Three years ago, an event that started in a parking lot with only three breweries and a couple of food trucks has now grown to 80 total vendors and moved to the Rose Bowl because the crowds have grown sizably. Which festival is it? The L.A. Vegan Beer & Food Festival is a collaborative event that celebrates craft beer that is “created completely free of animal product.”

Most fest-goers would probably not even notice the difference (beer-wise) considering the stellar brewery line-up that includes Bell’s Brewery, Modern Times Beer, Noble Ale Works, Karl Strauss, El Segundo Brewing Co. and Three Weavers.

Golden Road Brewing, one of the L.A. Vegan Beer & Food Festival’s co-conspirators, is bringing back their special Almond Milk Stout which the brewery describes as a “sweet stout with rich malts and almond milk in lieu of lactose, providing our vegan friends with a tasty alternative to standard milk stouts.”

Plus, if you can imagine a better place to enjoy beer than the Rose Bowl with the San Gabriel Mountains looming over you (and who knows, maybe a blimp) then you will have to let me know where that place is.

The Beer of the Week is Snorri’s Awakening. All the way from Iceland via Philadelphia. This is the collaboration Of Einstök Craft Ales and Yards Brewing, as well the combination of pale ale and coffee. It is also part of the trend away from big coffee stouts and into lighter beers like milk stouts, Belgian Pales and now the venerable pale ale style.

This week’s Homework is to plan on “donating” the next beer you drink. Crawl4Nepal happens on May 10 and will be the craft beer lovers way of helping the victims of the earthquake that struck Nepal. Participating bars/breweries (see the list HERE) will feature a tap where the proceeds (100%) will be donated for this worthy cause. Raise a glass to being charitable!

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