Tag Archives: Ladies at Ladyface

by Becki | July 23, 2011 · 11:16 pm

Enegren Brewing Company

Tonight my friend from Ladies at Ladyface, Janelle, called me up so we could find some amazing brews. We Googled. We succeeded.
Oh man, did we succeed. Enter: Enegren Brewing Company.
Enegren Brewing Company consists of brothers Chris and Matt Enegren, and brew chief Joe Nascenzi.
Craft beer girls, eat your hearts out.
Since they’re not officially open yet (Grand opening is July 30th and 31st! BE THERE!), we had a chance to check out the space while they brewed in preparation for the grand opening.
Their Imperial IPA, Protector, clocks in at 120 IBU and 7.2% ABV. Great floral hoppiness on the nose, but a surprising sweet maltiness on each sip. Lovely medium-high carbonation and a rusty burnt orange with beautiful lacing. Janelle, who’s a fan of Belgian brews, loved it. I, being an IPA lover, absolutely melted. Not quite sure what I was expecting, but this beer exceeded all expectations! We were both incredibly impressed.
Apparently others were impressed as well. Well deserved!

We got a chance to taste their other brew, Valkyrie – a California Alt, right out of the fermentor. It still has a few days left, but today was so perfectly smooth, it almost seemed nitro-pushed. I forsee growlers of each in my future. I forsee those in my IMMEDIATE future…
This is their setup from college days. Impressive, yes?
Here’s their current setup. They have two 6 barrel fermentors, Alice and Joanna. Yes, they name their fermentors. That ups them in the awesome category by quite a few points.
In order to fill one fermentor, they have to do two brews since their mash tun only makes 3 barrels. When we arrived, they were in the middle of a boil, and had been brewing since 7am this morning. The place smelled heavenly!
Chris Enegren created the command center of the brewery. This system is a touch screen where they can control flow, temperature, timers, etc.
DUDE. Seriously. These guys have success in the making – Chris is an engineering major, Matt is a financing major and Joe is a marketing major. Success personified!
They already have a leg up after being featured in the Brew Your Own magazine in 2009, and the All About Beer magazine back in 2010.
THEY’VE BEEN APPROVED! Just in case you didn’t know!

Enegren Brewing Company
680 Flinn Avenue #31
Moorpark, California
GRAND OPENING JULY 30th: 11am-8pm
and July 31st: noon-5pm

Be there! And for all you ladies out there, in case my raving about the beer hasn’t convinced you, here’s one more gratuitous picture:
Thanks to Joe, Matt and Chris for letting us come by! We’ll be back soon. Too soon.

17 Comments

Filed under beer, brewery

Tagged as All About Beer, Brew Your Own, California Alt, Chris Enegren, Command Center, Enegren Brewing Company, grand opening, Imperial IPA, Joe Nascenzi, Ladies at Ladyface, Matt Enegren, Protector, Valkyrie

by Becki | July 19, 2011 · 4:51 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 3

Our third meeting of Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables & Comestibles Education & Tippling Society was last night on the patio of Ladyface. It was a really warm day, so by the time we all arrived at 6pm, the temperature outside was mid-seventies and perfect!
We had a bottle share where everyone brought in a bottle of their favorite beer, or homebrew, and we also talked about the differences in glassware for each individual beer.
We started out with a Saison, courtesy of my mumsie. Cyrena, the owner of Ladyface, picture above, brought out all of the different glass styles and educated everyone on the reason for each shape: tulip, weizen, pint, etc. There is a reason to pour beer into the glasses – it releases the aroma and shows the beautiful color and head. PLEASE stop drinking out of bottles! You’re not fully enjoying a beer that way! Okay, griping over.
I’m trying to remember exactly what we tried last night… There were about ten bottles on the table.
We had a Saison, In Mem’ry of Bacon (I only have two bottles left from the entire batch – sadness), a homebrewed dunkel, Ommegang, The Reverend by Avery, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Lucifer, Oude Kriek… I think that’s it…
We did a tasting of the quadrupels side by side: The Reverend and St. Bernardus. I’m not as big of a fan of sweeter beers, so I prefered the St. Bernardus, which ends with more of a dry finish. To be fair, The Reverend was served at a higher temperature which drew off some of the carbonation and made it feel a little flat. I’m thinking of getting a bottle that I can pour and taste straight from the fridge to get the full experience.
We tried the Oude Kriek from the Ladyface cellar. I’ve never had a kriek that wasn’t sweet before! This was extremely potent with cherries on the nose, and a very dry, tart sip. I was expecting some residual sweetness at the end, but that didn’t happen. It’s definitely a sipping beer, and you can’t have more than one, but it would round out a chocolate tarte perfectly! Me likey!
We spent about three hours tasting, talking about homebrews, brewing, styles and local breweries. I can’t think of anything else that would have improved the night!
That’s a total lie. A center cut of the Ladyface bread pudding and a Chesebro IPA? Yeah, the night got even better!

8 Comments

Filed under beer, beer tasting

Tagged as Avery Brewing, bottle share, bread pudding, Chesebro IPA, dunkel, glassware, In Mem'ry of Bacon, Ladies at Ladyface, Ladyface Ale, Lucifer, Ommegang, Oude Kriek, quadrupel, saison, St. Bernardus Abt 12, The Fermentables & Comestibles Education & Tippling Society, The Reverend

by Becki | June 25, 2011 · 3:56 pm

LazyChiveFace

I have no idea how or why, but I was featured on TheChive yesterday amongst their Daily Afternoon Randomness (Check out number 26 to see ME! And ignore all the semi-nude pics surrounding it. Unless you’re into that sort of thing… I ain’t judgin’!). Not sure who put me on that, but THANK YOU! I’m enjoying all the lovely comments and views from fellow beer lovers! NOW onto today’s post!

I was out of town for Fathers’ Day this year. It’s completely impossible to make it live up to last year’s anyway, but I did my best!
We began last night at Lazy Dog Cafe. Yes, it is a chain, but they serve Firestone beer, so I’m willing to let the whole “chain” thing slide on this one.
We also had to take our own Lazy Dog with us. She enjoyed her complimentary water and $3.95 (!!!!) hamburger patty.
I started with the sampler. They had a blonde, American hef (which they served with a lemon slice – destroyed any semblence of head and overpowered the true flavor of the beer) , Bavarian hef, pale ale, red ale, and the seasonal – Somersault from New Belgium. My personal fave was the Bavarian Hefeweizen – a slightly smoky aroma with sweet aftertastes of banana and vanilla. I liked it so much, I ordered a FULL glass!
Yeah, you could definitely say I liked it…
We split the Mediterranean Pizzetti, which is something I get every single time I’m at Lazy Dog. Make me ANY dish with goat cheese and balsamic syrup and I will fall in love with you… It’s just a fact.
The celebration carried through into today. Originally, we were going to gorge on Indian food in Ventura and hit up the local Irish pub, but plans fell to the wayside and we decided to stick with some local eats. First up: Karma Indian (owned by The Taj Cafe in Ventura) and then…

LADYFACE.

If you didn’t guess that right off the bat, then you just don’t know me…
I tried the firkin of the week: Vitamin C. This is the Chesebro IPA infused with orange peel. Now, I LOVE IPAs, but I think the orange peel took this a little TOO much into the bitter side for me. Ugh, never thought I’d say that.
I told you guys earlier this week that I’d like nothing more than to enjoy a chilly glass of Derailleur on the patio while reading a good book. Which I kind of did… To be fair, we STARTED on the patio, but since I was the generous one who offered to sit in the only sunny spot, we soon moved inside. I’m a big whiner when it comes to skin cancer. My Derailleur was enjoyed in the air conditioning instead.
It’s in print, therefore it’s official: Next month at Ladies at Ladyface: Janelle and my suggestion! Bottle sharing and glassware! Every lady will bring in her favorite bottle of beer, or personal homebrew, along with the glass it’s meant to be served in and we’ll be learning the purpose of specific glass shapes.

Oh yes, and there will be FOOD.
GET PSYCHED!
For now, I have some Twisted Sisters Zinfandel that needs to be enjoyed in this beautiful 75 degree weather.
Happy Makeup Fathers’ Day to my wonderful, youthful and handsome pops!!!

42 Comments

Filed under Drinks

Tagged as Bavarian Hefeweizen, beer, beer sampler, Chesebro IPA, Derailleur, Fathers' Day, Firestone, Firestone beer, Indian food, Ladies at Ladyface, Ladyface, Ladyface Ale, Lazy Dog, Lazy Dog Cafe, Mediterranean Pizzetti, Twisted Sisters, Vitamin C

by Becki | June 21, 2011 · 7:48 am

Ladies at Ladyface: 2

Last night was the second monthly meeting of Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables & Comestibles Education & Tippling Society. Our first month was a tasting of their beer selection. Last night, we had a brewery tour.
Of course we had to pick up our beer beforehand! I got a taster of their seasonal release: Derailleur, a biere-de-garde aged in Sauvignon Blanc barrels. This beer clocks in at 8% ABV and IBU 28. This is the perfect summer ale – mildly carbonated, slightly sweet with fruity notes of apple and pear from the wine barrels. I can envision myself sipping this on a warm weekday back on the Ladyface patio, re-reading Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto while I wait for her newest novel to go through the cycle of holds at the library before it finally lands in my hands. In fact, I can see myself doing just that this week!
For last night, however, I went with the Ladyface IPA. A lot of their beers were sold out because of the AHA Conference in San Diego last week – quite an acceptable excuse! Quite a few of said beers even placed in the Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition! The list of winners can be seen here.
They recently got a huge shipment of grain in preparation for new brews, but there was still plenty of room to gather around. Cyrena even provided kegs as seats!
We started off with an overview of the brewing process, and passed around jars of different malts and hops to smell (and taste in the case of the grains) the differences.
We got a peek inside their mash tun which is just begging to be put to use again. Well, I’m begging them here to put it to use to make my old favorite beer of theirs from last year, Ladyface Weizenbock.
Cyrena also passed around other flavor additions that they use – bitter orange peel, coriander and chamomile.
We also looked at yeast cells. By this point, I had finished my Ladyface IPA and was a quarter of the way into sipping a glass of Port Brewing Anniversary Ale (10% ABV) so please forgive my lack of description of this particular segment…
We got to try a little of their Saison that was still in the fermenter, hence the ridiculously cloudy, yeasty cup. It’s been fermenting for about three weeks now, and will be racking it off in about a week. The essence of banana and light citrus fruits make you feel like you’re back on the farm in Belgium, relaxing after a hard day herding sheep and working the fields. Ahh, the simple life.
After the brewery tour, fellow Lady at Ladyface and beer enthusiast Janelle and I stayed to talk with Brewer Dave and Cyrena, and figured out what to do for the third ever meeting of Ladies at Ladyface: a beer tasting/glassware education and tippling. Everyone will bring in a bottle of their favorite beer, or a personal homebrew, as well as the glass that is traditionally used for that specific style.