LA Area Brewery Tour 2012

See attached MSExcel spread sheet for planning details, expecution, and accounting for the 24 March 2012 Maltose Falcons tour of LA area breweries..  Be sure and read the post trip notes.  We paid full price at most places.  Ladyface gave us a 10% discount.  I forgot to include a tip for each of the breweries serving staff.  You should add a budget number for this on the next trip.  There are two worksheets labeled Calculation Sheet (##) with either a 38 or a 56.  One is a budget for 38 people and a 38 passenger commuter bus.  The other is for a 56 passenger tour coach bus.  We had 46 people on our trip.  We limited the number because some of the breweries do not have a lot of space and they were freaking out about 56 people.

Kris Schmidt

This is the newsletter write up I did for the trip:

Well the Maltose Falcons bus tour of LA Area Breweries was a raging success!!  We had a pickup and drop off at Union Station so guests could use the train system and the inexpensive parking downtown and about half of the bus riders took this option.  It added just a twist of complexity though because we had to finish the tour on time so people could make it back to the train station in time to meet the last trains.  First up was Enegren Brewery.  They had three really great brews on tap, a wonderfully spicy saison, a malty altbier, and a floral IPA.  Many people commented that the brewery looks like a home brewery on super steroids and that they could easily identify with all the equipment and processes.  Matt Enegren later said that bus riders either tweeted or blogged or otherwise talked up Enegren so they had a lot of new customers in the afternoon due to the Maltose Falcons visit!  Next up was Ladyface Alehouse.  Cyrena was sooo good to us.  There was a welcome sign outside customized for the Maltose Falcons.  We got to taste some wonderful brews including a Belgian Tripel, their classic Chesebro IPA (double IPA actually), their standard Ladyface IPA, their coffee porter complete with fresh ground coffee floating on top, a killer farmhouse style ale they call Trebucher, their second anniversary ale, and we got to sample as much as we wanted from the brite tank finishing their blonde ale.  Dave gave us a tour and talk about his brewing methods and philosophy and reminded us that his spent yeast is available to home brewers.  Just give him a heads up before hand and bring a sanitized growler.  I think I will take advantage of this to use some of his Bastogne yeast.  Also remember that AHA members get a 10% discount at Ladyface.  I heard that Cyrena was very impressed with our visit because we arrived on time, drank beer, bought merchandise, and then got back on the bus according to schedule (driven by the train at the end of the day I might add).  Next we made up some lost time and stopped at Canejo Park North in Thousand Oaks for a guerilla lunch of croissant sandwiches, apples, chips, cookies and of course homebrew from the Maltose Falcons board members.  Then we were off to The Lab where Roger Bott entertained us on his private patio with his milk stout, XPA, very espresso Java Porter, and a red ale .  Roger gave us a tour of his brewery, its history as a former brewery in San Luis Obispo, and how he transformed it into the brewery it is now.  Roger generously offered his excess yeast to homebrewers.  Roger also graciously offered to host us for our Mayfaire judging.  So then we were off to Eagle Rock Brewery where Jeremy and Lee poured tasters from their house beers, including  Solidarity, Revolution, Manifesto, Populist, Red Velvet, Libertine and Deuce.   Finally we arrived at Golden Road Brewery where Skipp gave us a tour of their brewery and canning line.  He described the benefits of cans over bottles, and how even the trendiest bars in LA were serving their beer from cans.  The Falcons were fading at this point as this was the fifth brewery of the day (there was beer on the bus too), and Skipp valiantly did his best to capture the attention of the Maltose Falcons cat herd.  We sampled Golden Road’s brown ale, their IPA and their hefeweizen, all excellent beers.  We loaded everyone back on the bus and made it back to Union Station with plenty of time to spare for the train riders to catch their trains.  Whew, that was a relief!  The bus was half empty now!!  Finally we arrived back at the HBWC shop where a lot of foresighted bus riders had arranged for a DD to pick them up.  All in all it was a great trip for the Falcons and the Breweries we visited.  I think in politics they call this a win-win… I would add another win, yes, that’s it.  On top of this we broke even on the trip costs – sweet!