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Seizoen Bretta Beer Cookies

Posted on March 11, 2013
baking, beer, cookies
Comments: 5

Sugar cookies are a classic recipe that you can build into interesting and fun creations. I used a hand-shaped Belgian tulip glass cookie cutter and Logsdon’s Seizoen Bretta to make my whimsical beer cookies look and taste like the ingredients used to make them. The frosting had a ton of beer in them and you could really taste the flavor of Logsdon’s exquisite beer.

Ingredients:

4 cups of sifted AP Flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup or 2 sticks of unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (or beer!)

Royal Icing:

1 lb. of powdered sugar

1 tablespoon of light corn syrup

2/3 cups of beer

Gel food coloring (I used toothpicks)

Directions:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl.

2. Beat butter and sugar together on medium speed in an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix until pale and fluffy, for 3 minutes or so. Add in the vanilla (or beer) and eggs and mix until incorporated. Add flour mixture in slowly until incorporated.

3. Put cookie dough in plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge about 1 hour or until firm. I wrapped it into three disks and only used two of them and froze the third. This yields a good amount of cookies.

4. Roll-out the dough in between two sheets of plastic wrap until about 1/4 inch thick. Using the plastic wrap will help keep the cookies from getting too dry from adding extra flour during the roll-out process.

5. Cut out the shapes and place on cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Put in the freezer for 15 minutes so the cookies will keep the shape while baking.

6. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Cook for 15-18 minutes until the edges are brown. Let cookies cool before icing.

7. Whisk icing ingredients together, make sure that the icing is very thick so it will keep the piping shapes you want. Make sure to add more powdered sugar if necessary. I used two toothpick swipes of yellow and two of orange to get the beer color and no coloring for the “foam”. I disturbed the drying process to make the foam look more foamy. I let the frosting dry overnight on wire racks to ensure it was hard enough to transport.

These turned out great. They were crunchy (but not hard) and sweet but with a definitive beer flavor balancing everything out. It was fruity, funky, and fantastic. Let me know your thoughts!

Beer and Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on March 4, 2013
baking, beer, cookies
Comments: 20

What two things go together better than beer and bacon? Not many! I had been wanting to find a way to incorporate bacon into something baked for some time now. While pondering my options it hit me: chocolate chip cookies. I could break-up the cooked bacon into pieces and then cover them in chocolate and it would serve like chocolate chips in uniformity and flavor. Immersed in anticipation, I began to piece together the components.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar

3/4 cup of packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon of course sea salt

1/4 cup of Chocolate Porter or Stout beer (any kind will do)

2 large eggs

2 cups of chocolate chips or chocolate covered bacon and chocolate chips

1/2 cup of cocoa nibs

Directions:

1. Cook bacon and pat dry with paper towels and place in freezer. Bacon should be crispy and once in the freezer for 20 minutes easily breakable.

2. Melt dark chocolate (I used 72% cocoa) and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Get a cookie sheet and line with wax paper.

4. Take the bacon from the freezer and crumble into small pieces, and try and take out any fatty pieces and only use the meat pieces.

5. Put the bacon pieces and dunk in the dark chocolate and then place on wax paper and put in the freezer to set.

6. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flour and baking soda in a bowl.

7. Beat butter and both sugars for 3 minutes on medium in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs, beer and sea salt and mix until combined. Turn speed down to low and add flour mixture in about three additions and be careful to refrain from over-mixing. Turn off once just combined.

8. Put frozen chocolate bacon bits and additional chocolate chips and cocoa nibs into the cookie dough and mix. Take a cookie scoop or about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and drop about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets with either a silpat or parchment paper and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Rotate once during the cooking process, and make sure to keep an eye on the cookies. The bottom of the oven might be hotter then the top, etc. Maybe I burned 6 cookies, just sayin’.

Result:

Deliciously delectable and indulgent cookies! These cookies spread like crazy because of the butter and create a light, crunchy, salty, chocolaty wonderful flavor and texture. It might just be something I feel, but a good chocolate chip cookie has this umami flavor that’s hard to put your finger on. Perhaps it’s childhood memories? Who knows.

The bacon is a great addition. The bacon adds the salty and savory notes to off-set the sweet and bitter chocolate flavors. The small pieces make it subtle and not over-powering either in texture and mouth-feel or in flavor. Let me know your thoughts!

Sierra Nevada’s Sleight of Hand at The Playground

Posted on March 3, 2013
Bar, beer, Beer Event, Beer Tasting, CA, Sierra Nevada
Comments: 0

My buddy, Greg from OC Beer Blog was fortunate enough to go to Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp and brew a beer with fellow beer enthusiasts. The beer they made was Sleight of Hand and it’s a Black Belgian Double IPA that’s 8%ABV and 52 IBU’s. This beer is loaded with flavor. Greg has been telling me about this beer for months and now we finally got to try some.

From left to right: Sean McNew, Greg Nagel, Nate Squillace of Hangar 24, and Evan Price of Noble Ale Works

There were a few different locations we could choose from who was serving this beer but we ultimately choose to go to The Playground in Downtown Santa Ana. I have been to the playground before and they make delicious chef-driven food so that seemed like a winner. We arrived and after snapping a few photos and greeting some beer friends we settled on the patio beneath the heating lamps. It was a lovely southern California night for socializing and enjoying exquisite craft beers.

Greg and his Family (wife and parents)

Greg

The first beer I had was of course, the Sleight of Hand by Sierra Nevada. It pours dark in color, very black indeed. The head is not brown but a brilliant white which laces the glass every so gracefully. I expected it to be really hoppy, it wasn’t. I expected it to be overly sweet, it wasn’t. It was floral, herbaceous, fruity, and finished dry like a good champagne would. Being 8%ABV didn’t stop this beer from being extremely drinkable, which is a sign of a expertly-made beer. I am so proud of my friend for having take part in the making of this noteworthy beer. I could drink this beer over and over, in fact I did. Congrats Greg!

Hangar 24 Tap Takeover at Smoqued BBQ

Posted on February 27, 2013
Bar, beer, Beer Tasting, Hangar 24, Uncategorized
Comments: 1

Smoqued BBQ sticks out like a sore thumb in the Orange Circle, but in a good way because that thumb is covered in delicious BBQ sauce. Located in the circle of downtown Old Towne Orange among the vintage storefronts and historic decor, Smoqued BBQ is dedicated to bringing you the best smoked BBQ in Orange County.

Everyone has a differing opinion of what is the best style of BBQ is and where you can get the best BBQ. I personally prefer savory over sweet, and dry rub over the sauced-only styles of BBQ. I am also not a fan of vinegar-based BBQ, but won’t turn my nose up at it. Smoqued had a great variety of hot, mild and tangy sauces to accompany the different BBQ’d meat offerings. I appreciate they had a delicious dry-rubbed base of spices so you didn’t have to over-sauce your meat if you didn’t want to.

I loved the burnt ends appetizer. It’s a 1/2 lb. of double “smoqued” brisket cubes caramelized in their house BBQ sauce. Price? $11.49 (according to their website). This is on the higher-end of what I typically like to pay for an appetizer but I am not sorry because this was simply delectable. I would totally get this again, and it feeds at least 3 people so $12 just became $4 of awesome meat in my mouth. Let’s see how many inappropriate meat references I can make in one post…

The beer offerings were impressive. Their tap list on a typical day has good stuff like:

Current Tap List (according to their website):

Bear Republic: Pete’s Tribute Brown Ale

Eagle Rock: Populist IPA

Firestone: Pivo Pilsner

Hangar 24: Double IPA

Lost Abbey: Devotion

Lost Coast: Winterbraun

North Coast: Blue Star Wheat

Ritual Brewing: Fat Hog Barleywine

Tusting Brewing Co.: Red Hill Red

On the day I visited (for Valentine’s Day: ooooo!) it was a Hangar 24 tap takeover. I had a delightful Winter’s Warmer and a titillating Chocolate Porter to top-off my mouthwatering BBQ meal. If you know me, you know I have had my fair share of Hangar 24 beer, thanks to my fiance Sean working for them. I don’t ever seem to get board of their beer, which is saying alot.

I can’t wait to come back to Smoqued. The atmosphere was downright neighborly with their edison light bulbs stationed delicatley above the tables and the different woods for smoking greeting you at the door. ‘Till we meet again!

Newport Beach Brewing Co. Brewfest 5

Posted on February 26, 2013
Bar, beer, Beer Event, Beer Tasting, CA, Newport Beach Brew Co., Uncategorized
Comments: 4

This last Sunday, Feb. 24th was the Newport Beach Brew Co.’s 5th Annual Brewfest event with proceeds going to the Yellow Ribbon America charity. Great beer and a wonderful cause? Count me in!

This is the first year I have been to Newport Brew Co. Brewfest event. It was very well organized and laid-back. Since it was located at the Brewpub in Newport Beach that meant lots of seating and food available but it also meant tight spaces and constantly being in the way of people. Regardless of that, it was a very fun day. The breweries in attendance was: I & I Brewing, Valiant Brewing Co, Old Orange Brewing Co., Karl Strauss, Packinghouse Brewing Co., Bootleggers, Cismontane and Tustin Brewing Co.

Photo Credit: Matt Becker

Robert Frenche’s Beard Photo Credit: Matt Becker

Photo Credit: Matt Becker

The stand-out beers I had was the Dripp Espresso Imperial Stout by I & I Brewing Co. (9.9%ABV) which was very well done. It had a great coffee flavor and great head retention. If only it was on nitro… one can dream. I also enjoyed the JD’s Reserve by Newport Beach Brew Co. 10%(ABV) Imperial Oatmeal Stout. Let’s just say it was so good I had seconds and Sean had thirds. It was barrel aged and didn’t over-power with a whiskey burn so it was dangerously delicious. I also really enjoyed both beers from Packinghouse but I leaned towards the Black Beauty Cream Stout 5.1%(ABV) with it’s light and creamy mouth-feel and subtle chocolate flavors.

Photo Credit: Matt Becker

Derek Bougie, Brewmaster at NB Brew Co. Photo Credit: Matt Becker

Photo Credit: Matt Becker

Stephen Johnson, Matt Becker and Sean McNew

We were able to finally find some seating and enjoy the afternoon while eating some snacks from NB Brew Co. The margarita pizza and nachos are great. I really love the chips because they taste homemade so if they aren’t then good job sourcing them! It was a lovely sunny afternoon with good friends and exceptional local craft beers. Hope to see you all at the next one! Cheers 🙂

My fiance, Sean with my business card

Sean and Stephen

Baking with Beer: Chocolate Cookies with Red Ale Homebrew

Posted on February 25, 2013
baking, beer, chocolate, cookies, Homebrew
Comments: 2

Chocolate goes with practically anything and everything. It’s a very forgiving flavor, especially if you want to incorporate beer.

Me and my fiance, Sean, recently made a Red Ale with rye malt called “Clever Girl” which made a great addition to this cookie recipe. The homebrew is a 4 gallon standard red ale recipe (11 lbs. of British pale, 1 lb. of crystal 60, 1/2 lb. of roasted barley) with a 1/4 lb. of rye malt for that little additive of spice. The OG(original gravity) was 1.007 and the FG(final gravity) was 1.0025 so that means it’s 4.5%ABV. The beer added a spicy quality that was accentuated by the chili chocolate I added. When you use a spice like rye which is similar to allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg a chili heat compliments those flavors extremely well.

Ingredients:

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of course salt

8 oz of chocolate (I used 6 oz of bittersweet baking chocolate and 3 oz of chili Mexican chocolate)

1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon of beer

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

2. Melt together 4 oz of chocolate and the 1 stick of butter. You can use a double boiler or the microwave in 25 second interments until fully melted. Let cool slightly.

3. Put sugar and eggs and beer into a electric mixer with the paddle attachment and turn on medium speed. Add the chocolate and butter mixture. Once combined, add the flour mixture in small increments until fully combined. Take off the bowl and stir in the chocolate chunks. I cut-up the chocolate disks and a few other oz of dark chocolate. I used a cookie scoop (best purchase ever!) that is roughly 1.5 tablespoons and spaced them about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. These cookies will spread.

4. Bake for about 15 mins, rotating once during the baking time. Bake until the cookies crack but make sure they are fully cooked in the middle. I had to put one trey back in for another 5 mins because they didn’t set properly. Let cool on wire racks. These can be stored for about 3 days or so.

These cookies were seriously delicious. The chili Mexican chocolate is perfect and the addition of the dry rye beer and bittersweet chocolate make the cookies not overly sweet. They are crunchy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside. Heavenly is the perfect description. Let me know what you think if you make these cookies!

PS. Thanks Mom for the awesome new cake stand! I love it 🙂

San Diego Beercation: Iron Fist, Latitude 33, Stone Brewing Co., Ballast Point, Tiger Tiger!, AleSmith, and Fezziwig Brewing

Posted on February 22, 2013
Ballast Point, Bar, beer, Brewery, Brewing Equipment, Uncategorized
Comments: 0

Whew, it was quite a weekend. Me and Sean traveled to San Diego (and surrounding cities) Feb. 9-10 and it was a whirlwind of great beer, delicious food, and birthday celebrations.

Traveling down the 78 we hit our first stop: Stone Brewing Co. We were there early to procure 20 brewery tour tickets and apparently a bunch of other people had the same plan. Here is a tip for those of you who plan to go to Stone when the tasting room opens at 11am and get tickets for a large group: you can only get 8 tickets each. Me and Sean had to get 20 tickets and for those of you bad at math that meant we would be short 4 tickets. Luckily the gentlemen in front of us in line was nice enough to get the extra 4 tickets for us.

Holding tour tickets in my hot little hand we dashed over to Mother Earth but alas, they had moved locations. We went to the new location and couldn’t find them…and I begin to get frustrated. I make an executive decision and we head over to Iron Fist. The location was easy to find (thank you Iron Fist!) and very welcoming. The beers they had on tap was amazing. Some of the stand-out brews were: Uprising with Champagne Yeast and Tequila Soaked Oak Chips (12%ABV) and Nelson the Impaler (5.5%ABV). The Uprising was really interesting, the Champagne was a really nice play against the Tequila. It was light, and fruity and bitter with a nice after-burn taste of Tequila. I normally hate the taste of Tequila but this wasn’t bad. The only other Tequila beer I was ok with was the Mikkeller Black Hole aged in Tequila barrels. The Nelson the Impaler was great. It was clean and hoppy and was the type of beer you could just have glass after glass of. I also enjoyed the people there, they were warm and friendly. Plus, it’s always a good sign when there is an adorable dog guarding the brewery for it’s owners.

Next stop was Latitude 33 Brewing Company, who now resides in Green Flash’s old brewery location. We ordered a flight of all of their standard beers and a few of their more adventurous and seasonal delights. The most delicious beer we had there was Breakfast With Wilford oatmeal coffee stout (8.5%ABV). It was seriously good. The beer pours dark and smooth, with a fantastic coffee smell and flavor. Coffee in beer is so hard to do because it seems to get bitter or chalky and unpleasant. Not this beer, this beer was like sitting the fire making s’mores with your best friend watching your favorite movie having spiked coffees on a snow day. Malty, roasty, sweet (not overly), flavorful coffee notes, smooth body, dark brown head, … basically perfect. We liked it so much we bought a growler just to be able to take some home! We also ran into a beer tour group of entertaining and overtly friendly people on a birthday bus. Beer people are the best people 🙂

Next stop: Stone! We met-up with our large group of 18 friends and proceeded to have a beer then the brewery tour. I have been on the tour several times before, but it was fun to go with such a large group of my friends. There was also some pretty painted barrels to take photos of…bonus! After the tour we had food at the Bistro. I ordered the cheese plate which I haven’t had before and it was really good! I love cheese so much. It was my buddy Pappy’s birthday so I gave him a 21st Amendment jacket and some cookies and fun was had by all. Too much fun for some 🙂 After Stone we ended-up going back to our hotel. We had planned to go to Lost Abbey after Stone but frankly I was so tired that we went to bed at something like 10pm and slept 12 hours.

The next morning it was cloudy and sprinkles of rain threatened to fall on our day 2 of beercation. The weather didn’t bring down our mood because we actually love the cold and rain so with smiles on our faces we left our hotel and went back to Stone. Back to Stone?! Three times in two days…you are crazy – you might be thinking. Don’t fret, we didn’t stay long. We just went back to purchase some Quingenti Millilitre barrel-aged blends: Green Flash/Pizza Port Carlsbad/Stone Highway 78 Scotch Ale Batch 01 (Chuck/Jeff/Mitch Blend) & 02 (Wagner Blend).

First beer of the day was at Ballast Point brewery. This was my first time here and the tasting room was really nice. It had a long bar and a lot of space for people to enjoy their beers. The patio looked really cool with their almost school-like metal tables with connected benches. It hit me in the nostalgic spot. We had some tasting flights of the most enjoyable beers there which was: French Oak Syrah Barrel Aged 3 Sheets Barley Wine (9.5%ABV), 2011 Bourbon Barrel Sea Monster, and Brandy Barrel Aged Navigator (10%ABV). I am so glad we just got the tastes because these beers were strooong. The flavors were great and you can really taste the aging. After I purchased a few Sea Monster shirts we headed to the next stop.

We had a plan for lunch that was ruined when the place was closed. We quickly decided to go to Tiger Tiger! which was only 15 mins away via the freeway. We had heard wonderful things about this place and I can tell you that the stories are true! They had a fun and inviting dining room with cork-board and wood adorning the walls and kitsch accessories that draws you in. We sat at the bar and I had a flight of their Automatic Brewing Co. beer, which is specifically brewed for Tiger Tiger!. They brew inside Blind Lady Ale House’s location. I really liked the Quadracycle by Automatic which is a 6.9%ABV Belgian Blonde. It was fruity and sweet with great carbonation. Let’s just take a minute to talk about the food. We had the fries with curry sauce to start, and it was downright sinful. The curry sauce was amazing. The fries with the fresh herbs were addictive. The main course was Sean’s Cuban sandwich and my toasted egg. The tasted egg consisted of sourdough bred with some caramelized onions in between and a fried sunny-side up egg on top with green onions. It came with a small side of pickled mushroom and onion. Sounds simple, that’s because it was. But it was so well-done. They put the bread in their wood-fired oven so it’s smokey, crunchy and still soft in the middle. The egg made everything perfect. I could eat this every day.

After a very fulfilling lunch, we went to AleSmith. Bud Light in the trash at AleSmith made me and Sean laugh a little. I really liked AleSmith. They had a smaller tasting room but a really impressive bottling line machine. They also had a great tap list with too many good things to choose from. We had tasters of Decadence (2012) 12%ABV Belgian Quad and Belgian Small Beer 4.1%ABV Belgian Pale. The Decadence was great! The people behind the bar was super friendly and very knowledgeable.

Haha!

Last stop before getting pizza at Pizza Port Carlsbad and then driving home was at Fezziwig’s Brewing Company. Our buddy Dawn works there so it was just a good excuse to go. Little did we know it was Corgi day at the brewery. My sister has a corgi named Charlee that I adore so it was so cool to see so many corgi’s in one place! I wish I had my little doxie Porter with me to play with all the other dogs. The beers were good and the one that caught my attention the most was the Rum Barrel Aged Dark Xmas (8.4%ABV) american strong ale. I hope to see more from them! I really enjoyed the steampunk theme as well.

All in all, it was a very successful few days of breweries, amazingly wonderful craft beers, unique and delectable food, and sensational people. Have you been to these places? Planning a trip? Where do you suggest we go next time? We had planned on going to Societie and White Labs but White Labs is closed on Sundays and we didn’t have time for Societie. We hope to hit both on the next trip!

Baking with Beer: Red Velvet Belgian Cupcake

Posted on February 18, 2013
baking, beer, Cupcakes
Comments: 2

Red velvet is a very well liked and wide-spread cupcake. I made the mistake of using a dark chocolate powder so my red velvet turned out not so red. They still tasted good regardless of the color issues. Belgian beer is really fruity and light which makes for a great addition to cupcakes. Especially light, moist, sponge-like cupcakes.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups cake flour (if you don’t have cake flour, use all-purpose…It’s ok)

2 tablespoons of dutch-process cocoa powder. Try and use the non-dark chocolate kind to achieve the color red.

1 teaspoon salt (I used sea salt but kosher is ok)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 large eggs, room temp.

1/2 teaspoons gel-paste food coloring

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup beer (I used Antigoon )

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons of white vinegar

Cream cheese frosting:

12 oz of cream cheese (room temp)

2 sticks of butter (room temp)

1 lb. of powdered sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with paper liners. I like to spray them with a non-stick baking spray because I hate it when my cupcakes stick, but that’s not required. Whisk together the flour, cocoa and salt.

2. With a stand mixer outfitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together the oil and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. The mixture should start to thicken and turn a lighter color. Add the vanilla and food coloring.

3. Add the flour mix in three batches alternating with the liquids (buttermilk and beer). I have a secret tip, I used powdered buttermilk packages. They are great because you don’t buy buttermilk and only use a little and the rest goes bad. Also, if it’s late at night and you discover halfway through the recipe that you are out of buttermilk you conveniently have a back-up plan. The best part is you use the powdered buttermilk and add 1 cup of water, which you can substitute with beer. I only used a 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup beer so it wasn’t super aggressive.

4. Stir together the baking soda and the white vinegar…it will foam. Add and mix for about 10 sec. and then turn off the mixer. Add to the prepared cups and fill about 3/4 of the way full.

5. Rotate the cupcakes halfway through the cooking process so they bake evenly. Total bake time is about 20 mins. Use a toothpick to test and make sure no batter comes out on the toothpick. Let the cupcakes cool completely before icing.

6. Mix the room temp butter and room temp cream cheese together for about 3 mins. Add powered sugar in about 1/2 cup segments until satisfied with the flavor. About 1 package of powered sugar should about cover it. I used a little less than one 1 lb. package. Add vanilla at the end.

7. Frost the cupcakes and enjoy!

These turned out really good. I will be making them again, only with light cocoa powder 🙂 Let me know if you make them how they turn out for you! Oh, and how do you like the awesome hand-stamped handkerchief that I made my buddy Liquid Culture Project for Christmas? I love it.
Cheers!

Baking with Beer: Beer Spent Grain Dog Treats

Posted on February 11, 2013
baking, beer, cookies, dog treats, Homebrew
Comments: 9

I have long awaited to make something with my spent grain from homebrewing. We recently made a rye red and was able to use some of the grain to make some dog treats!

Ingredients:

4 cups spent grain

2 cups AP flour

1 cup peanut butter (all natural)

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.

2. Press cookies down to almost a 1/4 inch and then cut a shape out of them.

3. Put the cookies into a pre-heated oven of 350 degrees.

4. Cook for about 45 mins.

5. Turn off oven for 30 mins and then heat again for 2 hours at 225.

6. Turn off oven and let sit in oven overnight or for 2-3 hours. This helps the cookies get completely dried-out so they don’t get moldy. If the cookies don’t have a hearty snap to them they are not dry enough.

My two long-haired doxies loved these cookies! Let me know if you make any if you add any variations to it. Enjoy!

Valiant Brewing Grand Opening

Posted on February 6, 2013
beer, Beer Event, Valiant
Comments: 2

I was fortunate enough to visit Valiant Brewing for a soft opening on Feb. 2nd this last weekend. The brewery is located in a hidden business park off Batavia in Orange. You can miss it if you aren’t careful! You turn down a side street and on your right is a chain link fence and to your left is a business park inlet and at the end of that street lies a hidden gem brewery.

Once inside, it’s surprising how large the space is. Most new breweries are small, and most seem to grow out of their space and brewing equipment way too fast. It seems that Valiant caught on to this fact and opted for more brewing equipment and a larger tasting room full of space for people to drink their beer in peace! The equipment was shiny and bright and full of promise. The beer was very good, especially the barleywine. The people working the tap room were warm lovely people who were more than happy to field any questions you might have with a smile.

I was happy to see some beer friends there: Greg with OC Beer Blog, Ron with OC Beer Society, Jeff (not sure who he’s with?), and Derek with Newport Beach Brewing Co.