Hair of the Dog Dave

Perhaps you’ve noticed, “Hmm, there hasn’t been too much going on on the ol’ Hair of the Dog Blog. I wonder what happened to Dave?”

Well, I’ve been busy with another project, consulting and helping to build the fantastic new California Beerzine, which just launched last week.

This site is a great resource for anyone who lives in California, and even for those out-of-staters who are planning a trip to the west coast. There is a California Beer Events page for keeping up with beer tastings and festivals across the state, a California Beer Blog Aggregator for quick digestion of all your favorite Golden State beer blogs, and even a job engine for finding beer-related jobs in California.

But probably the most exciting feature of California Beerzine are the California Beer Forums, a venue for California beer enthusiasts to connect and share local beer info.

Behind the project is an old friend of mine from my Santa Barbara days, Ed Westin. Ed is a great guy with a love of all things hoppy, and I wish him the best with his awesome new site.

In launching the beerzine, Ed is bringing together great beer bloggers from across the state, and giving them a platform to promote their writing and to elevate public awareness of all the fantastic beers that are being made in California. In the first issue, I’d say so far he’s done a pretty successful job.

So far, there are some great articles up, my favorite being Blessed Are the Beer Dorks by Jay Hinman of Hedonist Beer Jive. Jess, the Thirsty Hopster, contributed a great piece about converting your friends into craft brew drinkers, and Steve Sage of Summer of Beers wrote up a piece on his recent trip to the Russian River brewpub.

Head on over and check out the brand new California Beerzine, and tell them Dave sent you. Bookmark them, subscribe, and check back frequently!

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[UPDATE: Check out my recap of the event at California Beerzine]

Southern California is going cask crazy!

Next Friday and Saturday, June 13th and 14th, Pizza Port Carlsbad is hosting an all firkin festival.

The Real Ale Fest website boasts over 45 cask conditioned ales. They’ve got a fancy pants VIP lineup that is only available on Friday from 1-4pm, which consists of Green Flash Double Stout, Alpine Duet IPA, Ballast Point Tongue Buckler, Pizza Port Carlsbad Night Rider Imperial Stout, and Lost Abbey’s Angel Share. (UPDATE: VIP is sold out)

The but besides that, they have no listing of what cask ales will be available to us non-VIP peons. My guess is, it will be a pretty heavy lineup of local San Diego brews (keep in mind, these are just guesses):

-A few Ballast Points (Even Keel, Yellowtail, and maybe Wahoo Wheat?)

-Stone (Vanilla Bean Porter seems to be hot right now)

-Some Green Flash (maybe the West Coast IPA or the new Hop Head Red?)

-Alpine Ale, Pure Hoppiness, Ichabod?

-Definitely a wide selection of the Pizza Port brews

Plus I would be very disappointed if there weren’t a few Port/Lost Abbey offerings lined up. Maybe some of Port’s 2nd Anniversary Ale or the fabled Isabelle Proximus? Nah, I’m probably asking too much. I know there’s gotta be a few surprises, though.

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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

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[UPDATE: These Duvel glasses are available for sale at Beer Geek Shop.]

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!

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To celebrate the return of Dogfish Head to the California market, founder and President Sam Calagione will be pouring 90 Minute IPA, Midas Touch, and the new Palo Santo Marron, a unfiltered 12% malty brown ale aged in wood from the Paraguayan holy tree, Palo Santo.

This event is tonight, April 14th from 6pm to 10pm, at Tony P’s Dockside Grill in Marina Del Rey.

In order to age this new beer, DFH constructed a ginormous 10,000 gallon tank, and if you’ve got an extra 10 minutes, you should check out this video that gives some cool back story. The beer uses several varietes of Warrior hops, as well as Glacier and Palisade. A couple types of malts as well, including some chocolate malt, and tying it all together with a yeast strain used for Scottish ales.

Definitely looking forward to trying this one, as well as the whole new influx of DFH that should be hitting all the best LA beer stores soon!

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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.

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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

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