NEWS FLASH

Holy shit balls...It is American Craft Beer Week and since most of you have lives and are unable to peruse the internet all day I will give you the buzz worthy news for LA area watering holes.  I am currently working on my next blog post but this information is too important to wait.

First, Father's Office in Santa Monica has tapped a beer that was only brewed once, a collaboration between OC's Bruery and Tampa's Cigar City.  I have not had a chance to highlight my infatuation with Cigar City Brewing Company as of yet but I strongly believe they will be joining the pantheon of craft breweries with Dogfish Head, Stone, Russian River etc within 5 years.  They have aggressive beers with very unique and distinct flavors.  This particular "sour" beer collabo was brewed less than 2 months ago, I happened to be in Tampa on business, so I visited the brewery the day after the Bruery/Cigar City event and was able to get one of the 40 bottles produced.  I thought it was cool that they could produce the bottles and labels on site, it allows them to really experiment and distribute locally from their facility without having to worry about using short-life growlers, plus it allowed me to bring a bottle home!  This particular ale is aging in my wine...err beer cooler.  If anyone gets a chance to make it to Father's Office over the next few days (cough cough...Reggie) then please give this one a whirl.  I am working a trading program with a local pub in the Tampa area to send Cigar City brews my way in exchange for some California "hard to finds" so hopefully I can introduce some of you to the beauty that is the Humidor Series and Jai Alai IPA's.  

The next tweet that caught my eye is from my first love, Firestone Walker Brewery out of Paso Robles.  It was Double Barrel Ale that first blew my mind and officially converted me from hard alcohol to beer in 2003.  Firestone was one of the first to really push craft brewing into the mainstream and produces the best and most recognized anniversary ale.  The weird beer on tap at Library Ale House is Abacus.  This offering falls in line with Firestones anniversary (X-XIV) and previously rivaled if not surpassed Pliny the Younger in rarity. Thanks to the craft beer boom that is going on, Firestone has begun to bottle this release so it is available but much like the anniversary ales it is extremely hard to find, so treat it like the unicorn it is.  

If you have the time, it sounds like beer Mecca is currently in Santa Monica for ACBW.  I will be going into Lucky Baldwin's tonight in hopes that they have one of these on tap.

Father's Office

1018 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 736-2224

Library Ale House

2911 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405-5315
(310) 314-4855

Please let me know if you think this is useful!