Our roving Cigar Group met at TAPS Fish House and Brewery in Brea this week to take advantage of their cigar-friendly patio while watching the Lakers tank another game. (Note to TAPS: Put a second screen out on the patio.) I’ve been to TAPS on a couple of occasions, but had not yet sampled [...]
Posted on June 6th, 2010 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Cigar Lounge, Micro-Breweries, Reviews | No Comments »
Another great beer festival at Irvine Lake. The second annual (hopefully) Orange County Beer Festival was held on May 15 instead of August like the previous year, and that resulted in much cooler weather.
I went with a friend and two designated drivers (always good to have a backup at an event like this in [...]
Posted on May 15th, 2010 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Beer Facts, Micro-Breweries, News, Reviews | 8 Comments »
The fine folks that brought us the Orange County Beer Festival last year were kind enough not to make us wait an entire year for a repeat. The event was both magnificent and munificent last year, and in my review I suggested that any self-respecting beer drinker west of the Mississippi should plan on attending [...]
Posted on February 5th, 2010 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Bargains, Beer, Micro-Breweries, News, Reviews | No Comments »
Wheat beer is a beer that is brewed with a significant proportion of wheat. Wheat beers often also contain a significant proportion of malted barley. Wheat beers are usually top-fermented (in Germany they have to be by law). The flavor of wheat beers varies considerably, depending upon the specific style.
“Hefe” is the German word for [...]
Posted on October 18th, 2009 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Beer Facts, Micro-Breweries, Reviews | 1 Comment »
I may have well experienced the biggest tease of my adult life, and it was all self-imposed. Here is how it came about.
Weeks ago I signed up to go to the OC Beer Fest at Irvine Lake, to be held on Sunday, August 30, 2009. I think it was a first time thing, because I [...]
Posted on September 4th, 2009 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Bargains, Beer, Micro-Breweries, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Found myself as a guest at the 8Eightyeight Diamond Crown Lounge again, courtesy of Dale Conjurski, a real humanitarian. The occasion was a tasting of five Belgian-style beers from an Orange County brewery called The Bruery. The misspelling is a play on words because the Rue family owns the brewery – bRUEry, get it?
According to [...]
Posted on February 12th, 2009 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Micro-Breweries, Reviews | 1 Comment »
The warm Santa Ana winds have returned to Southern California, so I grabbed a strong torch lighter, cigar and beer and headed for the veranda.
Ashton VSG Robusto (5.5 x 50)
Stealing liberally from the Ashton website, the Ashton VSG (Virgin Sun Grown) was rolled for the first time in the late 1990s, and was one of [...]
Posted on January 11th, 2009 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Cigar Facts, Cigars, Micro-Breweries, Reviews | 1 Comment »
I was invited by a buddy to join him at a beer tasting at the Diamond Crown Lounge in Fullerton, California. Beers from the Alaskan Brewing Company are among my favorites, and this happened to be a tasting of beers from that brewery. I’ll rate the beers some other time, but I wanted to talk [...]
Posted on December 15th, 2008 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Cigars, Micro-Breweries, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Backstreet Brewery
A few days after finishing our reviews of four other breweries, just when we were missing our weekly excuse to pub crawl, we came across the Backstreet Brewery in Irvine. There are eight of these breweries around Southern California, made a part of Lamppost Pizza joints.
ST and I were immediately impressed with the ambiance [...]
Posted on August 20th, 2008 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Micro-Breweries, Reviews | No Comments »
Beer has always been important to America. One of Thomas Jefferson’s first acts was to pass legislation to ensure a healthy beer industry in the United States. And although there were local craft beers in the early days, with the industrial age came the sort of tasteless, Budweiser-style beers that continued well in [...]
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Beer History, Micro-Breweries | No Comments »
