There will be 30 Phantom Carriage libations with a guest beer soon to be released. Your ticket to the event includes 5 beer tasting tickets and a commemorative glassware. There will be cheese pairings, exclusive Phantom Carriage cellar releases, a bottle release, killer BBQ’d food, live music, gruesome horror films, and plenty more! Come on out and join all the fun this Saturday, March 12th!

Grab your tickets here: http://www.phantomcarriage.com/tickets

Join us for a discussion with Founder, Lynn Weaver, a private tour of the brewery, followed by a beer and food pairing! Learn about how Lynn became the successful owner of this new brewery with award-winning Brewmaster, Alexandra Nowell. They have joined the Los Angeles Brewers Guild and you’ll be seeing much more of them in 2015!

Your $20 event price includes:

• Flight of 5 core beers paired with small bites
• Rare tasting of the Noble Ale Works/Three Weavers collaboration beer, Messenger
• Private tour of the brewery

Please click HERE to RSVP for the event. 

Learn more about the Women In Local Food Scene, Los Angeles by checking out their official website.

Following lunch we decided to take a trip down the Hops Highway to tantalize our taste buds even more. Next stop, Mother Earth Brewery and Tasting Room. We really enjoyed the psychedelic vibe of the modest garage turned brewery and taproom of Mother Earth. Posters of Jimmy Hendrix and Pink Floyd covered the wall as local beer enthusiasts sat around the bar and chatted. After a couple individual tasters of their Cali Creamin’ Vanilla Cream Ale, PB & J Imperial Stout and their award winning Hop Diggity DIPA we were set.

The team was excited to try the newly opened Toolbox Brewing Company. This 2-month old brewery had a small yet hip and well-designed taproom. We thought the tool tap handles were a nice touch.

On the list to be sipped were the Crevice India Pale Ale, Cozmic Zombie Indian Pale Ale, Tart X with Raspberry, Tart X with Apricot, and the Udder Mudder Milk Stout with coconut. The Cozmic and the two tarts are all made with 100% Brettanomyces, a non-spore forming genus of yeast that was harvested by local homebrewers.

After getting our sour on we headed to Belching Beaver Brewery, which was the happening place to be. Groups of friends sat outside by an open fire pit while others stood in line to order in the taproom. Fairly hungry at this point we were thrilled to find that they had a BBQ station by Grill Fellas set up with all the right fixin’s. Our meals even included a delicious cupcake from Of All Things Bakery made with Belching Beaver’s celebrated Peanut Butter Stout. (It was kind of awesome that the cookie in the cupcake resembled a beaver tail). Naturally we had to eat it with a taster of the Stout.

Are you ready for some more craft beer? Next, we cruised over to Rip Current Brewery and Tasting Room. The crew there was extremely hospitable and it was a perfect place to end the day. The selection of styles included a wide range and we enjoyed trying some flavorful expressions of many of the world’s top styles. Being a big fan of dynamic hoppy beers my favorite was The Curl IIPA. This 10.3% Imperial IPA had prevalent citrus and tropical fruit flavors with a slight pine-like aroma to it. Dry and bitter The Curl was a great way to continue our night.

At Council Brewing Co. we enjoyed a flight of Farmer’s Gold (Belgium Saison), Chizzam! IPA, Gravel Drop IPA, Quorum IPA (Rotating IPA) and Pirate’s Breakfast (Imp. Oatmeal Stout). We also tried a Mango Tart Saison that had a bright forward nose and a lovely puckering tartness to it.

Sunday morning we were sadly heading back to LA, but needed some fuel for the journey so we stopped off at Karl Strauss Brewing Company’s famed “Brunch is Better with Beer”. We relaxed, laughed about our fantastic weekend, listened to live music in the beer garden and filled our tummies with a great spread that included everything from made to order omelets to pasta dishes.

Thank you to all involved in this year’s San Diego Beer Week. The Tap & Cheer team had a wonderful time meeting and sipping with you all. Be sure to check out all our adventures this week: Meeting of the Guilds, Stone Brewing and Crush & Brew!

In the words of legendary Ron Burgundy, “You Stay Classy San Diego!”

Participating San Diego breweries: Mother Earth Brew Co., Karl Strauss Brewing Co., Societe Brewing Co., Monkey Paw, Booze Brothers, Pizza Port, The Lost Abbey, Mike Hess Brewing, Stone Brewing Co., Green Flash, Culture Brewing, Ballast Point, AleSmith, Benchmark Brewing Co., and Bagby Beer.

Participating Los Angeles breweries: El Segundo Brewing, King Harbor Brewing, Beachwood, Monkish, Wolf Creek, Brewery at Abigaile’s, Kinetic, Ladyface Ale Companie, Strand Brewing, Golden Road, Bravery Brewery, Dudes Brewing, Alosta, Smog City and Eagle Rock.

Participating San Francisco breweries: Headlands Brewing Company, 21st Amendment, Southpaw Brewing, Magnolia Brewing, Fort Point, Social Kitchen & Brewery, Cellarmaker, Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, Anchor Brewing, Thirsty Bear Brewing, Almanac Beer Company, Bartlett Hall, Pine Street and Beach Chalet.

After a fun-filled night, the team needed some rest. Saturday plans were in the mix and it looked like it was going to be a day of hopulence.

…and boy was it!

The day began with lunch and a brewery tour at Stone Brewing Company and Bistro in Escondido. We sampled some must haves such as the Stone Enjoy by 12.26.14 IPA and Lucky Bastard Ale alone with some creative cask brews made by different Stone brewers. These included the Go To IPA infused with fresh wasabi, cucumber & pickled ginger as well as the Levitation Amber steeped with orange peel, cinnamon sticks, clove & spruce tips. The for mentioned delights were coupled with a delectable lunch of intensely odiferous cheeses, Smoked Porter-braised pork ribs with Korean BBQ sauce and kale to Caesar salad.

The Bistro was truly a treat prior to our tour. The dynamic and expansive interior and the beautiful open-air patio were not what one would expect at a brewery. You could really taste the locally grown, small-farm ingredients of the food and the hospitality of the Bistro staff was top-notch.

Nichole recommended that we visit Council Brewing Company before our Meeting of the Guilds celebration at Toronado, San Diego. We figured that when an Indoctrination Specialist recommends something you should take heed. We’re off to enjoy more craft beer!

What a phenomenal outdoor event space! Nestled in the heart of East Village, this multi-use venue hosts collaborative community events all year long. Infused with culture, art, fashion and fun, Craft Beer + Bites was just up our alley. In addition to sampling the innovations of 15 local breweries we played games such as Ping-Pong and bean-bag toss, danced to the custom tunes of ZB Savory and Andy Mauser, watched graffiti artists create exceptional murals on the surrounding walls, and ate delicious octopus and shrimp tacos from a food truck.

The team got the opportunity to meet some new breweries like Lightning Brewery and Thorn Street Brewery, chat with friends like Craft Beer’d Art and Apparel and even discover cool new vendors like Doggie Beer Bones that make all natural dog treats using repurposed spent brewing grain sourced from local San Diego craft breweries. All-in-all it was a great time.

Following the festival we walked on over to Monkey Paw Pub and Brewery for a quick flight. The extensive tap list at the jamming pub included some great West Coast Breweries. Even so, we restricted our samples to Monkey Paw brews (when in Rome, right?). Those tried included Monkey Paw Oatmeal, Monkey Paw Lab Monkey, Monkey Paw Bonobos IPA/SD Pale, Monkey Paw Muriqui.