It is good to see the magical word “approved” when you are reading beer news. And it is especially good if it means a new L.A. area brewery is opening. Both are the case with Pacific Plate Brewing, which should open its doors in mid May of this Year!

In the future you will be able (with some walking) to ride the Gold Line from Angel City Brewery downtown to Pacific Plate in Monrovia. All we have to do now is be patient for both breweries to open.

The Pacific Plate space, which once housed a wine importer, is currently a blank canvas but in the works are 16 seats and more room for standing tap room that overlooks the set-up of brewing equipment that is producing the beer in your glass.

The range of beers will veer from Latin American influenced to historical beer styles. You will be able to order a Mango IPA (with more mango than hops) or the Widowmaker IPA which clocks in at 120 IBUs. A list of the beer ideas that flow from the founders Steven A. Cardenas, Stephen Kooshian and Jonathan René Parada include a beer made with smoked cardamom, a series of nut brown ales made with different nut extracts, an English spring ale, and their Copa del Oro, a Belgian Pale ale that is accented with rose petals.

I came away impressed with their hazelnut brown ale which had hints of Nutella in the body and their Chimay yeast dubbel which was dry and really highlighted the yeast. Now, we just have to wait for construction to finish so we can ride the rails to great beer.

The Beer of the Week is Almanac XPA. A bottle was recently on the Beer Belly bottle list and flew off the shelves of Sunset Beer Co. before I could even get one bottle. They call it a California Table beer and here is their full description: “Our Belgian-style Extra Pale Ale is brewed with heaps of sweet Mandarin oranges from Blossom Bluff Farms and California two-row barley. We dry-hop with generous doses of aromatic Cascade and Columbus hops and finish the beer with a hint of lightly toasted American oak.”

Your Homework this week is to take stock of the beer you are cellaring and schedule when you will pop open some of your beer gems. For me, I like to select a perfect beer for my birthday and for my wedding anniversary along with a few other special days.  I also scan through my list of aging beers and see which ones need to be opened ASAP. You can use a fancy app or a simple Excel spreadsheet whichever will help you not to lose track of what you have and end up with a beer past it’s prime.

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