The L.A. BEER BLAST is designed to let Food GPS readers know what’s new at select L.A. bars and restaurants with great beer selections. You’ll also discover beer-related events in the area and meet industry leaders. The L.A. BEER BLAST normally arrives every Thursday evening, in time for the weekend rush. Look in the left sidebar, SUBSCRIBE to Food GPS and you’ll receive the L.A. BEER BLAST by e-mail.
In last week’s column, Brew & You columnist Sean Inman mentioned how the 3rd LA Beer Week is not to be missed. This week, “to ensure that we don’t miss it or any other cool festival, he encourages readers to “get out our new 2011 calendars and plan the year ahead” in a post, titled, Essential Beer Festivals of 2011.
Beachwood chef-owner Gabe Gordon currently features draught beers like Midnight Sun Panty Peeler, Mørke Pumpernickel Porter, Port Carlsbad Ralphies Bock, Drake’s Alpha Sessions, Stillwater Autumnal Saison, Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Russian Imperial Stout, Stone double dry-hopped Self-Righteous and Dogfish Head Festina Peche. Track changes to Beachwood BBQ’s 24-tap menu via HOP CAM.
According to Blue Palms proprietor Brian Lenzo, “Big Sky tonight with the whole brewing team. Belgian Style Brown Ale, Belgian Strong Cherry Golden, All Souls Imperial Saison, Slow Elk, Pliny the Elder, Ballast Point, Dorado, Scuplin, Panty Peeler & Ballst Point Sextant on Nitro!!! Cheers!!!”
Blue Palms is also pouring beers like Drake’s Alpha Session pale ale, Black Market Red, Craftsman Triple White Sage and Bellegems Bruin West Flanders. Track changes to Blue Palms Brewhouse’s 24-tap menu via HERE
According to Boneyard bar manager Rory Snipes, “Some of the fun stuff we have on this week: Russian River Blind Pig, Aecht Schlekerla Oak Smoke Dopplebock, Speakeasy Scarface Imperial Stout, Gentleman Scholar Requiem Espresso Stout with Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Cuvee de Jacobins Rouge, Goulden Carolous Noel, Beer Valley Leafer Madness DIPA, and Great Divide Hercules DIPA. Also, on Tuesday January 18th we’re having a Strand Brewers Night, we’ll have 24th St. Pale and the new Atticus IPA on tap, and Rich from Strand will be on hand to talk about his beers. Get a free Strand Logo pint with your first beer!”
The Bottle Room
According to Tuesday night’s update from chef-owner Tony Alcazar, “Took a much needed vacation and had a personal tour of Bear Republic, drank Rejection and Mortification at RRBC, and Superwave at 3rd Street Aleworks. San Francisco and Sonoma are cool beer scene towns. Anyway, now pouring Mad River Rorschach Two, RRBC Consecration, and Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence among 24 amazing handles featuring local breweries such as Craftsman, The Bruery, Eagle Rock, and Bootleggers as well as other fine American and Belgian Craft Breweries.”
According to Beverage Director Eli Wilson, “We at Congregation are very excited to welcome Russian River’s extraordinarily tasty brews to our rotating draft list for the first time ever. We debut tonight with Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig! Coming up next week WEDNESDAY is our Local Brewer’s Festival. Come meet some of the leaders of L.A.’s beer scene while sipping on over a dozen select beers all brewed within 25 miles of Long Beach.”
According to Tuesday night’s update from General Manager Matthew Kaner, Covell is now pouring Ommegang Chocolate Indulgance Stout, Great Divide Old Ruffian Barleywine and Anderson Valley Black IPA.
Since last Thursday, Phil McGovern’s Santa Monica bar has added draught beers like Port Hop 15, AleSmith Speedway Stout, Deschutes Hop Trip Pale Ale, Affligem Tripel, Russian River Consecration, Rogue Maier Fest and Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, and on cask, Stone Arrogant Bastard with American oak.
Jeremy Raub, father Steve Raub, wife Ting Su and the entire Eagle Rock Brewery team are celebrating their first anniversary this Saturday, January 8 from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. $10 entitles guests a commemorative anniversary glass and four drink tickets. The Grill ‘Em All and Mandoline Grill trucks will also be there.
The Factory
According to co-owner Eric Gutenkauf, the current draught beer list includes Stone Double Bastard, Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous, Green Flash Hop Head Red, Grand Teton Pursuit of Hoppiness Imperial Red, Mate Veza Yerba Mate IPA, Avery Ellie’s Brown Ale, Bootlegger’s Mint Chocolate Porter and Deschutes The Abyss.
The Factory is holding a Beer Festival on January 13 in honor of the Long Beach gastrobar’s first anniversary. The following beers are confirmed on tap: Bootleggers Knuckle Sandwich Double IPA, Bootleggers Anniversary Strong Ale, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Ballast Point Tongue Buckler, Port Brewing Mongo IPA, Stone Double Dry Hopped Arrogant Bastard, Strand Atticus IPA, New Belgium Lips of Faith Vrienden and Angel City Abbey.
“Several brewers have also confirmed attendance (Bootleggers, Ballast Point, Strand, Angel City) and New Brew Thursday will be broadcasting from BEERFEST! Brewer Hayley Meagher of Rock Bottom Long Beach will be bringing a Woodford Reserve barrel-aged Brown Ale to the party.
There is no entrance fee. Each attendee will purchase their first beer for $6 and receive the glass to take with them. Refills in that glass are only $4. FULL PINT GLASSES will be used! Other glassware may be purchased as we will have a variety of choices from represented brewers!”
According to The Golden State co-owner Jason Bernstein, new draught beers include Anderson Valley Black IPA and Russian River Consecration (June 2010).
According to Ladyface rep Robyn Britton, “Everyone at Ladyface Ale Companie wishes you a happy, healthy, hoppy New Year! Later this month, we’ll be celebrating our first anniversary with a full week of fun, releasing our Anniversary Ale, a huge Belgian Quad, and hosting a Brewmaster’s Dinner and other special events. Every tap will be pouring Ladyface ale with all 22 of the regular, seasonal and special brews we’ve created throughout the year rotating through. Watch for details here.
The Cask of the Week is “Megapepper IPA” our own Ladyface IPA infused with Brewer Dave’s secret, multi-pepper hot sauce. When we asked Dave what he was thinking, he said “IPAs go great with spicy food; I just cut to the chase.” Ladyface on tap – La Blonde, La Blanche Wit, Blind Ambition Amber, Ladyface IPA, Trois Filles Tripel, Picture City Porter, Midnight Special Strong Scottish Ale, and Chesebro Imperial IPA. Guests include Port Old Viscosity and Hop 15, Grand Teton Coming Home, Bootlegger Knuckle Sandwich, Great Divide Oaked Yeti, St. Louis Gueuze, Val-Dieu Grand Cru, and St. Feullien Noel. Cheers!”
According to General Manager Tom Kelley, a certified cicerone, “We still have leftover’s from the Holiday fest, Anchor Christmas, Sierra Celebration, Parrot in a Palm Tree, Port Santa’s Little Helper, and Avery Old Jubilation. In addition released our keg of 2010 Stone Russian Imperial Stout, aged 8 months, which is drinking beautifully. On the hop front we have the latest batch of Apex DIPA from Bear Republic.
On Tuesday January 11, we are hosting Chris Bauweraerts from La Chouffe for a meet the brewer at 1:30 PM. Take off from work, and tell them the Gnome kidnapped you!”
Lucky Baldwin’s eastern outpost is now pouring St. Feuillien Triple, Old Foghorn Barleywine and Old Viscosity Barleywine.
According to Naja’s Place Assistant Manager Martin Svab, new beers include Dogfish Head Olde School, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Black Diamond Rampage DIPA, Great Divide Old Ruffian, Shipyard Blueberry Wheat, Cistmontane Blacks Dawn (on nitro), Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Lagunitas Brown Shugga’ and Sierra Nevada 30th (Brewer’s Reserve).
According to Tuesday night’s update from assistant manager Josh Salinas, “This weekend will we be running the last of Craftsman Holiday, with Craftsman 1903 on deck. We also have awesome new brewery Nibble Bit Tabby’s ESB, a beer i’m really into right now. On our remaining taps we are pouring Eagle Rock Manifesto, Flying Dog “Doggie Style” Pale Ale, TAPS Porter, and Hanger 24 IPA. On Deck we have TAPS Roggen, a german rye lager, and Eel River Organic Porter.”
According to yesterday’s update from Brandon Halvorson, who runs the beer program at Dave Furano and Michael Zislis’ El Segundo biergarten, “We’re gearing up for our IPA festival next week at the moment:
January 11the through the 16th we’ll be overloading our taps with all the hoppy goodness we can get our hands on for our first Rock and Hops festival. We have over 15 different IPA’s from breweries including Bootleggers, Black Market, Kern River, Stone, Flying Dog, Victory, Port, and many more. We’ll be kicking the event off Tuesday night with the a cask of Double Dry Hopped Atticus IPA from the guys at Strand Brewing co. We’ll have a special tapping Friday night for our facebook and twitter friends and then wrapping the whole thing up on Sunday we will be discounting all our IPA’s $1 all day, and then $2 off after 6pm.”
Sidebar
According to yesterday’s update from Jace Milstead, a certified cicerone who’s consulting on the beer list, “We’ve got Telegraph Winter Ale, Taps Vienna Country Lager, and Avery Joe’s Pilsner (a beautiful rendition of an American Pilsner, just recently brought into the LA Market) to name a few. On deck and likely to come on at any time will be Kern’s Class V Stout on Nitro. Also, waiting for coach to put them in will be Bootlegger’s Knuckle Sandwich, Ommegang Three Philosophers, and Firestone Pale 31.”
According to manager Peter Shuey, “We started off with a bang at Simmzy’s with the addition of Russian River! We now have Blind Pig IPA and Pliny the Elder on tap. Needless to say we’re very excited to add such a great brewery to our lineup. Right now we also have Unibroue Maudite, Bootlegger’s Mint Chocolate, Shipyard XXXX, Strand Atticus IPA, Dogfish Head 90 min, Brouwerij West Blonde, Old Rasputin & Tripel Karmeliet. On deck we’ve got Mikkeller Warrior IPA, Ommegang 3 Philosophers, Widmer Brrrbon & Great Divide Hercules among others. And if you hurry we still have a few bottles of Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch, the Imperial Oatmeal Stout made with coffee from civet droppings. Hands down the best Oatmeal Stout you’ll ever have!” Track changes to Simmzy’s tap list HERE.
For the month of January, Marlene Samaniego and husband Sam are featuring Porters and Stouts on tap, including Victory Storm King Imperial Stout (2009), Avery Out of Bounds Stout (2009), Dogfish Head Chicory Stout, Abita Vanilla Porter, North Coast Old #38 Stout, Gentleman Scholar Requiem Espresso Vanilla Stout, Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout (2009), BrewDog Tokyo Imperial Stout and Stone Smoked Porter brewed with vanilla beans.
According to today’s update from Surly Goat rep Andrew Kelley, new draft highlights include Deliverance – The Lost Abbey (barrel-aged American strong ale), Just Outstanding – Kern River (American IPA) and The Abyss – Deschutes (Russian Imperial Stout). On deck, you’ll find Delirium Noel – Huyghe (Belgian Dark Strong Ale), Torpedo – Sierra Nevada (Extra Pale Ale) and Avec Les Bons Voeux – Dupont (Belgian Dark Strong Ale). In bottles, Sink the Bismarck and Tactical Nuclear Penguin are now available from BrewDog.
According to yesterday’s update from general manager Paige Reilly, “Happy New Year! Right now we are featuring a great list: Craftsman Edgar’s Ale, Bear Republic Apex, Eel River Triple Exultation, AleSmith Speedway Stout, Green Flash Nut Brown, and our newest brewery Mother earth Brew Co’s Righteously Hopped Red IPA! Also, join us Tuesday, Jan 11 for a T@T Flight Night featuring Cismontane’s Double Rainbow DIPA.”
According to Harley Rogers, Vendome Toluca Lake is featuring “very rare beers accompanied by limited release oddities” on Saturday. They’re pouring 15 tasters for $10 beginning at 2 PM, including Bourgogne des Flandres, Goose Island Demolition, Shipyard Barleywine, Norrebro Bryghus La Grania, Ommegang Adoration, Lost Abbey 2008 Angel’s Share, Old Rasputin XII and Old Stock 2009 Cellar Reserve.
As of last night, Verdugo Bar was pouring beers like Bear Republic Nor Cal Ale, Avery White Rascal witbier, Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA, Russian River Consecration, Marin Brewing Hoppy Holidaze winter warmer, Dogfish Head Chicory Stout and Green Flash Barleywine. On deck, we found Aventinus Weizonbock and Delirium Tremens.
The Craft Beer Chronicles>
This week, Brand X contributor Steven Armstrong shared his latest installment of The Craft Beer Chronicles, titled Inside the mind of Mohawk’s beer bender, Paige Reill. Tony’s Darts Away manager Paige Reilly will soon segue from Burbank to Echo Park to lead the craft beer charge at Tony Yanow’s latest venture, and she shares some juicy details.
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