Quarrygirl has posted up some pictures from the first (ever?) Vegan Beer Fest.
Check out these awesome little glasses they had!
Doomie’s made some cupcakes that look absolutely delicious next to a can of Maui CoCoNuT Porter.
For the full recap, visit Quarrygirl.com!
Once again, LA Beer Week kicked off with a massive Stone event at Naja’s Place.
If you weren’t there, you missed out. Never fear, there are plenty more fantastic beer events going on this week!
The biggest question on the minds of beer geeks after attending Saturday’s beer festival at the Echoplex: Have any of the organizers actually been to a beer fest before?
For all the things that were right (great beer, great food, great people), there were just as many things that went wrong (long lines, cramped venue, sweltering heat).
On the heels of such a successful beer festival last month, its perplexing that the organizers couldn’t foresee the inevitable popularity of their own event.
But before offering up our too much of our own opinions of the festival, let’s take a look around the web and see what other people had to say.
Before making it through the gate, beer geek Ben Wideman waited in line for over 3 hours. Once he made it in, he got to try all the beers he was there for, but most of the pub grub was gone.
Pat from EatingLA started her post by praising the taco truck, which offered up sustenance for the omnivores in the crowd. She finally braved up and tried the lengua! Nice work Pat. You’ll be eating cabeza in no time.
Pat tried about 12 of the 28 beers on tap and it’s obvious she knows how to pick ‘em:
My favorite beers? Of course, I didn’t get them all, but I’d have to say the most interesting were the Bruery’s Cuvee Jeune Young Lambic, Stone’s Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA and Uncommon Brewers’ Siamese Twin Belgian style Dubbel. Also notable were Taps’ strong but well-balanced Barleywine and Craftsman’s tasty Scotch Isle Ale.
Veggie food blogger Kirby Von Scrumptious knew this was an event she couldn’t miss, and bought her tickets online as soon as she heard about it. She managed to take some great food shots, and enjoyed the Hefeweizen cupcakes. But most important, the beer:
There were varieties for every taste, from light and smooth TAPS’ Belgian White, to Telegraph‘s bold 10% ABV Rhinocerous Rye Barleywine. The most unusual beer that I tried was definitely The Bruery‘s Cuvee Jeune Young Lambic: the sour notes were so strong that it tasted like orange juice. My favorite beer of the day also came from The Bruery: the Tradewinds Tripel, an interesting Golden Ale with a touch of rice and Thai basil.
The Uncouth Gourmands praised the event as a Wonderland of Beer, and even made a little beer report card! At the top of their list was the Telegraph Rhinoceros Rye Barleywine, which was “bold, resonant and delicious!”
It also looks like they got to try some of the elusive Firestone Parabola that made a brief appearance. This is an incredible oaky, vanilla-y, boozy stout reminiscent of one of their Anniversary beers (maybe one of the main blends? Beer geeks, help me out on this), and anyone who got a pour was very lucky. From the Uncouth Gourmand blog: (More …)
I POSTED THIS COMMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE REVIEW BY THE UNCOUTH GOURMANDS:
“Oh dear. Wow. I have not needed to write a rebuttal to anything I’ve read online in many moons. I’m not a contrary person by nature – not by a long shot. I’m a man of peace…but – I cannot believe that we were at the same event!! Are you sure we were at the same place?? THE L.A. Craft Beer Fest at the Echoplex?? Yesterday??
How bad was it?? Let me count the ways…over-sold, too crowded, not nearly enough local beers (where was Angel City?), the venue was much too-small (by a factor of four at least, I’d say) – They needed at least three more beer stations…and until the big electric fans were brought in, the temps inside were almost unbearable (at least it was cool in the men’s restroom! The A/C was obviously working…it just couldn’t keep ub with 500+ hot, breathing humans) – it was claustrophobic, with unbearably long lines for beer, far too few places to sit (at least where it didn’t sound like a monster-truck rally of noise!) and just a nightmare.
A “Wonderland of Beer?” Hardly. IMO that was a torture chamber…the beer just made it bearable! The Stone Black IPA was awesome as always – and the two Craftsman beers from Pasadena were very tasty.
Next time I’ll buy a few bottles and stay at home and watch hockey instead.
Hopefully the organizers learned something. Everybody I talked to was very disappointed. Please…next year a bigger venue able to hold an event like this!”
Burritos were great, as were the cheeses & nuts. I totally missed the ice cream and the hefeweizen cupcakes though. Damn!
This past weekend, homebrewers from across the state converged just outside of Ojai for for the California Homebrewer Association’s second year at Lake Casitas. There were hundreds of beers on tap and in bottles, and most of us spent the better part of Saturday trying to taste them all.
Hit the jump for more photos from the event. (More …)
Thanks for sharing the great photos, Dave! This really helps to put the memory back together from the lost weekend…wish it could do the same for my liver.
-Josh
Beer Wars Live was shown at UCLA’s Royce Hall on April 16th, 2009. Hundreds of people attended the live broadcast of this documentary and the panel discussion that followed. After the reception on the patio of Royce Hall, the festivities moved to Blue Palm Brewhouse on Hollywood Blvd for a night of bottle sharing and celebrating the craft brew industry.
Scott Kingsbury, 
Josh Jensen is discussing.
thanks for the nod!
fantastic run down of various perspectives from the event. I’m still kicking myself that didn’t get a chance to sample the ice cream or burritos.