The downtown L.A. Craft Beer Crawl is back for a second round this Saturday.

And all you have to do is put on your walking shoes because the Beer Chicks and 213 group have done all of the planning for you. The festival winds through seven bars in downtown LA. From 3pm to 8pm, you can take your tasting glass to the Golden Gopher, Cana Rum Bar, Seven Grand, Casey’s Irish Pub, Cole’s, Las Perlas and Broadway Bar. And adding to the grand architecture of the area will be food trucks curated by beer lover and Good Food host Evan Kleiman.

Among the thirty brewers in attendance, here are my picks for what to sample depending on what brew mood strikes:
If you want to try something rarely seen in LA – Uncommon Brewers & Noble Aleworks.
If you want to drink something brewed within minutes of downtown – Eagle Rock Brewery & Nibble Bit Tabby.
If you want to sample something from the Old School – Craftsman Brewing & Sierra Nevada.
If you want old world beer with an American twist – Ladyface Ales & Brouwerij West.

If you want to feel extra special you can upgrade to a VIP ticket and get into the fest two hours early and sample some added beers like a Smoked Black lager from Craftsman, Tart of Darkness from The Bruery or a double dry-hopped version of Atticus from Strand.

If you want some exercise on a beautiful SoCal day but you also want good food and great beer, the crawl has you covered. Oh and proceeds go to help Heal the Bay, so you will be helping out the environment too.

For the craft Beer of the Week, I suggest for the first time a beer from TAPS in Brea. It it goes by the name Oaked Thomas Jefferson ale and it is a big and very smooth beer with buckets of caramel flavor that make it super easy to drink. This recipe is based on ingredients that were delivered to Monticello. Another great beer from brewmaster Victor Novak that just might be available to the VIPS at the Craft Beer Crawl.

This week’s Homework is to find a beer that is both on draft and in bottles. Perhaps Sculpin from Ballast Point and compare and contrast the two. Buy a bottle and have it ready at home. Then head out to one of the great LA beer bars that has that beer and take notes or photographs on what flavors you taste and aromas you smell as well as the appearance of the beer. Then do the same at home. See how well the two versions compare.

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