn’t exactly next door, it is a little less than 20 miles from my home, but since Craft Beer Guild Distributing has been on my radar lately I thought we would go ahead and deal with the traffic on the 91. We went last night and in retrospect, I am glad we did.
While I do not usually discuss food on this site, STACKED is different than most gastropubs that I visit. The primary difference is that while the menu is made up primarily of burgers, sandwiches, pizzas and salads, the customer is the one that designs the meal. Virtually every item on the food menu is “build your own.” The brainchild of STACKED co-founder and CEO Paul Montenko, STACKED provides every table with an iPad and a menu that allows you to drop and drag the items you want on your burger or pizza. While Burger King may have been the first to let you “hold the pickles, hold the lettuce” STACKED takes it further by not charging you for the pickles or lettuce you did not ask for and letting you add any of 18 toppings including pastrami, pulled pork or caramelized onions. They have six bun options (one of which is no bun), six cheese options and even eight different types of meat for your patty. After creating your meal you simply hit submit and a few minutes later you start receiving your order. One of the nice things about this is that you can order your drinks, they have a full bar, and have that delivered while you peruse the menu. If you want an appetizer before your meal, order it up on the iPad and it will show up before the main course. It really is pretty cool.
A couple last words on the food: Candied Bacon. Man, oh man, that is some good stuff. As usual, since Tanya and I typically split meals I let her build our burger which brought up another issue: eyes and their relationships to stomachs. It is really easy to build a burger that is bigger than you will ever fit in your mouth. A gentleman at the table next to us did just that; I suspect that after you have been there a couple times you should be able to figure out how to make the perfect burger for yourself. Tanya really enjoys Mac ‘n’ Cheese so she ordered a basic one to check it out; I have to admit it was pretty tasty. Continue reading
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