Category Archives: brewery

by | March 21, 2012 · 7:22 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 10

Monday was our monthly Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society meeting! We had a little belated St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
This means Irish and Scottish beers! We had more than plenty to split amongst our group. Of course I had to start off with a little warm-up taster…
Ladyface’s Trebuchet – a farmhouse ale with a slightly sour quality thanks to the lactobacillus. Crisp, fruity and refreshing!
Lise brought her celebratory homebrew – as of yet to be named, but always hopped to high heaven and delicious!
Cyrena made sure to save us all an order of their corned beef and cabbage sliders. I missed out on having Irish food on St. Patrick’s Day, and these MORE than made up for that! The tender corned beef melted in your mouth, and the sweetness of the caramelized onions and cabbage specked with peppercorns balanced with the saltiness of the beef perfectly!
For dessert, the lovely Janelle provided chocolate chip and pistachio cupcakes. I may have eaten six or eleven. I stopped counting wrappers. It was becoming embarrassing.
Speaking of, here’s Janelle downing an entire glass of water! Her little Avery is due in about 3 months, and while I’m sure Avery would love having a taste of beer (possibly one from Avery Brewing Company??), her mom was diligent about only consuming water, sliders and cupcakes.
We had a packed table that was soon topped with glorious amounts of food ordered from the new spring menu! Goat cheese and basil fritters, anyone? Or steak tartare??
Unfortunately, I had to leave after only an hour in order to pack more and sleep. The next day was a brew day: Up at 4:45am! I darkened the pictures to make it appear like time had passed… Yea, all that up there is artistic and stuff…

Now I need to pack again! I’m heading out to Tucson, Arizona for my second to last trip with the artist. I’m sad to miss a brew day, but I’m certain there will be more then enough heavy lifting, grain shoveling, gravity taking and recipe tasting when I get back!

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by | March 14, 2012 · 10:35 pm

First Day as Assistant Brewer!

I celebrated the acceptance of my new job with a very special beer – FiftyFifty Eclipse Elijah Craig 12 Imperial Stout. This beer is one of my all-time favorites. This rich, chewy, beer has been aged for six months in a 12 year-old oak bourbon barrel and absorbed an intense bourbon flavor, full of toasty hints of coconut and chocolate. I have Commander Matt to thank for surprising me with this celebratory bottle after developing a massive crush on it at a tasting months ago at Wades Wines. Honestly, one of my top ten favorite beers ever! I want more…
In preparing to move, the fridge has slowly been cleared out. My latest meals have been random selections of whatever is found hidden within the cabinets and the depths of the fridge. Barbecue chicken nachos, anyone?

Today was the first day of my job! Sorry for the lack of pictures – apparently when you’re hefting 350lbs of grain (out of 750lbs for the entire batch) to mill, mashing in, setting the protein rest temps, sparging, boiling, adding hops, whirlpooling, sanitizing fermentors and transferring beer into said fermentor, there isn’t much time to whip out the camera.
The phone camera will have to suffice. This is the mash during one of the rests.
This is the grain post-sparging. Yeah, that’s about all I got. Except for…
LUNCH! Seared Ahi tuna on top of mixed greens, fresh tomatoes and mushrooms, tossed in a sesame vinaigrette. Oh yes, and a Wolf Pack Pale Ale to pair. Gotta support and rep my new company!

I spent the evening moving some of my stuff into my new place. Now I’m exhausted and need to pass out so I can wake up tomorrey and do more brewery work! I’m so ridiculously happy!

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by | March 13, 2012 · 2:17 pm

SD Picture Bomb

ENTER MY GROWLER GIVEAWAY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! IT ENDS TOMORREY, WEDNESDAY THE 14TH!

Life is a bit busy right now prepping to move for my new job, so this blog will mainly be pictures to recap the rest of my latest San Diego trip.
My mumsie and I rented bikes and cruised around the harbor for three hours.
Super-yacht Atessa.
Mini-super-yacht Remote.
Ballast Point Homebrew Shop and tasting room.
Getting two growlers filled with Bourbon barrel aged Black Marlin and Victory at Sea.
Tasting the Sour Wench Blackberry Ale – tart and bready!
Tasting Indra Kunindra Curry Stout and Thai Chili Ginger Lime Wahoo – both had wonderful aromas, but the flavor was overwhelmed with spices and undrinkable.
A view of the homebrew shop from the tasting counter.
The original Ballast Point Brewery – now used for all the special/limited edition beers.
Iron Fist Brewing Company!
Delicious Uprising Trippel IPA!
Beautiful 30 bbl fermentors in the brewery.
Sliders from the food truck outside, The Lime Truck!
Spicy chicken wings – painfully delectable!
Blistered bok choy.
Freshly made french fries topped with tender pulled pork, guacamole, sour cream, and honey-chipotle slaw. Holy geez, was this amazing. The chicken wings and these fries were the highlights of the meal.
The sun setting in San Diego – a metaphor for the end of my trip/blog.

Back to packing!

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by | February 28, 2012 · 9:04 pm

Wolf Creek Restaurant & Brewing Company

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…

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by | February 21, 2012 · 1:32 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 9

Last night was our monthly meeting of Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society. On the agenda – beer and chocolate pairings!
I absolutely love spicy chocolate. I also love IPAs. I also love how IPAs make spicy chocolate seem even spicier!
(Photo credit to Stacey P.) We brought along some fiery chocolate from my favorite little chocolate shop in Ventura, Trufflehounds, to pair with Ballast Point Sculpin IPA (an AMAZING IPA, by the way!). The bitterness of the hops amplify the spice of the chocolate by tenfold, so if you like spice, you’ll love this combo! For those attendees who don’t enjoy the pain of spice as much as I do, I brought La Trappe Quadrupel. The creamy maltiness of this beer still allows you to relish the spice in the chocolate, but also acts as a mellowing agent after the first sip. The majority of the ladies seemed to prefer the quad pairing over the IPA.
I began the night with Ladyface’s Blind Ambition, which I haven’t ordered in over a year but was feeling nostalgic for.  This was a flashback to the first time I tried it – a nice floral aroma, hints of malty sweetness and a clean, crisp ending. I also got a taster of the cask of the week, Beer Pancakes – Russian Lullaby Imperial Stout with maple syrup and vanilla beans. The vanilla aroma really emanates from the beer, even in a taster glass, while the maple hides right beneath it, finishing the beer with an extra layer of smooth, sugary goodness. This beer is like a delicious, boozy chocolate milkshake. Love!

We had a full house of ladies, with other pairings like C7 (homemade cashew brittle with cumin, cinnamon, chocolate and three other “C”s) with a homebrewed pale ale, homemade spicy peanut brittle drizzled with 67% dark chocolate paired with Ladyface IPA, dark chocolate sprinkled with lavender salt paired with Ladyface’s smoky Midnight Special scotch ale on nitro, and a handful of others. I was too busy enjoying myself to get more pictures, so here are a few random ones from my weekend.
Sweet potato tater tots at Lazy Dog Cafe.
Spicy buffalo sauce chicken nuggets, also from Lazy Dog Cafe.
Grilled pizzeti with goat cheese, prosciutto, fresh basil and garlic with a red wine sangria from Roman Holiday.
Random sighting in my town. CHIVE ON!

Tonight, I head back to Ladyface for yet ANOTHER off flavor tasting. Wish me and my poor taste buds luck.

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by | February 17, 2012 · 11:32 pm

The LAB Brewing Company

I’ve been to the LAB Brewing Company (which stands for Live Art Brewing – beer, food, music and art) many, many times with the EBC crew, but never had a chance to take pictures (mainly because we’d go for dinner and drinks after EBC closed). When I received an invite from Alan and Roger the brewmaster for a personal tour and beer tasting (during DAYLIGHT hours), I agreed immediately.
The LAB Brewing Company opened in Agoura Hills November 1st of last year.
The bar area of the LAB looks directly into the brewery which is encased behind glass doors, allowing patrons to watch the brewing process as they sip the outcome.
The beer selection here is incredible! Thirty-two taps, heavy on the IPAs (yay!), and rounded out with nothing but craft beer.
The main dining room features a stage where musicians and deejays play on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
The covered patio is quaint and cozy, with a fireplace in the corner and heaters placed throughout to keep the Californians warm when the temperature dips below seventy degrees on a winter’s eve.
Now to the important stuff – beer and foods! I grabbed a sampler of all the beers they make – Bad Influence IPA, Take Her Home Tripel, Cold Fusion Java, Big Ass Red and LAB XPA. Bad Influence IPA was my favorite of their available beers – a zesty citrus and floral aroma with an extreme bite (93 IBUs and 7.5% ABV). HOWEVER, I was given a sneak preview of the After Midnight Moo Milk Stout straight from the fermentor and fell head over heels! Hints of sweetness, smooth and creamy – I believe they said it was going on the nitro tap? I should probably go back and check, just to make sure, right?
Alan, Roger and I split an order of the house fries with bleu cheese and garlic. These shoestring fries came out sizzling hot, with potent bleu cheese melting into every crevice. They were perfectly crispy with a light dusting of fresh garlic that melded harmoniously with the cheese.
The polenta came out next – crispy on the outside, delicate and moist on the inside, and drizzled with fresh pesto and marinara sauce. I’m not well-versed on polenta, but from what I tasted, this one’s a winner! If you want more, I consider that a good thing. I wanted more.
BACON IN A CUP!!! This was actually a little disappointing – candied bacon. There was barely a hint of sugar to any of the bacon strips, and it needed to be baked a little longer to crisp up. Didn’t matter though – it was still bacon, therefore I still ate it.
After feasting, I got a tour of the brewery. It’s incredibly tight quarters, especially considering that these are 15 barrel tanks, but they’ve made great use of the small space provided.
Three of the fermentation tanks are out in full view in the center of the dining room, while the milk stout was relaxing in this one in the middle of the brewery.
These fermentors lead straight to the taps, delivering the freshest beer possible.
There are murals across the entire restaurant – this is an artist’s rendition of Roger Bott, the brewmaster. Let’s compare, shall we?
THE RESEMBLANCE IS UNCANNY!!! Time to go blonde, Roger?

I think a separate post detailing the epicness that is the LAB burger will be coming up shortly… I’m feeling hungry again…

The LAB Brewing Company
30105 Agoura Road
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Open 7 days a week, 11am-close

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by | January 31, 2012 · 8:08 pm

Golden Road with the Girls!

Happy Tuesday!Beautiful day to be alive, isn’t it? Today, I met up with my best friend from way back in middle school at Golden Road Brewing.
Adore this girl. You may remember her from my visit to Craft & Commerce in Little Italy back in May.
Oh, how I’ve missed my fellow TAG (Talented and Gifted – yes, we were nerds back then… still are…) friend!
They don’t have any taster flights yet, so I got a sip of all the house beers on tap and then settled for the low ABV Hefeweizen. Delicious and perfect for a 70 degree day in Los Angeles.
We decided to split a whole mess of deliciousness. This was the Rosemary Turkey Club – peppered bacon, white cheddar cheese and beer-braised turkey with parsley aioli. This was demolished.
I had to order the Coconut “Noodle” Salad again. This is so flavorful and full of happiness and health. This negates every calorie I absorbed today. Cuz there are vegetables in it. And it’s vegan. End of story.
These deep-fried wild mushroom risotto fritters were totally cancelled out by that salad above! I had the maple fritters the first time, which were delicious, but these knocked those babies out of the ballpark! Full of earthy mushroom flavor and topped with vegan pimento cheese, fried to a fluffy crisp. I can honestly say that I had NO IDEA that the dip was vegan! I may have scraped the remains out with a spoon. And by may, I mean I did.
Deep-fried deliciousness. My fingers were smothered in that “cheese” sauce.
The orzo pasta – also vegan and delicious! The perfectly tender roasted veggies and orzo pasta are lightly tossed in a fresh olive oil and balsamic dressing. I tend to avoid vegan foods in rebellion of my bro and his wife being vegan (I’m ridiculous and crave excessive amounts of pulled pork when we go to visit them in Colorado), but Golden Road has completely changed my perspective!
My gorgeous cousin, Allie, stopped by after her nursing class! They weren’t perturbed by me taking mass amounts of pictures at all… Two of my favorite girls in the entire world. Insert smiley face here.
(This picture is so awesome it needed to be used twice)
Kim ordered a gigantic soft pretzel (they were out of the “small” pretzels) that included more of that delicious vegan pimento cheese and the HOTTEST horseradish mustard I have ever tasted. Kim took a bite and turned bright red with watery eyes to match. Please use with caution.
Delicious pretzel face – a little over the top with salt, but once you scrape that off, it’s perfectly soft and surprisingly flavorful.
This was recommended to me by Michelle, who stopped into Enegren Brewing’s tasting room a few months ago. Thank God for Twitter, eh? BLATANT ADVERTISEMENT TO FOLLOW – MY TWITTER, UNTAPPD and FACEBOOK PAGE! My apologies.
Let’s take a closer look, shall we? Croissant bread pudding covered with brown sugar, salted caramel (an actual OMG moment – and I HATE it when people say OMG) and fresh whipped cream. Michelle – from the bottom of my heart, thank you for encouraging me to order this! We ordered a second one after we’d finished licking the plate. I’ve said this a few times, but this is the most up-to-date BEST BREAD PUDDING I’VE HAD! I’m willing to try more to make sure that this claim is true…

And that was my Tuesday! The brewery visit was necessary in order to recover from last night – working an event for Enegren down in Oxnard for The Kitchen which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives! What an amazing party!
I wore my brewniform…
…served tons of beer samples to the gigantic crowd…
…and have a huge list of people who now want to come visit the brewery! If you’re up for it, tasting hours are listed here!
And here’s a random picture of my early morning hike. Just because. Happy Tuesday!

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by | January 14, 2012 · 9:39 am

Golden Road Brewing

Ever feel like the week is just way too long and you need to get out in the middle of the day on Friday and go visit a brewery? Yeah, me too.
I’ve been reading about Golden Road Brewing for about a month now and was dying to get in there and try some of their brews and foods before their grand opening on Sunday. Yesterday the family and I, pooch included, drove out to LA to give it a taste.
The inside of the yellow building (the pub) is cavernous and bright with a beautifully long bar draping across the end.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside – around 82 degrees Fahrenheit, so we decided to enjoy the patio. They have a specified dog patio below this one with umbrellas where you can hydrate your pup and enjoy your meal.
Clean dog beds and fresh water!
It’s great to have a place that’s dog-friendly! We’ve been quite limited in our outings thanks to this fuzzy one.
Behind the bar is a large chalkboard with the entire menu written across. Since they’ve only got three of their beers on tap they weren’t giving out tasting flights. We had to order full pints. Bummer.
We ordered almost across the board – Golden Road Point the Way IPA, Hangar 24 Chocolate Porter and Golden Road Hefeweizen. Their IPA is crystal clear and delicately hoppy – a nice change from the intense hopbombs that are gracing so many breweries nowadays, with a crisp finish. The hefeweizen is a beautiful cloudy gold with notes of banana wafting off the rich head, and a citrusy smooth sip with a sweet finish – PERFECT for the beautiful weather!
They have a huge selection of vegan and vegetarian dishes, along with plenty of options for the carnivores out there as well. There were so many options that we couldn’t decide between them. So we got them all.
Maple Fritters – deep fried sweet potato dumplings with a honey mustard dip. These were surprisingly light and crispy, and piping hot to boot. DROOL.
Puffy, golden (I get the theme here, Golden Road!), flaky dumplings of heaven!
We started with a non-vegan dish – the Sloppy Joseph: Short ribs braised in stout and topped with fried shallots and housemade barbecue sauce. I may or may not have licked the plate clean…
Miso Crabby Salad – fresh and light with fresh crab and sliced peppers gracing the top.
For the vegans out there – Coconut “Noodle” Salad: Tender strips of coconut, sliced jalapenos, carrot, chili peppers and cabbage tossed in a light curried sauce with toasted cashews. This burned so good! I wish they’d still had their Festivus Cinnamon Bitter beer on tap to pair! I guess I’ll just have to come back next time they brew it. Bummer again.
Back to the meat! Pulled Pork Sandwich: tender pulled pork that’s been braised in their hef and shredded cabbage on a flaky croissant. I’m stating this here and now – best pulled pork sammich I’ve had to date.
Guess who happened to show up while we were feasting? Cyrena Nouzille and Dave Griffiths of Ladyface Ale! Skipp Shelly, the marketing manager of Golden Road Brewing and a fellow Maltose Falcon from the shop brew also happened to be there – weird coincidence seeing that he works there.
The brewery is right next to the train tracks. I almost had a heart attack when the first one came from behind the building and blasted its horn! I needed to get another beer to calm my nerves.
We enjoyed a good two and a half hours there until the sun went down and the air dropped to a chilly 75 degrees. Delicious beer, amazing food and a wonderful way to end (or begin) the week!
Golden Road Brewing
5430 West San Fernando Road
Los Angeles, CA 90039
Open daily 11am-11pm

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by | December 12, 2011 · 5:14 pm

Barrio Brewing

While in Tucson for my final trip of the year (yaaaaay!), I had one night off to visit a brewery. After scanning my lovely WhereBeer app, I decided on Barrio Brewing – close by and good ratings.
Since it was a Friday night, the place was completely packed. They had a “seat yourself” policy, so rather than wait around and fight for a table in the brewery, we opted to head next door to the bar section.
FLIGHT! If I’ve never been to a brewery before, I always opt for a sampler. They had twelve, so I split this with the table.
Not a fan of their Raspberry Ale that had “real raspberry flavor”. Not quite sure what that’s supposed to mean, but it didn’t smell or taste natural. For the most part, all the other beers were good! I would’ve gone with their Copperhead Pale Ale if I’d gotten a pint afterwards, but as it was twelve shared samplers was more than plenty for me.
Didn’t really understand the decor, but thought it was cool!
All dressed up for the holidays. Overall this is a nice place stuffed to the brim with locals and a gorgeous brewery that smelled clean and looked sparkly as all breweries that aren’t in the middle of a brew should look!

I spent a long day on the road home today. We ended up taking a different highway home and I started to notice something strange…
Through that blur, perhaps you can see where it says “United States”. We spent a large part of the drive tracing the Mexican border.
That in the distance is the long fence that lines the southern section of the country. I had nine hours on the road being stopped by four separate border controls and fighting a downpour that made California drivers forget how to drive and spin out all across the freeways: aka a fun drive!

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by | December 6, 2011 · 2:39 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 7

Last night we had our monthly Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society meeting at Ladyface Alehouse and Brasserie. With The Beer Chicks visiting and a White Elephant beer exchange, I was looking forward to a thrilling night.
My mumsie and I arrived early and stuffed ourselves with pork belly served over sweet potato cakes and macaroni and cheese with bacon and jalapeño. The mac and cheese was to DIE for! Just spicy enough to give you the sniffles with bits of deliciously crunchy bacon sprinkled throughout and covered with a browned crust of potato chips. I paired that with Ladyface’s Weizenbock and melted into my chair with happiness.
I had to peel myself away after a lovely and relaxing hour in order to join my fellow ladies.
We started with a tasting of winter beers. Lise brought her nut brown with some wonderful labeling.
Her Baltic Sea Dog porter had even better labeling thanks to her 10 year-old niece who has a future career as a beer label designer.
Cyrena treated us to their seasonal ale from the cellar: Fantôme De Noel, as well as a pitcher of La Trappistine to go around the table.
I brought a bottle of my Christmas Popper Vanilla Porter. I’ve named it that because I brewed it on purpose so it would just “pop” out of the bottle in a celebratory way. It comes with its own personalized bucket, as I also planned. I’m sticking with that explanation.
I was thrilled with the outcome. It’s exactly what I had in mind when I made it.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the festivity of the beer as well as the taste! Win win!
The Beer Chicks, Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune, were in attendance last night and participated in our White Elephant beer swap. They’d actually heard of/read my blog! Internal happiness spaz-out may have occurred… We had a good three hours of chatting about beer, life, bottle shops, brewing processes and everything in between. I walked away with two wonderful things:
An autographed book: The Naked Pint!
The Weihenstephaner Vitus was my draw – from the oldest brewery in the world! My mumsie got the Westoek X, which she will be sharing I’m sure.

It was the perfect way to really begin the holiday season! Bring on the lovely malts!

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