The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [41]
Of a company that does all this for its fans without spending a dime on shameless TV advertising, there’s little left to say but “Thanks. What are you brewing next?”
PHILOSOPHY
Pioneering, eco-conscious, and consistently delicious, Sierra Nevada’s beers are made with fanatical attention to detail and a generous, family-driven spirit.
KEY BEER
The beer that changed everything is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It’s still brewed with whole Magnum, Perle, and pungent Cascade hop flowers, giving it a satisfying bite and grassy, floral nose. It’s easy to forget that it’s bottle conditioned, meaning each individual bottle is carbonated by means of tiny additions of yeast and brewer’s sugar—an insanely difficult thing to pull off on such a large scale.
Paso Robles
FIRESTONE WALKER BREWERY
1400 Ramada Dr. • Paso Robles, CA 93446 8 (805) 238-2556 firestonebeer.com • Established: 1996
SCENE & STORY
Run by former Marine Corps captain Adam Firestone and his brother-in-law, British expat David Walker (a former high-tech entrepreneur), Firestone is located in somewhat of a flavorless industrial area just outside town. There is a good-sized tasting room and gift shop with dark wooden tables, but the most interesting action is amid the fifty-barrel brew house and its extensive barrel program; you’ll want a tour. There’s also a restaurant in Buellton (near Santa Barbara) with high-end fare and fresh Firestone beers.
PHILOSOPHY
Experimental yet restrained. The brewery uses a variation on something called the Burton Union System, a Rube Goldbergian contraption developed by the British that links oak barrels with a yeast-collecting network of troughs, resulting in extraordinarily soft, smooth beer. Marston’s, in England’s Burton-on-Trent, is the classic example of a brewery making beer in this fashion, and explains it all by means of a three-hour tour. You won’t need quite that much time at Firestone Walker, and the beer at the end is more interesting across the board.
KEY BEER
The pale ale has been around so long it’s almost retro. But don’t pass it up. Building on the tradition of great California pale ales started by Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker’s Pale 31 has racked up scores of accolades. It combines the subtlety of a great British ale with the fragrant bite of American hops craft beer lovers have come to expect.
Los Angeles and Surrounding Areas
Until recently L.A. (like New York), was a craft beer Mojave Desert. But thanks to the arrival of several craft breweries plus some beer-savvy chefs, a nascent beer culture is changing the entire timbre of the L.A. food-and-drink scene. Angelenos (like Portlanders, Denverites, and even New Yorkers before them) have embraced craft beers, all the better when made with locally foraged ingredients like so many snap peas, heirloom pork bellies, or pinot noirs. Instead of the coolly manufactured glam of, say, Spago, a more communal, unshaven, nose-to-tail chic is all the rage now.
Food carts are going upscale; local coffee roasters and farmer’s markets are multiplying. And yet, there are only a few local breweries—so far. In a city with 9.8 million people (compared to, say, Portland, Oregon, which has 583,000 people and around 35 breweries), it’s only a matter of time before Tinseltown gets the beer bug in a bigger way.
BOUCHON
235 N. Canyon Dr. • Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (310) 271-9910 • bouchonbistro.com • Established: 2009
SCENE & STORY
Order beer in a chic Thomas Keller Beverly Hills bistro? Absolutely. “A beer mood is different than a wine mood,” explains Head Sommelier Alex Weil, adding that recently the restaurant added two proprietary beers, Blue Apron and White Apron, from New York’s Brooklyn Brewery and Santa Rosa’s Russian River, respectively. “A lot of bistro food is based in a beer culture,” says