Blue Palms Brewhouse filled their space, took over the adjacent parking lot, and armed tap after tap with incredible beers last Sunday in Hollywood as part of their blowout 5^th Anniversary bash.

There was a time not that long ago that a 5^th anniversary was in doubt.  But with landlord issues settled and receding into the past, it was time to really celebrate. Brian Lenzo and his crew brought out some rare beers.  Bells, Founders and Ninkasi beers flowed along with locals like Ladyface, Beachwood and Kinetic.

There is simply not enough space on the interwebs to list all of the beers that were being poured so I will break it down into two smaller sub-groups.

Group 1 are the beers that I tried and Group 2 are the beers that I wanted, but ran out of time and tickets to sample.

Group 1 – My favorites start with Scorcher part of the Reserve Series from Brooklyn Brewing. No pepper. No heat. Just a tremendous floral hoppy light beer at only 4.5% ABV that you would have on a hot day.  Another winner was the Flowering Gose from Almanac. This was of the non-salty Gose variety but I really enjoyed it. I got my first taste of Phantom Carriage and their first beer, Muis.  I was also impressed by the Rhinegeist Truth IPA from Cincinnati and a special pour of Nelson from Alpine Brewing was superb.

Group 2 included the Dogpatch Sour from Almanac.  I also passed by the Bois from The Bruery because by the time I saw it, the heat was in full effect and it would have been too heavy for me at that point.  Same goes for the AleSmith’s cask of Coffee Speedway Stout with Vietnamese coffee.  And anything that was pouring inside, I missed,  There was 10 tickets worth of great beers outside and I never ventured in despite the allure of Great Lakes and their “Monster” and Two Hearted from Bells Brewery.

If this is what Blue Palms can do in 5 years then mark your calendar now for next year’s 6^th anniversary.

Your Beer of the Week is from Noble Ale Works in Anaheim. Pistol Whipp’d Pils is a favorite of brewmaster Evan Price (see his Food GPS interview) and is perfect for a hot and stuffy August night. It pours a light yellow and is crisp and clear with a lovely cereal grain flavor.

Your Homework this week is to raise a glass in toast to Dry River Brewing who reached their Kickstarter goal!  They raised their $25K with a day to spare. Add that, to the fact that they have a location scouted, and that means that we have another brewery in the pipeline.  Looks like the L.A. Brewers Guild may be getting some new members with Pacific Plate in Monrovia well on their way and a few others that are still in the fermenting stage with Dry River.

Find more of Sean Inman’s writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.