Aside from being the top dog of beer (often knocking Anheuser-Busch off the totem pole), one of the major contributing factors to the brewery’s prominence was a major moment in history: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Owner Joseph Schlitz donated thousands of barrels of beer to the city (one story cites the fire fighters as being specific recipients), which had just lost five of 12 breweries and the city’s drinking water infrastructure. Thus was born loyal customers in Chicago, and sales boomed when Schlitz opened “tied-house” bars across the city.

This is why Schlitz is the beer that made Milwaukee famous.

Visiting Chicago or Milwaukee? Many of the Schlitz buildings still don the brewery’s iconic logo, and 41 buildings (“tied-house buildings) once operated by breweries like Schlitz still stand. Lots of great history there, send in your photos if you have them!

Bonus facts!

When Wayne and Garth visit Milwaukee in Wayne’s World, they parody the opening credits to TV show Laverne & Shirley. The scene shows female duo going to work at a fictitious Shotz Beer brewery (ahem, very Schlitz-sounding, no?).

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A recent vacation to Baja California revealed that it’s a little tough to get craft beer in Mexico, but it seems like it would be a natural thing that would happen. Unfortunately the big beer companies, FEMSA and Grupo Modelo, own a huge duopoly over the business of beer permitting, and own all the hops and even the politicians in the country.

But there’s hope – thanks to the refined tastes of San Diegans when it comes to beer, there are Mexican breweries congregated around the California border delivering some pretty awesome Mexican craft beers (on the border they have the access to hops from the States and the audience for it). While we didn’t find any in San Felipe on our trip, back in Los Angeles our favorite spot, Sunset Beer in Echo Park, had just gotten in a shipment of real Mexican craft beer!

Cucapá, one of the first micro breweries in Mexico. Located in Mexicali (the border town to drive through if you don’t go the Tijuana route), the brewery opened in 2002 and then a bottling plant in 2006. Originally it caught my attention because of the labels, which do sport some potentially offensive imagery (see photo).

Cucapá offers a variety of beers, including the Runaway IPA (pictured), Chupacabras American Pale Ale, La Migra Imperial Stout, and more. The Chupacabras Pale is full-bodied, crisp, has a nice citrus aroma, and pours a very light amber. The Runaway IPA is similar in that it has similar characteristics, but has that nice bitterness of the hops. Both are very drinkable, and gives you what you would expect when Mexican beer meets craft beer.

There are also some other craft breweries around the peninsula, including Baja Brewing Company in Cabo San Lucas, and a couple in Tijuana. If craft Mexican beer is your thing, the next fest is the Expo Cerveza Artesanal on May 18 and 19 this year.

I’ve also heard some rumblings of microbreweries taking on Mexican-style pale ales, but other than a taster of Sequoia Brewing Company’s Del Oro (unfortunately it tasted like liquid tortilla chips) we haven’t had much experience.

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It’s like Christmas in Spring! Rather, Octoberfest in April!

Yelp’s On Tap is a “month-long craft beer promotion” where you get awesome (and discounted) craft beer throughout the month at a variety of locations around Los Angeles. All beers range from $3 to $5 and although there are a lot of local craft breweries being poured, it’s not limited not California brews.

Tonight, head on over to Palms (Culver City) to The Garage featuring the Motor Club for Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA ($4), Golden Road Berliner Weisse ($4), and L.A. Aleworks GamsBart ($5). If you haven’t had the GamsBart yet, now’s the time! 

Starts at 6:00 pm, and meet the brewers of L.A. Ale Works while you enjoy the GamsBart! Happy hour and food specials until 7:00 pm, and Trivia starts at 8:30 pm (winners get a $75 beer tab).

Make sure you mention Yelp’s On Tap to your bartender for the discount.

Events are continually changing, so be sure to check the schedule of events for what’s up next. We’re excited for a couple of things this month – like the Brunch & Beer with Eagle Rock Brewery on the 21st, an Atwater Village Bike Bar Crawl on the 27th… fun stuff!

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For your Easter holiday celebrations and the perfect pairing to those addictive marshmallow peeps, we recommend picking up a bottle of The Bruery’s Saison de Lente.

We picked on up a couple of weeks ago just to drink on the patio to celebrate the nice, warm weather that Los Angeles is enjoying (that wasn’t really a winter, was it?). It’s a Belgian Style Saison/Farmhouse ale at  mere 6.5% ABV. Pours light in color, a little yeasty, and smells floral but ends up being more crisp and citrusy, then dry at the finish.

Expect to pay around $10 for the bottle, so it’s a good deal as well!

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It wasn’t a complete tap take-over, but three of the six taps offered included the Deschutes Armory XPA, Mirror Pond, and the latest year-round release, the River Ale.

The River Ale session release is just in time for Spring – at a low 4% ABV, it’s a perfect match for the coming warm weather. Think afternoon BBQs, taking a big swig to enjoy the bright notes of a pale ale along with a lingering but subtle flavor of Cascade and Crystal hops. It’s a highly accessible beer that might help some newbies to the craft beer drinking put down that faux craft beer (aka Blue Moon) and enter the world of real beer.

Deschutes rep Chelsea was on-hand to promote the brews, describing the Pacific Northwest brewery as offering more “malt-forward” beers as opposed to something overwhelmingly hoppy (which a lot of California beers tend to be – think Sierra Nevada Pale Ale). Which is why I also went for the experimental IPA, the Armory XPA. Pours a little darker, crisp with a little caramel/butterscotch, and finishes dry with that delicious hops flavor.

Overall, Deschutes is really one of my favorite breweries because of its accessibility as an “any day” kind of beer, definitely cost-effective for those of us on a budget, and is just an overall great brewery.

While you’re there at Sunset Beer Company, also take advantage of the Craftsman French Toast on tap. It has that slight maple syrup sweetness along with vanilla, but isn’t sticky or thick. Deeeelicious.

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I wasn’t the first to go but I do go back quite often to visit the family and sleep a couple of nights without the sounds of helicopters, dogs barking, and street cleaners. Over the past 30 years we have witnessed that little town get bigger and even take on some of the trends I see here in the big city of Los Angeles: Starbucks, skinny jeans, and maybe a few things I thought were maybe too big for our small town (when they put in the first stop light, I was just a few years old but remember worrying the town was getting too big). But one trend I am extremely excited about and proud of? Definitely not the Starbucks (there are TWO of them!), but the burgeoning craft beer scene taking place.

Home brewing isn’t new to the area (neither is moonshine!), but craft beer choices used to be pretty limited in the liquor and grocery stores. But now that California produces more craft beer than any other state, it’s finding its way to even my little town.

Enter: Prospectors Brewing Company. Just a 30 minute drive further into the mountains, and you’ll find yourself in the just over 2,000 population town of Mariposa, California. Mariposa Brewing Company once existed here (amazingly, I found their beer down here in Los Angeles sort of randomly), but has since closed up shop. Prospectors Brewing Company opened up just late last year with the help of Brew Master Justin Burnsed. The taproom is intimate but not tiny, with a few bar stools, tables, and six taps. The day we visited they were releasing their barley wine called Dirt Nap, which, according to the bartender there, was being well received.

Prospectors Brewing Company

Inside Prospectors Brewing Company

I ordered the six beer taster for just six bucks – totally and completely worth it! Along with the barley wine came the Blasting Cap Specialty Rye, Bootjack Blonde, Mariposa Midnight (Stout), Long Tom IPA, and Pistol Whipped American Wheat. Though I’m not a fan of rye beers in general, my favorites were the IPA and stout. The term Long Tom for the IPA derives from a gold mining technique that would sift through larger amounts of dirt and rock to produce more gold. According to the brewery’s website, “The same innovative spirit was used to create this one of a kind hopped up brew.” The result is a not super hoppy IPA with some floral tones, but still has that nice 7% kick.

The 6-beer sampler

The stout is heavy with a dark brown head, is oaked and smoked and evokes memories of sitting by the camp fire. Delicious! Be sure to take advantage of the pretzel offerings to help clear your palette, and while they don’t serve food on location we noticed the Subway across the street was favored amongst some of the fellow patrons.

It’s a pleasant experience visiting places like Prospectors Brewing Company, not just because the beer is delicious but also because in towns like those the most fancy beer you could get was Heineken or Newcastle. It appears the brewery is thriving – on the early Saturday evening we were there, we got the last two seats. Down the road Oakhurst is also getting a new craft brewery called South Gate Brewery, being built now with plans to brew and serve on site. Hopefully, as the tourists make their way up the windy mountain roads to Yosemite, they’ll see the craft beer scene in Mariposa and Oakhurst as another marvelous destination.

The beer menu at Prospectors Brewing Co

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Now that the tap room is open, you can get their on-location only beers like the Angel City Vanilla Porter and the French Sip. In the tap room, try and resist the urge to use the roped-off slide (yep, a slide) in the middle of the room.

Angel City Beer at the 2012 Bloomfest

In celebration of another craft brewery in Los Angeles, we are having our first GIVEAWAY! We have a few of the Angel City bottle openers to give away, so there will be multiple winners (chosen at random). It starts today, February 27 and ends March 9, 2013. All you have to do is “like” Girls Who Like Beer on Facebook or Tweet about this cool prize using the widget below. We’ll contact you, get your mailing address, and you’ll receive the Angel City bottle opener in the mail.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’re visiting Angel City Brewery, it’s open Thursday-Friday from 4 pm – 10 pm, Saturday from 1pm – 10 pm, and Sunday from 1 pm – 8 pm. Angel City is located 216 South Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

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Telegraph Winter Ale

Definitely one of my favorites this season, Telegraph Winter Ale is available only during winter months. The presence of chocolate malt is indicative of the brewery’s taste inspiration – Mexican Hot Chocolate. A little cinnamon and allspice gives it that holiday feel, and ancho chilies adds to the complex, unique flavor. Pick up at Bill’s in Atwater Village.

Cismontane Holy Jim Falls XPA

While this is not a seasonal beer, Cistmontane’s Holy Jim Falls XPA is a great choice for warm days and cool nights. You can just smell the hops from across the room, and even though the aroma is quite overpowering as you raise the glass to your lips, it is actually super well-balanced, crisp, and light (it’s also only 4.5% ABV). Stock up on this one, it flies off the shelves.

Dogfish Head Chicory Stout

Also not a seasonal beer but perfect for the season – imagine sitting by the fireplace while snow falls outside, eating a bar of chocolate with caramel filling to yourself and a glass of this in your hand. The combination of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John’s Wort and licorice root launches the Dogfish Head Chicory Stout into our list without a second thought. So, so good.

Marin Brewing Company Point Reyes Porter

The Hoppy Holidaze from Marin Brewing Co. is their holiday seasonal, and – don’t get me wrong – it’s delicious. But we’ve been sort of obsessed with the Point Reyes Porter, and we can’t have a top winter beer list without a porter. This stuff has a unique, super dark roasted barley, is quite velvety, and nice and chocolaty.

Also topping our favorites list is also Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice, which sadly you cannot find anymore, and Kern River Brewing Company’s Winter Ale. For the latter, you should be able to find bottles at Sunset Beer Company. And while it edges more toward a winter IPA, it’s not as sweet as most winter beers and has that nice hit of hops.

There are so many beers out there to drink – do share your favorites with us in the comments below!

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The entire six-course dinner and beer pairing was tailor-made for geeks of various stripes. While Blue Palms has always had great pub food and one of the best tap lists in Los Angeles, I had no idea what a food geek proprietor Brian Lenzo was until he unveiled this amazing menu.

Between each course he went into great detail about all of the care that went into each element and how he chose to pair the food with Avery’s sours. Hand-cranking vanilla ice cream while slowing adding the discontinued Avery sour Immitis into the mix, finding the perfect cut of venison for the carpaccio, exposing cucumbers to lactobacillus for pickles…. Brian and his team really went for the gold on this, his first food and beer pairing dinner. It’s always delightful to see a sweet guy like Brian beaming and totally in his element, you can really feel the love.

Southern California’s Avery Brewing rep Katie Barnes brought some major beer geek chops to this meal as well. She described each course of Avery’s absolutely transcendent sours with the felicity of a master brewer. “The beer world is definitely a man’s world,” Katie said, “To be a girl infiltrating the craft beer world today you really have to know your shit.” And judging from her meticulous, enticing descriptions of each beer, Katie clearly knows her shit.

The prelude beer was Avery’s Joe’s Pils randalled with rose petals. A full pint of this vegetal, creamy pilsner was the perfect palate cleanser between courses of rich food and bracing sours. Next up was the Muscat d’Amour, a sour blonde made with Muscat Blanc grapes (usually used in dessert wine) and aged in Chardonnay barrels. I found myself feeling sorry for anyone who wasn’t there drinking this beer at that precise moment. It was sour perfection with a surprisingly grassy finish. An unforgettable beer, sadly only 175 cases of the stuff was made; while there are still a few bottles for drinking at Blue Palms, you can’t take it home or I certainly would have. It was my surprise favorite of the evening.

O, Oud Floris, you green apple caramel siren, you. It was randomly drinking a bottle of this treasure at Blue Palms a few weeks ago that drew us to this dinner. A magical Frankenstein of a beer, the geniuses at Avery blended 4 barrel-aged beers (a strong dark ale, a red, a sour pale, and a sour rye) and came out with something akin to a Flemish red.

There’s a clarity to the sour components of the Avery sours that is truly remarkable, like the way a squeeze of lemon will cut through disparate elements of a dish and bring a brightness to the whole endeavor, enhancing everything. The raspberries of the Odio Equum read as straight-up Snapple on the nose, but the taste was perhaps the sourest beer I’ve ever had, with the raspberry so perfectly realized I could almost feel the berry roll around in my mouth.

Last was the sexily-named Recolte Sauvage (Wild Harvest en français), whose sourness took a backseat to its cherry, oak, and chocolate notes. This big boy, topping out at more than 11% ABV, stood its ground against the beef cheeks course, and reminded me a little bit of Avery’s Samael.

At this point in the meal, I started to lose steam, my head spinning from all the onslaught of huge flavors on my palate. I wrote, “Send assistance” in my notebook, which at this point had devolved into a stream of rapturous expletives like “Holy fuck this heirloom tomato Oud Floris ketchup,” and “Whew, this Odio Equum is sour as fuck!” Did I mention I used to be a professional writer? The things that a series of mind-blowing food and rare sour beers will do to me. The last scribbling in my notebook was a sort of plea to Brian, “Please do these forever.”

Now it’s actually Valentine’s Day, and I’m still full. Full from the decadent dinner and beers, full of admiration for the folks who put together such an elevated beer experience, and full of love of my new husband with whom I got to share this ultimate beer geeky experience.

Megan Rosenbloom is a librarian, photographer, and craft beer lover living in Los Angeles.

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El Segundo Brewing Company’s tasting room is nestled just off the street in a small basement room that might be your dad’s dream of converting the garage into a bar come to life. Sacks naming different hops hung on the walls and the pretzels on the sparkly green tables give the subterranean nook a little more coziness despite the chill of this rainy day. But who needs coziness? We’re here for beer.

It was early in the afternoon and the tasting room attendants had just returned from an event, so they seemed in a hurry to get things organized for the later rush. Much to my chagrin the magical fruit salad of a beer that lured me to El Segundo, the Blue House Citra, was nowhere to be found, nor was their new DIPA. However, in an attempt to kick the keg, they were offering a full pint of rum oak cask Hyperion Stout for a measly $2, which was a highlight of their offerings.

I found most of their beers to be light in body but still flavorful, with the latte-ish Hyperion Stout with vanilla bean being another stand out. Their Standard Crude Imperial Stout was remarkably light-bodied for an imperial but the boozy spoke to its higher ABV. Approachability’s the name of the game at El Segundo; they keep their ABV’s low and their flavor profiles straightforward but tasty. Comparing the Blue House Pale & Blue House IPA was instructive, but damned if I didn’t miss that Citra to round out the trifecta. El Segundo is now bottling some of their offerings and had a stocked fridge for those who wanted to take some home.

Next we headed across the street for Rock N Brews, admittedly, not the kind of place I’d usually choose. It’s a mostly outdoor Hard Rock Café type of place that’s owned by classic rock promoter Dave Furano. I shouldn’t have judged an album by its cover. I was completely taken aback by the quality of the beer list, both on tap and in bottles.

Among some more standard craft offerings on tap, they had Victory’s Ranch R DIPA, Alesmith’s My Bloody Valentine, Eagle Rock Brewery’s Threes, and Hangar 24’s Vinaceous (an old ale made with Mourvedic grapes). Some of my compatriots opted to split a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin’s La Parcela pumpkin ale, whose delicious funk makes it the king of all pumpkin ales in my eyes. Seeing that kind of list in a mainstream, family-friendly place like this makes me hopeful for the continued expansion of craft beer into restaurants where just a few years ago you would have been lucky to get a Blue Moon. Despite the chill in the air, armed with my Victory under a heat lamp, I was a happy camper.

El Segundo Brewing Company is located at 140 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245

Megan Rosenbloom is a librarian, photographer, and craft beer lover living in Los Angeles.

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