Yes, I realize that I have, indeed, done a post on this place before. However, that was the restaurant in Calabasas. Today I got an invite to the original Wolf Creek in Santa Clarita – where the brewery is!
The brewery is hidden away in a little strip mall between Starbucks and Rite Aid. You’d never know that beer genius was being conducted in this building.
I got straight to work and grabbed a taster of the Midnight Howl Black IPA before my tour.
As of now, this is my favorite of their beers. Deliciously hoppy with an overtone of bitter coffee rounding out the end.
When sitting at the bar, you gaze through the glass windows and doors directly into the ten barrel brewery, watching the entire process from start to finish (if you are patient enough to sit there for quite a few hours)…
They currently have a copper system, but are looking to upgrade to a larger system, and building, within the next few months to keep up with demand.
The brewery contains the 10 bbl mash tun, lauter tank, a few fermenters and four serving tanks that are full with the high demand brews like Golden Eagle Ale and their Howlin’ Hefeweizen. While it looks like a tight space, Rob, the brewmaster, and his brother have no issue turning out consistent beer with the equipment that has been with them from the beginning of Wolf Creek – 15 years!
Allie and I decided that it was extremely important to taste test all of the beers, and a lot of food, to make sure that our first visit wasn’t a fluke. Quality control.
These. Are. Awesome. “Rings and Thorns” – Ale-battered onions and jalapeno slices, served with a spicy chipotle ketchup and a cooling ranch in case it gets too hot for you. We devoured almost the entire bag.
The Vaquero sammich – sliced steak with grilled asparagus, fried onion strings, cilantro pesto, sliced tomatoes and goat cheese on top of fresh ciabatta. I’ve had this before and needed to do more quality control. It’s still as heavenly as I recall.
Unfortunately we were too stuffed to take advantage of their two-for-one dessert special of the day. I am ashamed of missing out on that.
Thanks to Rob for giving us the tour and letting us try your amazing brews and foods! I’ll be back for that dessert special. And the beer. And the onion rings. And the sammich. And probably to try every other item on the menu…
Wolf Creek’s hefe is awesome. No, it’s the greatest hefe around. Too bad they are always out of it at the Calabasas location.
They’ll be able to keep Calabasas loaded once their new system is in place! Just you wait!
That’s awesome, I have just been reading up on Black IPA’s. Apparently they just became official according to the Brewer’s Association. They are now known as an “American Style Indian Black Ale” aka American IBA. A brewery here in Texas , St. Arnold is having a brew competition for the American IBA. The winner’s recipe will be offered by them as a seasonal beer. So I’ll take any pointers you can give me from your tasting of Wolf Creek’s. Like what you liked about it, or what you’d change about it. So yes of course I’ll be submitting a brew.
I love the floral hop aroma of Wolf Creek’s Black IPA. It has a hint of an espresso flavor thanks to the dark malts, but still tastes incredibly hoppy. I had Alaskan Black IPA last week which was delicious, but much too roasty for the style – it was more like a hoppy stout, but I LOVED it! Can’t wait to see your recipe!
Hey Becki, I’m in the Balkans for the next year or so. There’s not much in the way of craft beer over here (unless I get up to Germany), so your blog will be the next-best thing. I’m counting on you to drink lots of good beer and write about all of it 😀
What are you doing there?? You should most definitely find a way to make it up to Germany! And I’ll be sure to drink lots of good beer – just for you 🙂
We met the owner’s at Wade’s not too long ago. Nice people. We still need to get our butts over there!
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