Flying V

Noble Ale Works 2 year Anniversary, Feb 2013 - Shot with Canon 10D, Canon 50mm f1.8, ISO 400,1/1250 @ f 9

Let's Get the Mayor In Here

Noble Ale Works 2 year Anniversary, Feb 2013 - Shot with Canon 10D, Canon 50mm f1.8, ISO 400,1/100 @ f 2.5

This was a really fun event at one of the two, and current favorite, local breweries. They had four cask style beers that day. The brewery is located across the street from Angel Stadium, So, they try to get the mayor of Anaheim down to support a great company. This is the Mayor about to tap the fourth and final cask of the day. It was a wonderful black IPA. If you are in the area, they have great beer and awesome service from all of the servers, the brewmaster and the owner.

Fermentation Sensation!

Firestone Walker Brewery Tour - Shot with Canon 10D, Canon 50mm f1.8, ISO 400,1/60 @ f 2

This part of the tour was Very interesting. These were filled with Firestone Walker DBA. They actually fill the kegs with 10% of this and 90% from the steel fermentation tanks. They are one of 2 companies in the world that still ferment beer in barrels on a full time basis. I hear the 100% barrel version of DBA, that they have on tap there, is incredible!

Let's Get Stone'd

Stone World Bistro, Escondido CA February 2012. Canon Rebel XT, 50mm f1.8 lens, Ilford HP5+ ISO 400

My defacto brochure photo. If you are a fan of Stone Brewing, this place is Mecca! Their restaurant is a bit on the pricey side, but there is a great deal of variety with their taps. This place also doubles as a distributor for many popular beers in So Cal, including Pliney the Elder.

Valiant Brewing Company

This week, I would like to continue this short trend of sharing my brewery tours. In this post, we'll take a look at one of the several local breweries in Orange County. Finally, a decent amount of establishments seem to be popping up all around. I love having more choices, and every one of them, to me, seem to be decent choices.

I attended the grand opening of Valiant Brewing Company on February 9th. From all the buzz I had heard, this place was going to specialize in high gravity beers. High gravity beers are the ones with the higher alcohol percentage. This seemed like an interesting concept because high gravity beers tend to be more of the special flavored drinks. 

The front office window. Most breweries seem to be based out of industrial parks. They were very easy to find.

When you walk in for the first time, you see what I saw in the next picture below. I was thoroughly impressed. I had never been to a grand opening of a brewery before. I had no clue what to think. They had a fairly decent setup. Unfortunately, you end up comparing these new guys with places you've gone to in the past. I've been to other places that were not as well equipped, like Packinghouse in Riverside  

Off in the back corner of the tasting room, they had a couple of racks full of barrels. I love seeing them because it makes me think that they have something cooking for the future.

On launch they only had three of their products on tap. Unfortunately, the state regulations in California prevented Valiant from making any batches until all of the inspection process was complete. It was a major bummer on all sides.

The beers that they opened with were 31 Kings (India Pale Ale) , Maverick's Mighty Ale (American Brown Ale?), and Veranda (French Ale)

Stairs leading to the top of the brewhouse.

Fermentation containers. Very cool to see that they had several. Makes it much easier to brew several batches at one time.

Their merch shelf. They had various T-shirts and hats as well.

It was a bummer that I couldn't get many more shots than this. It was incredibly busy. There was a long wait just to get drinks for awhile. I'll be heading back at some point soon to get some more pictures and give it another go. From what I could see on their website, they have several different styles on tap now as opposed to only three.

If you would like to check out Valiant Brewing, thier address is 

2294 N. Batavia St., Unit C, Orange Ca 92865

Phone Number 714-408-2825.

Their open ever Saturday from 12 Noon to 9 PM.

Valiant Brewing's Website

Firestone Walker, Quality From The Central Valley

I'm not sure why I was sitting on this post, but Today I would like to share a brewery, which is now in my top 5, with you all.

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. is an easy enough establishment to find. It is just off of the 101 Freeway as you are coming in to Paso Robles. About an hour north of San Luis Obispo and somewhat 3 hours south of San Jose from the north. You can literally see the building below as you drive by on the freeway, but the dead giveaway are the grain silos.

Now, I go to my local breweries ALL the time, and I've been to a few others like Stone, but there was one characteristic that I got from this place that the others all seem to lack, the insane bubble of wort aroma wreaking havoc on my smell receptors in my nose. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a bad thing. I actually love the smell. The wort is the part of the beer making process that contains the boiling water and the malt, whether it be extract or actual malt grains.

I really was interested in taking the tour. I have toured several other facilities(to varying degrees), such as Noble Ale Works, Bootleggers Brewery, and Stone Brewing, and I was very interested to see what a middle level brewing facility would look like. The lobby contained a small tasting room. They had most of their regulars on tap that day, such as Wookey Jack, DBA, and Union Jack along with some imperial variants DDBA and Double Jack. 

There were some special releases that day which made the trip special for me, Velvet Merkin, featured in the photo just above, and §ucaba barleywine, not pictured.

The brewery tour was quite an experience. They have several different departments with which they do research many people would never have thought would take place at a brewery. They have an entire lab that caters to all of these needs. one of the machines tests the liquid to determine the amount of alcohol for one of their product lines and it can tell them if there is anything wrong so the brewers can find out what they did wrong easier. 

The other main science they do is yeast reclaim. They can use a batch of yeast for up to 8 different times. Then its kind of exhasted. So they take up a sample of spent yeast and they regrow the same strain of yeast. It gives them the same taste. Using s different batch of yeast, no matter if its the same style, can throw off the flavor ever so slightly, but could be noticable, which is not good when you are known for excellence and quality.

Bottling line as seen from a window outside the lab.

One of the brewers is releasing the steam from the wort by opening the lid on one of the brewhouse tanks. Stand back. That steam is really hot and shoots out very fast.

These batrrels are in the fermenting step. The barrel actually gives off a slight smokey flavor that effects the final product. I think the guide said these were full of the DBA (Double Barrel Ale). The version of DBA you buy in the bottle  at the store contains 10% of product from the barrels and the other 90% were aged in the normal steel fermentors.

This bucket is full of used yeast.

Gotta stay on schedule.

This guy was loading a pallet with full kegs. Its gotta be a hard job.

A weird random fact about Firestone-Walker is that they actually brew house beers for several restaurants. The one that comes to mind is the Yardhouse. I went to another place right on the border of Little Tokyo that had their house beers made there as well. Its an interesting deal to have. that must be what those few without any product name on the schedule above were. 

This brewery was indeed a sight to be seen and it is most definitely one of those places that are one timers. Ya really gotta go see it at least once. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience much better than Stone Brewing. There was no real snobbyness and the service was incredbile. The only thing I didn't enjoy so much was the burger over at the taproom. It seemed to me to be one of those pressed premade burger. Everything else made up for that tiny tiny point.

You can view the rest of my pictures from the shoot over on my Smugmug page. 

Are there any brewerues local to you that you would reccomend?

Figueroa Mountain

Strange brews, after paying all of my dues, were awaiting me on my return drive towards the King's Road in Buelton, CA from my short and prosperous, and non haunted but kinda creepy, trip to La Purisima Concepcion.

I was turned on to this brewery in my travels in the upper reaches of California, when I stopped in Pismo Beach. I was searching for a taste of what the locals were offering. After a long and difficult choice of about three or four brands, I picked up a Hoppy Poppy IPA. The most important deciding factor was the label design. A good label can make or break a product, and it did for me that night.

Figueroa Mountain Brewery, a short drive off the main path, was an odd looking establishment. From the images below, one would believe that it is snug and deep in the middle of the wild, but in actuality, its smack in the middle of a suburban commercial center. The exterior was most reminiscent of Stone Brewery As was their seating area of their beer garden. Much more impressive than the winery right around the corner. Many changes have taken place since the most recent street views on Google Maps.

The inside  of the tasting room was incredible. It seemed to resemble a lodge of sorts. The bar area was designed to look like a building inside of a building.with galvanized corrugated steel sheeting and all. I was thoroughly impressed with the design of the interior. 

Here are the flights I tried from them. From left to right: Red Rock ESB, Danish Red Lager, Hurricane Deck DIPA, Stagecoach Stout.

They had a great lineup, and for the most part, they all tasted great. Some I liked more than others, and others I might have had my hopes set a bit too high. If you are ever in the Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo area, I highly recommend a stop by this great establishment. They have great prices and Its incredibly easy to get to on your way to or from Solvang. Unless you happen to live in the area, then I imagine, you've been there a few times.

Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co. Website

Thanks for stopping by, and look for a continuation on my adventures on the El Camino Real.

How Do You Fall? Brewery Tour, Redlands

With this being the last day before Winter, I'm here to give you my last posting before fall is officially over.  Two weeks ago, I went on a tour of three breweries in one of the farthest reaches of the Inland Empire, Redlands. The three breweries I went to were Hanger 24, Ritual and Donkey Punch. The only  one of the three I can give a good recommendation on is Hanger 24, and that is just barely.

I have a small standard when it comes to breweries. I visit my local brewery, Bootleggers Brewery, on at least a weekly basis. Sometimes multiple visits in one week. So, lets get down to the dissecting  my bitching, and the breweries.

I was joined on my tour with my friends Natalie, from The Devil Wears Parsley,  and her husband, The Angel of Deth. We might have had a tad bit of a high standard going into this, since Stone's Vertical Epic, and final Epic 12-12-12, was set to be released a mere few days after we went on this tour. But, all three of us were giving Hanger 24 a second go. Both Angel and Natalie had a lackluster first time when they came here last year.

Located directly across the street from the Redlands Airport. They actually had a plane crash in their parking lot last year.

The view from the street. The view of the mountains was astounding.

Nice little engineers model of a test plain hanging in the middle of their tasting room.

All of our flights. For some reason they were out of their Double IPA. We offered to go to the liquor store nearby to pick some up, but they declined. They are sold in practically every grocery store in the IE.

Here are my flights before I took off. Kinda cheesy that they used plastic cups instead of glass ones. You would think a bigger microbrew like these guys would have glass like the smaller ones do.

The view from where we sat. They had some park benches outside to enjoy your flights. Its really brutal in the summertime, like when I came the first time.

The best part! Somebody brought their cute lil doggie.

In between Hanger 24 and Ritual, we stopped at a gormet burger joint called Eureka Burger for a bit of snacks, water and better beer for a little break. We ordered a bottle of Stone's Vertical Epic 6-6-6, 12-12-12, and a pint of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA. Their food was Excellent!

Our final two stops were Ritual and Donkey Punch. Both are directly across the street from each other. I don't have much to say about Ritual. They only had 4 beers on tap and their flights were a bit on the pricier side. if they had more, we would have spent a decent amount of time. We only stayed for about 15 minutes before we jumped ship to Donkey Punch.

Donkey Punch Brewery is a place I have some strong opinions about. I got a really mixed reaction over that place. They had some excellent beers. At least the ones I tried were excellent. The main issue I had was some of their customer service was a bit lacking at points and their presentation of their business wasn't something to write home about.

Their branding was excellent.

My flights on the bottom. Angels flights on top.

Now that I have the pictures out of the way, Lets get into my gripes. I accidentally left my card there. There were only a couple of groups in there before we left, so the lady manning the register didn't come around and ask us if were ready to check out. That wasn't a big issue because I should have payed attention to my card not being in my wallet. I din't realize I didn't have my card until we got back home, 30 minutes away. The main problem I had was that we tried to call and see if they could hold my card until the next day, since they were closing in like an hour and a half and I wasn't sure if I would make it back in time. We tried calling about 3 times and they didn't answer their phone. We tried looking up their website and it just forwarded to their Facebook page. How are you supposed to run a business if you don't answer your phone or have a website with information we can get a hold of them with. Granted, they may have been too busy to answer the phone, or hear it, but how is a customer going to find the place if they are trying to get directions by phone? you can't. No website with a map either. Double loss, Good beer, doesn't make up for not being able to contact you.

/rant.

I think I'll end this post on a high not. Before we went on our tour, Natalie was working on a new submission for her website. I was able to take a few candid shots of her and I took one of her subject myself. It's my first food shot and my white balance was wayyyy over on the blue side like it usually is. 

In case you're wondering. The post she was shooting for was the dark topping inside the cool little jar and on the burger underneath the white cheese. It was made with blueberries and tasted like a spread from heaven! You can read more on her process of making it Here. Thanks Natalie!

OC Beer Fest Time

This weekend I'm going to the Orange County Beerfest at Irvine Lake. On the website for the event, there were at least 50 different vendors that will have their beer for tasting. If it is anything like last year, it will be an incredible experience.

If anybody is interested in going, it starts tomorrow/Saturday May 5th at 2pm.

Pictures on Monday.

http://orangecountybeerfest.com/

Stone Brewery

This past weekend, I drove up to Stone Brewing Company in Escondido. I really had no idea of what the experience would be like since I have been only to Bootleggers in Fullerton and Alcatraz at the Block in Orange. It was much more than I expected. 

These are my buddies Charlie and Zach while we waited in line for tickets to go on a tour of the warehouse and brewing facilities.



The main part of the building is their bar and restaurant with almost all of the taps at the bar dedicated to beer that is made on location. They had a few odd styles that I hadn't heard of or seen at Total Wine which was kind of a surprise. The first one I tried was their Black Double IPA. It was nice, thick and still had the IPA taste along with a bit of a chocolaty flavor. and the other was the 15th anniversary Imperial Black IPA. if you couldn't tell, I love most pale ales. I'm no beer connoisseur so i wont pretend to be one. I love drinking beer as long as it tastes good and that is all that matters.

I managed to take a great shot of their bar. What I didn't know until I developed these pictures was that I got a great shot of their logo that was stamped on the wall in the back.


We went over to the garden next, but unfortunately all of the pictures I took on my 35mm weren't too hot. I took a set on my Lubitel which I shall be developing in the next day or so. When I have those pictures, i will make a specific post for that, since their garden over there was amazing.

When we got to the brewery, we had set a reservation for their restaurant and it turned out to be at least an hour wait to get a table. So, around this time our buzzer went off and we finally sat down. The interesting part was when we got tickets for the tour, they were for the tour two hours in advance and by the time we sat down, we only had an hour to eat.

This restaurant is really expensive, IMO. The cheapest item on the menue was 15 bucks and everything averaged between 17 and 25 bucks. The reason these places cost so much is that everything was made and/or produced in San Diego County, where Stone Brewery is located. I went with a $17 buffalo burger. It was pretty darn good, but I expected it to be a giant sized burger. It was just a normal sized one.

This guy was on our table over at the restaurant inside Stone Brewing Co.


By the time we got our food, it was about 15 minutes before we were to go on the brewery tour. Needless to say, we shoved the food down our throats and got in line for the tour. Unfortunately the tour only had three stops and we didn't get to go up on any of the catwalks, presumably for safety purposes. I did manage to squeeze off a couple of good shots while on the tour

This guy was on the first stop. Was a great subject, since he did not move around too much when I made this picture.

This was at stop Number 2. Behind us, there were these two kegs on a lonely pallet.

Well... That was how I spent my last Saturday. If you would like to check out Stone Brew Co, head on over to their website here.