Firestone Walker Invitation Beer Festival 2013 #FWIBF

Hanging out with my favorite brewer Todd Haug of Surly

I've been to a bunch of beer related festivals over the years and my hands down favorite is the Firestone Walker Invitation Beer Festival held annually in Paso Robles.  This is actually the first year I could use the word annually in the correct context as last weekend happened to be it's second annual.  It really is a fantastic fest both in concept and in execution with one of the greatest selection of breweries I've ever seen at a fest.  The basic concept is that Matt Brynildson, Firestone Walker's head brewer, reached out to brewers he knows and respects from across the country and invited them to participate by bringing a minimum of two beers, something rare and something session (low abv generally below 4%).  Also included with the ticket is a great selection of food offerings

For this year I was joined by my stepfather Hugh Hamm and my good friend Daniel Fernandez. Once inside we headed straight to Surly were I had hoped to bump into Todd and Linda Haug however they we're out and about doing their own exploring. While I was enjoying my first beer, Schadenfreude (a dark lager and one of the few Surly beer's that I'd never had) the OC's premier beer blogger Greg Nagel of the OC Beer Blog found us.  The four of us then set out to explore the tremendous offerings that had been selected.

My beer of the day
Brandy Barrel Hunahpu

The first time I lost Hugh was when I stopped by to talk to Linda at the Surly booth.  While I was catching up she asked if I had ever met Mikkel Borg Bjergsø (Mikkeller) and Tore Gynther (To Øl), when I said no she asked if I wanted to. I've had a lot of really cool experiences over the years but having Linda introduce me to Mikkel and Tore was pretty damn awesome.  To it top off Mikkel himself grabbed me a glass of Lil' Mikkel and let me have my picture taken with him.  He also took a picture of me with Linda.

After I found Hugh we headed over to listen to Todd's Behind The Beer Session hosted by the Brewing Network. Ok I'll admit it, with Surly being one of my favorite breweries Surly, while not the main focus, was a big part of this years fest for me. Also, I did get to ask Todd a brewing related "homebrewer nerd" question on the difference between mash hoping and first wort hoping which I had been interested in for some time.  You can see the whole interview here with my question coming in at the 14:08 mark.

For the rest of the day we worked our way around the fest trying tons for great beers and food.  I lost Hugh again when he took off to use the restroom while I manned the abandoned Dogfish Head booth which I used to serve up "barrel aged high fives".  Once I found him we tracked down Greg and Daniel to finish the fest.  We ended up hanging out in the back with Linda and Todd culminating with me talking to Gabe and Julian of Beachwood BBQ & Brewing.  I'm trying to get Julian to be a part of QuadFest 2013 as his  Jean-Quad Van Damme is a nice clean example of the style.

Greg Nagel of the OC Beer Blog on assignment

It should come as no surprise by now that one of the highlights for me was getting to visit and hang out with my friends from Surly Brewing.  I love that in true Surly fashion they brought two of the lower abv beers to the fest; Bitter Brewer (a great american style bitter) and Schadenfreude.  Hopefully next year they'll pull out some Surly Mild and some Bender variants, who knows maybe even some Darkness? On the beer side, my favorite of the day was Brandy Barrel Hunahpu.  There was some much wonderful stuff going on in it with tons of vanilla and cinnamon mixing in and out with the brandy and the wood aromas, truly a wonderful beer. The main highlight however was bumping into and hanging out with friends within the community some of which were in from out of state.  There are two breweries I would love it see invited next year, Squatter's and Noble. I think they would be a prefect fit and I might even put up a post in the future outlining why.

I really can't wait for next year!

Cheers

-SNB

Pliny the Younger

Younger at Slater's 50/50

So apparently the "cool thing" to do if you have blog focused on beer is to do a review of Pliny the Younger so I figured, why not.  Of course if you are a beer connoisseur (read beer geek) the other hip thing to do is to talk about how you feel Pliny the Younger is overrated.  I don't know if it is meant tongue in cheek and I am very guilty of passing on Pliny the Elder for a lot of other Double IPAs but I love Younger.   Bare in mind that both Younger and Elder are ranked 1 and 2 on Beer Advocates Top Beers - American Double / Imperial IPA. Honestly I've had better Double and Triple (which is technically what Younger is) IPAs but it is definitely up there as one of my favorites.

A quick little history on Pliny the Younger.  The name comes from the fact that the real life Pliny the Elder Pliny the Elder had a nephew (and adopted son) Pliny the Younger.  Once Russian River learned this they knew they had to do some sort of spin on Pliny the Elder and name it Pliny the Younger. When Vinnie Cilurzo first started toying around with brewing Younger he originally planned to make it smaller beer then Pliny the Elder it ended up being a bigger beer. 

... I actually considered going the other direction.  I thought about going from 8 percent abv (Pliny the Elder’s alcohol level) to 6 or 7 percent and raising the hop quantities. The thinking here was that with a lower abv, more hops would blast through the mouthfeel as there would be less of a malt foundation for the hops to sit on. - Vinnie Cilurzo in his article Brew a Double IPA published in Zymurgy July/August 2009

I got my first taste of Younger last year at the Crow Bar in Corona del Mar.  While a couple of my friends lined up at Hollingshead for several hours, I rolled in around 10:30 for an 11:00 opening.  Going in there was a vague idea that they were getting a keg and they only announced it via Facebook the night before.   I was a nice chill experience and I was able to get 2 glasses before it kicked. At the time I thought it was one of the best DIPA I've ever had.  I was really torn between it and Abrasive for the title of best DIPA.  Since that time I've had so many just outstanding DIPAs.

Given that Russian River only brews it once a year there is only a small window to get it and even then you have to contend with the lines.  At this point with so many other great beers out there if you're not up for standing in line for any period of time just skip it.  To me, the line and the once a year timing make it a great annual experience to look forward to.  The days of Younger being on for multiple days outside of the main brewery, which intentionally only taps a few kegs a day, are gone. People online need to deal with it and move on.

This year I was fortunate enough to have it twice, I would have had it more but I missed a text message from my friends that it was going on at one location and was out of town when it his the Crow Bar and it seems every other OC spot.  I did buy some tickets to Beachwood's Pliny Fights Cancer Raffle but came up with nothing as a result.  This year I had it down at Churchill's Renaissance Beer Fest and a week later at Slater's 50/50 in Anaheim Hills.  I thoroughly enjoyed both pours and can't wait to get it again next year.

Cheers

-SNB

Beachwood BBQ Sour Fest 2011

Poster for the event

On Wednesday the 7^th of September, after attending a doctor’s appointment, I met up with some of my BeerAdvocate friends in the parking lot of a Best Buy.  The rendezvous was to achieve a singular strategic goal – attend the 2011 Sour Fest being put on at the Seal Beach location of Beachwood BBQ while minimizing the amount of cars needed.    I had reached out to this particular group the previous week as I wanted to go with a fellow assembly of beer lovers.  Included in this fellowship of craft beer were Sam (NoSignsOfPain), Scott (smarcoly), Ryan (corregidore), Zeva (Ryan’s wife) and Steve (Callmecoon).  It was New Belgian night so we wanted to get there a bit before the event was set to begin so that we could get a table for six.

Traffic was amazing smooth and we were in Seal Beach in no time.  On the way down Scott and Steve filled out heads with stories of vast palate treasures having gone the previous day.   Once we arrived we found the restaurant somewhat empty but definitely starting to fill, the bar area was definitely getting packed.  We requested a table for six and were quickly seated, after our excellent waitress moved a couple she had just sat to another table so that she could make a table of six for us! Talk about excellent service.  

Talk about a tap list!

Once seat we quickly executed a round of Double Framboise de Amorosa from Lost Abbey.  This was one of the beers we knew we wanted to get and had a feeling it was close to kicking.  It turns out we were very fourtuniate to have acquired our round as it kicked very shortly after we received our round.  Overall this was one of the top beers of the night… but not the top beer, we’ll get to that shortly.

After I finished my glass I ordered the Compunction from Russian River.  As a big fan of Russian River sours this definitely was on my personal hit list.  In the end it was a good sour but I can’t say it was as good as Supplication or Consecration.

Double Framboise de Amorosa

Next I hit up what I considered to be one of the two duds of the evening Zwet.be from Drie Fonteinen.  I was particularly let down because I love every beer I’ve had from Drie Fonteinen so I expected this beer to be on the same level, it wasn’t even close.  To me it came off as just a regular porter with a slight sourness, not something I would except at a sour fest.

Between Compunction and Zwet.be I’d gone through a little bit of a dry spell so at the same time I ordered the Zwet.be I also order a couple of New Belgian beers Eric's Ale and Le Terroir.  Talk about an interesting contrast.  I wasn’t overly found of the Eric Ale but absolutely loved the Le Terroir (or top left as I referred to it being unable for the life of me to actually pronounce it properly).  The Le Terroir had a very nice IPA citrus taste to it that I absolutely loved.  In reviewing a little bit about the beer I found that it is barrel-aged for two years and then dry-hopped with Amarillo and Cascade hops for 8 days.

While I was finishing my excellent Le Terroir we ordered a quick round Beachwood Blend (Hout Series) from Ballast Point.  This was a special blend of Ballast Point’s Hout Series that they put together just for this event.  It was a very well rounded sour and it was great getting to try a very small run beer.

Master tap list to make a drool at was still to come

Next up I ordered two of the most recent additional to New Belgian’s Lips of Faith series Kick and Clutch.  I don’t have a lot to say about these beers other than Kick was decent while Clutch was the other disappointing dud of the evening.

Le Terroir

Shortly after Double Framboise de Amorosa had kicked we’d observed the Beachwood staff start to put up a new sign.  Just before they put it up they mysteriously stopped and it remained empty for most of our stay.  The only clue we had was a brief glimpse of what appeared to be the word Love.  We pried at our waitress until we were able to discern that it was New Belgian’s Love (Peach Whiskey Barrel Aged).  Peach Love as we called it is New Belgian’s Felix aged in a peach whiskey barrel. We were told that they were holding off until the New Belgian event officially kicked off before they started pouring it. The problem we were running into was that the Eric Salazar the head brewer from New Belgian was running late and during Sour Fest 2011 Beachwood was enforcing a two hour time limit that we were quickly running into.  Just when all hope seemed lost we asked our waitress if we could pre-order the Peach Love and grab our bills.  Shortly after that we posted up the beer sign which was met with applause and hoots, mostly from our table.  This was followed shortly by the arrival of our round, it turns out that we got the first pours.   This was my favorite beer of the night.  It was an absolutely wonderful sour, very well balanced and drinkable.  

My Top BeerLove (Peach Whiskey Barrel Aged)

After we’d all paid we headed over to the very crowded bar to finish our Peach Loves.  While there I scored a New Belgian glass, talked to a group of LA bases BAs and ordered a full glass of the Peach Love.  It was a perfect ending to a great event.  Before I took off I had a chance to talk to Gabe and thank him for putting together an awesome event. I also asked if he had had a chance to try the BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale I’d left for him and Julian at the Long Beach location.  He said no one had mentioned it and that he would check the next day.

I had an absolute blast and it was great to hang out with my BA friends drinking amazing beers.

My top 5 sours were, in order, Love (Peach Whiskey Barrel Aged), Le Terroir, Double Framboise de Amorosa, Beachwood Blend (Hout Series) and Compunction

Cheers

-SNB

BAs at Sunset - Thanks for the pic Sam

Beachwood BBQ and Brewing

Outside Seating Coming Soon

Bonnie and I have been going to Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach for the last couple of years.  The food is incredible southern style BBQ and both the tap and bottle list have always been incredible.  It’s always been a place we both enjoy to go and I’ve never been let down even when trying some outside the box.  On my last birthday Bonnie took me there and I had my first Sour Stout while talking with the Owner/Head Chief Gabe Gordon about both his food and beer selection process. 

Given Gabe’s attitude on craft beer and his intense focus on preparing awesome food I was very excited when it was announced they would be opening a second location.  What made it even more exciting was the fact that they would be brewing their own house line up of beer.  It was soon announced that they had settled on a location in Long Beach and that they would be bringing in Julian Shrago as co-owner and head brewer. Julian is a well known homebrewer who has brewed at the commercial scale with several breweries including Port Brewing and Triple Rock.

Enough background let’s talk about Beachwood BBQ and Brewing Long Beach.

Bonnie and I stopped by after taking babyRaptor to the Long Beach Aquarium on Sunday the 24^th.  This was my second visit as Shawn and I had stopped by a few weeks earlier shortly after the grand opening.  On this trip they had 8 of their house beers on tap and had started doing taster flights.  Bonnie and I both selected the following flight; Punk Wheat Ale, Uno Belgian Single Ale, Breaker Pale Ale and Melrose India Pale Ale.

The House Beer  Menu

Punk Wheat -This was a dynamite American Wheat reminds me a lot of New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat

Uno Belgian Single Ale - The name is spot on, this was a very nice light Belgian

Breaker Pale Ale - Classic pale ale with the prefect amount of bitterness

Melrose India Pale Ale - This was the beer I was most excited to try and it did not let me down, absolutely brilliant!

After completing my taster I immediately ordered a full pint of the Melrose and spotted Julian who was in moving some beer around.  I’d met him a few times now and he’s a really cool guy, as most brewers are.  Most of our discussion centered on my impressions of the beers and how things were going.

Of course the beer is only half of the reason we go to Beachwood.  For lunch we had an order of the smoked chickens wings (it was like eating bacon on the bone), smothered fries (really good), Bonnie got the BBQ chicken salad (dynamite as always) and I got the steak salad (probably the best cooked steak I’ve had in a while).

We had planned on meeting a friend there for lunch but while already running late had managed to go to the Seal Beach location.  While we waited for her I ordered the Kilgore Stout.  I’d had this stout before and really enjoyed it.  I’d say it’s a bridge between a classic stout and an American pale ale or IPA.  Good amount of roastiness with some sweetness and a nice hop nose. Big thumbs up.

Much Better Shot!

Before leaving a grabbed a growler of the Melrose to go and unlike the Rockbottom growler I had, I guarantee this one will be refilled often! (of course it helps that we bought a yearlong membership to the aquarium so we could have a place to take babyRaptor)

Cheers

-SNB

Updated 14-Aug-11 with New Pictures

Guest Tap Board

Taster Flight

The Correct Pressure for Every Keg!