This is beer’s golden age in the United States with new breweries opening up all over the place. It seems like every day you hear about a new beer. With the increase in beer popularity, beer festivals have become more and more common. In Los Angeles alone, there have been countless beer festivals already this year; a different one almost every weekend. They are usually all more or less the same: lots of breweries setting up booths to showcase their beer. However, the Beer, Art, & Music Festival is changing the status quo, showing that a beer festival can be much more than just sipping the refreshing beverage.
This past Saturday, Santa Monica held its sixth Beer, Art, & Music Festival presented by Whole Foods Market, and it had it all. Over 40 breweries were present pouring more than 100 different brews for attendees to sample. Artists came in from all over the world to showcase their beautiful artwork. Many local musicians stopped by to jam with the crowd. There was also a great selection of food trucks to go with the delicious beer. And if that isn’t great enough, the Beer, Art, & Music Festival was a fundraiser with all proceeds benefiting 18th Street Arts Center, a non-profit artist residency center.
After enjoying the festival, we compiled some of the highlights for us at FestivalsForLife.
The Beer
There was definitely no shortage of beer, with breweries showcasing some of their classics and newbies. Logistically, it was put together beautifully. Unlike many other beer festivals, there was never much of a line to sample the different brews. Attendees were pretty much able to walk straight up, and try a beer with no wait. Whole Foods also provide attendees with pretzel necklaces to go with the beer. After trying all the different breweries present, we had a few favorites.
Modern Times Beer– The San Diego Brewery focuses on aroma-driven, complex, flavorful, sessionish beers. They had two beers they were sampling. The first was the Lomaland, which they describe as an earthy, rustic Belgian-style farmhouse ale. It has the smell of hay, pepper, and friendly sunshine. Its dry, cracker-like body and lightly-hoppy finish makes it a beautiful compliment to food. The other brew was Fortunate Islands, which they describe as sharing the characteristics of an uber-hoppy IPA and an easy drinking wheat beer. A massive dose of Citra and Amarillo hops gives it a blastwave of tropical hop aromatics: mango, tangerine, and passionfruit all leap out of the glass. Brewed with 60% wheat malt, Fortunate Islands also has the mild, nutty malt backbone, reasonable ABV, and restrained bitterness to make it an outstanding session beer. We had a tough time trying to figure out which we liked more between the two, since they both were excellent brews. They both proved to be perfect refreshments for the hot weather, and each had a remarkable amount of flavor.
101 Cider House– While there were many delicious beers present, we had to give a shout out to the delicious cider of 101 Cider House made locally in Los Angeles. Our favorite here was their flagship cider- SoCal Scrumpy. It was a very dry farmhouse style cider that actually uses orchards along the 101 freeway. It was also a raw cider, which gave it similar characteristics of kombucha. While this was our favorite cider of theirs, we can honestly say that they all tasted great.
The Art
While getting more than your fair share of beer was a blast, the Beer, Art, & Music Festival also allowed attendees to walk around the venue and see all types of artwork. This was the perfect break from the hot sun, and also allowed you to walk around and enjoy beautiful masterpieces while sipping on your beverage. There were multiple galleries set up for everyone’s viewing pleasure.
There were also stations that were more interactive. We even went to a class on how to tell different beers apart, a whole art form on it’s own. Additionally, there were stations where people could all contribute to the artwork by adding their own additions.
One of the most unique showcases we saw, was a lady chopping onions. Upon an closer examination, we realized that she was cutting onions to make herself cry. She was then collecting tears to water plants she had on the table. Her goal was to grow plants, by only giving them tears for water. Unique to say the least!
The Music
If you hadn’t obviously guessed it yet, the Beer, Art, & Music Festival had a third element- music! Throughout the day, different groups performed on the stage located right next to the beer sampling. This was great, as attendees were able to enjoy the music going on, as they sampled the different beers. As the event progressed, and more beer was consumed, you could find more and more folks starting to dance in front of the stage.
The Food
All the walking and drinking built quite the appetite for those in attendance. Luckily for everyone, there were multiple food trucks in attendance. Our favorite had a very appropriate name, BrewWings. They work to pair unique gourmet chicken wings with local LA/OC Beer. We tried one of their specialties, the Kickin’ Chicken Sandwich, which was their signature grilled cheese, stuffed with their seasoned chicken, bacon, and fresh jalapeños. As you can imagine, this grilled cheese had a kick to it, but it was delicious. It proved to be the perfect meal to go with all the beer we were consuming. We will definitely be coming back to try the other menu items!
About Beer, Art, & Music Festival
“In its sixth year, Beer, Art, & Music Festival is the brainchild of cultural event producer Nicole Gordillo Schimpf, who created the event while on staff at 18th Street Arts Center. Nicole is a beer geek, to say the least. Her discriminating taste for the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar is a polished one. When she launched the very first Beer, Art, & Music Fest in 2009, she merged her sensitivity for tasty brews with her keen eye for art all to benefit the premiere artist residency program in Southern California. In 2013, Nicole started her own event production company, Tap & Cheer Events, and because of her dedication to the arts, she produces this sell-out event year after year.”
