On Friday nights at Sunset Beer Co. in Echo Park, you will find a food truck out front and the usual great beers on tap and in bottles but that beer is from one different brewery each Friday.

In past weeks Ballast Point has been featured with Sculpin, San Salvador Saison and Barmy Ale on tap and last Friday, Cismontane was in the house pouring their new Classified Dopplesticke as well as their Dos Cone Es Imperial IPA.

This is a great way to try a range of beers and see if there is a house style to the beers. Or if their beers are each more individual than the last. Another reason why this is great is that, it saves on gas and time. As much as I love the smell of a brewery and visiting their tap rooms, you probably won’t be able to hit San Diego one Friday, then head to Rancho Santa Margarita the next and Ventura and Utah either. Yet another plus is that usually someone from the brewery, either a brewer or a brewery representative, is there to talk about the brews too. So if you have questions or comments, you can go right to the source.

This week’s Friday slot is up in the air as I write this but in the following weeks Ventura’s Surf Brewery and Uinta from Utah will be holding court at the taps.

And if your Fridays are just too packed, you can head down the street to Mohawk Bend. They feature a different brewery each month. This month being Epic Brewing. Or, if your Tuesdays are free then check the Tony’s Darts Away calendar. They just might have a tap takeover like last Tuesday’s Drakes Night.

And I have just touched on one area of Los Angeles. Check your local craft beer spot and see what tap take-overs they have on their calendar.

The Beer of the Week comes from Oskar Blues in Colorado and it deviates from the norm. It is Deviant Dales IPA. A sibling beer to the popular Dales Pale Ale. It packs a big punch and is not for the lighthearted. It is bitter and sticks on the palate. Aside from this bigger flavor profile, what separates the Deviant from Dales is the size of the can. Deviant Dale comes in 16oz tallboys.

Your Homework is to try some craft beer brewed in Utah. Two breweries have started sending SoCal their beers and it would be down right ungrateful not to at least try a few. Epic Brewing is the newest to enter our market. Bottles are showing up in fine shops like the above mentioned Sunset Beer Co. You can try their Brainless Belgian Golden Ale and then see what happens when the Brainless is on peaches. Uinta Brewing is the other beehive state brewer you can sample which is better than trying to pronounce the name. Hop Notch is the IPA that I am looking forward to sampling.

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