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Tasting Room

Three Weavers Brewing – Los Angeles California

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Three Weavers Brewing is right off the 405 freeway and relatively close to LAX and El Segundo Brewing. I didn’t try as many beers as I might have when I visited because you have to choose one of the set flights of 5 beers, either $10 for the core or $15 for the specialty. This turns out to be either $2 or $3 a taster depending on the flight. Thankfully they do serve half pours of the other beers available so I did end up trying one of the specialty beers after the core flight. Perhaps they had too many people ignoring the ESB and Kolsch lager that they wanted to give people a reason to try them.

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Tap list when I visited.
Tap list when I visited.

My flight included the kolsch, session IPA, expatriate IPA, ESB, imperial stout, and then I added a half pour of the coffee stout at the end. The kolsch is unfiltered and has a medium bitterness that joins with some citrus. The hops were nicely present, a lot more than in other local versions. It is quite a nice easy drinking yet hoppy kolsch. The session IPA was even more bitter than the kolsch with a nice citrus hop kick. Also a solid beer. The Expatriate IPA was thick and resinous with a good combination of tropical and mango flavor from the hops. It manages to be true to the West Coast style of IPA without having that overpowering simcoe flavor.

Core Beers Flight.
Core Beers Flight.

The ESB was quite tasty with a good balance of bready malts and earthy hops. I was also a bit surprised how much I could taste the complex flavors of the beer after the IPA despite many of the flavors being fairly subdued. I could easily have drunk a pint of the ESB. The imperial stout was a nice mix of caramel with mild smoke and dark fruit. Everything blended together nicely so that neither flavor dominated or became unwelcome. The coffee stout was really smooth and nutty with a high caffeine kick. We enjoyed the smooth coffee flavors and left with a bottle.

Pour of the stronger coffee beer.
Pour of the stronger coffee beer.

Three Weavers is fairly easy to get to and worth a visit for those of you who like a solid hoppy beer or a stout. They didn’t have a lot of other varieties available but they do such a great job with what they do that it doesn’t matter. I was especially glad how delicious the ESB is because it is a hard style to give a good amount of flavor while remaining light and drinkable. The tasting room has plenty of seating both inside and out with the occasional food truck on site.

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Top 2:
Expatriate IPA
ESB

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

Offbeat Brewing Company – Escondido CA

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Located just a stone’s throw from Stone Brewing Company’s main location in Escondido I wondered going in how Offbeat Brewing manages to compete with the giant brewery. After tasting things it was clear that they have a very different approach to their beers, especially the hoppy ones, and they fill a completely different niche than the aggressive hoppy beers from Stone. I’ve talked to people who normally don’t like West Coast style IPAs who like the beers here.

These guys are so off beat they have this bizarre yet awesome mural on the wall.
These guys are so off beat they have this bizarre yet awesome mural on the wall.

Though Offbeat has been open for nearly three years they don’t have the same level of experimentation you see at other breweries. Instead they have a core set of five beers that they typically have on tap that all have a similar mellow English hop flavor going. I tried the Session Pale, Brown, ESB, IPA, and Sagecat IPA while I was there.

Offbeat brewing company taster flight.
Taster flight when I visited.

The Session Pale was a light golden color beer with a good fruity flavor from the hops. This is an interesting comparison to the typical bitter citrus-forward San Diego session IPAs. The brown ale was a bit more dark and roasty than the average local brown. Both color wise and flavor wise it is closer to a porter than a brown. The roast flavors are balanced nicely by some mild earthy hops.

Offbeat brewing beer list.
Beer list when I visited.

The ESB was surprisingly flavorful for a 3.4% beer with lots of earthy and fruity flavors from the English hops. The IPA is 7.7% but isn’t very bitter and tends to be more apricot flavor with a smooth malt background. The flavors balance very nicely and there is very little of the signature west coast hop bitterness. Considering the mellow flavor, it was a perfect choice to add the peppercorns for the Sagecat IPA. Peppercorns add a nice mild spice kick and a sweetness in the aftertaste.

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With a limited lineup and a very different selection than its neighbors it is easy to stop by Offbeat on your way to your favorite brewery in the area for a taster or two. If you haven’t yet explored the English style of IPA this is a great place to do it.

Offbeat Brewing 01

Top 2:
Brown Ale
IPA

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Arcana Brewing, Carlsbad California

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In my previous post, I mentioned how close together Arcana and On the Tracks are to each other. Arcana has a much bigger selection of beers to choose from and a bigger tasting room as well. I was surprised by the beers I enjoyed here because some of them were not what I normally like.

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Arcana had so many beers on tap that I didn’t get to try them all. It was early when I stopped by and I had things to do later. I ordered a flight of six beers and then was brought some small tastes of two others. I got to try the Honey Pale, the Headbasher Wheat IPA, the Voyager English ale, the coffee Anabelle, the coffee Marley,  the Infinity Milk Stout, a special mix of two beers, and the Mead.

Taster flight at Arcana Brewing.
Taster flight at Arcana Brewing.

The first beer I tasted was the Honey Pale. I don’t normally like honey beers but this one is made with honey malts, not actual honey, so the flavor is not as intense as it is in other beers. It had the perfect amount of sweetness and went down really nice. My husband really liked this one as well. For those curious, honey malts are not simply malts flavored with honey, but a variety of malt that has a sweet flavor that is similar to honey.

Part of the tap list when I visited. Specialty beers were on a smaller board.
Part of the tap list when I visited. Specialty beers were on a smaller board.

The Headbasher Wheat IPA was also quite nice. It had a lot of tropical fruit and citrus hop flavors with a good light sweetness from the malts. The Voyager was a bit plain for me. It was mostly a heavy malt flavor with a little bit of bitterness. The coffee Anabelle was a special version of the Anabelle made for Bacon Fest the day before. By the time I got to try it though, the coffee had mostly gone. I would have liked to have tasted it the day before.

The coffee Marley was also a bit light on the coffee flavor but it had some really great caramel and vanilla flavors. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this one was barrel aged because it had an oak taste similar to many barrel aged beers. My husband finished most of this taster before I got to try more because he loved it. The Infinity Milk Stout was also quite nice. Flavors were mostly roasted malts with a light sweetness.

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Before I left, my server brought over a special mix of two beers. She combined the apple ale and a cherry beer, resulting in a nice combination of tart apple and sweet cinnamon. This would be a nice drink to have for dessert. The mead was also quite interesting. It reminded me of a sparkling white wine and would be fun to share a bottle with friends.

Considering that Arcana has only been open for a little over a year and a half, I was quite impressed by their lineup. They are working on a rye IPA for the future, which should be a nice balance to the wheat IPA. I could certainly see the honey pale becoming very popular. Have you gotten to try any of the beers from Arcana? Do you disagree with me about some of these beers? Let me know in the comments.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

On the Tracks Brewing, Carlsbad California

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In Carlsbad there are two small breweries very close together. In this post I will write about the beers at On the Tracks. In the next post I will write about Arcana Brewing.

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The two breweries are so close together that you could park in the middle of the two and walk to both without moving your car. On the Tracks has four regular beers on tap, a ginger beer, an ESB, a double IPA, and a porter made with black pepper. Though they have been open since October of 2011, the tasting room has remained small.

Taster flight at On the Rails.
Taster flight at On the Rails.

The Ginger Beer is an interesting way to do the lighter style of beer that most breweries have. The flavor is light enough that the ginger doesn’t get offensive. I mostly enjoyed the ginger beer as a palate cleanser in between the other beers. The ESB is quite balanced and has a light sweetness and a light bitterness, just as it should be.

The double IPA was very surprising because it was well-balanced and also very enjoyable. I tend to not like overly malt-heavy IPAs but this was the perfect balance of tropical fruit and citrus flavors from the hops and a light sweetness from the malts. My husband found this one to be drinkable as well.

Tap handles at On the Tracks, using those giant iron nails from train tracks.
Tap handles at On the Tracks, using those giant iron nails from train tracks.

To end things off we tried the black pepper porter. This is certainly to be a polarizing beer as the owner indicated. There is a serious back-of-throat burn that you get as soon as you take a sip, reminiscent of habanero beers. The owner said that we should get some chocolate and roasted malt flavors once we get past the pepper but my husband and I both had a hard time getting past the pepper.

On the Tracks has some solid beers and would be worth stopping in once if you are in the area. Plus, you can easily hit Arcana in the same trip, where you will also find some different beers. Have you gotten out to On the Rails? Do you like their beers? Let me know in the comments.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

Parallel 49 and Bomber Brewing – Vancouver BC

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Thanks to a helpful fellow blogger, I got to visit five breweries in a row. One of the smaller ones was missing any of the regular IPAs so I only had a few small tasters there and will pass on reviewing it. This post will review Parallel 49 and Bomber Brewing.

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The first Vancouver brewery I hit was Parallel 49. It was a small brewery with a small selection and I tried only a small number of the beers because we were planning on hitting multiple breweries. I tried the Ruby Ale, IPL, and German style IPA while I was there.

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The Ruby Ale was actually my favorite of the bunch. At 6% it had a surprisingly strong hop flavor with good pine and citrus flavors. Bread flavors of malts came through at the end to give it a nice finish. I think this had more hop flavors than the IPA. The IPL was a solid beer with good tropical fruit flavors and not overly bitter. It didn’t really grab me though.

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Finally, the IPA was all Munich malts. The malts pretty much dominated the beer as I tasted it, leaving hops to die in the background. Out of the three I much preferred the Ruby Ale and I can see why it is one of their top sellers.

Another small brewery, I stopped by Bomber quickly for a few tasters. Here I only tried the ESB and the IPA before moving on to the next stop. The ESB was medium bitter and had a decent bite but didn’t really grab me. The IPA was nice as well with some good citrus flavor at the front and a sweet finish. Neither one inspired me to order a pint.

 

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Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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