12/18/11Not far from our hotel on this trip, the Blue Palms Brew House was at the top of our list to try. Near Hollywood and Vine, down the street from Mann's Chinese Theater, it's easy to be a tourist and drink great beer. Perfect. We liked it so much that we returned a second time during a long weekend trip. Hopefully, that's enough of a recommendation.
Lessons learned at Blue Palms:
First, I think the entire beer world should switch to web integrated, electronic beer boards. Check out the picture below. The beer board is synced to the website: always up to date, always accurate and full of beery knowledge. Can't wait until my local pubs all do this.
Second, re-drinking a brewery can be necessary to be fair. On a tasting trip led by my sister to the wineries of the Santa Ynez Valley, including a stop at the Los Olivos Cafe before it become famous in the movie Sideways, we made a stop at the newly opened Firestone brewery and had a very disappointing stop. This was so early in my beer journey that the tasting isn't even on the database. Since then, I've read of Firestone Walker's rise to beer glory but I resisted. We tried FW's 14th Anniversary Ale at the Blue Palms and it was simply spectacular.
Finally, hoppy beer and spicy food is my new favorite combo. Being Los Angeles, we stumbled upon vegetarian food everywhere we turned, including here. We ordered three varieties of vegan sausages on sauerkraut and I happened to have a Russian River Blind Pig in front of me when they arrived. The Mexican Chipotle sausage blended so amazingly well with the fruity bite of the Blind Pig that we were in hog heaven. My wife, who isn't a hop head, liked the combination so much that I lost my beer to her. I have been in pursuit of hot and hoppy ever since.
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