{"id":16035,"date":"2016-12-22T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=16035"},"modified":"2016-12-21T16:25:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T00:25:47","slug":"beer-touring-arts-district-brewing-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2016\/12\/22\/beer-touring-arts-district-brewing-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer Touring: Arts District Brewing Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Though she spent a relatively short period helming fermentation operations at Pizza Port<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s original Solana Beach location, Devon Randall<\/strong> brewed up a good name and following. Many were disappointed in 2015, when\u00a0she left\u00a0that position and <\/em>San Diego County to assume the head-brewer role at a start-up brewpub in Los Angeles. Named for the downtown La La Land neighborhood it inhabits, Arts District Brewing Company<\/strong><\/a> is where Randall currently hangs her hat, as well as the Great American Beer Festival <\/strong><\/a>silver-medal she won in the Smoke Beer category this summer.\u00a0That hardware went to\u00a0Cowboy Curtis, a smooth-drinking smoked porter that\u2019s one of a great many beers Randall has concocted since Arts District went live a year ago. It\u2019s a good beer and indicative of what one can expect when visiting Arts District\u2014balanced, extremely drinkabile brews with nice but not overblown upstrokes of flavor. It\u2019s fair to say that the beers she brewed at Pizza Port were bolder, but subtlety is most prominently on display at Arts District; something that\u2019s arguably more difficult to achieve and essential at her new stomping grounds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Arts District Brewing Co. head brewer Devon Randall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Solana Beach, Randall\u00a0worked at a craft-beer Mecca known across the country as the first link in a chain displaying legendary brewing prowess. There was no one to convert. Everybody who showed up were hallelujah-shouting\u00a0members of the hop-head choir. Though there is a burgeoning and swiftly growing\u00a0craft-beer scene in Los Angeles, Randall is right to dial things back to a small degree. Doing so should help win a larger percentage of patrons over during Arts District\u2019s infancy. Most Angelenos don\u2019t arrive at Arts District aware of Randall’s\u00a0solid reputation, so they\u2019re getting to know her through her beer-list, which is highly varied, offering ales ranging from session to the low-end of high-octane.<\/p>\n

When visiting last month, 17 house-beers were on-tap. Seventeen!<\/em> Holy Bagby Beer, Batman! On the lighter, more introductory end were\u00a0an English summer ale, golden ale, Belgian singel, wheat amber ale, oatmeal stout, and an\u00a0Irish-style\u00a0dry stout and red (on nitro). Each of them are extremely to-style and only two come in above 5% alcohol-by-volume. The smoothest of the bunch is the aptly named Velveteen Rabbit oatmeal stout, while the best of the thirst-quenchers in this group is the singel, which goes by the name Francois. A Bavarian pilsner (a new addition to the line-up) is a light yet potent archetype of this en vogue style that also hits the spot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Experience across various\u00a0styles is one of the key attributes a good brewer picks up working within the Pizza Port structure. So, too, is the ability to brew a mean IPA! Randall\u2019s were some of the best in San Diego and often incorporated one of her favorite ingredients: rye. Arts District had five India pale ales on tap when I was there. My favorite was Redbird, a red rye IPA (a version of which was available in Solana Beach under the name “Ghost Fire Spider”) with\u00a0a citrusy hop-bill supported by\u00a0a malt-bill rife with\u00a0peppery rye-spice. Even with all that complexity, it goes down (maybe a little too) easy. A wheat-infused IPA called Expo Line is similarly drinkable, but flagship IPA Traction is where it\u2019s at for those seeking a little more body to go with an onslaught of orange and stone fruit-like flavors.<\/p>\n

All of Randall\u2019s beers are served (along with a succinct but admirable list of guest-beers) at a long rectangular bar erected around stainless steel tanks. Seating is provided indoors and outdoors, plus there are myriad games\u2014Skee-ball, ping-pong, darts\u2014and a pair of food options. A small eatery called Fritzi is attached to Arts District, but because there is no passage from one venue to the other and only a handful of house-beers are available there, I\u2019d recommend ordering from the limited food-menu offered at a walk-up window inside the main space. Or just skip the food, but make sure to sample through a decent number of Randall\u2019s ales. They\u2019re definitely worth the trip.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Though unorchestrated, the timing of this post works out well in that Randall and her beers made guest appearances at Toronado <\/strong><\/a>in North Park during last night\u2019s Drinkabout festivities, meaning there\u2019s a good chance the latter can be sampled by locals who, like me, miss this talented brewer and liken losing her\u00a0to the City of Angels, to seeing former Padres player and coach\/current National League Manager of the Year Dave Roberts sporting Dodger blue. Of course, SD-homerism isn\u2019t required to enjoy Randall\u2019s brews. All you really need is a simple appreciation for good beer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though she spent a relatively short period helming fermentation operations at Pizza Port\u2019s original Solana Beach location, Devon Randall brewed up a good name and following. Many were disappointed in 2015, when\u00a0she left\u00a0that position and San Diego County to assume the head-brewer role at a start-up brewpub in Los Angeles. Named for the downtown La […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[367,368,369,1],"tags":[1353,3465,1340,376,442,3466,3469,391,3468,1019,319,466,467,1739,2483,1010,3467,2112,1307,15,296,1439,334,1560,1597,161,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-16035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-events","8":"category-beer-news","9":"category-beer-styles","10":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","11":"tag-sdbeer","12":"tag-arts-district-brewing","13":"tag-bagby-beer","14":"tag-beer","15":"tag-brandon-hernandez","16":"tag-city-of-angels","17":"tag-cowboy-curtis","18":"tag-craftbeer","19":"tag-dave-roberts","20":"tag-devon-randall","21":"tag-drinkabout","22":"tag-gabf","23":"tag-great-american-beer-festival","24":"tag-india-pale-ale","25":"tag-indiebeer","26":"tag-ipa","27":"tag-la-dodgers","28":"tag-labeer","29":"tag-los-angeles","30":"tag-north-park","31":"tag-pizza-port","32":"tag-san-diego","33":"tag-san-diego-padres","34":"tag-smoked-porter","35":"tag-solana-beach","36":"tag-toronado","37":"tag-west-coaster","38":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/adbc_00.jpg?fit=1000%2C796&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-4aD","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}