by | May 16, 2012

Ladies at Ladyface: One Year

Happy Anniversary to the Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society!
Ladies at Ladyface: 1 – Trying out Ladyface beers.
Ladies at Ladyface: 2 – Brewery tour and aroma lessons.
Ladies at Ladyface: 3 – Favorites of the ladies.
Ladies at Ladyface: 4 – Summer brews!
Ladies at Ladyface: 5 – Harvest Ales.
Ladies at Ladyface: 6 – Oktoberfest.
Ladies at Ladyface: 7 – Holidays and white elephant beer exchange.
Ladies at Ladyface: 8 – Ladyface’s second anniversary.
Ladies at Ladyface: 9 – Chocolate and beer pairing.
Ladies at Ladyface: 10 – St. Patrick’s day brews.
Ladies at Ladyface: 11 – Dry hopping experimentations.
For Ladies at Ladyface: One Year, I brought along my cousin Allie to partake. I’m slowly trying to lure her away from wine and replace it with beer. Baby steps.
We split the goat cheese and basil fritters – I missed out on these last year when they came out, so I had to get an order! The tangy goat cheese with the spicy jalapeno jam and smooth avocado is a brilliant combo! Perhaps a little too much goat cheese for one bite, but delicious nonetheless!
Since we were turning one year old, Cyrena decided we would have an “aged” night. Barrel aged beer and cheese pairings, anyone?
The cheese plate contained a firm goat cheese, creamy basque, nutty Manchego and zesty blue cheese as well as sliced apples and a cherry reduction. We were served the Chaparral Saison, Blind Ambition, Co-Hoperative IPA and Blue Belly Barleywine that’s been aging for a while. After plenty of experimentation, I decided that the IPA helped cut through the silky, creamy basque, the Blind Ambition enhanced the nuttiness in the Manchego and also brought out the sweetness of the goat cheese. Not a fan of blue cheese, so that poor neglected cheese was basically ignored… Oops.
In addition to the beers above, J.J. brought this bottle of oak aged insanity from Brew Dog: Tokio. You are indeed reading that right: 18.2%ABV. The aroma on this baby is overwhelmingly tar and sherry-like. If you like roasty cough syrup, this is for you! It hurt to sip, but I wouldn’t quite say it was bad… It’s just not beer.
This aged beer was more to my liking – Supplication by Russian River. This is a sour beer that doesn’t have the hint of sweetness that you tend to find in beers aged with cherries. A powerful aroma swimming with cherries and a crisp tartness that stings the tongue in a delightful way.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate the way all of us ladies have grown in our knowledge of beer and overwhelming excitement about bringing craft beer into the world of women.
In other Ladyface-like news – Christian finally picked up his growler! There are still a few left waiting to be claimed! Those of you who won, come and get them, otherwise they’ll be donated to the next customers who look excessively thirsty.

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by | May 13, 2012

Deep Fried Bacon!

This week has been full of delicious freebies!
When we showed up to Wolf Creek Calabasas on Friday, head chef Chuy brought out these softball size monstrosities for us to sample. Wonderful monstrosities.
That would be a deviled egg wrapped in bacon and deep fried. Chuy’s version of a Scotch Egg. This definitely trumps the last Scotch Egg I tried. And then some.
After cleaning tap lines and eating delicious softballs, we drove down to Gardena to pick up a gigantic pallet of kegs. We navigated past at least a dozen teriyaki burger joints, one teriyaki dog joint, loaded up the truck and headed home.
Free sushi was necessary after spending three hours stuck in traffic on the 405. Design-your-own sushi! Spicy tuna with cucumber and avocado with unagi and avocado on top. Drool. Dance parties to “Call Me Maybe” (that would be my aunt being amazing) ensued. Then this happened.
Did it again! If only the colors would last.
My latest creation at Enegren – the Black Stripe! That would be Protector IPA on the bottom, Black Spur Saison in the middle and Golden Spur Saison on top. It took a good ten minutes to make, but ten minutes well spent! I have too much time on my hands…
The rest of my weekend was spent working the taproom, going to church, eating cheesesteaks and attempting to take professional pics for the latest beers at the brewery. Now I’m going to pour myself have someone pour me a tall glass of Protector IPA and take a deep breath before heading back to other brewery tomorrey.

Ladies at Ladyface is celebrating our one year anniversary tomorrey! Aged beers are on the schedule since we’re turning one year old! Stay tuned!

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by | May 8, 2012

Cafe Firenze

When we got back Sunday night after the CBC12, I was definitely in need of a little detox.
…which would have to wait until Monday to begin.
Commander Matt and I headed to Cafe Firenze, an Italian restaurant in Moorpark, for a meeting with the chef Adam and the owner Jacopo, and took along a few gift bottles to share.
We brought them with the intent of letting the chef do a tasting, but somehow the bottle wound up getting opened at a table when they invited us to stay for dinner.
Cafe Firenze is located within a strip mall off of Los Angeles Avenue. Very unassuming from the front, excluding the rich velvet drapes and wine barrels, the inside is spacious and warm with high ceilings, dim lighting and soft cushions in each booth.
The menu is extensive and impossible to choose from, but somehow we managed.
We started off with their appetizer special – swordfish carpaccio with artichoke hearts and greens, drizzled with olive oil. Since we had those three bottles with us, a pairing was in order. The tart and dry Golden Spur Saison balanced out the pickled artichoke hearts and didn’t overwhelm the delicate flavor of the tender swordfish.
I went for the braised shortribs – Kobe beef that was so tender it fell apart if you looked at it too intensely topped with sauteed mushrooms and resting atop a fragrant cushion of polenta spiked with parmesan cheese and herbs.
Commander Matt went with the other special of the day – medium rare medallions of beef with roasted baby vegetables. Simple, elegant and mouthwateringly delicious. Both of our main courses were paired with Valkyrie California Alt – the sweet maltiness brought out the caramelization of the meat and balanced out the salty bite of parmesan from my polenta.
Adam, the chef, sent out this piece of artwork for our dessert – flourless chocolate cake with housemade vanilla bean gelato on top. Out of this world! We paired this with the Protector IPA, the hop bitterness cutting through the rich chocolate and calming the upfront sweetness.

Next time I’m there – Balsamic martini. Most definitely.

Cafe Firenze
563 West Los Angeles Avenue
Moorpark, California 93021
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 11am-3pm and 5pm-close

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by | May 7, 2012

CBC12: Part Three

The second day started off with a Pink Boots Society meeting!
Brie, Laina – owner of Wolf Creek, and I hustled to seats up front and grabbed a raffle ticket.
We had 101 women attending this meeting! As of Friday, there were 815 members worldwide of the Pink Boots Society – a group designed to educate and support women in the beer industry. Peek closely above and you’ll see the lovely Cyrena from Ladyface in attendance.
Raffle items! Brie and I scouted out the table and prepared for the sprint after the meeting.
SUCCESS! It was a wonderful meeting on top of getting the awesome shirts – everyone stood up and introduced themselves, told where they were from and what company they worked for. After the meeting broke, ladies magnetically drew towards those in similar job positions or met with others who could help them understand certain aspects they’d been looking into. I found the lead brewer, Alex Nowell, from Drakes Brewing and talked about participating in a collaboration brew they’ll be leading for the PBS to raise money for scholarships.
More gratuitous images of the SWAG (schwaaaaag!).
We then moved on to the Anchor Brewing hospitality suite, had a beer and chatted with the reps for a bit before we met up with the rest of the EBC crew.
On our way, we ran into Ray Daniels, the creator of the Cicerone program and talked for a bit about the certification exam.
I also went super creeper and snapped this pic of Jim Koch from Samuel Adams. Creepering is my specialty.

We finally found the rest of the crew.
The happy couple! Congrats again on your engagement Christoph and Brie :) Best. Picture. Ever.
Tyler Endicott – artist and brewer who’ll be opening up a 15bbl with his brother, Sean, back in Thousand Oaks where I used to reside, and Joe – Enegren’s brew chief as I’m sure you all know.
Peter/Sean – Joe’s brother or Tyler’s brother depending on whether or not you looked at his badge and if your name was Jim and you were a few beers deep before you stumbled into our table, and Commander Matt.
The beginning of our night…
The Tiki – the location of the 148 taps that was open EVERY SINGLE NIGHT we were there.
The Tiki is where I got this ring to try out from Creek Van Houton from Compass Rose Designs. I LOVE this ring!
We ended up going to Karl Strauss for the event they had there – free carnitas tacos, beer and a mechanical bull. I rode the bull. Then we made Brie ride the bull. It was epic, just trust me on that. There may be video footage coming up soon…
The next day after the boys had gone to their seminars, Brie and I hit up Little Italy for some brunch and to check out Monkey Paw. I had to try the beers to ensure that I would proudly wear the shirt I’d gotten from the raffle!
I liked their Oatmeal Pale Ale best (not pictured here) – full citrus on the nose, a rich body thanks to the oatmeal with a crisp end. I’d be more descriptive, but that beer was the first that I tasted at the Tiki. The rest is up for your interpretation…
We all got back together and ended the night at Blind Lady Ale House with chorizo and avocado pizza, egg and bacon pizza and taster flights. A gentle end to an insanely amazing four days!

After I catch up on sleep and detox for about a month or four, I’d so be ready to do it again!

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by | May 5, 2012

CBC12: Part Two

CBC12 is completely insane. Insane and awesome. Brie and I have floor passes and spent the first day wandering around sampling beer, staring in awe at the overwhelming amount of vendors. Picture bomb commence.
Keg washer/filler.
Bottling/canning line.
Taphandles booth.
Lunch break!
Beer break! Actually, the entire conference IS a beer break. I paired a Midas Touch with my tortilla soup. Not the most exquisite combination I’ve ever made, but delicious nonetheless.
Merch booth! I would’ve picked something up from here, but there was so much SWAG (schwaaaaag!) around that I didn’t need to open my wallet.
Beautiful rainbow of malt!
Golden Road brewers!
Mike Hess at the nanobrewery roundtable we snuck into.
Sam Calagione hosting the nanobrewery roundtable.
Brie and I tracked Sam down after the seminar and, after trying to overcome our starstruckedness, got a few pictures with him. Then we ran away giggling with glee, showing the pictures to everyone we ran into.
One great thing about CBC12 – no lines for the womens’ restroom. One bad thing about CBC12 – no lines for the womens’ restroom. More ladies need to get into beer! I’m willing to wait in line if it means more women are getting involved in the craft beer industry.
We checked out the hospitality suite that featured beers from overseas and starting unintentionally speaking in British accents. You just can’t help it after having a Belgian strong and chatting with the brewer who has the coolest accent around.
I’ve collected enough free glassware from the hospitality suites that I will never need to purchase another vessel to drink beverages from.
After the exhibits wrapped up, the EBC and Wolf Creek crews headed downtown on the trolley/tram to track down some more delicious brews.
We ended up at Neighborhood. Beer was consumed. Debates about whether or not our mode of transportation was a trolley or a tram were had.
Once we took the tram/trolley back to the hotel where the conference is held, we met up with every single attendee at the Tiki event.
148 different beers to choose from. One. Hundred. And. Forty. Eight.

It was a good first day.

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by | May 3, 2012

CBC12: Part One

I have no idea how many parts to this there will be. You may be getting a play-by-play as the Craft Brewers Conference occurs down here in San Diego. For a real time play-by-play, follow me on Twitter. Obscene amounts of pictures will be uploaded throughout the days.

We got in at 11pm last night and hit up an incredibly divey dive bar, passed out around 1am and woke up a few hours later to pick up badges.
Already saw beer “celebs” like Greg Koch and Randy Clemens from Stone Brewing at the free breakfast provided by the conference.
Breakfast burrito. Free. Awesome. I’m really not picky when it comes to free food. Or food in general, actually…
Mass amounts of coffee were consumed. A majority of the attendees looked a little dazed and weary after the welcome reception at the San Diego Zoo last night. After seeing them trudging through the breakfast line, sunglasses glued into place, I was a little glad we’d arrived so late. Starting the CBC with a hangover is for those with experience. I’m not quite there yet.
I perused the delicious seminar menu – none of which I’m invited to with the floor pass only. Oh well, beer booths and free stuff it is!
After being stopped at the door to the keynote session, I slunk back to the hotel with my free beers in hand and posted this blog. Now I’m heading back since the floor is opening at 11am and there are an obscene amount of booths that need to be checked out by yours truly.

My Camelbak is loaded with water and Advil. Let’s do this.

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by | May 1, 2012

Blazing Trails

Yesterday was a nice, speedy ten hour brew day! Mash tuns were cleaned, kettles were scrubbed, wounds were reopened…
You’re welcome for that.
Today I watched water boil – a watched pot actually DOES end up boiling! Don’t believe the lies!
We cleaned about fifteen kegs and got to sample some experimentational recipes from Chuy, the head chef. Unfortunately my phone died before I could grab proof of the ale-battered and panko encrusted calamari, pear and gorgonzola ravioli in a creamy cilantro pesto, deep fried pear and gorgonzola ravioli, mahi mahi with a coconut mango salsa and a crab omelette. Needless to say, I got my cheesesteak to go, and as soon as I got home I headed for the hills.
It was beautifully cloudy out. I ventured on a new hike that weaves through the canyons and up insanely steep hills.
I stumbled across a headless squirrel! I decided to spare you the gore, but I can tell you that it was quite a traumatic death for that poor rodent.
There was a massive fire here a few years ago that left the park charred.
The fact that oil is seeping from the ground probably didn’t help calm the flames. This park used to be an oil field and there are dozens of black slicks around as well as a strong odor of sulfur through part of the trek.
The nice 5.1 mile hike probably burned off half of what I consumed, so I’m going to refuel with the gigantic cheesesteak I brought home from Wolf Creek.

Tomorrey evening I head down to San Diego for the Craft Brewers Conference! Prepare for an overdose of beer pictures in the next few days. So. Much. Beer. Awaits!

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by | April 27, 2012

Scotch Egg!

I finally got to the British pub I said I was going to go to!
Weihenstephaner on tap? Um, yes please!
Nothing like a perfect example of a weissbier to end the day!
That and good company! My cousin Allie joined me at the Rose and Crown for a lovely farewell to the work week. It was well deserved – Allie’s a nurse who has twelve hour shifts at the hospital and I spent three hours of the ten hours total yesterday on my hands and knees scrubbing the crap out of our mash tun. I have a menagerie of beautiful bruises for proof, but I’ll spare you the gore for now.
Keep Calm and Carry On! Chive On!!
This place was packed with regulars – some of which, I’m thrilled to say, had British accents! If a Brit shows up to a British pub, I think that’s a good sign.
I was tempted to try more than a few things from the menu, but since I’d just inhaled almost an entire slice of cake thanks to Wolf Creek’s anniversary special, I stuck to a small appetizer. I’ve been hearing about these for the longest time and finally decided to give it a go.
SCOTCH EGG. Imagine a complete breakfast deep fried, then served in gravy. A Scotch egg is a hardboiled egg wrapped in sausage, rolled in breadcrumbs, deep fried and smothered with a rich brown gravy. I think this one may have been a little more than “done” and was pretty tough on the outside, but somehow I managed to finish the majority of it. I also managed to finish that Weihenstephaner. Somehow that went down easier.

Tomorrey I’m back to brewery number one – Enegren Brewing Company! All of you waiting to claim your growlers, show up between 11am and 8pm!

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by | April 25, 2012

Spring Farm Festival

On Saturday I worked an event with Enegren Brewing Company benefiting adults with developmental disabilities. Enegren donated beer, and we were one of 27 booths pitching in to this great cause.
This view is starting to look familiar! So many beer events lately!
The festival was located in a beautiful house in Simi Valley. I went inside to check out the silent auction and stumbled across some of my former/slightly still current boss Ora’s art!!! She was working an art show in Woodland Hills this weekend and unable to attend, so she donated these beautiful prints. Our booth was placed along the tennis courts/basketball court with a bunch of other vendors and a stage for musical performances across the way.
Eddie Money was the featured performer of the evening. I had absolutely no idea who he was, although I did end up recognizing his hit songs. Commander Matt gave me a lot of grief for that…
The courts were packed with people, and Eddie kept calling out for his “Ladies from the eighties” to come up and sing with him. They obliged. Eddie also sang a duet with an autistic teen who, until four years old, was uncommunicative. To watch this girl belt out with Eddie was absolutely amazing!
The event seemed like a great success! I got a chance to enjoy the beautiful sunset with the marine layer rolling in over the mountains before we packed up.
I can’t wait to participate in more of these great causes! I’ve got a few coming up for Wolf Creek – I’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Now, after a long brew day and scrubbing of boil kettles that left my hands dry and raw, I’m going to collapse on the couch and never get up. Until it’s time to fill kegs and clean some more tomorrey, that is.

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by | April 21, 2012

A Day Off

It’s been another crazy week! I have a feeling this will end up being the main theme of all my weeks at work. After brew day on Tuesday, I woke up to a surprise day off from work. What’s a girl to do with all that time on her hands? Visit more breweries – were you expecting something else?
First up was a trip to Bravery Brewing in Lancaster. This place hasn’t officially opened yet, but brewmaster Brian Avery let us get a sneak peak at his 3 bbl system and check out the space.
Just a quick teaser of the brewery – I’ll do a full write up once he’s up and brewing. This place is going to be amazing!
Afterwards, we headed over to Kinetic Brewing, also in Lancaster, and got a quick tour of their 10 bbl system.
Kinetic has been open for about three and a half months and already has a strong following. We got to try all of their beers on tap as well as taste their cheesecake with a crust made of graham crackers and spent grain. Drool.
From left to right – Potential Blonde, White Thai, Rusted Gear, Fusion Porter and McLernon’s Irish Stout. My favorite was the Rusted Gear – a little more roast than your typical amber with a hint of nuttiness and a malty ending. The White Thai is a Belgian witbier spiked with lemongrass and keffir lime – nicely balanced and not overwhelmed with spices, but I definitely couldn’t have more than a taster size of this. It’s always refreshing to find a new brewery that has consistently good beer across the board.
We grabbed a growler of the Rusted Gear and took off for Valencia.
The next day was back to work – filling kegs and setting up for a microbrewfest.
It was about 94 degrees out at the Westfield mall off of Topanga Canyon. Thank God the sponsors had provided us with tents!
We found a way to keep hydrated though. Quality control/hydration: very important.
LAB Brewing was also a featured brewery! We all agreed on how important keeping hydrated was, and spent the evening swapping taster for taster. Quite a few people came by and stated how they wanted to taste our beer versus our “competitor’s” beer. We are not competitors! Microbreweries should never truly be in competition, but always supporting each other in the fight to bring down the big guys who cram their beers full of crappy adjuncts and use flashy ad campaigns to try and entice consumers into drinking their fizzy yellow water. We should work together to help expand the palates of those who truly appreciate beer that is full of flavor, as well as introduce former fizzy yellow water drinkers to delicious craft brew! Rant over. Thank you for your time.
The fest was a success! We met tons of people who loved our beer, adored our food and wanted more. I personally left incredibly stuffed – of the 20+ restaurants that were there, I tried food from at least 15. Pain. Wonderful, delicious pain.

I headed to Enegren Brewing yesterday to get some more brewery fix. Three breweries in one week just wasn’t enough.
I got to meet Ryan and Laura! Ryan won my growler giveaway and drove up from the Riverside area to pick up his winnings. He also walked away with an Enegren growler full of Moorpark deliciousness.
Ryan and Johnson are the first to pick up their growlers! That means that Brent, Jacob, Christian K. are still lacking in the free growler department.

Okey, I’m back to work! Lots of thirsty patrons to serve!

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