While we’re waiting for it to be an acceptable time of day for me to start drinking…

In the meantime since it is too early for me to start tasting for us all (after noon is acceptable right?) I wrote this for a friends blog and thought I would share…

We recently took part in one of LA’s Beerfests and wanted to share with you my day. …..
April 6th…. I like to liken it to December 24th. Its an Eve. A special Eve. Its National Beer Day eve. National Beer Day is April 7th. On April 7, 1933 President Roosevelt over turned prohibition and made it legal to make and sell beer as long as it was below 4.5 percent. Unrelated side note: April 7th many many years after that my older brother was born on that very day. He however doesn’t like Beer at all. Which makes me question our actual blood relation. But I digress.
In an effort to celebrate Beer Day eve, a group of friends and I (11 total) embarked on LA BEERFEST. An event that for $40 you have 3 hours to sample all the beer you can! This is A beer event put on by the Drink.Eat.Play https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drink-Eat-Play/186763821339819 The party people who also have brought to Southern California the Bacon Festival, 80s Prom, and Cupcake Challenge.
My husband Bryan and I took Wendy (owner of the blog I originally wrote this) for her birthday, met up with Tricia and John (Tricia went with us last year which makes her a Beerfester) and 6 of our friends (Beerfesters) who were dressed in official Oktoberfest attire.
They all went to Munich a few years back and who doesn’t buy Lederhosen when in Munich. DUH. They were very popular. Folks stopped to take pictures with them all through the day. I was kinda jealous. Next year weather permitting I may dress as a giant beer mug. http://www.amazon.com/Costume-Party-College-Halloween-Costumes/dp/B0069TJH1O/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1365784047&sr=8-9&keywords=beer+mug+costume
The Festival is Annual and takes place on the Paramount Studios lot. 88 breweries set up booths to show off their best, their newest, their yummiest beers. (pic of map)
This was year two for Bryan and I so we were prepared. Wearing our pretzel necklaces we took UBER CAR (new car service in LA much like a taxi) to the studio at 11:00am for we were giddy with anticipation for the flood gates of beer to open at noon. The pre staging is very smart. There must have been 20 food trucks there for folks to line their stomachs sos there was less “mess” to clean up for the staff after. Smart.. Drink Eat Play!
Drink Eat Play is actually VERY smart. At first you think there are WAY the hell too many people there. But it’s a good thing. You go from booth to booth with your 4oz mug and get samples. Then you have to stand in line for the next. Think of it as self pacing. Without the waiting I think bad things would happen. How many of us have sat in a wine room in Solvang drinking pour after pour of wine. They are such tiny tastes what could possibly go wrong. Well for those of us who have ended up face down or worse, at said wine bar, know…those tiny pours are deceiving. So waiting in lines is well it’s a good thing.
My group hit about 35 booths. Which if you do the math, take out a few we tossed, that’s about 8 beers in 3 hours. Could we have done better? Sure. But take into account there were 11 of us making our way through the crowds, dancing at the DJS and live cover bands, getting their pics taken with beer strangers and stopping at the ample amount of port a potties. I think all in all we did well.
The overall vibe of Beerfest is so nice. Everyone is happy. Everyone loves beer. Folks are sharing, talking, laughing. No one cares if you are in line and 10 of your friends join you 3 minutes later. Its just a fun place. I would highly recommend it to any beer fans. Tickets usually go on sale in February, and for sure sell out. So buy you tickets on line (there are two Beerfest “shifts” you can go 12-3 or 3-6 just click on the time you want while buying, we always do 12-3).
At the end of the 3 hours it was nice to see that Paramount is conveniently located next door to Astro Burger. GENIUS! After a burger and some fries, a taxi was called and we were headed home.
My favorite beers? Well I will preface this part of the blog with I don’t like Belgium, nope not any, even Hoegaarden which my husband calls “Vegas breakfast beer”…and Im not a giant fan of IPAs. But I will say if you are in LA and have a chance to go to Golden Road Brewery, I do like their IPA. And they are just a really fun place to drink beer. http://www.goldenroad.la/
So if you are looking for scoop on the best Belgium or IPA in LA move along son, nothing to read here. But there were a TON to try.
I am also prefacing this part of the blog with ,…it kinda got fuzzy after the first 10. Not drunk fuzzy, just even with pretzels unless it totally sucked or was totally amazing I can’t say for sure…so here you go. My best post beerfest guesses..from what I remember
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Babes BBQ and Brewery had a great Blackfin Lager. Totally black, like made Guinness look light but tasted like a light lager. So for those of you who like a lighter beer with taste but want to look cool like you can down a dark porter with the best of them try this one. It was really delicious. http://babesbbque.com/

Sapporo is a sushi beer and we all know it. Good clean, non descript but I’m putting them in my top 10 cause they gave out sake shots to make Sake Bombs. Winners!

Crispin hard cider…had the best Pear Cider I think I have ever had. I can’t say I buy a lot of Ciders but I do enjoy them when they are good. This was 3 tastes in so trust me on this one. Light refreshing and not dry at all. We all agreed this was a keeper. http://www.crispincider.com/cider/products/

Lagunitas never disappoints. They are local CA beer so that’s a plus. I’m a fan of their pilsner and Wendy like them cause they have a doggie on their bottle cap. http://lagunitas.com/beers/

Shipyard Brewery had an IPA I know I said I’m not a fan but this one was good called Monkey Fist. And the name is fun. http://www.shipyard.com/taste/

By the time we got over to Rogue beer, things were getting fuzzy, but a kind man in line for the bathroom encouraged me to try the beer but ask for a secret beer, a SNICKERS (kind of like knowing what the Animal is at In and Out), it’s a mix of their Hazelnut and Chocolate beers and I must say it was yummy. http://www.rogue.com/beers/beers.php

Firestone has become one of my favorite breweries. I rushed to their booth as we drink them in bars and at home. Their Velvet Merlin is a crazy good stout and only like 5%. Which is pretty low for a stout. For those who are not avid beer drinks that means it’s a black beer that tastes really good and like a lager. They also have a great Double Jack, just good beer over all! The Firestone folks at the fest surprised me with their new Pilsner and it didn’t disappoint. Firestone is just good beer! http://www.firestonebeer.com/ http://www.firestonebeer.com/beers/index.php

That’s all I can really recall. I know there were more beers I liked, but sadly some I would walk away thinking I should remember that and did not. Next year I will take pics with my phone of the Tap handles with a Thumbs up so I remember!

And finally….
This was a lil poem I penned while prepping for Beerfest, and by prepping I mean having a beer….
’twas the night before Beerfest
And all through the house
My husband and I were prepping with a lil Karl Strauss
The breweries were plenty
88 to be shared
Wonder if we can try them all- yes we’ve been dared
Wondering if we could tell the difference between bottle and tap
Hoping its not hot or well surely want to nap.
Wondering which beer to start with
I mean does it matter?
Do we run to Blue Moon or Firestone?
We think the latter
We’re getting there early to make a mad dash
Thinking ahead to make the most of 40 bucks cash
The day should be joyful with many a friend
After 3 hours I’m sure we’ll be sad for beer day to end.
See you all at the Beerfest next year! PROST!

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First One out of the Gate…An Introduction to The Bierlady

Hi my name is Cathy …welcome to my beer blog!

I suppose before you trust me about beer related issues I should tell you a little about myself. Well first off my last name is Biermann. No joke. That is pronounced Beer-Man. German, man who brews beer. I have to fess up though I did marry into that name. However, my maiden name is Sincere. Again No joke. And as you may have guessed the option for hyphenating my last name was well, not an option. But for the purposes of this first blog I will point out that I am Cathy Sincere-Biermann. I was also born in Milwaukee. If that doesn’t scream beer I don’t know what else does. I was raised in Vegas. No beer related story here, it’s just cool. And I currently reside in Los Angeles.
I will outwardly admit I am no official beer expert. Unless you get expert points for drinking beer the last 20+ years. OH didn’t tell you my age out and out but you can do the math. Unless you are drunk while reading this then I’m 25.

All I can say in the hopes you read this and future Bierlady Blog posts is that we are beer people. So much so that for my husband’s birthday about 5 years back I bought him a beer keg fridge with a tap so we could have draft beer in our kitchen 24/7. His birthday is in April, so for Mothers Day that May he in turn bought me my very first 15.5 gallon keg of Kona Longboard. Sniff. They were the gifts that kept on giving.
Mr Biermann, or you can call him Bryan, and I Love the beer. Love Beer tastings and Love pubs. So I thought wait there has to be folks out there they are on our same page. Folks who want to hear what’s good, what’s out there and where can I find it. And you may ask yourself “Cathy you taste it first and let them know if it’s a good beer so I don’t waste time or money?” I’m here to tell you yes. I will do that for you. I will go out weekly and find new beers and try new beers, and report back to you.

I was trying to think of a gimmick, a way to make my blog different. I thought how could I explain how these beer taste? Well by day I’m a voice over artist. So I thought I could liken the beers to voices. Like if you were to try a Bud Super Light Lemon Lime (is that real?) it would be a tiny tiny little girl voice. Or if you were trying a heavy stout it would be a big booming manly voice. Or like the Babes BBQ BlackFin Lager I recently tried, which was very dark and black in appearance but tasted light and clean. It would be the voice of Damon Wayans Jr from Happy Endings, looks black, but is…ok see then I realized this just won’t translate in writing. SO I ditched the voice idea. However I do reserve the right to bring back this idea should I be writing this blog from a bar after being “over served”.

So for now I will just say this blog is one girls opinion. A girl who has home brewing friends, a girl who drinks beer regularly, a girl who visits pubs frequently, a girl who prefers beer tasting to wine tasting, and a girl who writes this for free. So what have you got to lose?

Ok if you may be saying “Cathy cool last name or not , should I care what you think?” Fair enough we just met. But how about if I scoop you on the pubs/bars I visit in LA…I can tell you what folks are drinking. What bars are serving up the best brews? The most variety? The local CA microbrews? Or if that doesn’t get you and you prefer to read US Weekly to Draft Magazine then maybe there are some famous folks sipping brews? I mean who doesn’t want to know what kind of beer Nathan Fillion or Kerry Washington prefer?

I guess for now we’ll just see where this blog takes us. Its just blog one, we have time…
I still haven’t figured out all the whistles and bells of putting up a blog so forgive me. I’ll figure out the pictures and links eventually.
I will say I’m excited that summer is approaching and there is nothing I like more than to “outside” drink. (yes that is a real thing feel free to use it in your day to day…ex: “hey guys wanna call in sick and go outside drinking today?” ) Patios, beaches, biergartens…so much of Southern Cal to explore and consume.

Today is All Day Beer/ Cider Flights at a local pub… I think we’ll start there!