Pink Boots Society Los Angeles to Host L.A. Beer Week Charity Beer Garden

Celebrate women in the craft beer industry at Three Weavers Brewing on June 22 

Join the women of Pink Boots Society Los Angeles for a charity beer garden at Three Weavers Brewing Company on Monday, June 22nd from 4pm­-9pm. The event will celebrate women in the beer industry with a stellar lineup of guest brews hand­selected by Pink Boots LA Chapter Lead and Three Weavers Brewmaster Alexandra Nowell. 

The event will also mark the official release of the Three Weavers collaboration with the yet­to­open Arts District Brewing. Return of Sassy Rye IPA is a super dank (and super sassy) rye forward IPA generously hopped with Simcoe, Mosaic, Galaxy, and Equinox hops. The collaboration brew welcomes award­winning female brewer Devon Randall back to her hometown of Los Angeles and is a new iteration of the beer they originally brewed by Nowell and Randall at Pizza Port Solana Beach in 2014. 

Ticket Details:

• Tickets are $20 and available for purchase through Eventbrite.
• Five 5­ oz tasters (which includes a Three Weavers glass!) are included with tickets.
• Additional tasters will be available for $4 each. 
• 100% of proceeds from the beer garden will be donated to the Pink Boots Society scholarship fund which was founded to empower women in beer through education and community building.

Taplist includes: 

• Three Weavers/21st Amendment-We Saw Them Coming Watermelon Saison 
• Three Weavers/Arts District Brewing-Return of Sassy Rye IPA 
• Three Weavers/Prosthetic Records-Blood Junkie Imperial Red 
• Arizona Wilderness-Prunus Persica Peach Saison 
• 21st Amendment-Down to Earth Session IPA 
• Highland Park-Bonkers IPA 
• Eagle Rock-Cold Shillin’ 60 Shilling 
• Smog City-Unity Tart Saison 
• Noble Ale Works-Naughty Sauce 
• Golden Road-Heal the Bay IPA 
• Beachwood Brewing-Hopular Mechanics 
• Drake’s-Omega Session 
• El Segundo Brewing-Mayberry IPA 

PLUS:​  Confirmed participation from Cascade Brewing, The Bruery, Figueroa Mountain, Stone Brewing, Ladyface Ale Companie, and Kinetic Brewing! 

Dipping in Magic Waters

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."

Field of Dreams is one of my all time favorite movies.  It is one of the few movies that can bring a tear to my eye, every time.  I love how both magic and a story of a son and his dad are intertwined.  A couple of years ago, I started to research the filming location for Field of Dreams, wondering if it still existed.  When I found out that the field was still in Iowa adjacent to the house featured in the movie, I made a very impulsive decision.  
I decided that I needed to visit the Field of Dreams.  I found out that flying into Chicago, Illinois would be the closest airport to Dyersville, Iowa, home to the Field of Dreams.  I also checked to see if the Chicago Cubs would be in town the weekend I selected to go on my spur of the moment trip.
I arrived in Chicago, rented a car, and drove directly to Wrigley Field.  Without any tickets to the game that was being played that afternoon.  After parking my car in a fast-food drive-thru, I walked towards the entrance of Wrigley Field.  Luckily, there were several people selling tickets.  I bought myself a ticket and headed inside.  I couldn't believe I was actually sitting in the oldest National League stadium in the MLB.  It was so small compared to the stadiums where I usually attend games in Anaheim and San Diego.  
The next day, I woke up early to make the nearly four hour drive from Chicago to Dyersville, Iowa.  When I checked the map, I noticed that while it said the drive would take nearly four hours, that it was only 200 or so miles.  I thought that perhaps the map wasn't accurate, because taking that long would not make sense.  I realized after I started driving, though that the reason it would take longer is because the route went through several small towns.  
Dyersville, Iowa is a small farming town, just as it is portrayed in Field of Dreams.  I felt as if I was entering the movie itself as I got closer to the farm house.  The only indicators that it is a tourist attraction are the large sign and small gift shop.  Before I had arrived, I was worried when I visited it that it wouldn't live up to my expectations.  But, it actually exceeded them.  Being able to throw a ball on the field and walk among the corn stalks was one of the best baseball related experiences I've ever had. 
Oh, and visiting Wrigley Field to catch a Cubs game was pretty neat too.

Collaborative Cross-Continental Dark Saison to Debut at Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest

Paso Robles, CA: Multiple versions of the same collaborative dark saison wild ale—called La Piccola—will be unveiled at the 2015 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest on May 30, capping off a year of cross-continental brewing hijinks between brewmasters Agostino Arioli of Birrificio Italiano and Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker Brewing Company.

“With most collaborations, you start the beer together at one brewery, and it gets finished there, resulting in one beer,” Brynildson said. “Agostino and I decided to do something different. We sat down and designed the recipe together, then went back to our respective breweries to brew them on our own. We’ve been emailing back and forth for a year now, trying to replicate what the other was doing.”

It all started at last year’s beer fest, when Arioli and Brynildson hatched their plan to brew a dark saison that would be made with debittered black malt, then soured via secondary fermentation and aged in barrels—and also spiced up with an unlikely twist.

“Like many Italians, Agostino is a true gourmet, and he takes a chef’s approach to brewing,” Brynildson said. “He’s really into exotic spices and he wanted to play around with these Sichuan peppercorns, which are really weird and unique. We had to contact a spice hunter in Italy to get our hands on them.”

After Brynildson brewed his base version of La Piccola, he sent it down to barrelmeisters Jeffers Richardson and Jim Crooks at Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks wild ale facility, where they initiated secondary fermentation and maturation for 12 months in French oak barrels.

In the end, they decided to create one version with the peppercorns (La Piccola Pepe Di Sichuan) and one without (La Piccola Virtuosa). Meanwhile, Arioli is finishing up his own La Piccola made with the peppercorns. All three beers will be first presented at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest on May 30 in Paso Robles. Bottles of the California-brewed beers are limited to 250 cases each, and two-packs will be available for purchase at the Paso Robles brewery and Barrelworks in Buellton starting at 3 p.m. on May 30.

The base beer was brewed with the same Belgian yeast used to make Firestone Walker’s Opal saison, giving it classic fruit and spice notes. The debittered black malt provided dark color without assertive bitterness. The souring and barrel aging layered in just the right amount of earthy funk. And the peppercorn version presents its own distinctive qualities.

“The Sichuan peppercorns are pretty intense,” Brynildson said. “If you pop one in your mouth, your face goes numb. In the beer, it adds black pepper and lemon zest notes, and it also gives this subtle tingle on the tongue.”

He added, “I can’t wait to try Agostino’s version. It will be fascinating to compare and contrast the final results between the same beer made separately in California and Italy.”

2nd Annual Sabroso Craft Beer and Taco Festival Recap

Have you ever been to an amazing event, and looked forward to attending it the next year? That's how I feel about every event that is put on by the folks at OC Brew Ha Ha.  Last year was the first year of Sabroso and I had such a great time!  You can read about my recap from last year here.

This year's event, held this past Saturday, had the same elements as last year, tacos from local restaurants and food trucks, a great variety of beer, and wrestling.  Of course, this year, though, there were more taco choices, more breweries pouring beer, and more wrestling matches.  Just like last year, there was a competition among the restaurants and food trucks who made tacos.  This year's winner of the taco competition was Dos Chinos.

Sabroso was held in the same location as last year, which is adjacent to major freeways in Orange County, but feels as if you are hours away from any major metropolitan area.  I love this about both Sabroso and Brew Ha Ha.  It makes the event feel a bit more relaxed since it is held in a park setting filled with trees and next to a lake.  The venue has an upper level, which is where you enter the event and where the food booths/trucks were located.  Various vendors were also on hand, such as Craftbeerd, which sells some of my favorite beer related t-shirts and artwork.  

The mid and lower levels are where the majority of the breweries were located as well as a stage with live music and the wrestling ring.  The variety of breweries at the event allowed both novice and more seasoned beer drinkers to be able to find something that would interest them throughout the day.  

Although it was a warm day, the ample shade provided by both the large shade trees, canopies at each brewery's station, and expansive seating area on the upper level helped to ensure festival attendees would not swelter too much.  In addition to extra wrestling matches this year, two local breweries also had a match up in tag team wrestling.  Bottle Logic Brewing and Noble Ale Works decided to take their local friendly competition into the wrestling ring.  The Bottle Logic Brewing and Noble Ale Works match was talked about throughout the day.  "Are they really in a fight?  Have you seen their instagram posts?  I heard that they don't like each other!  I wonder who's going to win?"  In the end, the match which had wrestlers wrestle on behalf of both breweries ended up in a draw.  After the end of the match, it was announced that Bottle Logic Brewing and Noble Ale Works will be working on a collaboration beer.  This was such a great way to announce a collaboration beer!
I had so much fun at Sabroso this year and can't wait for next year's festivities!