This month, I get to do what I wish I could legitimately do every month when it comes to the local beer scene: Be positive.
The Ace Hotel and Swim Club has been hosting a beer festival in the middle of the summer for at least a decade (discounting the dark times of COVID-19 lockdowns). I have attended most of them, and for the most part, it is the most interesting festival in town in terms of the actual beer being poured. One of my favorite beer festival stories is from a few years back when a monsoon poured down on Palm Springs and sent everyone scurrying to hide electronics and close everything up—until the storm died down 20 or so minutes later.
This year, the temperature was only around 107 degrees, but it didn’t matter much, because the fest was held, quite sanely, indoors. The first hour was for VIPs, and they had a DJ. I’m not a big fan of things like loud music at beer festivals, but it fits the Ace’s aesthetic, so I just had to grin and bear it while yelling at everyone to ask about the beer. (I also had to fight back the PTSD flashbacks of being completely out of place in nightclubs in my 20s.)
We’re not here to talk about my past awkward attempts at meeting women, though; we’re here for beer. The first table that came into view for me was that of Enegren Brewing. I have sung their praises many a time here and elsewhere, so I’ll spare you, but they had a new New Zealand pilsner (essentially a pilsner dry-hopped with NZ hops that has become its own beautiful sub-style), and it was excellent. It retained their gorgeous pilsner base-beer’s flavor and added the tropical, vinous and pine qualities to the mix masterfully. It reminds me that I should make another trip to Moorpark, if only to enjoy Enegren.
Fremont Brewing was there next to Beachwood Brewing. We do get some of Seattle’s Fremont beers here in the desert, and I would encourage you to try as many as you can, because they do brilliant work. Their “Golden” pilsner was crisp and tasty, and I later went back to try their Rusty Nail, which I talked about having on a trip to San Diego’s Bottlecraft Little Italy. As for Beachwood, I’ve spent a lot of time singing their praises here, and this time, they had a lovely version of Beachwood Blendery’s Coolship Chaos with yuzu that was citrusy, funky and dry as a bone. Beachwood’s new release (at the time of writing this) was Hyperspeed IPA, which was incredibly fruity and resinous due to the various forms of Mosaic hops, along with Strata and, what’s become a personal favorite in the last couple of years, HBC 586. But the real winner was a single can from which the rep poured called Woodwind Section that featured tons of New Zealand Nelson Sauvin and Riwaka flavor and aroma. It was my favorite beer of the fest.
Besides Beachwood Blendery, there were a few other sour ale brewers on hand in Cellador Ales and, while not exclusively sour, Homage Brewing. Both hail from Los Angeles, and I was pleased to see an outsized representation of farmhouse-style ales; almost everything I tried was excellent. The standouts were Cellador’s Saison du Rosier, their tribute to the legendary Saison DuPont. It was a beauty—not exactly like DuPont (thankfully), but with a hint of the honey found in DuPont’s fermentation, some orange and a lovely grainy base that finishes very dry. Homage’s Pink Basil was a barrel-aged saison with strawberry and basil; if you haven’t tried this combination of flavors before, I would highly recommend you do, even if it’s not in a beer as tasty as this one.
A couple of local breweries made appearances. Across from each other were Desert Beer Company and Las Palmas Brewing. Las Palmas was only pouring their pilsner from cans, but their pils is good, so I was a happy boy. Devon Sanchez and Rob Aroz from DBC are both former co-workers of mine, and they had four beers on offer. I enjoyed the Pepino Con Chile ale (cucumber with peppers) and tried it again with some great chavela mix that Rob had whipped up. Nearby was Brewery X; while it’s not local, it was represented by Ian Schmitt, someone I knew from La Quinta Brewing’s Old Town La Quinta location. They didn’t have anything I haven’t tried, but that is more my fault, because I love both what they do and how much of it we get here.
A brewery whose beers I hadn’t tried in a while was Figueroa Mountain Brewing out of Buellton, just off the Central Coast. I was first introduced to them randomly at an Italian restaurant in Santa Barbara at a wedding reception. I tried the Hoppy Poppy IPA and was blown away at how good it was. We started getting it in our area soon after, but I never had one quite like the one on tap. This is hardly surprising, given the amount of beer that sits on warm shelves here to die an early death. But at the Ace, the Mosaic Pale was as gorgeous as I remember that first beer was. The Mosaic hops brought tons of mango and pineapple flavor to the beer, and it had a lovely, crisp finish. The guava version of the Hoppy Poppy was also no slouch, either.
This festival was the best one I’ve been to in a long while in the desert. It was good enough that I don’t have the space to get to Trumer Pils being there (always a boon); Brouwerij Huyghe (which makes Delirium Tremens and others); the excellent, fruity IPA from Creature Comforts Downtown L.A.; and the great pilsner from Topa Topa Brewing.
Paul Patiño, the Ace’s general manager, seems to be doing a great job with the fest, and I look forward to more from the Ace in the future in regards to craft beer. I may have to stop by and see if any of the festival kegs made it to tap.
