Cesar Cervicia: Another year, another trip to LA Beer Fest, and more delicious craft beer discoveries

It’s my job to bring you a monthly column about craft beer in the desert and across Southern California during increasingly difficult times. The last part of that last sentence makes my job much easier than if I were only discussing the Coachella Valley.

Another trip to the Los Angeles Beer Festival!

If you’ve read any of my previous articles about this festival, you know that my main motivation for attending was to bring together all of my hard-to-get-together friends all at once. But that’s a bit unfair to the festival itself. It’s pretty good. Are there any best breweries? Some of them. Are you in the best beer festival location? It’s certainly not bad, but Downtown LA isn’t exactly a dream spot. Does it have adequate equipment, music, food trucks, and other vendor booths, is diversely attended, and professionally run? Yes, it is.

As usual, we arrived a little early for the April 6th event and went straight to the food truck court. What was great was that all 5 of us in the first group (more joined later from other places) were able to enjoy different types of food. I went to a delicatessen-style truck and ate corned beef with mustard and sauerkraut on rye while watching dumplings, birria torta, and poutine being enjoyed around the table.

Now that a solid food base has been established, it’s time for the festival to begin in earnest.

I quickly found Sour Cellars. A few months ago, I devoted half a column to them (actually a whole he deserves one). I greeted Chintia, the co-owner. He remembered my visit. We chatted while trying a wonderfully sour golden ale with honey and a golden ale with passion fruit. It was a great start.

Next, I was really excited to see Radiant Beer Co. and Everywhere Beer next to each other. I stopped at Radiant on my way to Los Angeles, basically to pick up supplies for the weekend. Everything was fun this time too. I poured Celebrate Anything. This was a hoppy pilsner that jumped out of the glass with a dank, fruity quality, but was easy to drink, crisp and clean, just like a good pilsner.

At the Everywhere booth, I made a seemingly odd choice. I chose a carbonated drink. I’ve been to Everywhere before and have tried a lot of their beers, but they’re very strange-sounding yet very rich (yes, rich) seltzer with coconut cream and spices. It was my only visit that I got a taste of the. And fruit–I was surprised. I usually find soda to be unsatisfying, with a vague fruity flavor that leaves my mouth quickly. For the festival, Everywhere brought a soda inspired by the Mexican Jamaican drink (pronounced ha-mica) with hibiscus and lime. I was very satisfied. I then tried a barrel-aged stout with flambéed bananas and maple syrup, served with lots of whipped cream and sprinkles. It was a truly decadent experience. And after that I had to thoroughly clean the beard.

Several members of our group arrived at the VIP area on the second floor after trying a couple of unremarkable beers from random breweries. This year I faced a bottle pouring of Abraxas. St. Louis’ Perennial Artisan Ales produces this Mexican chocolate-inspired barrel-aged stout once a year, and it’s become legendary in the craft beer world. However, as delicious as it was, that table didn’t even have my favorite beer.

That honor went to Chicago native Le Seul from Une Annee. This is an American wild ale with passion fruit added, and I was surprised by its subtlety in a beer category that has traditionally been heavy-handed and sour. I don’t know if I’ll ever see their cans again, but I sure hope so.

Across from that table was another table filled with cans, mostly from Great Notion in Oregon. The Holiday Ledge Beer is a German style Pilsner and was exactly what I expected when I asked for it to be poured. Next to it was Rimske Pivo, a Czech-style pilsner. After taking the first sip, my eyes widened. I had tried a very good Czech Pilsner at Radiant’s taproom the day before, and this one topped it. I checked all the boxes. Is the malt body soft? Crispy? Nice herbal, spicy hop notes and balanced bitterness?Czech. (Sorry, the charm of the pun was too strong to resist.)

Due to lack of space, there are several beers that I cannot introduce here. Makrice beer was Korean makgeolli. I didn’t know what it was, so I did a little research and found out that it’s an unfiltered rice drink. I tried the coffee and passion fruit varieties and loved them both. Both tasted like sake at the bottom, but I really enjoyed them.

Brett, friends, and protesters.

At the end of the Mac festival, five Christian protesters stood outside a chain-link fence and called us “perverts” and “fornicators” over a loudspeaker. So we recruited people in line with us to take group photos as close to the protesters as security would allow (“Oh yeah, I was raised Catholic. ” was his response to my request). (See above.) This was the perfect end to the festival.

Will you be coming back to LA Beer Fest? To be honest, I don’t know. This festival is at his level of 7 out of 10, but I think my friends and I can find fun at almost any gathering. But if you are in the city and interested in a beer festival, I would recommend it? absolutely.

Eat, drink, and have fun. I’ll go back to work tomorrow.

Source link

The post Cesar Cervicia: Another year, another trip to LA Beer Fest, and more delicious craft beer discoveries appeared first on Vctoria Fox.