This one almost slipped my mind, but I’m glad it didn’t, cause this is too good to miss!  This Friday at 8pm, The Daily Pint is holding an IPA tasting, complete with a whole spread of food pairings.  There are a ton of great beers that we never get in LA.  After finally trying Blind Pig a couple weekends ago from the bottle, it’s great to see we’ll be getting a keg of it.  Hit the jump for a full list of beers that will be served at the Pint.

Russian River Blind Pig
AleSmith IPA
Port High Tide
Port Hop-15
Victory Hop Wallop
Green Flash Hop Head Red
Green Flash West Coast IPA
Firestone Union Jack IPA
Dean Brothers English IPA (CASK)
Stone 10th Anniversary
Stone 11th Anniversary
Stone Cali-Belgique (CASK!)
Stone Ruination Double IPA (CASK)
Alaskan Ice Pay
Pyramid Thunderhead
Bear Republic Racer 5

Maybe it was a time you brought a friend ice cream at the hospital.  Maybe it was your athletic prowess that resulted in a meet and greet with the president.  Or maybe your Forrest Gump moment was a bit more literal.

Well Nick Moffatt has been having a Forrest Gump Moment every day for the past five months of his life.  That’s because right now, Nick is crossing the US on foot.

Forrest Gump Moment

He started in New York back in June, and next week, he finally makes it to the Santa Monica Pier.

To celebrate the completion of more than 3000 miles of walking, Nick will be kicking his feet up and enjoying a few pints of the finest cask ale Southern California has to offer.

Come join Nick, by him a pint, or even better, donate what you can to the charities he’s walking for.

A portion of all cask ale sales from the night will be donated to the American Legion Legacy Scholarship fund.

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at the Daily Pint

The Daily Pint will be pulling out some pretty sweet casks for the event, and all 4 beer engines will be running.  Check back a couple days before the event, and I will try and post the beer list.  Also check out the Daily Pint’s website, linked below.

Daily Pint
2310 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA

For more info on the event, visit Nick Walks America and California Beerzine

Firestone 12th Anniversary

OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve known about tonight’s Firestone tasting at the Blue Palms Brewhouse for a couple weeks now. I caught wind of it a couple weeks ago at Brian Yaeger’s Red White and Brew book release party, but have been reluctant to post it up on here, in fear that all the 10, 11, and 12 will be gone before I get there.

OK, maybe a little silly, but still. We’re talking about a vertical tasting of all of Firestone’s anniversary releases on tap. In addition to 3 of the most sought out beers in the country, they will also have kegs of Lil Opal, Saucerful of Secrets (The base of last year’s Eleven), Oaktoberfest, Unfiltered DBA, Union Jack, Pale 31, Walker’s Reserve Porter, Bravo Imperial Brown, and a cask of bourbon barrel aged Velvet Merkin.

You can try a 3 oz snifter of each anniversary beer for $20. Even though that means twenty dollars for nine ounces, I’d still say its a bargain.

Brewmaster Matt Brynildson will be on hand, assuming he can make it down to LA despite the fires going on in Santa Barbara right now.

Come on over to the Blue Palms at 6 oclock if you can, you wont regret it.

21st Amendment, a great brewpub and restaurant in San Francisco, recently announced they are expanding production.  They are joining the ranks of craft brew superstars Oskar Blues and Surly Brewing by putting great craft beer into cans.  Normally only available at the pub, 21st Amendment is now receiving wider distribution, available throughout California at BevMo, and soon making their way into supermarkets in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Tahoe, and Alaska (what, no LA love?).

Their two beers are Brew Free Or Die IPA, and Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, both of which are quite tasty.

Right now on their website, there’s a note up that congratulates President Elect Barack Obama with a tasty little slice of double entendre:

Find out more about 21st Amendment at 21st-amendment.com

Wish I was down in San Diego for O’brien’s Wet Hop Festival, which is going on right now as I type.

From Tom Nickel:

I am expecting 24 different wet hop beers from San Diego, Northern California and Oregon.  We should have 22 different draft beers, 4 casks and even one bottled beer.  The line up will include beers from Pizza Port Carlsbad and Solana Beach, Ballast Point, Port Brewing, Stone, 21st Amendment, Anderson Valley, Beach Chalet, Bear Republic, Black Diamond, Blue Frog, Butte Creek, Lagunitas, Moonlight, Sierra Nevada, Triple Rock, Deschutes and Full Sail.

The fun starts tonight with two very rare and special festival pre-party casks from Sierra Nevada – Harvest Ale and ESP.  This year’s Harvest is great and I can’t wait to try it on cask.  The ESP is one of my favorite Sierra beers.  It is the bottled version of the Pale Ale, which is a little stronger and more hoppy, with wet hops added in the conditioning tank.  These are the only casks of these beers in southern California, so don’t miss them tonight, Thursday, 10/23 at 5 pm.  We also have a few wet hopped ales on tap right now including Port Brewing High Tide, Sierra Nevada Harvest and Full Sail Lupulin.  More will be added tonight as well.

I bet Beer Molly from My Beer Pix will be there, holding down the photo blog front.  If anyone makes it down there, let me know how it goes.

This Saturday, September 13th, Verdugo Bar is hosting their 1st annual Oktoberfest.  In addition to their usual biergarten, they will also be converting their parking lot for the afternoon to make way for all the festivities.

Come on out to Glassell Park for beer, brats, music, and even a few competitions like stein holding, boot racing, beer pong, and more.  Tickets are 20 dollars at the door, and that covers you for 3 beers.  Food and more beer will be available for purchase.  Most German beers don’t go too high on the alcohol content, so there will be room for 4, 5, 6- as long as you’re not boot racing!

Pre-sale tickets are available for $15 dollars.  Call the bar at 323-257-3408 with your credit card handy to pay.

Dirndls and leidenhosen are strongly encouraged (by me).

Visit the Verdugo Bar website for more details.

It’s not quite official, but the Blue Palms Brewhouse opened its doors for business last Friday night.  Word of a new craft beer bar in the heart of Hollywood has been spreading like wildfire over the last few months, and the rumor mill had been working overtime.

Founders (!) in LA?  Proximus (!!) and Russian River on tap?  A firkin of Firestone’s Parabola (!!!) for the opening?

The official opening is this Saturday the 16th, so you will have to check it out then, because I can not confirm or deny anything that might have been mentioned. All I know is that owner Brian Lenzo is a huge beer fanatic, and he definitely has some tricks up his sleeve.

Beer geeks were out in full force for the soft opening, and there were plenty of big beers to be had.  Hair of the Dog Fred was on tap, probably for the first time in Los Angeles (west of Stuffed Sandwich, that is).  Other heavy hitters included St. Bernardus Abt 12 and Ola Dubh 30, which first reared it’s delicious head at Verdugo Bar a few months ago.

photo credit: flickr user lesbal123

Contributing to the opening day excitement, there were several new beers that made their LA debut at Blue Palms.  I was excited to see the Black Sour from Craftsman, a new beer that I hadn’t heard of.  Mark Jilg and Head Brewer Todd Peterson were in attendance, but I didn’t get a chance to ask them about this new creation.  It’s definitely not a puckeringly sour beer, but like all Craftsman beers, it’s worth your money.

From San Diego, there was a keg of Lost Abbey’s Witches Wit, as well as some Vertical Epic 08.08.08.  I can’t believe I missed my opportunity to drink that beer on it’s namesake day, but I’m sure there will be plenty of it this weekend at Stone’s 12th anniversary party in San Marcos, so no need to fret.

Well actually, maybe I will do some minor fretting.  After a long day of beer tasting in San Diego, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to the Blue Palm’s official opening, this Saturday night.  I’m sure Brian’s going to be saving some special treats for those of you who know what to ask for…

Blue Palms Brewhouse
6124 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA, 90028
phone: (323) 464-2337

Next to the Henry Fonda Music Box

photo credit: flickr user lesbal123

I have great news.

Phil brought back 2 beer engines from the UK, and tomorrow at 6pm, the Daily Pint is having another Firkin Friday.

The first experiment with cask ale was a huge success.  Firestone brought in a loaner beer engine and some Unfiltered Double Barrel Ale, and the keg was drained in 15 minutes.

Tomorrow they are bringing back more of the Unfiltered DBA, plus a cask of Stone Vanilla Bean Porter, which made it’s first LA appearance at Verdugo Bar a few weeks ago during their Stone tasting.  (For the record, as much as I love it, I don’t count Naja’s Place as “LA”)

Is cask ale going to be a permanent fixture at the Daily Pint?  With two new beer engines on hand, my guess is yes.

Angelenos have finally gotten a taste for fresh, delicious beer.  At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if Firkin Friday started becoming a weekly institution.

Tomorrow, June 6th, 2008 at 6pm SHARP

Daily Pint
2310 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica

Daily Pint Official Site

Fresh out of the gates of their hard opening, Verdugo Bar is already working around the clock to dispel any rumors that LA doesn’t have a real beer scene.

This Tuesday, May 6th, Verdugo is welcoming Sarah Lescrauwaet of Duvel USA who is stopping by to conduct a beer and cheese pairing. The bar is opening at 7pm, an hour earlier than normal, to reward hard working beer drinkers with a whole evening of Happy Hour-type price breaks.

From the taps, there will be specials on Rare Cos Vos, Houblon Dobbelen (!!), and Maredsous 8. In bottles, specials on Duvel and Ommegangs.

AND the first 30 people through the door get their own Duvel glass, laser etched and everything, probably the finest beer glass known to man.

Keep your eye on the Verdugo Bar Events Page, they have a lot of great stuff coming up. Save the date for their Stone tasting on May 18th.

Verdugo Bar
3408 Verdugo Rd
Glassell Park, CA 90065
323-257-3408

Open Tuesday-Sunday 8pm-2am
Open 7 days a week starting May 12th!

Tomorrow! Friday the 11th of April!

Sometime between 6 and 7 o’clock, the Daily Pint in Santa Monica is tapping a firkin of unfiltered Firestone Double Barrel Ale.

That’s right, Real Ale in Santa Monica. A rep from Firestone is bringing by a temporary beer engine for this single keg, and once it kicks, it’s gone.

If there is enough enthusiasm from the beer community, maybe we can convince Phil to put in a permanent beer engine? Bring your friends, and be sure to explain to them what they are getting into. Some people have not yet been exposed to the joys of warm, flat beer.

See you at the Pint.

Time to add another amazing beer bar to your drinking repertoir.

After many months of building code snafus and limited business hours, Verdugo Bar is officially opening tonight.

God bless ‘em for their sense of humor, they’ve got Delirium Tremens and St. Bernardus Abt 12 on tap right next to Miller High Life. Click on the picture above to get an idea of their bottle selection (available to take home!), but keep in mind their selection has probably changed since this picture was taken a couple months ago.

Ryan, the resident beer geek, loves to rotate special beers through as they become available. I spoke with him yesterday and he mentioned they were working on getting a keg of Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve 30, which is aged in oak barrels previously used for maturing 30-year-old single malt Scotch.

I’ll believe that when I see it!

Verdugo Bar
3408 Verdugo Rd
Glassell Park, CA 90065
323-257-3408

Open Tuesday thru Sunday, 8pm til 2am.

New York Times: Long on Beer, Short on Pretense
Urban Daddy LA: Brew the Right Thing

When I first met Jessica, I had no idea that I had just met every beer geek’s dream girl. Smart, beautiful, and a virtual walking beer encyclopedia.

It was July 17th, 2007, and I was on the tail end of my Great Northwest Beer Adventure. After a month of busing, thumbing, and train-ing all the way up to Vancouver, I was on the last leg of my trip, staying in San Francisco’s Presidio with my buddy Spencer.

That afternoon, we had visited Magnolia where we thoroughly enjoyed the Blue Boy Bitter, the Lazy Boy IPA, the Prescription Pale, and their cask wheat beer (well, maybe we didn’t enjoy the cask wheat beer that much). It was still pretty early in the afternoon, and we had several more bars to hit, so we hopped on the bus and made our way down to the Toronado, a world renowned beer bar I had not yet visited.

It goes without saying that Toronado was everything I expected and more. The lovely Jennifer (aka Princess) recommended the Brother David’s Double, followed by some Old Foghorn on draft. As you can imagine, by this point we were on our way to getting absolutely snockered.

(By the way, thanks to Stonch for hosting this month’s Session!).

It was time to journey on, so we left Toronado to find our next bar. We made it all of about 10 feet before we decided we needed to take a hot dog break at the sausage shop next door, and it was there while waiting for my weiner I met Jessica.

“Did you guys just come from Toronado? I love that place. Proximity to Toronado was an important factor when I was looking for an apartment.”

Love at first sight?

We got to talking beer, and I told her about my travels, and believe it or not, she was planning a Great Northwest Beer Adventure of her own!

I gave her a few recommendations for Portland, told her about beermapping.com, and then Spence and I were on our way.

In the weeks that followed, we exchanged a few emails, shared a few beer recommendations, and became Facebook friends. It was Facebook that told me Jess went to Harvard, and that we had spent the first 18 years of our lives living no more than 10 miles away from each other in Los Angeles. Weird, right?

Jessica is an amazing writer, words flow out of her like endless rain into a paper cup. She can effortlessly crank out a few hundred words on any topic. From atheism to beer to Freakonomics, Jess has an opinion and she’s ready to argue about it.

Her beer notes, originally posted on Facebook, were so popular with her friends she had no choice but to start a blog and migrate her postings.

Oh yeah, and she’s also on Yelp. Here’s a few snippets to give you the flavor of her writing.

On Gordon Biersch:

Thanks, Gordon Biersch, for reminding me why I’ve got to get out of the consulting business sooner rather than later.

Let me put it this way, I’m sure you’re doing quite well for yourself. You get to ride the wave of craft brew popularity without actually demonstrating any craft in your brewing. You’ve wrapped up the baseball market, nailing down the SF pre-Giants game scene and winning the chance to be the BMC alternative in Dodgers Stadium, my home team’s field. And when my company, and I’m sure many others in the Financial District, needs to know where to take groups of 30 to 50 corporate types who don’t care if their food is cold and beer is warm so long as it’s free, you’re there for them.

On visiting Anderson Valley Brewing Co.:

How can you not like a place that offers carriage rides and a DISC GOLF course? Now, I’m always suspicious of frisbee players because their cultishness the verges on the level displayed by scientologists, but that just sounds like an awesome way to spend a sunny day in Mendocino.

On BottleWorks, a beer store in Seattle:

This is what San Francisco’s City Beer Store wishes it was.

It almost pained me to leave the store knowing there was so much good stuff still on the shelf. It’s a long, narrow space and all 3 walls except the front where the door is are lined with beer. And it seems like at least half the space is dedicated to refrigerated beer. Which is awesome, because when I went to Bottleworks, I was so excited about what we bought that I could barely wait to get home, much less for our beer to chill.

A couple months after our brief meeting at the sausage shop, I was back in the Bay Area for a weekend jaunt. We had a chance to catch up over a few beers at Thirsty Bear and 21st Amendment.

A lot of times, when I make new friends that are really into beer, there’s a propensity to talk beer the whole time; breweries, beer styles, upcoming seasonals and whatnot. But sometimes, when you’re savoring a delicious IPA on a sunny Saturday afternoon, it’s nice to let the beer fade into the background and enjoy the company of your new beer friend.

Be sure to visit Jessica at http://thethirstyhopster.wordpress.com/

Bookmark her, Blogroll her, Subscribe to her RSS and all that great stuff.

For a complete Session roundup, visit Stonch’s Beer Blog.

It’s that time of the year again. Last week Stone released one of their most beloved seasonal beers, 2008′s Russian Imperial Stout. Buy a couple bottles if you’re lucky enough to find it, this is one of those beers that vanishes off the shelves pretty quickly. Part of the reason for this is because it is great for cellaring, so people tend to buy these beers as an investment in their collection, to be enjoyed years from now.

If you haven’t started a beer cellar yet, this is an excellent choice to get the ball rolling. But if you prefer instant gratification from your beer, there are 4 places here in LA that have this fabulous beer on tap: Library Alehouse, The Daily Pint, Lucky Devil’s, and BottleRock.

This is a beer that makes you glad to live in Southern California, since we get first dibs on it. It has a huge following all over the country, and is probably more appreciated in the Northwest than it is here. If you happen to be walking down the street in Portland, it’s not unlikely to see some guy watering his lawn while sporting his prized Stone Imperial Russian Stout T-shirt.

The Otheroom is one of the finer beer establishments on the westside that has not been written up on this blog before. Mainly because its crowded enough as it is and there’s no need to go telling even more people about it.

But here they are, celebrating their third year of beer and wine, I guess you can say the secret is out. Venice denizens, never fear – they will still let you cut the line if you flash a Venice address on your driver’s license.

So now let’s talk about their beer menu.

First off, you’ve gotta love a place that keeps Oaked Arrogant Bastard on tap. And it was pretty cool those few months when they had the “NO STELLA” sign hanging from their taps. Yeah, eventually the demand became so insane they had to relent and put it back on tap, but it was cool to see them take a stand and try to open people up to other beers. Damn it people, try something new!

The Paulaner Hef is great, with or without lemon! They’ve got Allagash White on tap! (skip the lemon) They’ve got the lovely Duchesse de Bourgogne, one of my favorite Flemish Red Ales, up on their chalkboard! And of course, there’s the always reliable Racer 5.

If you’re looking for Friday night crowds on a Tuesday, Otheroom tomorrow night is the place to be. And don’t order Stella, give something new a try.

Otheroom Anniversary Party
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Opens at 5pm
1201 Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Venice, CA 90291

[Via YoVenice!]

Dropped in at Stuffed Sandwich a couple weeks ago for lunch, and they had nothing but stouts on tap. Old Rasputin, Stone Russian Imperial, Bison Chocolate, Moylan’s Dry, Barney Flats, and Speedway (yum yum) were still flowing while I was there, but once they dry up, they’re gone (*update: they are on to Barleywines. See more below).

The funny thing about Stuffed Sandwich, if you’ve never been there before, is that they only serve beer in paper cups. Sam doesn’t like foam on his beer, so you always get a full pour right up to the rim. But before you pick up your beer to take it to your table, Sam and Marlene always make you bend over and take a sip off the top, so when you pick up the paper cup, you don’t squeeze any beer over the side.

The first time I went, I thought it was a little silly, but this being my second visit, I guess there’s a little charm to it.

I went with a small cup of the Speedway and their French Dip sandwich and OH YES, it hit the spot. Last time I was in I had the pastrami and that was pretty money too.

Another great thing about Stuffed Sandwich is their To Go License.

Sam has an amazing bottle selection, with tons of beers hiding in his cellar in back. If you know what you are looking for, and you get on his good side, you might just walk away with some real treasures.

I picked up a Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws 2004 Barleywine for just under 8 dollars, which I intended to review for this month’s Barleywine Session, but unfortunately I’ve been sick these past couple of weeks and didn’t want to waste this fine aged beer while my sinuses were still stuffed up.

Speaking of Barleywines, I just got an email from Marlene. This month it’s all Barleywines on tap, and they are breaking out all sorts of vintages. From 2007: Butte Creek Trainwreck, Lagunitas Gnarlywine, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Anchor Old Foghorn, and Green Flash’s Barleywine. They’ve also got a keg of the Butte Creek Trainwreck and a Stone Old Guardian from 2006, and from 2005, another Old Guardian and some Bigfoot.

If you’ve never been out to Stuffed Sandwich, February would be a great month to make the pilgrimage.  See if you can make sense of any of their signage above the cooler cases.   I’ve always been a bit too shy to inquire into their Ronald Reagan shrine (not pictured- you need to see it for yourself).  And remember to bring an appetite, because NO FOOD, NO BEER!

Stuffed Sandwich
1145 E Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 285-9161

Also making appearances this month are Craftsman’s Oktoberfest, and as part of the John’s Locker Stock program, Rogue’s Imperial Porter. This stuff is so special I don’t even have an appropriate graphic to use for it. There is only one keg and then it’s gone forever.

Also, I don’t know if they have any left, but about 2 weeks ago, Library Alehouse and Daily Pint both got 2 kegs of Stone’s 11th Anniversary Ale. This year it’s a black IPA that weighs in at around 9%. Oh, and did I mention it’s rated 91(!!) on BeerAdvocate?

Bombers can still be found at Wine Expo and Jerry’s Liquor.

Keep your eyes peeled and your throat parched for some new Stone releases hitting the taps at Library this coming week.

[Update: You can purchase this Unibroue glass online at Beer Geek Shop]

On my last night in town, my lovely friend Mauree took me to Stella’s on Commercial Drive, a tapas bar with a great selection of Belgian beers. We snagged a great table on their sidewalk patio and ordered a Leffe Belgian Pale and a glass of Belle Vue Kriek, both of which were on tap. I was enjoying the kriek more than Mauree was, so she ended up holding on to the Leffe most of the time.

The Kriek is a deep red color with not too much head on it. Sweet cherry aroma and a bit of a sour twang, which I just can’t get enough of. Just a few days earlier, my New Belgium buddy and I drank a bunch of Rodenbach at Brouwer’s in Seattle. It was then I figured out I need to try more sour beer.

The kitchen was about to close up, so we put in an order for a pound of Mussels Normande (Granny smith apples, mushrooms, bacon, shallots, apple brandy, cream).

We finished up our first round and decided to go for one of those corked Unibroue bottles. By the time our huge dish of mussels came out, we had decided on the Éphémère Framboise, which turned out to be a great pairing (although the apple Éphémère might have matched better).

The beer definitely had that uniquely Unibroue carbonation to it, but thinner and a bit lighter than your Fin du Mondes or Maudites. Fresh raspberry smell that I was reminded of two days later when I was picking actual raspberries on Conner and Sarah’s farm. Not so sweet that you forget you’re drinking beer, but just fruity enough to compliment the apple-bacony goodness of our mussels. I think raspberry has got to be the best possible fruit to use in beer.

Way to go, Canada, for having Unibroue. And way to go, Vancouver, for your delicious seafood. I need to go back soon.

Stella’s Tap and Tapas Bar
1191 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
604.254.BIER (2437)

The King’s Head holds a special place in my heart. It’s only a block away from the Promenade, but once you enter the front door, you feel like you’ve been transported across the Atlantic. Seriously. Some afternoons I’ve wandered in for happy hour, and I’m the only one who’s not British. With the King’s Head Shoppe on the corner, the Tudor House across the street on 2nd, and Britannia down the way on 4th, it’s like a real life Wee Britain.

Pretty standard selection of English beer, and all the servers and bartenders have British accents. Most of the patrons, too. Boddington’s, Bass, Guinness, Harp, Fuller’s London Pride, Stella, Pyramid Hefeweizen, Newcastle, and a cider or two. Nothing too noteworthy besides the Fullers.

Darts really make this place worthwhile. They’ve got two boards, and it definitely has an arena feel to it. Great lighting and some deep divots in the floor behind the line. There’s also a glass case on the wall that has darts and dart accessories for sale (someday I will be one of those badasses that brings their own darts to the pub).

The music is decent, but I can’t stand these confangled touch-screen jukeboxes. Look at me! I’m connected to the internet! And for a dollar more, I can play the song that you actually want to hear! Weak. What happened to the old style jukes that had entire albums to choose from?

Wednesday night they’ve got a Pub Quiz, which I’ve never actually been there for, but pub quizzes are awesome, so it’s worth mentioning.

If you’re a fan of football, The King’s Head is probably already your home away from home. This Saturday (tomorrow! May 19th!) you can head over to watch Chelsea take on Manchester U for this year’s FA Cup Final. The game starts at 3pm London time, so what is that, 7am here? Get there early to grab a table. Lord knows all the expats will be there.

King’s Head is also a restaurant, so don’t be afraid to order up some food. They’ve got incredible samosas, highly recommended (I don’t know any other non-Indian food restaurants that even have samosas on the menu). Also very tasty are the chicken satay, the popcorn shrimp, and (of course) the fish and chips, the best on the Westside.

When you leave, head over the Ye Olde King’s Head Shoppe to pick up some awesome British stuff for your pantry; Heinz Baked Beans, Vegemite, crisps, Crunchie bars, and Kinder Eggs. You can also pick up some bottles of Wychwood (Hobgoblin is most prevalent), Black Sheep Ale, and maybe even a Riggwelter.

YE OLDE KING’S HEAD
116 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310)451-1402

After gorging ourselves on sandwiches and potato salad, we griped about how we hardly have any reasons to go downtown. Dodger Stadium, Staples Center, MOMA, and the occasional balloon of black-tar heroin are the only reasons I ever have to make the journey.

But not any more.

Weiland’s is fan-freakin-tastic. I just wish it was a little closer to home. Nine beers on tap, and around 40 bottles. Happy Hour is from 3 – 7, and then again from 10 to closing, where draft beers are only $2.50 (!!). One of the taps was dedicated to an Irish stout, Murphy’s I think. Then they had 3 house beers represented, an Amber, a Honey Blonde, and an IPA.

I was in the mood for an amber, but I was torn between two of the other selections on tap: Craftsman Cabernale and Allagash White. Lucky for me and Brad, we were the only people sitting at the bar, so Ryan the bartender indulged us and poured us samples of both (when we first arrived, we asked if they did samples, and were answered with an emphatic “no”).

In addition to their taps, they have close to 40 bottles on hand; 3 Chimays, 2 Allagashes, Ommegang Hennipen and Three Philosophers, Young Double Chocolate Stout, Moretti La Rossa, McEwans, The Reverend, Humboldt Hemp Ale, Fischer Amber, Flying Horse, Chambly, Tsingtao, and Singha, to name a few.

Top that off with an awesome jukebox that had about 40 credits sitting in it, and we have a great reason to come downtown.

WEILAND BREWERY
400 E 1st Street
Los Angeles 90012
213-680-2881

The interior is almost entirely dark wood, with a two rows of beat up bar stools and tons of crap on the walls. Beer mirrors, autographed sports memorabilia, inflatable Sam Adam’s bottles, California license plates that commemorate the Red Sox, old toboggans. They’ve got everything.

Sonny McLean’s may not have all the fancy-pants beer that Father’s Office and the Otheroom keep on tap, but what they lack in obscurity, they make up for in selection. Sonny’s has plenty of crowd-pleasers on tap, about 25 in total. Boddington’s, Guinness, Pilsner Urquell, Stella, Bass, Harp, Blue Moon, Sam Adams, Redhook IPA and ESB, Newcastle and Smithwick’s to name a few. Interestingly enough, they have Anderson Valley’s Boont Amber Ale on tap. It seems strange that this is their only beer whose brand is not widely saturated. Why Boont?

There are many reasons (besides beer reasons) to go to Sonny McLean’s :

1. Darts
2. Air Hockey
3. Pool
4. A ton of TVs
5. Decent Jukebox
6. 2 Golden Tee machines
7. Basketball arcade game

If that hasn’t sold you, they also have terrific food. Their turkey avocado sandwich is delicious. Their fries are winners too. I have not tried their burgers, but have witnessed my friends enjoying them.

Expect to pay between $4.75 and $6 for a pint. A bit pricey, but hey, this is Santa Monica, you’re used to it.

SONNY MCLEAN’S
2615 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90403
310-449-1811

Next time you go to Father’s Office, stroll right up to the bar and order a pitcher of Natural Light. Other patrons will be amazed by your exquisite taste in beer, and you’ll probably get a few high fives. Alternate Cool Move: Order some of their fries a la ‘cart’, and demand ketchup. You’ll be the life of the party!

But let’s get serious here. This website probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Father’s Office. I credit them for single-handedly opening my eyes to good beer. After 4 years of college, drinking whatever’s available in the highest quantity at the lowest price, its easy to forget about the incredible breadth of delicious beer available so close to home.

They have close to 40 beers on tap, and several more choices in bottles. You can go just about any night of the week and find a crowd. And the cool thing is, everyone there really likes beer.

Prices range from $5 up to $20ish for some of their “Good Sh…” (someday, someday).

The vibe there varies from one night to the next. One thing I can say is that a wide cross-section of Westsiders are represented. Old, young, and middle aged, everyone can agree that Father’s Office is a legit spot.

Notable beers include: Racer 5, Craftsman, Anchor, Maredsous, Chimay Tripel, Duvel, Great White, North Coast, Allegash, my god there are too many to mention. And I’m not even gonna get into their burgers. Wow.

If you’ve never been, I’d say tomorrow is a great time to check it out. The bartenders are very knowledgeable and can recommend something for whatever mood you’re in.

FATHER’S OFFICE
1018 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 393-2337