SoCal Suds

My wife and I got some cheap airline tickets out to LA earlier in the year and made a New Year's trip out of it.  Fortunately, my wife has become quite a fan of craft beer as well, and she indulges me in my passion of seeking out great beer by letting me incorporate some of our trip around that search.  Here are the results from Southern California...so far....:

December 29, 2011:  First stop of the trip was San Pedro Brewing just 20 minutes off the plane at LAX.  Great location in the shadow of the spectacular Vincent Thomas Bridge at the big shipping port of San Pedro.  The beer was so-so (their Red Ale was decent), but their food was excellent and definitely the star of the show along with the ambiance.




December 30, 201: Today was the official "Brewery Day" of our trip.  We visited five in total in the north San Diego area that is known for its great craft beer.  First up was Ballast Point Brewing.  Here's a look at their board of offerings.  Excellent beer overall.  We had their sampler and my fave was the Sculpin (it's a type of fish) IPA.  We brought two bombers of the Sculpin IPA and the Victory at Sea Imperial Stout home with us for an upcoming Calfornia beer-tasting we are going to have at our house.

 




Our second stop was close by at the tiny Alesmith Brewing.  We had their sampler as well and I was
actually disappointed in their hoppier offerings, their IPA and the Horny Devil.  Both had a weird baloney
 (not kidding) taste to me.  Their Speedway Stout was very good, however, with a nod of interest also to the
Special Speedway Stout which contains chipotle and morita peppers for a heck of kick.

  




Green Flash Brewing was next and all their beer was excellent that I tried.  I had the  Double Stout, a taste
 of the Winter's Folly and a glass of the  I Plead the Fifth Black IPA.  This brewery is a real up-and-comer with
bottling distribution to a large section of the country (no, not Tennessee yet).  They recently moved into a much
larger facility which was spacious and full of taps as you can see in the picture above.

  


Mecca achieved!!!
 I finally made it to my favorite brewery of them all!!  Stone Brewing is the granddaddy of all California craft brewers.  Incredible products available throughout the country including Tennessee, thank goodness!.  This is a glass of the Self  Righteous Ale.  It was awesome.  I got a bomber of it to take home as well.






Our last stop was The Lost Abbey Brewery.  It had a been a long day so I only had the Hot Rocks Brown
German Lager which was very good.  This little artisan brewery is a favorite among locals here and for good
reason.  They are producing some amazing beer here.  My wife actually brought me some of their other offerings
a few years ago when she was out here without me.

 

Date unknown......What the???  Who took that???  Hey, it was $3 and I bought at a Rite-Aid near our hotel.  And I never had Corona Familiar before.  I was not impressed.  Turns out its the same as Corona Extra, just in a bigger bottle. 

 I also had a decent IPA at Stuft Pizza and Brewing, a regional chain restaurant with a location near our hotel in Dana Point.  They actually have their beer brewed off-site at Firestone Walker Brewery, a central-California brewery with a good reputation.  The IPA was pretty good.

beer updates



The beer can hotel in Denmark...yeah, I'm totally going!

 A recent Mt. Juliet Beer Company variety six-pack that I put together included:

1. Grand Circus IPA (can) - Atwater Brewing, Latrobe, PA

2. Sam Adam's Latitude 48 IPA - -Boston -  bottle - very good

3. Harpoon Octoberfest - back to Boston - bottle

4. Highland Clawhammer Oktoberfest Lager - good - bottle

5.  Stranger American Pale Ale - Left Hand Brewing - Colorado - bottle

6. Yazoo Fall Lager - pretty good - bottle

Milkman's Autumn Amber - home brew bottle from my friend, Chris, with his own cool labels
I also had his Milkman's Nut Brown Ale which was my favorite and his Milkman's Summer Light.  Nice job, bud, keep up the good work!

I also had a Chattanooga Brewing IPA at Taco Mac on a recent trip back to Chattanooga

Christmas Cheer and Christmas Beer

This year's Christmas tree with a beer theme was my best-looking one yet thanks to some feminine touches by my wife Ashlee and our friend, Tarryn, who added silver ornaments throughout and spruced up the six-pack cartons with some glittering spray-on snow.  We also tied on a few empty bottles as ornaments including a home brew made by Tarryn's husband and my friend, Chris.

The beer tree got even more adornment when our friends, John and Monique, surprised me with several strands of beer-cap garland that they made by hand!!  They had a bartender at their local watering hole save caps for them and then drilled two tiny holes in each one and ran steel wire through each.  Above is a close-up view of their fantastic work.

Some of the new-to-me beer that I offered at our annual Christmas party (and whose cartons I displayed on the beer tree this year) were Saranac Brewing's Season's Best Nut Brown Lager, their Big Moose Ale (a hoppy winter pale ale) and their Caramel Porter (by far, my favorite).  I also picked up a six-pack of Abita's Christmas Ale which was very good also.  Thanks to the Mt. Juliet Beer Company for providing such an excellent selection of beer to choose from again this year.

I had a New Belgium Snow Day Winter Ale at my friend, Caroline's Christmas party.  It was tasty.

I also got a couple good high-gravity pints in my stocking from wife including:

Missing Elf Double Bock (9.5%) and Lobster Lover's Porter (8.2%) from the Rinkuskiai Brewery in Lithuania