If you’re used to visiting breweries, Downtown Pomona’s Homage Brewing will be a rare sight to behold. It has attributes uncommon to most start-up breweries I visit. Located on a main street in the historic Arts Colony, I can’t help but notice I’m somewhere walking distance to other local shops and restaurants. The welcoming signage beckons me in, and once inside I notice a decor that’s both modern and minimalist, much like it’s branding. There’s an aesthetic and style here that’s unique in beer culture, maybe more suited to a boutique coffee shop.

I’m greeted by founder and head brewer Matthew Garcia. We’ve never met and he didn’t know I was visiting, so I can attest that with no special treatment at all that Garcia is indeed a welcoming guy that seems to genuinely care about his business, his beer, and his customers. Taking me through the line up we create a tasting flight of eight beers for a true sampling of what Homage has been concocting.

The beer itself was varied enough to showcase some of the great things Garcia and his team are doing – but succinct enough that I could very easily pick up on the theme’s Garcia is after. There’s a direction here with real thought put into it. Garcia is joined by fellow brewer Jeremiah Bignell, (a ten-year home brewer himself) and together they specialize in hoppy, Belgian, and Brett barrel aged beers. Despite its youth, Homage Brewing does a standout job in all three categories. They were out of the fruit beers I’d been hearing so much about, but instead of being disappointed it just made me want to return later to give them a try, too. The tasting room was calm and well decorated, and while relatively small (and happily so it seems) Homage has big ambitions with its beers.

I have to respect a neighborhood spot like Homage, so rooted in it’s community early on that it’s already doing collaborations with one of my favorite beer bars just a block away, The Rookery. So I asked Garcia to spend 5 minutes with me on an interview. Here’s what he had to say:

Nick: Tell me how you got to where we are now?

Matthew: I was in music before, touring with bands. Creatively I’ve always wanted to do something where I could express myself, so that’s where the idea began. I started working at bars once I got back from touring, at Yard House and I was a manager at Congregation Ale House for about four years. During that time I learned about beers constantly, so I gave home brewing a shot and like most brewers a hobby turned into a crazy passion. I thought, why not take some of the things I learned being in a band and apply it to beer? Everything I did, even playing guitar, I just transferred into brewing. Step by step, practicing and getting better, just like you would if you were playing a song. You practice a song and the fifth time you nail it. With beer it’s a little different, I don’t ever feel like I nail it but collectively you do start to see progress and you get better. That’s where it all started.

We wanted to do something that was a storefront; there aren’t too many storefront breweries. You have some popping up in Downtown LA but I hadn’t seen a cool little storefront and that was really the idea. We found that the real estate was relatively low in Pomona and we feel like the culture here is awesome – it’s really a melting pot for all kinds of different creatives, whether you see a photographer walking down the street or bands coming in to play the Fox Theater or the Glass House. It was just the right fit; we knew that this was where we wanted to be.

Nick: Tell me about what Homage is trying to accomplish.

Matthew: Our mission statement is pretty much “Look, smell, taste, evolve.” We base it on the premise of smelling the hops or the yeast, and like most craft beer drinkers they start with certain types of beers and then start to evolve their palate. With us here as well, we want to evolve.

As far as Homage goes, we wanted to do hoppy beers, Belgian style ales, because that’s what we started drinking and we love them to this day, and barrel aged and Brett beers.

We draw inspiration from a ton of breweries, and I’ve always felt that from being in a band, and with anything, that if you take a humble approach to things it always ends up a success. It’s an act of humility with all the pioneers that have been doing this a while. So this brewery is almost an “homage” to every type of artist: a musician, photographer, film maker, brewer, chefs – whatever it may be that’s what Homage represents and stands for. It’s us adding to beer-making, because every style has been done before, but it’s everyone’s approach and signature that makes it unique.

Nick: If you could use this as a way to reach beer fans, what would you tell them to come visit?

Matthew: I wouldn’t put just it on us, Pomona itself is really starting to boom. If you come here on the weekends it has life, it has energy and a heartbeat. We have the Rookery across the street, which puts out one of the best tap lists in LA County, their food is amazing and amazing people work there. You can catch a show at the Glass House or Fox Theater, too. So if that’s not enough to drive people here I don’t know what is.

But then you have a little gem like us, we’re doing Brett beers and hoppy beers and using all the new hops that people love, we’re doing fruit sour beers, and we do small batches. So it’s limited, when you’re here there’s always a new treat for someone to find and something cool to find on tap, but Pomona itself should really be the draw.

Visit HomageBrewing.com for more info. 281 S. Thomas St, #101, Pomona, CA 91766, Open Wed-Fri (3p-11p), Sat (1p-11p), Sun (1p-8p)

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It’s 4pm at the Buzz Wine Beer Shop in downtown Los Angeles. Certified Cheese Professional (yes that’s a thing) and owner of Vagabond Cheese Alex Ourieff has literally been cutting the cheese – 30 to 40 times if I’m not mistaken, right in front of me. My nose is on olfactory overload (from the cheese, not Alex), my tongue is coated with a mix of hops and rind, and my stomach is immensely happy yet totally confused by its contents. For the last three hours I’ve been taking bites of cheese and taking sips of beer. Bites of cheese, sips of beer. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

After the marathon I just endured, tasting what seemed like insurmountable number of cheeses to pair with a tasting flight of five dank IPAs, I needed a nap. Ourieff, on the other hand, walked around as gleefully as when he walked in, packing up his arsenal of cheeses into a large cooler with a pep still in his step, happy with the selections we’ve made – another cheese pairing set in the books. And he’s headed to conduct another pairing at a brewery down the road.

The cheese cooler

Ourieff is quickly becoming the cheese baron of the Los Angeles beer community. His company, Vagabond Cheese, has worked closely with a string of breweries throughout the LA area to provide an elevated experience to participants – offering a five-course cheese pairing to accompany beer flights. He’s a regular at El Segundo, MacLeod, Phantom Carriage, Smog City, King Harbor, Angel City, and the list goes on. Vagabond doesn’t have a brick and mortar shop yet, which has led Ourieff to take his love of beer and cheese pairings directly to breweries. Ourieff will show up to a brewery a week or so in advance of an event to create the perfect pairing for the predetermined flight (hence the three hour cheese binge), and on the day of is present to sell and explain pairings to customers for about $15. “The thing that excites me is talking to people,” says Ourieff. “Create that shared experience of trying something incredible for the first time, that’s what it should be about.”

Ourieff talks about cheese like the best cicerones discuss beer; he knows more about cheese than I thought was possible, and is engaged not only in knowing his flavors but also his boutique cheese makers. Presenting a cheese list you won’t find through any other purveyor, Vagabond Cheese sources its dairy from across the world, having longtime partners stash requested cheeses one wheel at a time onto larger pallets from the East Coast or Europe. Thanks to the connections and experience of Ourieff’s past endeavors, he’s able to snag rarities you won’t find anywhere else. He’s worked at the Artisan Cheese Gallery in Studio City, as a purchasing manager for Gourmet Imports, and eventually as a buyer at Cowgirl Creamery in San Francisco’s Ferry Building; all before deciding to open up his own business here in Los Angeles in 2014.

His unpretentious attitude invites you to push your palatable limits and expand your own knowledge about cheese. “If I can get to customers through the pairings of two things I really love equally,” says Ourieff, “maybe I can expose a lot of people to artisanal cheese that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.” This approach of engagement and fostering exploration, so often found in the beer community as well, has seemed to create a unique and highly hospitable business model for Vagabond Cheese. “Going to breweries and farmers markets is about getting to the people who aren’t already buyers of artisanal cheeses,” he explains. “How do we create experiences for customers that is inspiring, or inspires them to support the small producers that are out there?”

So what makes a great beer and cheese pairing? Ourieff is quick to point out that the basic rules can only take you so far. “Sure there are basic guidelines,” he says, “but if you want stellar pairings, you have to taste things together… if you stumble on something that blows your mind its by accident with the guidelines.” But let’s start at the basic principles of pairings. According to Ourieff, “hops tend to balance well with acidity in cheese. Any cheese that’s sharp will go well with hoppy beer.” When it comes to darker beers, Ourieff explains that, “a standard pairing for dark, malty, roasty beers like porters and stouts would be to go with blue cheese – but my preference is to go with cheeses that have a creamy mouth feel… anything that coats your palate well can go well with those darker beers.”

If you already have some fine cheese available, maybe reach into that bottle collection you’ve been hording and do some experimenting. “Some of the more interesting barrel aged and wild beers in the saison category are great for cheese pairings,” says Ourieff. “There are a lot of similar chemicals that you’ll find between cheese and beer. The phenols you get in beer (spicy, earthy, barnyard) you get similarly in character with Alpine cheeses.”

Do yourself a favor and head to one of these pairings yourself for a chance to see the Certified Cheese Pro in action. Offered at a Los Angeles brewery or beer bar near you, Vagabond Cheese’s stops are wide spread enough to be in your area in the coming week or so. I went back to downtown’s Buzz Wine Beer Shop to see the Dank IPA pairing in action, and to get some feedback from customers. According to fan Jet Doye, the experience of pairing five beers with five cheeses is totally worth it. “I’m not a beer drinker, but I was excited to come because the pairings are so good, and I thought I might learn something… Instead of saying I don’t like beer I can say ‘Oh I like that one.’” This being her third pairing, Doye added, “I lie to my trainer about how much cheese I get from Alex.”

The final “Dank IPA” pairing

Ourieff explains his pairings

At the end of the day, it seems that Vagabond Cheese is on a mission to push our sensory preceptors to new boundaries in pursuit of shared experiences. “Ultimately what we’re about as a company is bringing cheese to people that don’t always have the opportunity to try them, and finding cheeses that are exceptional,” says Ourieff. “If food is anything but a vehicle to create a community then you’re not doing it right.”

Visit VagabondCheese.com for event details and more information.

The post Vagabond Cheese: Pairing Beer and Cheese Across Los Angeles appeared first on CA BrewMasters.

Hidden in the midst of Los Angeles Beer Week was a very small but very special event. It featured two brewers (neither from Los Angeles), and highlighted a beer brewed not just outside of LA but outside of the continent. It took place at a newly opened bar I had not yet heard of, tucked into an open-air back room that, according to its owner, had not yet been fully completed. Few of my fellow beer-friends were present, yet in this foreign space with foreign people was something deliciously familiar.

I refer to Saison Dupont, one of my absolute favorite beers. This is the beer you pick up when you don’t want to make a decision, the beer you gift to friends, and the beer you should absolutely have tried yesterday if you haven’t already. And I’m not alone in my esteem for this quintessential brew. “For a saison-style beer it’s the perfect beer. It’s a desert island beer,” says Tomme Arthur, co-founder and brew master of The Lost Abbey. Arthur has recently collaborated with fourth generation Brasserie Dupont brewer Olivier Dedeycker to create Duex Amis, the collaboration saison using the recipe of Saison Dupont with the twist of American hops. It’s the type of collaboration beer fans get giddy about – and the reason I found myself in the open-air back room of the new Phoenix bar on Third Street.

“I got an email from a representative at Total Beverage and they were looking into a project with Dupont about a collaborative beer and they asked if I’d be interested,” says Arthur. “Of course I said hell yes.” Duex Amis translates to “two friend,” an appropriate title not only because two highly respected breweries with two highly respected brew masters collaborated together; in a way it’s representative of a beer-laden hand shake between the old-world European guard of brewing and the boldness of new American styles and hop usage. Which is why Arthur, who founded Lost Abbey in 2006, was cautious when approaching a collaboration brew with Brasserie Dupont, founded in 1844. “They don’t do collaborative beer, this is not something that they actively participate in,” says Arthur. “How do we bring some sense of American brewing without overstepping our bounds?”

The collaboration took the form of a traditional Saison Dupont with the addition of American hops. “We changed some of the hops as a matter of really showcasing the yeast itself – the American hop project was my contribution. They said to bring whatever American hops I wanted and let’s see what we can do with it,” says Arthur. Brewed in January, the beer is being released in kegs as well as 750ml bottles this month. It contains Amarillo, Simcoe (both found in The Lost Abbey’s annual Carnevale beer), Mosaic, and German Magnum for bittering. “I think they nailed the essence of the beer, it has a lot of qualities that we see in a regular classic Dupont and a little Americana to it without being over the top,” says Arthur.

To promote this new beer, Arthur and Dedeycker took on a nine-day cross-country tour of the US. It was Dedeycker’s first visit to America. I asked Dedeycker about working with Arthur on the brew. “I was really excited to work with Tomme Arthur given that they do great things of course, and he could find very interesting things to do with a collaboration,” says Dedeycker. “Tomme was in charge of the selection of American hops, [because] I don’t know anything about American hops. He shipped the product to us and we didn’t open it until he even arrived at the brewery.”

“I watched Olivier and his head brewer the first time they smelled the Amarillo and Simcoe and their minds were blown,” says Ryan Sweeney, co-owner of The Phoenix, who was present for the collaborative brew at Brasserie Dupont. The beer then, as described by Dedeycker, takes on new notes to the point where the brewery, for the first time in a long time, smelled noticeably different during brewing. But the result of temporary aromatic fluctuation was worthwhile. “It’s a refreshing beer,” says Dedeycker, “the selection of hops that Tomme chose gives a lot of grapefruit and citrus that you’d never find in our beer… a refreshing acidity.”

“They’ve been doing this for a long time,” says Sweeney about the Dupont legacy. “To be willing to take American hops with an American brewer and really change it up – it’s pretty amazing. You’re watching a change in history.”

As the Arthur and Dedeycker gave tasting notes at the head of a long communal table I observed a growing report between them, true to the Duex Amis name. After all, these two brewers had traveled to foreign places with foreign languages, stood in unfamiliar rooms among unfamiliar people to make this collaboration a success. Across continents and among open-fire kettles they worked together in the pursuit of great beer. So if Duex Amis doesn’t represent the propagation of community that can and does transpire thanks to a crazy phenomenon we call beer, then at least take comfort in the fact that it also happens to taste fucking delicious.

The post Collaborators Lost Abbey and Brasserie Dupont brew “Duex Amis” Yielding Flavorful Friendship appeared first on CA BrewMasters.

Los Angeles has played a particularly important role here, which underlines a respect for the city’s fast-growing beer culture as well as a reputation for quality. “We saw a lot was happening in Los Angeles,” says Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman on bringing the festival to LA County. “LA had been a bit of a beer-desert… and now it seems like there’s really a movement here with a lot of great brewers and a beer scene’s really starting to happen.”

The tip of the hat from one of craft beer’s founding fathers also comes in the highly drinkable form of one of the Beer Camp mix-pack’s best beers, Stout of the Union. This robust American stout (7.3% ABV) brewed by LA breweries Beachwood BBQ and Smog City, as well as San Diego collaborators Societe, The Lost Abbey, and Bagby Beer, is indicative of LA’s inventiveness with its use of new ingredients as much as it’s esteem for the past. “Sierra Nevada Stout has always been a favorite of every member of the team. It’s an inspirational beer for all of us,” says Shrago.

“We’re all known as IPA brewers but it would just be too easy to do a big hoppy beer,” says Shrago. “We decided instead to pay homage to one of our favorite Sierra Nevada beers with a roasty, hoppy American stout and modernize it a bit. There’s two newly developed malts in there (Simpson’s Golden Naked Oats and Double Roasted Crystal) and also a brand new hop variety (Equinox).”

“Maybe I’m a little bit biased but I think it’s one of the best one’s in the mix pack this year,” says Frances (Franny Full Pint) Lopez, head of the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild. The event, hosted by both the LA County and Inland Empire Brewers Guilds revealed particular gains seen in Los Angeles beer culture. “Sierra Nevada bringing Beer Camp to LA County is an incredibly huge deal to us,” says Lopez. “It means that they’re paying attention to local markets and communities that are constantly growing in size and quality. It was exciting to hear from the Sierra brewing team say, ‘wow, LA’s got some amazing brewers.’”

This should come as no surprise to LA beer fans, many of who have spent the past week at events for LA Beer Week. Heavy hitters including Sierra’s Ken Grossman and Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur both held events in the city during beer week, and the kick-off festival on June 18th saw some of the largest and most enthusiastic crowds ever. That being said, respect on the national and international beer stage is something Los Angeles will continue to strive for, as its been a relatively short period since the city has made a name for itself beer-wise. While the Bay Area and San Diego have roughly twenty years or more under their belts, Los Angeles has only really made progress as a beer town in the last five or six. Beer Camp is just another cog in a big wheel to put a spotlight on LA’s local breweries, but it is an important one. “It’s the ultimate tribute to LA as a beer destination and gives a lot of credence to LA breweries,” says Beachwood’s Shrago. “We’re tremendously honored to have it here, and I’m proud to have it in my home town.”

Enjoy some more photos from the fest!

Franny Full Pint serving up the IE / LA Brewers Guild Collab “Guilded by Saison”

The post Beer Camp Pitches Final Tent in Long Beach to Highlight LA Beer appeared first on CA BrewMasters.

The 8^th annual Los Angeles Beer Week is finally upon us – and for folks like me it might as well be the summer time version of Christmas. Like the holidays, Beer Week (which runs from June 18 – 26^th) week will be bountiful with gifts for all, coming in the form of great beer events. With so many options, I thought I’d share my two cents on what not to miss out on for what is sure to be the best LA Beer Week yet. Hope to see you at one of these beer-riffic shin digs, sure to satisfy the palate and enrich your sense of community so often found in LA Beer Culture.

Before I give you my list, may I highly recommend picking up this year’s Unity beer – an IPA brewed this year by Three Weavers using two experimental hops, HBC522, and HBC342 (sexy names, aren’t they). Unity is the official beer of #LABW8 (make sure to use the hashtag), so get your hands on this awesome-looking bottle while it’s nice and fresh.

Saturday, June 18^th

LA Beer Week Kick Off Festival at Los Angeles Center Studios (12p-4:30p)

Not to be missed, this festival will feature 75 craft breweries bringing their A-game to represent Los Angeles and the amazing quality of beer that LA is beginning to be known for. With 200+ beers on tap, live entertainment, and tasty food trucks, this event is quintessential in my eyes as your direct line to enjoying all that LA beer can offer. Buy Tickets ahead of time, take public transportation (this year the fest has relocated to Center Studios in Downtown) and I hope to see you there!

Back up

No back up, just go… but also hit either El Segundo for a Pizza After Party, or industry folks can check out Far Bar in Little Tokyo for a VIP after party.

Sunday, June 19^th

Cellarmaker at the Hemosillo

The Hermosillo (aka home to Highland Park Brewing) is bringing in one of my favorite San Francisco breweries down to the Southland to take over the tap list. Not only is this good news for Angelinos, who will rarely see this beer locally, but there’s also a collaboration beer between HPB and Cellarmaker being released as well, an exciting treat that you won’t want to miss.

Back Up

Dad Party + Bottle Release at Phantom Carriage

It being Father’s Day at all, let’s not forget about dear old Dad – Phantom Carriage sure didn’t! Brunch starts at 11am including hickory smoked chiken n’ waffles, Bring Your Own Vinyl, and the bottle release of a rare barrel-aged dark soul ale aged in oak (pre-sale pick up only). It’s good to be Dad!

Monday, June 20^th

Pink Boots Take Over at Three Weavers

One of the best organizations in beer has got to be the Pink Boots Society, and on Monday from 4-9pm you’ll be able to support them while drinking some amazing beer from LA and beyond. With 100% of the proceeds benefitting the Pink Boots Scholarship Fund, it should be well worth the $30 price of admission for 6 beers and a glass to take home. Breweries like Drakes, Brouwerij West, Cascade, Monkish, Noble, and so many more will be pouring.

Back Up

LA Beer Week Bottle Share at Southland Beer

I love bottle shares, and I love Southland Beer. Bring some rare bottles to one up your beer-brethren and make some lasting beer friends.

Battle of the Bands

Tuesday, June 21^st

Eagle Rock Brewery’s Battle of the Bands at the Echoplex

This is perhaps my favorite LABW event… LA breweries team up for an epic and oftentimes-hilarious showdown, showing off their musical talents and whacky themed performances. There’s also amazing beer on tap. Put a big red circle around this event and make sure you’re there. Check out last year’s photo gallery if you don’t believe me!

Back Up

Battle of the bands… but if you really can’t make it hit San Diego night at Beachwood BBQ in Long Beach. I have it on good authority there will be some heavy hitters (Societe, cough cough).

Wednesday, June 22^nd

Fifty Fifty Brewing at Blue Palms

Eclipse on tap – need I say more? Starts at 4pm.

Back Up

Vagabond Cheese Pairing at El Segundo Brewing

While this event happens monthly at El Segundo Brewing Co, I’m recently obsessed with Vagabond Cheese (article in the works) and owner Alex Oueriff’s knowledge of cheese, as well as how it pairs with beer. There’s also Raclette Potatoes… potatoes with a melted down half wheel of cheese scraped onto it (cue the mic drop).

Thursday, June 23^th

So many options I couldn’t just choose one! Here’s a bunch of picks to check out where you just can’t go wrong:

Battle of the Guilds 2016 at Naja’s Place, 6p

Craftman Beer Dinner at Eagle Rock Public House, 6p

Cascade Collaboration with Phantom Carriage, 6p

So You Want to Open a Brewery in LA? Panel at Rock & Brews, El Segundo, 7p

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Dinner with Ken Grossman, 7-10p ($65 each)

Beachwood BBQ & Highland Park Brewing Together at Glendale Tap, 4p

Phantom Carriage

Friday, June 24^th

Ladyface Sour Night with Flamberge Release & Brewery Tour

2016 Flemish Red bottle release and a supposed assortment of “archival ales from the vault.” Hard for any sour fan to say no to this one – Laceface’s sours, while rare, are on point. Get ‘em while you can!

Saturday, June 25^th

Green Flash & Alpine Tap Take over at Blue Palms

IPA lovers can rejoice that Alpine (and parent craft brew company Green Flash) will be in Hollywood for a full tap take over. A special one-off cask is also promised. Starts at 1p.

Sunday, June 26^th

Block Party at Glendale Tap

Monkish, Phantom Carriage and Smog City come together for the 3^rd annual Block Party at Glendale Tap, with specialty kegs tasty eats. This is a great way to end the week, with South Bay beers making the trek east! Starts at 5pm.

Happy Beer Week to all! Cheers.

The post Don’t Miss These LABW8 Events appeared first on CA BrewMasters.

In a press preview prior to the festivities, Communications Director Karen Hamilton provided some details of the location, which I’m happy to share with you now. The gargantuan brewery campus spans three new warehouse structures, and is expected to put out around 1.8 million barrels of beer per year at full capacity. That’s a staggering amount of suds.

Lagunitas Director of Communications Karen Hamilton

Building One will house shipping and receiving as well as cold storage and office space. Building Two will house a keg, bottling, and canning line (that’s right, Lagunitas CANS) and spit out bottles at a mind blowing 750-800 bottles per minute. Building Three is where most of us will be spending our time, as it will be home not only to the future taproom (located on the second floor to give a birds eye view of the facility), restaurant, gift shop, and rooftop beer bar, but also to the brewery’s three-250 barrel brew houses.

Current plans include 90 55-foot-tall fermenters, 12 bright tanks, and three centrifuges as well, making this truly a monster beer-making facility, bigger than Lagunitas’ campuses in either Petaluma or Chicago. And of course, there will be an amphitheater, because according to Hamilton, “where ever you find Lagunitas, you find music.” Just like the MillerCoors plant located within eye’s view, Lagunitas will utilize Azusa water as well as its citizens, creating 200 jobs through initial hires.

The buildings sit empty for now, but it shouldn’t be more than a year before we see an open taproom signaling signs of life, and signs of more beer to come. Here’s some more photos to keep us thirsty in the meantime.

Architectural plans

Azusa Mayor Joe Rocha

Ron Lindenbusch, Lagunitas’ Director of Marketing

Roller Derby in full effect

The Bread & Barley crew

Beer Friends!

The post First Look at Lagunitas Azusa: What We Know So Far appeared first on CA BrewMasters.

We sped North up the 5 Freeway at an average speed of 85mph. Whooshing by Andersons Split Pea Soup, The Harris Ranch, and that god-awful cattle farm situated just close enough to the freeway for a good whiff (you know the one), the car’s engine purred and the trunk clinked with the LA Beer we’d been hauling. We jettisoned past the windmills on 580 and winked at cops as we passed. They understood. We had a goal to reach, you see. That goal was San Francisco Beer Week.

This year’s SFBW was massive, with over 700 events listed on the books. It’s impossible to get to everything, leaving many with a serious case of FOMO regardless of whatever amazing beer you happen to be sipping at the time. Arriving mid-week, Girls Who Like Beer (my business partner and travel companion for this trip) and I had already missed some of the big events, like the Opening Gala on Pier 35. Instead, we tried our best to be strategic with our two-day stint in the city. We focused on hitting smaller events and local breweries.

Faction Brewing

Arriving into the Bay Area, our first stop was at Faction Brewing in Alameda. I love visiting this brewery; both for the ambiance (it’s located in an old Marine helicopter hangar and the view of the city across the water can’t be beat) the people, and of course the beer. As head-beertender Corey Hennegan told us, “The thing I like about Faction is that it’s all about balance. There’s a lot of thought put into hop profiles and flavor profiles, we make big aggressive beers but a lot of times they don’t drink like it, they’re very smooth and balanced. Very approachable to people.”

With up to 30 beers on tap, there’s sure to be something for everyone, but my recommendation would be to steer towards the hoppy stuff. Hennegan suggests the Hoppy Pale, a year-round option, or one of the fresh IPAs. “Our IPA program is seasonal,” says Hennegan, “so it’s based on the freshness of hops. It’s winter so whole-cone hops are fresh on the market so that’s what the Winter IPA contains.” My personal favorite was the A-Town Pale and the Hop Soup IPA.

Hog’s Apothecary

With our inaugural beers enjoyed and minds reset, we headed towards our next stop, Hog’s Apothecary in Berkeley, for a tasting of 50/50 beers from Truckee. This neighborhood spot was honestly more exciting to check out than the tasting itself. Owner and executive chef John Stewart-Streit showcases a great menu of American house-made (and house butchered) culinary treats complimented by a terrific craft beer menu (new local favorites like Fieldworks and Fort Point can be found on draft). It’s a great stop if you’re in the area.

Social Kitchen & Brewery

Following a brief stop to lay down our baggage, we headed into San Francisco proper for a “Beer with Grapes – A night of beers made with wine grapes” event at Social Kitchen & Brewery in Inner Sunset. A flight of six “wine beers” were poured from various breweries including Social itself, as well as from Calicraft and Triple Voodoo. While I still don’t think anyone’s really mastered the wine-beer experiment yet, I thoroughly enjoyed the “Rosebud” from SF local Magnolia, a Belgian abbey ale with rosebuds, rose petals, lavender, and Cabernet Franc juice.

Toronado

Now let’s bring it back to reality. Wine beers are great (sometimes), but that experience doesn’t wont a candle to a visit to the Mecca of San Francisco beer, the infamous Toronado. No beer themed trip to SF should be considered complete without a couple pints spent among unruly bartenders and loud heavy metal on the jukebox. The place is stained with the history of craft beer, and I’m elated to give Girls Who Likes Beer her first experience here. We raise pints of Russian River Blind Pig IPA and get yelled at publicly for taking too many pictures. Classic.

Anchor Brewing

Day two starts with a visit to Anchor Brewing; an experience that is right up there with Toronado for me. This storied brewery is flat out gorgeous. The simplicity of concrete and brushed copper fermenters within view of the tasting room echoes back to the origins of high quality beer being made in America. This is no brewpub; it’s as industrial as it is beautiful. But don’t let the longevity of Anchor’s history fool you into thinking that it’s “Anchored” in the past (couldn’t help myself). As our guide explained, Anchor has plans to quadruple its production capacity with a new facility complete with museum, brewery, and restaurant. And honestly, fresh Anchor Steam is as delicious as ever; we were poured the full line up of their beers and it was still my stand out.

City Beer Store

Nothing’s too far away in the city of San Francisco. Measuring just 7×7 miles, the only restrictions of the city are the daunting hills and occasional Super Bowl City (a sore topic for residents). It’s a smarter call to grab a $7 Uber that will take you from the doors of Anchor to City Beer Store in SoMo. City Beer Store was kind enough to host my first Kickstarter event for my book, and besides their generosity for the little guy, they have an excellent reputation in craft beer; doing quite a bit with the small basement space they occupy. On this day, we tried variants of Hopocalypse from Drakes Brewing. This IPA came to us in four forms, a 12.5% Black Label Triple IPA, a 9.3% Green Label DIPA, an 8.4% White Label White IPA (maybe my favorite), and a 9% Red Label Blood Orange DIPA (kidding… this was my favorite). While the latter two are only available on draft, get your hands on a monster Black Label if you can, which is offered in bottled.

The Rare Barrel

As the sun went down so did we, into the depths of the BART system to hitch a ride into Berkeley. It’s there that we stopped by The Rare Barrel, a highly regarded California brewery focusing exclusively on sours. Founding partner Alex Wallash was there to greet us and tell us a little bit more about The Rare Barrel. “All of beers take about one year to make,” says Wallash, referred to as ‘Tall Alex’ on his business card. “One thing that we’re always experimenting with is fermentation, and for us that’s both yeast and bacteria. Bacteria puts the sour in sour beer… so when you’re working with [both] they’re competing in a way. We’re trying to change one variable (at least) in every batch… to see which flavors they produce and how to recreate that.”

An interesting thing I learned while speaking with Wallash was how their location was picked to best produce their beers. “We came to Berkeley specifically for the weather. It’s perfect for barrel aging sour beers because of the climate that ranges from 50-70 degrees year round… if you get below that things get cold and slow down, and it’s wasted time. If it’s above 80, particularly for about a week or more, you can get acetic acid production that would turn our beer to vinegar… that’s why we came here.”

“One of the things I’m interested in is dry-hopped sours,” says Wallash about potential future projects in store for the Rare Barrel. “That’s one of the things we’ve been experimenting with quite a bit; it’s one of the more challenging things you can do because of a short shelf life, and there’s still a lot we can learn about how acidity works with hops.”

Lastly, I asked Wallash about what it’s like as a brewer leading up to SFBW: “My least favorite part is leading up to it and all the planning involved. We’re doing four events at the brewery, and it’s not something we do often so we want to do it right. But my favorite thing is once it starts then it’s just a big party and it’s awesome to see how many people roll out from not just the Bay Area but from around the US and world to come to San Francisco and the Bay area to try these beers. It’s cool to see that community come out for it.”

Cellarmaker

Day three and we’re ready to hit the road, but not before one more last stop on our list. Cellarmaker has been a buzz-worthy brewery for some time, and after our visit I understand why. The full tasting flight is a beast (best shared) and the beers were all fresh, flawless, and innovative. As an almost comical nod to SFBW, Cellarmaker released Quadruple Dobis, a 12.8% beer dry-hopped four times with Citra, using about 20 pounds for the batch while by comparison most dry-hopped IPAs boast about 3-4 pounds. It tasted like an IPA but it drank like a quad. Good luck finding it again, but I really enjoyed both the playfulness of this beer’s concept as well as its astounding execution; the balance of which really threw me for a loop. “Beer Week is for fantastical things that can be a little more lighthearted in a way. It’s not a beer I take too seriously but it’s amazing in its strength and it’s hoppiness,” says brewer Tim Sciascia. “It’s fun to brew and the customers like drinking it, so why do we have to be so serious about it?” I couldn’t agree more.

I spoke to owners Sciascia and Connor Casey for some insight on the brewery. “We offer a hyper-fresh product that is unavailable at any level bigger than us,” says Sciascia. “It’s constantly rotating, it spoils our customers.” Casey jumps in, “The oldest hoppy beer you’ll find here is 10-14 days max. This year we’ll do about 1,400 barrels. A lot of it stays in the tasting room so that’s why people think we’re smaller.”

“I’m from the east coast and I moved out here to learn how to brew beer,” says Sciascia about his start. “I got a job in Marin Brewing where I met Connor… he needed a brewer… and we were on the same page and ready to make the same kind of beer that we were drinking but couldn’t find around here.” The duo, which has been active for about two and a half years, has created an unquestionably deserved early rise within the Bay area. I really appreciated their commitment to being hyper-local while striving to create world-class beer. Do yourself a favor and try them out on your next visit.

Fin

It was time to go, and what a shame it was to leave the city. We had barely scratched the surface, but we’d be back. As the heavy rain poured down on us so did a sense of community within this wonderful industry, based on a drive for quality that we’re lucky enough to rediscovered on each stop of our beer travels. It’s an ongoing theme in this industry; be it SF, LA, or the rest of the US. The ability to prop up these businesses; big or small, new or storied, is in no small part thanks to the camaraderie epitomized throughout any city’s Beer Week.

Passing under the fog-laden Golden Gate Bridge, we pushed on North to Santa Rosa, where the RateBeer Best Festival and Awards was about to kick off for the first time ever. We’ll talk all about that in Part II of our NorCal adventure.

Cheers.

The post 48 Hours In San Francisco Beer Week: A Photographic Journal appeared first on CA BrewMasters.

Specializing in mixed fermented beers, Highland Park Brewery is without question putting out some of the most inventive beers in Los Angeles, size be damned. Established in 2014, HPB will put out around 700 barrels of beer this year, which makes it both a treat and a rarity to snag sought after bottles like Raised Eyebrows (a mixed fermented sour aged with guava and passion fruit from the parking lot) or Cart Fetish (a sour collaboration with Monkish Brewing). Both are well worth the search. What’s even more of a treat is to enjoy the full spectrum of their beers, (from Noble hop driven IPAs to rich dark beers like their imperial stout with coffee),  fresh from the taps of the Hermosillo, while conversing with the man responsible for these yeast and bacteria driven brews, Bob Kunz. A wacky guy with a lot of heart and a lot of beard, Kunz has accomplished some incredible things with the system he’s been given. He brews these beers in the freakin’ parking lot for god’s sake. Bottles are conditioned 33 to a milk carton stacked in the hallway. But as you’ll read, the pursuit of innovation and quality is always in the forefront of Kunz’s mind, and evident in the beer he produces. This interview is a long one but a good one – so before we begin I want to make an emphatic suggestion to my fellow beer fans out there – go visit the Hermosillo and try these beers. Visit now, and visit often. I just might see you there.

And now, on with Mr. Kunz:

Nick: Tell me how you became interested in craft beer, and what led you to where you are today?

Bob: I was getting an English degree in creative writing in Washington State in Bellingham, WA, and essentially I started drinking good beer immediately. I’m a very tactile person by nature, if I like something I want to learn how it’s made and how I can make it, so when I started drinking craft beer I thought, “I’m going to make craft beer.” I immediately started home brewing and within a couple summers I had an internship at a brewery in Bellingham called Boundary Bay. I worked there one day a week over the summer cleaning kegs. It was a great experience, [being a part of] the dialogue and conversation. I wasn’t all grain brewing and those guys told me I had to.

From that point on it just kept snowballing. I was home brewing but also I just kept seeking out beer. I’d say I’m a beer consumer first and foremost. I just love it. I seek out new beer, interesting beer; I’ll push my palate to experience new things; to experience the best of a style.

After college I wanted to work in beer but it’s hard to get your foot in the door. I did get that internship but they didn’t have an immediate position. My wife and I decided to do some traveling; it was shitty timing but essentially we decided we were going to travel and then the [Boundary Bay] offered me a full time job. I didn’t take it obviously because I had these travel plans. We traveled for a couple of years in South America, in Park City, Utah. We moved from Park City to Los Angeles and before we moved I said I was going to work at a brewery [when I got to LA]. I reached out to all of the breweries in town at the time; this was around 2006. I think there were five? Mark Jilg at Craftsman was the only person that responded.

At that time I was very into wild fermentation and playing around with all kinds of yeast and bacteria. I think Mark always had that intrigue as well, so it worked out as me being the lower man on the totem poll that brought some creativity and enthusiasm.

It was my first legitimate foray working at a brewery; I would say he’s the most influential person for me mentor-wise. He really pushed me to develop my palate first and foremost. He didn’t focus as much on education or the technical [aspects] but if you had a discerning palate you could get to where you wanted to go. That’s how I’ve always approached beer, I’m not the most technical person but if I know where I want to go I can modify the process to get there.

My time at Craftsman was awesome but it was small company and there wasn’t really room for me to grow. From day one of my first home brew batch 14 years ago I knew I wanted to open my own brewery. I thought I could do it in the next two years! Little did I know it’d take me 12-13 years to happen, but the first day I sat down with Mark I told him my intent was to open my own brewery, so after two years I knew I needed more upward mobility to make it happen.

I made an immediate transition to Fathers Office. I bartended there for three years but wasn’t seeing a lot of growth personally. I had written tons of business plans and make a brewery happen but it hadn’t happened yet. I had already been doing all of their beer education but I took a bigger role in the beer buying and eventually took over as general manager for both stores for a couple years.

That was almost as equally shaping as working at Craftsman – working with Sang Yoon at Fathers Office. It was much more challenging, Sang wasn’t an easy individual, but both [Sang and Mark] have a pursuit of excellent. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but I knew I wanted to open up a brewery and sometimes you just have to buck up and be pushed to get the experience you need.

It was two years of doing that; but in that time I was GM and I lived in Highland Park, and the Hermosillo opened up. I was just bellying up to the bar and it was the one place in the neighborhood where you could get good craft beer. I hit it off with Ross (one of the owners) and one day he said, “hey we have this space in the back, you want to check it out? We’re thinking about a brewery.” I had become pretty serious and was pursuing a couple locations, so we checked out the space together and I thought, “it’s going to be small but I think I can do it!” I rode my bike home that day and said to my wife, “I think I’m opening a brewery behind the Hermosillo.” And it kind of just went from there.

We opened in May of 2014. We did the build out and permitting all ourselves. Ross and I together maneuvered the city; it was pretty tricky but if you have a goal you get there. Sometimes it takes diligence and you have to keep pounding the pavement.

Nick: Tell me what Highland Park Brewery is. What are you after with this brewery?

Bob: If it was one type of beer that I would like to brew it’s mixed culture fermentation. So, beers that are made with nontraditional yeast and bacteria, that are really driven by fermentation. We have such a small space that we’re barely scratching the surface of that. We have eight barrels in the parking lot, two in the brewery, and that’s where all our mixed fermentation beers come from.

So that’s my heart, what I’m passionate about and what’s meaningful to me, but that’s not all I drink. That beer’s special. I want to drink it all the time but I probably drink more pilsners or IPAs than anything. It’s probably cliché but we make beer that we want to drink. That’s the bottom line. If it was a pyramid, at the top of the pyramid is unique mixed fermentation that’s going to push people and what they’re experiencing. “Is it good beer, is it not good beer?” That’s the fun of it. After that it’s beers that we want to drink and beers that are still going to push people and be intriguing. Crisp beers with Noble hops, and IPAs; all of those beers are well suited for our geography. For me, temperature and climate matter for what I drink, so we end up making beers that suit that, and ultimately hoppy beers, crisp pilsners, and saisons make sense in our climate.

Nick: Why can a small neighborhood brewery focus on such niche beers and get away with it? Would it make sense from a business perspective to put out safer beers?

Bob: When you’re small you’re nimble. It’s easy to shift gears and be creative. The bigger you get as a company it’s harder to move even a little bit in any direction. For us, it’s a seven-barrel commitment. We’re committing five kegs and a thousand bottles on an experiment. Maybe everything won’t turn out perfect, but being small allows you to have innovation. I don’t want to grow at a rate where quality and innovation aren’t at the forefront. I only want that production to follow quality and innovation.

Nick: Do you think that ability to grow and maintain quality is a hard line for a lot of breweries to walk?

Bob: I absolutely think so. I’ve had to put myself in check; you end up being in a capitalist society that pushes for “more, more, more,” and it’s hard not to get caught up in that. But there’s something in the back of my head telling me, “slow down.” You got to have enough time to do the innovative stuff and what you’re truly passionate about. Not just pumping out IPAs. Take a back seat and make a pilsner. But, the ideology of the world we live in is “more, more, more.” We could make IPAs all day long and sell them all day long.

Nick: Is it a responsibility to the consumers to try to educate them through presenting different beers? Or is it solely that you’re making the beers you want to drink?

Bob: I really don’t know. It’s interesting because this bar was already busy before Highland Park Brewery was here. The brewery has added more of a critical mass, but if I’m completely honest it’s challenging for education to happen here. The bar staff barely has time to get out of a few words to tell people what a beer is about. In a perfect world people would have all the right information and be informed; you could really create an environment where you could spend time with people, but if I’m being honest it doesn’t happen very often here because we’re just too busy.

Nick: That doesn’t lessen the experience that people are drinking these crazy beers and maybe not understanding them fully?

Bob: It doesn’t. The ideal for me would be more education I come back to, “Okay, it’s just beer, do I like it or do I not like it?” It’s a simple philosophy but when applied to the consumer it’s pretty rad. I think we’re lucky with the demographic we’ve nurtured. People coming to the Hermosillo are creative, so even if they’re not beer people they still like weird shit. They order a beer at a fast pace and then go, “Oh whoa! This is weird! I like it!” Ultimately that’s what matters; that I like it and it’s pushing me. Not that you have to put tons of thought into it, but to at least think that I’m intrigued and my life is a little more interesting because of that experience.

Nick: Switching gears, the craft beer industry right now is changing. Do the words “craft beer” have the same meaning as they’ve always had?

Bob: It’s a little bit of just semantics. Language changes over time, and it means something different now than from twenty years ago to twenty years in the future. I’m always going to fight for the little guy, for people that are authentic and genuine in their heart. We need to make money, we are businesses and we can’t deny that, but there’s still a genuine approach to what you’re doing to where the product is held as a higher than a concept or money. I don’t worry too much about it because language changes all the time, whether you call it craft or not craft… it will probably change again in 5 years.

The bottom line is that the majority of consumers won’t know the difference. They’re going to end up drinking what they have access to, which then really becomes the question, is what do people have access to? There are one percent of craft breweries making a shit load of beer, but for every buy out or merger there are ten to twenty new breweries. 1.8 breweries open up per day in the US, and those breweries are shoestring; they thrive because they connect to a neighborhood and their local community. There are advantages and disadvantages to including everyone in “craft” but ultimately I don’t think it matters. What matter is that there’s still people connecting with other people and producers are still selling directly to consumers. That’s growing just as much as the brewery that AB is buying. And if they’re in more grocery stores and more people are drinking them it might actually open people up to trying more breweries.

Nick: Along the lines of neighborhood and locality, Highland Park has been at the forefront of the gentrification debate. Craft beer for the most part is seen as a white person’s game. What responsibilities, if any, do breweries have to their community dealing with the issues of gentrification?

Bob: I think I get a little bit exhausted by the topic of gentrification, partly because I’ve always been a boot strapping person myself. I don’t come from money, I busted my ass to get where I’m at, and I’m going to keep pawing my way forward. I have a goal, and I’m going to struggle and work really hard to get to that goal. To me, gentrification is such a unique topic. It’s funny you bring it up in the context of craft beer, because I would almost be tempted to say that there was a little less diversity at the Hermosillo [before the brewery]. I do the bottle pick ups and it’s got to be over 50% of the people picking up bottles are Latino. It’s almost a non-existent question in our climate, but that doesn’t relate to the Hermosillo’s clientele. I would say that the brewery’s bottle sales are greater in Latino demographics than the people bellying up to the bar. That’s unique because our bottles are way more esoteric and out there. Maybe what your question pointed to is that craft beer is this niche thing that white people created?

Nick: In a stereotypical sense, yes. But because this area (Highland Park) has had this battle going on for a while, is it something you think about as it relates to craft beer?

Bob: We think about it because it’s in our face. People put signs on your door and there are protests and you read about it a lot. But in the day to day it doesn’t really exist. I live in the neighborhood and ride my bike, I interact with people around here. I go to businesses that are Latino owned, black or white owned.

It’s challenging, but I don’t have a great response. Ultimately I’m running a business that’s having some success so it’s probably upping the value of things here and pushing some people out, but I moved to Highland Park five years ago because it was the only place I could afford. So it’s a funny dynamic.

Nick: On the other side of the locality discussion, you’re using hyper-local ingredients. You use fruits and herbs grown in LA in your beers. Why is it important to source locally?

Bob: I’m inspired by the geography, which produces climate but it also produces agriculture. We’re in Southern California where fruits and vegetables are everywhere. It’s a huge inspiration to me, but it’s really challenging to source quality barely, malt, or quality hops; those come from very specific regions. We try to make something that’s authentic and genuine to the place that we are, and that becomes a challenge because all of our beer is based on commoditized agricultural products. So we do fermentation in our parking lot, and we have a guava tree in our parking lot that only exists right there so we use those guavas. I have eucalyptus trees on the sidewalk in front of my yard and I’m growing herbs and lemons all the time. We’re trying to find ways to utilize those in our beers.

I also think it makes us authentic to our neighborhood. If an ingredient thrives here we should use that. I have a lemon grass plant that I got from a patron that comes in here, I water it maybe five times a year and it goes nuts. We should use that in our beers because it’s an ingredient that is incredibly aromatic, we can use it as a season or spice to base ingredients and it’s going to contribute in a way that people can relate to. Guava is a great example because you ask anyone in Highland Park, Eagle Rock, or Mount Washington and they’ll probably say, “Holy shit we have so many guavas we don’t know what to do with them!” It’s an aromatic funky fruit that has a place in beer made in Southern California.

Nick: What’s in the future for HPB? What’s one year ahead, or five?

Bob: The space that we currently have is about 480 square feet, and we probably take up another 600 square feet of the parking lot that we use as if it was a part of the brewery, and that’s not ideal. If I go back to mixed fermentation, sour beer, barrel fermentation beer, concrete fermented beer, ceramic fermented beer – I have exciting things I want to do but our hands our tied in the space that we have. We’re close to signing a lease in Chinatown, which would be a 6,000 square foot space. We’d do a tasting room and barrel warehouse. The immediate [effect] would be that we could do more mixed fermentation beers. That space, if we get it, would have another 4,000 square feet that we could add on as continuous space where we could put another brew house. The demand for our IPAs will grow so it will give us a chance to make more of that. Never say never but that seems about the scale I want to exist in.

If the warehouse [lease] is successful we hope to be up and running by the beginning of 2017. Within the next two-three years we’ll probably be making around 1,000-1,500 barrels. If we then put in a brewery maybe 3,000 barrels, but I really wouldn’t want to do more than that.

We also self distribute. It’s important to me that we have a close tie to the food chain, I want to be a producer directly connected to consumers so I know where our beer is going and how it’s getting tapped. We try to put tight parameters on our beer; that it’s stored cold and poured within seven days of receiving. We typically get our beer to people in two to three days, and that allows us to put product first and foremost instead of just popping out beer.

Not to talk smack but for how great Ballast Point is… I’ve had phenomenal beers from them, but right now production is outweighing quality. I’ve had some pretty shitty Sculpin bottles because they’re just grow, grow, grow and their beer just sits on the shelf, and it’s a hoppy west coast IPA that’s driving their brand. Ultimately they’re making business decisions and not product decisions, I think. I would like to do the opposite and make product decision first and foremost. I hope that I can have that restraint, because it’s hard when you have a business and you’re trying to succeed. You still have to make money in the society that we do, but I always keep poking in the back of my head, quality and innovation over production.

Nick: Is there a disconnect between LA brewers and the bar owners / bottle shop owners? Are bar owners understanding more now or is there still a gap in that education?

Bob: For the most part people get it. This is probably going to sound terrible, but when I think about wanting to go to a really good beer bar [in LA] there aren’t a whole lot that jump out at me. When I’m in San Francisco, San Diego or Portland there are probably five to ten that I’m pumped out of my mind about. Maybe because it’s new or different, but there’s a lack of authentic beer spots here. There are places that have really good beer that have to cater to an LA crowd and they try to develop a “concept” and it has to be a bigger production, and it loses some of that, “no this is a real business with real people” feel.

Nick: It’s not the Toronado in San Francisco…

Bob: Yeah, I want a real business where the owner has bartended for the first five years. That doesn’t happen too often here. You raise a bunch of money and you’re reliant on investors and you’re making decisions based on return on investment instead of “alright, I got this business. I’m going to bartend for the first year and it’s going to have a soul and be authentic.”

The cold storage walk in, a converted shipping container.

Nick: What jumps out at you as a few places that do meet that standard in LA?

Bob: I like Barbara’s at the Brewery. The place is a little weird in the Brewery Art Colony but it’s real and it’s got a great beer list. Another spot I end up going to a lot is Sunset Beer Company, I think a lot of the guys that work there are excited about beer, it feels genuine to me. The Hermosillo too, I am not an owner of The Hermosillo but I was coming here because I liked it and it felt authentic. It’s got a weird layout and they just made it happen, the bartops are all crazy, but it’s real.

Nick: Is there anything you’d say to beer fans that we haven’t covered?

Bob: It is a unique layout here; you come to a bar that’s not the brewery that has all the brewery beers on tap. You can’t see the brewery, and it’s a little bit weird in that sense. It’s two businesses that coincide very well together under the same roof, and when you come to the Herm you’re essentially coming to Highland Park Brewery, but it isn’t. Highland Park Brewery is in a small little room behind the bar, and you can’t see it! But if you go into the parking lot you can see some tanks and barrels and all our grain.

Nick: Last question, what is it about beer that still gets you still excited? Why put all this hard work and effort into it?

Bob: As a brewer it’s an amoeba. I’ve always liked change and spontaneity and to be pushed for adventure, and ultimately I’m dependent on yeast and bacteria to do what I want them to do, and they don’t always do what I want. To me it’s a cool thing where you’re part scientist, part creative, part janitor, and that’s always kept me interested. It’s a moving, breathing thing that you can’t quite get a handle on unless you’re AB Or Sierra Nevada; you still have hiccups where you’re dealing with a living, moving thing, which is pretty cool.

As a consumer, which is what I am first and foremost, it’s always been approachable. You can get the coolest shit out there and it’s still only $20 to $25. I love food and beverage, and I wouldn’t even say that I’ve had my best experiences drinking beer, but it’s pretty cool that it’s so approachable. It’s the everyman’s drink but it can still be pretty complex. You can get a Gose, which in my mind is the epitome of a beverage, and it’s $20. $20 for the best experience that I’ve ever had in my life. $20 and I can still find them on the shelf. So it’s approachable and you can get the best beer of any style in a $10 six-pack. Firestone Walker Pivo Pilsner, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Pizza Port IPAs and they’re all around $10. That can’t be said for a lot of things, that you can have the best in its class and its still affordable for the everyman. It’s pretty awesome.

Visit hpb.la for more info. Located at 5125 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90042. The Hermosillo is open Mon-Thurs (5pm-2am), Fri-Sun (12p-2a).

The post Brewer Profile: Meet Bob Kunz of Highland Park Brewing appeared first on CA BrewMasters.

On a rainy evening in early January the highly anticipated Iron Triangle Brewing in the Arts District opened its doors (and its taps) to friends, community members, and beer media for the first time. Like many others, I had been patiently waiting for this opening for some time; both to try brewer Darren Moser’s beer and to see if the buildup that owner Nathan Cole had been asserting was all that it had promised to be. I think it’s fair to say that Cole has been a polarizing figure in the Los Angeles craft beer scene, something he’ll readily admit. An unknown in beer until now, Cole came out swinging by setting his sights high with a business model built on high levels of production and distribution throughout Los Angeles. Iron Triangle is positioning itself to make quite a bit of beer out of the 10,000 square foot facility they occupy, and there are already rumors of future expansions. The four-vessel brewhouse is equipped to handle multiple brews per day, giving the indication that the goal is to hit the ground running, and run fast at that. If things go well for this startup brewery, Los Angeles could be seeing the birth of a Golden Road sized player quite quickly. And that’s worth the intrigue itself. With these thoughts in my head, I entered the results of Cole and Moser’s best efforts to see for myself.

In short, Iron Triangle has delivered on its promises. The five beers on tap were inviting, easy drinking, and 99% without flaws. As Moser told me during a tour of the brewery, the focus is to create beers that are just that, flavorful but drinkable. “We want to sell you your second, third, and fourth pint,” he told us. And based on the beers I tried, he shouldn’t have a hard time doing that. My standouts were the Iron Triangle Dark Ale, (a robust but crisp beer that threw me for a loop in the best of ways), the Iron Triangle IPA, (bright, citrusy, and fresh), and the Mulholland’s Stash Barleywine (American in style, hoppy and accessible for the style), the last of which will be taste tested each month until they find the right time to release it to the masses.

The location itself is also gorgeous. Cole has paid homage to the Iron Triangle (named for William Mulholland, Fred Eaton, and Joseph Lippincott, the creators of the Los Angeles Aqueduct) by setting up shop in a building dating back to 1904 that reeks of history. The wood arched ceilings, exposed brick, and even the snappily dressed bartenders fuse the buildings past with its seemingly bright future.

Darren Moser giving us the tour.

I hope to interview Moser, a recent LA transplant from Maui Brewing, soon to create the usual California BrewMasters blog post, but for now I thought I’d throw in my two cents and offer up my initial observations. I can’t put my finger on why Iron Triangle has brought on so much more of a microscopic analysis, sufficed to say that they set the bar high for themselves, and I think we all were curious to see if they could meet it. While any one beer didn’t seriously blow my mind from an innovation standpoint, do any these days? They were damn tasty, and as Moser predicted they were in fact all beers that I’d have in multiples. The challenges that lie ahead for Iron Triangle are now about creating the distribution levels they hope to acquire and winning over a dedicated fan base. To conclude, I leave you with a Quentin Tarantino quote that seemed rather apt to the situation: “Gentlemen, you had my curiosity – but now you have my attention.”

Enjoy some more photos, and visit when they open… which should no more than a couple weeks away!

Five beers were available for the media preview.

4 vessel brewhouse.

Beautifully designed bar.

Crowlers!

Visit Iron Triangle online for the latest info at www.irontrianglebrewing.com.

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It’s the holidays, and Arts District Brewing in (you guessed it) the Los Angeles Arts District has finally opened its doors bearing gifts for us all. With former Pizza Port brewer Devon Randall taking charge, LA adds yet another well respected brewer to its roster. Randall is just the second female head brewer to grace the LA beer stage (Alex Nowell of Three Weavers being the first) but as is the case with beer, who we are takes a distant back seat to what’s in the glass. In the case of Randall, the quality of the brewer as well as the beer she’s producing is already top-notch.

2015 has been a great year for the advancement of beer in Los Angeles, with plenty of new breweries opening their doors for us to explore. The Arts District is putting itself on the map in many ways, but for me its transformation into a community of beer purveyors and roaming beer fans is definitely what has caught my eye (for a wider picture of the Arts District, check out my previous writings on it).

Arts District Brewing is the latest installment from the 213 Nightlife Group (responsible for such great LA bars as Seven Grand, Las Perlas, Casey’s Irish Pub, and plenty others) and Blue Palms Brewhouse owner Brian Lenzo. They’ve created a well-designed multi-use space packed with offerings for beer nerds and tag-along friends of beer nerds, too. The beers themselves are clean and inviting; best enjoyed among the backdrop of this large brewpub space that provides a little something for everyone. I picture my future spent playing free skeeball with a Traction IPA in one hand and rotisserie chicken gracing my table; compliments of chef Neal Fraser from Red Bird. Did I mention there’s a full bar as well?

I had the opportunity to speak with Randall, the results of which lie ahead. Enjoy and happy holidays! There’s plenty more to explore in 2016.

Nick: Tell me about your beer and brewing history. When did you first find it and how did you get to where you are today?

Devon: The first beer that I really liked, that wasn’t a macro beer, was Moose Drool. I was working at Raleigh’s as a server while I was going to school in Berkeley. I remember a point at which I didn’t want to drink anything but Moose Drool. I didn’t want another beer; I didn’t want wine, just that nut brown. It was so good and so flavorful. That was the point where I knew beer wasn’t going to be same anymore for me.

I moved back to Los Angeles after college…

Nick: So you’re from LA?

Devon: Yes, I’m from the Santa Monica area. This is home, but it’s also the East Side of LA, so it’s still kind of new. When I moved back I joined Pacific Gravity, the home-brew club in Culver City. I liked learning about beer but I wasn’t brewing it very much. My boyfriend at the time brewed and we’d brew once a month or so. Once that relationship ended I wanted to brew again. I realized it wasn’t much of an investment so I started brewing on my own and just loved it.

I brewed all the time. I wasn’t hanging out with my friends because I was brewing so much. I didn’t love my job, which was in marketing and sales, and my apartment was way unaffordable in Santa Monica. I just didn’t like the trajectory my life was on, so I started pursuing my hobbies. There were no breweries hiring seven years ago in Los Angeles, Eagle Rock had just gotten started. They didn’t want me to volunteer and they couldn’t afford to pay me, but they were super nice about it and they’re great friends now.

I looked down in San Diego [and] went to several different breweries, knocking on doors asking if I could just come watch for a day. I was doing BJCP at the time so people took me more seriously than the person that just walks in the door asking to brew. Lost Abbey actually let me come in, and once they let me in the door I did everything I could to be helpful. Sweep the floor? I can do that. Clean the bathroom? I can do that. I wanted people to want me around so I could gather more information. I kept showing up unpaid for a while and eventually there was a position open – I got hired for the bottling line and warehouse.

It was later on, on Labor Day actually, that they told everyone they could take the day off or come in and they’d find work for you to do. Everyone took the day off except for the head of packaging, the head brewer, and me. The head brewer was overwhelmed with work, so he said, “I’m going to show you how to clean a bright tank.” I cleaned three of them. That was my in to get into the cellar; I worked on the barrel program. Lost Abbey has a huge bourbon barrel and brandy barrel program, and a lot of sours.

I was really happy with my position doing special projects and floating around getting to do a bit of everything, but a great opportunity popped at Pizza Port to become a head brewer. I was at was Ocean Beach and trained with Yiga Miyashiro for six months, and when he left to start Bressi Ranch I went to Solano Beach. I was at Solano Beach for two and a half years doing great. We did a ton of fun collaborations with Cervercia Tres B out of Mexicali, with Lindheim Company in Belgium; I got to travel to all the different CBC locations and Denver every year.

Then along came this opportunity, which is even better. Solano Beach was great but there wasn’t a whole lot of growth. I was ready for something new and more challenging, and this has definitely been that. I’ve been here since May and we started brewing mid-September, so there was a lot of working on a construction site. Getting anything done was a challenge, and getting everything here installed… I’m familiar with the equipment of course but it’s a whole different story getting it installed and figuring out the tools you need.

Nick: What take away do you have now looking back on the planning and building a brewery as opposed to running one?

Devon: It takes a lot longer and a lot more money than you think it will. I’ve heard that before but now I’ve witnessed it. When I got here, people told me we’d be open in eight weeks and brewing in twelve. That was so far from the truth. It takes a long time and you can’t really come up with a good timeline when you’re in the middle of it; there are just so many unpredictable things.

[The City of] LA is notorious for being onerous. It’s a person-to-person thing, there are different people for different aspects and they all work together and communicate. Some of them are more realistic and big picture, but some are really nit-picky and down to the letter. Everybody was great but there are a lot of different personalities to work with.

Nick: What’s the plan for getting beer out to the LA consumer?

Devon: We’ll distribute, but not very far, and we don’t have plans for that to be the majority of our output. We hope to sell most of our beer at the bar. Part of the goal is to have control over everything to keep the quality high and not fling beer really far where you don’t know what’s happening to it. We want to elevate the education of a draft system in Los Angeles at every bar, starting with our own.

We’re having our bar managers learn to clean their draft lines. Not because they personally have to clean each one, but I don’t want them to have reps come in, clean the lines but not really, and not know that that’s happening. We did a draft class yesterday and their homework was to ask questions. “What chemicals are you using and why? Are you soaking it, pulling it apart? Are you pulling the faucet apart? Why not? How often do you do that?” Getting them really comfortable and getting them to understand how important that is [is a priority].

Nick: Tell me about Arts District Brewing. What’s the philosophy and what should people come for?

Devon: The owners here are huge on quality, so we’ve done everything we can to make sure the beer is in the best possible shape. It’s super fresh, the bright tanks are behind the counter. When you pull a tap you can actually see it bounce. Part of the goal was to show people the beer; it’s right in front of you. The brewing equipment is through the front door. I try to get work done in the morning but I’m sure people will see some work going on. The food at Fritzi’s is phenomenal; it’s attached but a separate business. Neal Fraser from Red Bird runs it. They’re known for their rotisserie chicken and we have a rotisserie… I think I ate a half chicken the first time they let me try it.

There are plenty of places to hang out and outlets for those that want to hang out and work. The bar is massive; I think it’s 100 seats maybe. And there are games: skeeball, darts, ping-pong, giant Jenga, there’s talk of shuffleboard. And there’s a full bar. They won’t make the cocktail program a huge part of it (they’ll stick to basics) but if you want a cocktail it’s available.

[The owners] wanted a place for people to hang out. If you’ve been to Golden Road that place is just packed, and I love going there to hang out too. There are families and dogs; it’s just a place to go beer-garden-style where you can hang out a good portion of the afternoon. That’s the plan here, to offer space for people to gather and give have different things to do. What you want should be here.

Nick: Let’s talk about your beers. When I tried a couple they were all very clean, very delineated flavors. Do you have a philosophy to how you brew or aspects that you like to see in your beers?

Devon: Thank you for saying clean, that’s what I strive for. Distinct flavors as well. I think there will be a lot of people walking in the door who will be new to beer, and I want to have lots of different options for them, so a diverse list [is important.] At some point we’ll be doing a barrel aging, spirits and sour program. So far I’ve stuck to basics dialing the system in, but I do like to use unique ingredients. A cranberry wheat, a coffee porter, fun things like that.

Nick: Can you expand on the Cranberry wheat?

Devon: These are beers I’ve done in the past and I’m not sure I’ll do them again, but the cranberry wheat was done because I do not like pumpkin pie, and I said that I wasn’t going to brew a pumpkin beer. I find pumpkin pie spices to be weird, and pumpkin pie itself is just baby food to me. Thanksgiving came around and I wanted to do something for the holidays, so I decided on cranberries. I made a cranberry tincture, which is steeping dried cranberries in alcohol and then boiling the alcohol down to 5%, so that it wouldn’t add or reduce the content of the beer. It had a little rosiness to it and it was an American wheat beer. I haven’t seen another cranberry wheat beer out there but there probably is. You can never be original anymore.

Nick: How do you guys plan to separate yourselves from LA or the Arts District, how will you carve a space out for yourselves?

Devon: As far as the Arts District is concerned, at this point it’s a rising tide that floats all ships. We’re a brewpub so that makes us different already. We can make one-off batches, and food is part of the draw. And we’re not sending beer out; when you send beer out you’re a little more limited because you can’t explain it to people unless you have a huge sales team. That differentiates us already and allows us to be creative. It’s just a matter of training our bar staff, and I get to see them every day.

Nick: Tell me about the Arts District and what’s happening here right now. What’s the sense of community like?

Devon: Chewy (Samuel Chawinga, Boomtown’s brewer) and the owners over at Boomtown have been super nice and invited us for their opening. Over at Mumford, Peter has stopped by and I’ve stopped by his place. Darren Moser from Iron Triangle (from Maui Brewing) I’ve known for a while, and Angel City has been super helpful. They gave us a keg when we didn’t have any beer, which was much needed. I think we’re all going to be good buds. Everyone’s really excited, but man am I happy to have a parking spot! The Metro’s been nice but they’re redoing the stop up the street. When it’s up and running again I want to encourage people not to drive, because there’s nowhere to park!

Nick: And they can try more beers that way.

Devon: That too.

Nick: Do you consider yourself a craft brewer or just a brewer? Does craft mean what it used to, or has it changed along with the industry?

Devon: I would say craft brewer. I could run any small, medium, or large brewpub, but I probably couldn’t work as a technician at Budweiser. With the buyouts, it’s interesting that it’s all happening so fast. It’s been an avalanche rather than one here and one there. I think that will continue to happen, but I don’t know what it means for the future. I’m not going to stop buying Ballast at this point, they make great beer and in LA it can be difficult to find good beer on the shelf.

People don’t understand refrigeration, that’s another one of my crusades. Bottle shops really need to learn quality control. There’s a local bottle shop, I won’t say which one, and the guy is so excited, but I see beer sitting out warm. They just refrigerate the beer before they sell it. I’m thinking, “All this great beer that you care about, you just killed it.”

That reminds me of when I was a kid and my family had lobster for dinner. I felt bad for the lobsters because they were suffocating in plastic bags on the counter. I thought, “I’m going to put them in the sink so they can be happy before we kill them.” I ended up killing the lobsters, because you can’t put salt-water animals in fresh water. It’s one of those situations where intentions are really good, but you don’t understand what you’re doing. I see that happening all the time with liquor stores trying to up their game, but they’re killing the beer by not refrigerating it.

Nick: So you think LA has some catching up to do?

Devon: Yes. Within our network at Pizza Port all the bar managers knew how to clean draft lines because it was important to the brewers. Fortunately everyone I’ve talked to is excited about having better quality, and when they learn how to do something they want to tell the world, “I cleaned my own draft lines! I cleaned them this morning.” They take pride in it and I hope that continues.

Nick: With LA being behind what was your impetus to be part of the growth of LA Beer?

Devon: I love everyone who’s in LA already. Eagle Rock, I love those guys. Craftsman’s been making great beer for a long time. I’ve been friends with John Porter at Smog City since [Pacific Gravity]. Highland Park Brewery is doing an awesome job. It wasn’t a big mystery of what’s going on, I knew it was good.

It’s different than San Diego; the rate at which new breweries and beer bars are popping up [in San Diego] you can’t keep up with, unless you make a full time thing of it (which kind of I did). Here it’s more manageable and a bit more fun knowing everyone who’s at it right now. It will reach a tipping point and get so big that you can’t keep track, but I think that’s a good thing. A long-term goal is to have a brewery or beer bar walking distance in every neighborhood so you can meet your neighbor and not travel long distances to get there.

Nick: Going back to the craft beer question, what does craft beer mean to you? Has its definition changed at all?

Devon: That’s a tough question. I don’t know how to define it, but [for me it’s] taking care in what you do and what you make. I think it applies to food too. I like to see restaurants where there is a person paying attention to what comes out and what goes into it. When I worked at a large real estate corporation I’d try to do something creative and they’d say, “no, no, just do your job, don’t do anything more.” [It’s] having the freedom to do more and getting your ideas heard.

Nick: That’s a very valid answer. How much beer will Arts District Brewing produce?

Devon: The goal for year one is 1,500 barrels, so that’s about 100 brews, which is about twice a week. Year two we may double that, and year three we’ll need more fermenters. We don’t plan to make more than 5,000 barrels in this facility.

Nick: What is it that you love about beer? Why go through the headache and what makes it worth it?

Devon: It’s really entertaining on a lot of levels. You get to look at it scientifically, calculate colors and IBUs, you have to keep inventory, which is up my alley. I like statistics, too. There’s also the imaginative part of it. When you think of making soup you think of what you want it to taste like and how to get there. I get to do that all the time on a much bigger scale, and I get to hear everyone’s opinion on it, which I guess is a double edge sword. Sometimes people aren’t that into it but a lot of times people think it’s great. They say, “Oh, get what I mean. You used this hop in such a way that it juxtaposes with this malt and I totally get it, it tastes like mangos.” Sometimes you get to hear that and it’s really gratifying. A lot of people work hard and don’t get that, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.

And it’s beautiful. The stainless steel is gorgeous, the color of beer, the malt, the equipment… I still remember when I didn’t understand everything and how complicated it looked. I’m pretty proud of myself that I actually designed how all of it fits together. I’m so lucky to get to do it, even the days where you get frustrated. I always come around and can smile about it and think of things that make me happy about it. It’s a great field to work in.

Nick: Any last thoughts?

Devon: I’m really looking forward to seeing the equipment in use the way it’s supposed to be. I’m looking forward to seeing faces on the other side of the bar. I hope everyone gets the chance to come in and check it out; it’s a little bit different than most places around in a unique area with unique offerings in a unique space. It’s going to be a great time here.

Visit the Arts District Brewing Facebook Page for additional info. Open Mon-Thurs (4pm-12am), Fri (4pm-2am), Sat (12pm-2am), and Sun (12pm-12am)

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