Beer: Mayberry By The Sea

The notion of having a drink while watching a movie is a great one. Why shouldn't we be allowed to enjoy ourselves a little, since everyone else in the theater seems bent on taking it the other way. The popcorn bag-rattlers, the slurpers, the texters, the talkers - their only purpose in life is to ruin the movie experience for everyone. Not to mention the 24-year-old who is in charge of taking complaints about the air conditioning being a little too aggressive. Hey, I know how a/c works, Jered. I know how 500 bodies warm a room. I also know what an arctic wind feels like in my face. I can tell when everyone in my row is uncomfortable. How about I wait here while you go get a responsible adult?  I’ll be having a beer at the bar.

Denise loves to see movies, and gets even more agitated about the ruination of that experience than I do. She doesn’t drink very much, though, the poor thing. She just has to suffer through it, over and over again.

She likes to see movie after movie after movie. We have spent many a fine Saturday or Sunday in movie theaters, enjoying the best that Hollywood has to offer. When that does not come with a drink, it feels considerably less enjoyable than it could have been.

We were at the end of a three-movie Saturday, at West L.A.'s Landmark Theater, awaiting "Life." We had already seen "Kong: Skull Island" and "Beauty and the Beast" that day, so it was getting a little tiresome for me. "Kong" is a good popcorn movie and "Beauty/Beast" is, well, very Disney. Very extremely Disney. A lot more Disney that I would ever be seeking out on my own.  The slug line for "Life" is a good one, and it sums up my feelings about watching movies in public. "We were better off alone."

Mayberry IPA comes from El Segundo Brewing Company and is really enjoyable. I always like finding a good Southern California beer, and there seem to be plenty of them these days. Add Mayberry to the collection.

The 7% abv beer reportedly uses Mosaic hops, which I had never had before to my knowledge. The more familiar Cascade and Chinook are also in the mix. The Mosaic flowers apparently give a sense of tropical fruit to the light colored, fruity smelling brew. There is a great nutty edge on the citrus and pine flavors, and a smidge of bitterness on the finish. The head was nice and white, but it seemed thin to me and didn't last long. The beer's name is taken from the nickname of El Segundo, known in some circles as "Mayberry by the Sea."


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Landing A SoCal IPA

The best thing about the craft brewery explosion is the abundance of truly magnificent IPAs out there. It seems hard to even imagine a world with only the big American lagers, which is the world where I started drinking beer.

Hangar 24 is a Redlands, California craft brewery. It's way out in the part of Southern California that we call the Inland Empire, east of L.A. by an hour if the traffic is flying. The brews of theirs that I have had are impressive, and that's saying the absolute minimum. Normally, when I have one of their creations I gush.

Hangar 24's Iconic Double IPA is brewed with four American hops - Centennial, Citra, Columbus and Simcoe - five malts and local Inland Empire orange blossom honey.

The color is gorgeous, deep and rich gold. The nose is all about oranges and pine cones. On the palate, it's lush and flavorful, with a lot of bitter and a smidge of honey.


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Beer Brand Saved By Prohibition Cheese

Uses For Beer

SoCal Brew Puts Out The Fire

When you need to put out the fire, call a fireman.  The Southern California brewery created by firefighters has a refreshing beverage for sale in 16-ounce cans.  After putting out a brush fire, they reportedly hit upon the idea to have a beer - go figure - and one thing led to another. Anaheim’s Fireman’s Brew makes this India Pale Ale at 6.5% abv. It will douse your thirst as well as it did theirs.

Hops are what makes an IPA the crisp and breezy drink that it is. The little flowers for this beer are Cascade, Columbus, Chinook and Galena varieties. Cascade brings aromas, Columbus and Galena hops are for bittering while Chinook offers spice and pine notes.

The nose on this Fireman’s Brew IPA is like a pine forest, with lovely citrus aromas that make summer seem sooo close. Lemon comes in on the palate, as well as a floral sensibility and a hint of allspice. It's a fairly complex beer. It's a very refreshing beer. It puts out the fire.


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San Diego Beer - Sculpin IPA

Sometimes those 22-ounce bottles of beer come in pretty handy. If you're a beer lover, and you're only having one beer, this is a good one to have. Either this or a 40. It's a good size for anyone who is the recipient of stares that say without speaking, "You’re having another one?" Well, if you can only have one without "getting into it," this is certainly a good choice.


Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits is one of the better reasons to go to San Diego, Temecula or Long Beach.  They have a lot of tasting rooms open in Southern California, but it all started in the place Angelenos like to think of as "Iowa by the sea." The thinking there is that Midwesterners, when listing places where they'd like to escape a bitter winter, have only place on the list. Fortunately for them, San Diegans make a lot of good beer.

This zippy Sculpin India Pale Ale carries a chestnut golden color and a slight head of fine white froth, which clings to the glass. The nose is loaded with fresh pine needles and lemon zest, with a hint of grapefruit running behind. The palate is creamy and very hoppy with a floral trace on the more beery notes. The Sculpin is a perfect example of why I like IPA enough that I'll often go without a beer if one is not available. And that's a big sacrifice for a beer lover to make.

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101 Cider House: India Pale Cider

We had a hankering for some healthy food recently - yes, that does happen now and zin - so we went to one of the longest-running vegan food restaurants in Los Angeles, Real Food Daily. It features a menu full of items you’d find in many restaurants, but they are made meatless, eggless and usually anything but tasteless. There are lots of soy-based products to take the place of meat in dishes like lasagna, tacos, tuna salad and barbecue. Yes, meatless barbecue. Welcome to Los Angeles.

I broke the water tradition I usually employ at RFD and went with an alcoholic beverage to pair with my La-La lasagna. It was a hard cider from L.A. suburb Westlake Village. 101 Cider House uses "apples and quince grown up and down the 101" freeway that runs along the California coast like a fault line.

The version I had - they make a handful of different varieties, all sour - was called India Pale Cider and is dry-hopped. It hits 6.9% abv on the alcohol scale.

It’s a cloudy yellow - the probiotics, I'm told - with a quickly dissipating head. The nose is fruity and crisp, with a strong sense of apples. It is reminiscent of Prosecco or Albarino, except with a more floral element. It's super dry, very refreshing and loaded with citrus, apples and hops. There is also a lovely, dry finish.


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Booze Spending

IPA At The Museum

Here's a really good IPA from the desert, where they know a thing or two about refreshing beverages.

The Coachella Valley Brewing Company makes the Monumentous IPA, a West Coast-style India Pale Ale, double rye and 7% abv.

I had it from the bottle at Ray’s and Stark at LACMA, the perfect aperitif for the Guillermo del Toro exhibit. The Thousand Palms product would serve well on the hottest low desert days. It has a nice head, frothy and a piney, hoppy nose that shows elements of caramel, although they are very faint. The hops come from the Pacific northwest and New Zealand.

It went well with my tomato and fruit salad, but also fit in with the fries and aioli from the other side of the table.

By the way, the name of the beer references the Joshua Tree National Monument nearby.


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Two Great Pennsylvania Beers

A recent visit to northeastern Pennsylvania resulted in not so many wine experiences as I would have liked, but a couple of really great beers came my way.

At each bar I visited, I first scanned for local wines, and finding none, asked about local brews. It was surprising to me just how many bartenders in the Wilkes-Barre area don't seem very well-versed in either. The wine I understand. It’s fairly hit-and-miss with Pennsylvania wines. But Wilkes-Barre, Scranton - those are beer towns. A little knowledge about the wealth of great craft brews in your area is not a lot to expect from a barkeep.

Nimble Hill Vineyard and Winery in Tunkhannock, PA makes beer as well as wine. Their beer is so good, I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to sample their wines. Their Hop Bottom IPA has a nice medium brown color and the one-finger head holds nicely and laces well. It has a great hoppy flavor with slightly bitter finish, right up my beer alley. I ordered this winner at Bar Louie in the Mohegan Sun Casino in Wilkes-Barre.

Susquehanna Brewing Company's Hopfive IPA was a staple each evening at the hotel where we stayed. It was at that tiny lobby bar where we discovered a stray relative of my wife who happened to be working there. That sort of thing never happens in my tiny family. Thanks for the SBCs, Barbara, and we'll see you next trip!

 

The Hopfive IPA is caramel colored and has a floral, citrusy nose and a refreshing palate. A rather low head shows only slight lace on the sides of the glass. It employs five different kinds of hops. For the true beer geeks, they are Bravo, Willamette, Mount Hood, English Progress, and as-harvested whole-cone Liberty Hops.

The brewery is in Pittston, PA. My wife and I have been to Pittston for a tomato festival, or some such exotic event. We were shocked when one of her friends who lives in the area told us that Pittston is now "fabulous" after some sort of gentrification makeover. If the beer is any indication of the town, "fabulous" is a pretty fair description.

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Hipster Happy Hour

Paulaner Beer Offers Tradition, Variety

I am way overdue on writing about these Paulaner beers. I received them around the Christmas holidays and one thing led to another, as things tend to do. I will admit my taste in beer is not as inclusive as in wine. With wine, I like a lot of different types and styles. With beer I am very specific. Several of the Paulaner beers do not fall into my wheelhouse - no fault of their own.

Paulaner is one of the largest breweries in Munich, and they produce beer in the style traditional American tastes love - lager. I don't love lager, I love darker styles, which Paulaner also makes.

Früli is a strawberry Belgian style white beer blended with strawberry juice. It’s interesting, but not my cup - a zesty wheat beer with big strawberry flavor.

Oktoberfest Märzen is a deep amber color with a creamy head and a spicy hop finish. Alcohol is

5.8% abv, and you should try it with potato salad, at a picnic, possibly.

Paulaner Original Munich Lager hits 4.9% abv and has yeasty aromas with a lemon flavor. It goes very well with Mexican food.

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen Natural Wheat Beer shows off a fruity flavor with a touch of bitterness underneath. 5.5% abv. It's great with seafood.

Salvator Double Bock is more to my liking. The dark barley malt really shines. The Paulaner monks served it as a replacement for food during Lent, and it seems fine for that purpose anytime, if you were to ask me. Malty, toasted caramel is the primary feature. At 7.9% abv, it’s potent. It's also a highly rated beer and it's great with sausage.

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Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer

Ginger ale has always been a favorite beverage of mine. It’s just a soda, though, awaiting whatever spirit you choose to mix. Crabbie’s Scottish ginger beer - 4.8% abv - was introduced to me over the holidays, and I am so happy I discovered it. The beverage is festive enough for a holiday party and refreshing enough for relaxing on the porch after the lawn is cut. The Crabbie’s Scottish Raspberry drink is billed as “curiously crisp,” but I think the ginger beer fits the bill as well.

The label advises that the beer is “best served chilled over ice with a slice of lime or lemon.” I can’t fault that advice, but I went sans citrus and didn’t feel like anything was missing. It would be a good mix with lemonade on that hot afternoon on the porch, I’ll bet. I very well may be saying, “It’s Crabbie’s time” over the summer at some point.

The golden copper color is lovely, and the nose offers an extreme blast of ginger, no surprise. There is a big ginger flavor on the palate, too, with some additional spiciness that seemed most appropriate over the holidays. I wonder what it will taste like mixed with an IPA?


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An IPA For The People, Especially When The People Eat Seafood

We have several favorite restaurants, the wife and I, and one of them is Connie and Ted’s, the awesome seafood place on Santa Monica Boulevard.  They do lobsters, clams and oysters for those who are religious in their pursuit of such items.

She likes the lobster rolls, usually.  I had the smoked mahi mahi on this visit and will not rest until I have it again.  Pictured are the Stuffies, incredible little breaded balls of smoky Portuguese sausage and garlic.  You can get a great calamari or octopus salad there, too.

I had the Eagle Rock Populist IPA with my meal.  It’s made for seafood, with aromas of citrus - lemon rind - and hops, of course.  It is not crazy hoppy, although in my book crazy hoppy is quite alright with me.  This West Coast India Pale Ale from Southern California has a 7% abv number.


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Smog City Hoptonic India Pale Ale

When you have an India Pale Ale, do you wonder where it got its name?  There is never anything pale about an IPA’s appearance.  Sit one next to a Budweiser, and it is obvious which of the two has the yellowy tint which prompted Firesign Theater to produce the fake ad for Bear Whiz Beer.  “It’s in the water!”

What is in the water with India Pale Ale is hops.  Plenty of hops.  Hops are flowers which are used in brewing to add a bitter offset to the sweetness of malt.  They also help in preserving beer.  I have always heard that the first India Pale Ale was made because spoilage was a problem on the long ocean voyage from England to India.  It appears that’s not actually correct, if I am to believe Wikipedia.  That source says the highly hopped beer became a favorite in India because of the taste and was given the name due to that popularity.

Wikipedia also offers a listing of the kinds of hops used in American craft IPAs today: “...distinctively American hops, such as Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Columbus, Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo, Tomahawk, Warrior, and Nugget.”  Hop nerds must be the beer world’s equivalent to the wine world’s grape nerds, especially those grape nerds who actually know - and talk openly about - what clone they are drinking.  It might be fun to ask a bartender, "Is this Cascade or Chinook I'm tasting?"  Of course, the bartender might then decide that it's fun to not wait on you anymore.

Smog City Brewing Company was named, no doubt, after the most iconic element of life in Los Angeles - bad air.  They are located in Torrance, in the South Bay area of Southern California, even though I have never noticed too much smog down that way.  We keep our excess smog in the San Gabriel Valley.  It sits well against the mountains there.

Smog City’s head brewmaster Jonathan Porter - great beer name, right? - presides over the brews, collects awards and works with chefs in L.A. to pair his beers with great food.

Smog City’s Hoptonic IPA goes for $7 a glass at Westside Tavern on Pico.  It was hot that day, and a good IPA is one of my favorite warm-weather refreshers, so I drank it pretty quickly.  I did take time to note the aromas and flavors of citrus and a floral hops element that I love in this style of beer.

Smog City elaborates on Hoptonic a little more, citing “the exceptional flavor and aroma of west coast hops with notes of orange, citrus peel, tropical fruit, guava and floral honey. The lightly toasted caramel malt balances the resinous hop flavors and firm, yet balanced bitterness that make this beer a full bodied hop lovers' paradise.”  I'll try to drink it slower next time.


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East Coast Beer With East Coast Seafood - On the West Coast

Connie and Ted's is a Los Angeles seafood place that hits the nail right on the head, according to some East Coast seafood aficionados I know.  The eatery does seafood like it's done "back East," as transplants are fond of referencing.

I loved the food, and the good marks it gets from people who like their seafood authentic are enough for me.

Looking at the beer and wine lists, it is apparent that they look for wines and brews that are more artisanal than mass produced.  By-the-glass wine offerings range from eight to 15 dollars and do not suffer from burnout of having been seen too often, while the beers are largely American small-producer craft brews from California, Oregon and a handful of other states.  The wines come from California, France, Italy and Portugal, for the most part.

The East Coast bias is noticeable only in a few of the beers.  Victory Brewing Company of Downingtown, Pennsylvania contributes a stellar pilsner that fits well with the menu.

Victory's Prima Pils has great color - a beautiful yellow-gold - with a head that is white and frothy.  The German-style pilsner has a nose that carries a bit of hops, but not as much as an IPA.  The 5.3% alcohol is easy to take, and the taste is malty with the bitter hops playing a role.  Some citrus notes come forward, too, but the malty quality is the hallmark.  A little citrus plays out on the finish, and it was a perfect complement to the lobster roll and the New England clam chowder - which is done brothy, not creamy.  I'm told this is how New England clam chowder is rightly done in the northeast.


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Beer With Seafood: Lagunitas Pils

It’s good to give yourself a treat once in a while, something you really like and don’t want to live without.  For my wife - still missing her East Coast roots after decades in Los Angeles - that treat has become lunch at Connie and Ted’s.

Connie and Ted’s is a West Hollywood restaurant specializing in what they describe as “simply prepared fish and shellfish, inspired by the classic clam shacks, oyster bars, and fish houses that dot the New England Seaboard.”  Denise and I seek out the places that do things right, not fancy or overdone, just right.  Connie and Ted’s is one of those places, and it has achieved the status of “treat” in our family.

It is expensive, but we generally share what we order, and that generally includes a beer.  Lagunitas Pils is a Czech-style pilsner which rings up a 6% abv number.  Served in a 12-ounce bottle, the brew costs $6.

Located in Petaluma, a California town north of San Francisco, the Lagunitas Brewing Company has 17 beers on their list, but they note that Pils is their “only Lager, brewed with loads of imported Saaz hops and a bottom-fermenting yeast strain that leaves it a bit lighter with a lot of smoothishness.”

The beer’s head is a big, frothy white and it stays nicely.  The color shows fairly rich for this type of beer.  Nutty aromas dominate the nose, with notes of bread and cereal and a bit of lemon.  Malty flavors mostly decorate the palate, but the taste is rather subdued - it’s a better beer with food than without.

The Lagunitas Pils sure did hit the seafood well.  The lobster roll and Ipswich clam steamers both benefited from the pairing.


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Craft Beer From Milwaukee: Lakefront ESB Ale

Man does not live by wine alone - just ask a winemaker.  They'll tell you how important beer is.  Today, a bit about a craft beer from a town known more for its big breweries, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Lakefront Brewery proudly declares that their suds are "Brewed in Milwaukee for people who like beer."

A recent visit to Real Food Daily in Los Angeles put us in the belly of the organic beast.  Denise introduced me to the place years ago with the caveat, "Great food, just stay away from the bread products."  She is a person who knows her bread, so I took her word for it.  Everything else we have had there has been great - organic, healthy, vegetarian and tasty - even if seitan sounds more like something that wouldn't play with the Sunday School crowd.  Try the lentil pâté - it's to die for.

In keeping with the healthy surroundings, I scanned the organic wine list first, but was drawn to an organic beer, the Lakefront ESB Ale.  It cost $6 in a 12-ounce mug.

Lakefront bills this brew as "the country's oldest certified organic beer," made with organic malted barley and organic bravo hops.  It's a British-style ale - extra special bitter - and hits 5.8% abv on the alcohol meter.The beer pours up with a beautiful copper color and a light frothy head.  The nose is mainly citrus, owing to the hops, while the palate shows a great nutty character and has the bitter finish its initials promise.  Unlike organic bread, this organic beer fit the food perfectly and would serve very well on a shady porch after mowing the lawn or gardening.


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Southern California Beer: Hangar 24 Orange Wheat

While waiting for a movie at one of our favorite theaters - with a bar attached - Denise developed a hankering for a beer.  It's funny, because she seems much more like a cocktail girl than a beer fan.  She ordered a dark beer, then changed her mind.  I made a bee line for the waiter, catching him just before the previous order had been drawn from the tap.

The Hangar 24 Orange Wheat Beer from Redlands, CA, seemed like an odd choice for my wife, but we both enjoyed sharing the large bottle, $6 at the bar.

Our airborne reporter friend often speaks of the Inland Empire brew, which is brewed across the street from Redlands Municipal Airport, where his aircraft often stops for refueling.

This beer has an alcohol content of only 4.6% abv.  The label states that it is "crisp, tangy and refreshing," and that's right on the money.  It's an unfiltered wheat beer, which is brewed with locally-grown oranges.  Usually I experience the orange as a slice placed in the wheat beer.  The oranges come through brilliantly in the flavor.  Like other wheat beers, it appears cloudy in the glass.

The Hangar 24 website states, "Our oranges are purchased through the Old Grove Orange company (affiliate of the non-profit Inland Orange Conservancy) whose main objectives are to save the local orange trees from disappearing, spread the word about the local citrus growing heritage, and to feed the hungry with the unutilized oranges.  Please visit them at www.inlandorange.org.  All we need to do to save the orange trees is to eat or drink locally grown oranges!"  Redlands is in Southern California's Inland Empire, which was once a major source for citrus fruit.

They advise pairing this beer with fish, salads, mozzarella cheese and less-spicy Mexican or Thai food.  It went great with the popcorn during the movie.


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Cabernale Beer/Wine Hybrid

Maximiliano, a restaurant in the Los Angeles suburb of Highland Park, had an interesting product on their beverage menu that I just had to try.  It is a fruit beer, brewed with Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

This hybrid comes from Pasadena's Craftsman Brewing Company.  Founder/brewer Mark Jilg has come up with an interesting intersection of my two favorite drinks, beer and wine.  It sells at Maximiliano for $8 by the eight-ounce glass.  The alcohol content sits somewhere between beer and wine at 8.6% abv.

Jilg tells me that the reaction to Cabernale has been favorable, if not too detailed.  He says, "It seems to be easy for people who drink beer regularly to enjoy Cabernale and have a lot of fun with it.  It's a little more challenging for wine drinkers to find it interesting."

"We do a lot of fruit beers at Craftsman and a fair number of beers that use non-traditional ingredients.  We use plums, oranges, all sorts of citrus, persimmons.  I got fascinated with the idea of doing a beer with a lot of tannins after a a buddy of mine who is a home winemaker called me over to experience the miracle of winemaking.  We've been making Cabernale since 2004, 2005."

"Over the years we have fiddled with the recipe as to how the grapes interact with the beer.  We're trying to stretch out how much we can extract from the fruit, so the grapes were in the beer for five months.  We do a second beer with the pressings, Sour Grapes, which will probably be released in the fall."

Jilg says in the past he has sourced his grapes from Paso Robles.  "This time, due to scheduling issues, we got grapes from the Los Olivos area, from Brander.  It takes two tons of grapes for a thousand gallons of beer."

Served well-chilled in a tulip glass, Cabernale looks like dark purple wine, kind of cloudy with a trace of foam on the rim.  An earthy nose shows grape notes and an oak influence, while the taste comes across as a cross of beer and wine as promised.  It's very refreshing with notes of grape-flavored Sweet Tarts.  The wine notes hit early, and it finishes like beer.  The fruit does play heavily in the flavor profile.

I enjoyed Cabernale, but it falls into a no-man's land for me.  If I want a beer, I probably wouldn't order it.  If I want a wine, probably not, either.  It worked very well as a novelty cocktail for me, and was certainly a welcome addition to a warm L.A. afternoon.  After tasting Cabernale, I want to try some of Craftsman's more traditional brews.  That will mean getting over to the brewery in Pasadena, or back to Maximiliano.  Jilg says they keep five or six of his beers on tap there.


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