Dirty little secret pt.1

Today's guest post sees regular contributor Ross Evans describe his epic beery travels up the West Coast, USA. Part 1 takes in Los Angeles and San Diego.

OK, so it’s not exactly dirty and not that little but it certainly is a secret, to the uninitiated at least, that the United States of America actually have some really, really good beers.

During my recent travels I managed by pure coincidence to be on the West Coast of America during four beer festivals. Here is a summary of some of my favourite bits from the oodles of beers.

The Port Brewery, San Diego

The first festival, or ‘beer week’, I stumbled into was on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angles: the LA Beer Week. One of my relatives from across the pond who, at the time, lived in LA, was determined to show me that America indeed had some good beers and as such wanted to take me to a new ‘trendy’ bar on Sunset Boulevard. For such a glamorous and much-famed name, the street itself was quite grubby and dirty, and the quite unassuming-looking bar by contrast was outstanding on the inside. The Mohawk Bend on Sunset Boulevard looked a little like a Vietnamese restaurant on the outside – adorned with bamboo - internally it was a classic warehouse-cum-loft conversion, a too-cool-for-school venue that would have normally made me feel quite out of place was it not for the multitude of beer taps spouting from the wall behind the bar. The venue was celebrating, in particular, Stones Brewery, which is actually based in San Diego. They had roughly 9 of their lines, a mixture of regular and specials, including what quickly became a favourite of mine, Stone Ruination IPA (IBU 100+, ABV 7.7%), a double hopped imperial IPA – very bitter and named after what it does to your palate. On first tasting this beer I was not convinced, expecting a classic IPA.  I double checked I had picked up the right drink. To say the drink was bitter is a bit of an understatement. To me it was the same taste as chewing a raw hop, but by the time the shock had faded and you were nearing the bottom of your pint you came to appreciate the whole host of flavours on offer.


A few weeks later I happened to be in San Diego for the San Diego Beer Week, celebrating it in what can only be described as an Industrial Estate in San Marcos and the home to the Lost Abbey Brewery, closely associated with the Port Brewing Company. What must have started off as a tour and tasting session at the microbrewery has, over the years, grown or outgrown its surroundings to become an open bar-cum-barn-dance that had spilled out onto the car park and incorporated street vendors including a quite awesome mobile pizza oven. The bar in the microbrewery site, built in the shadow of the boilers and kettles of the brewery, was home to over 30 different beers served in tasters, half pints, pints and ‘growlers’ (1/2 gallon bottle). The bar stools were barrels with grain sacks on top for comfort. The drinks and drinkers were vast, as they only can be in the US, and from the multitude of beers to select from I have chosen to celebrate Santa’s Little Helper Imperial Stout (ABV 10.5%, OG 1.094) from Port Brewing Company. Now, if you are familiar with this beer you will know that the branding is awful with cartoons galore, but despite the child-like graphics the beer is outstanding.  This Imperial Stout is made with dark Belgian candi sugar to boost the Original Gravity and has a creamy coffee-chocolaty taste – very easy to drink, I sank three pints before even thinking about trying something else – and I had a growler to go!

Santa's Little Helper

Ross Evans is a valleys expat relocated to Cardiff for political, cultural, leisure and drinking pursuits. Big food, Cider, Beer and Pub aficionado with a love of local provenance and strong branding.