Beer Reviews, Education and Nonsense.

I just got back from a road trip to Legoland.  “What does Legoland have to do with beer?” you ask. Well, it wouldn’t be a road trip for me if I didn’t at least visit one new brewery/beer bar or try a new beer and this trip included both!

About 15 miles from Legoland there is little brewery wonderland called Stone World Bistro and Garden.  This is one of the best beer bars I have ever been to and I would rank it as an equal to Brouwer’s Café in Freemont, WA near Seattle.  Not only do they serve all the Stone offerings but they also have an extensive tap and bottle list.  However the goodness doesn’t stop there, the food menu is incredible.  I had a spicy crab cake that paired well with Stone’s Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. My kids had two different mac and cheese offerings that were just the right amount of adventurous for kids. They also have a great vegetarian selection.  My wife was impressed that there wasn’t one garden burger or portabella burger-thingy on the list!

This is a popular destination so be sure to make reservations.  Their website does say that Fridays and Saturdays are busy and indeed they are.  I called at noon to make reservations for Saturday evening and I couldn’t even get a person. I was transferred immediately to a recording telling me that they were fully booked for the evening but I was welcome to come in and put my name on a waiting list.  I thought there would be no way we would get in but my wife convinced me that we should at least give it a try. We did get there early (4:45) and we did get a table right away.  So, I suggest you get there early or make your reservations well in advance if you are there on the weekend.

The next day we visited Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach for lunch.  If you like BBQ and beer then you will love this place.  This is my second time visiting Beachwood BBQ and it won’t be the last.  While this isn’t necessarily a vegetarian friendly place, my wife (a vegetarian) suggested we go here so she could have the bleu cheese grits with fried arugula, again.

Beachwood BBQ’s beer list is quite impressive.  Don’t take my word for it though, check out their hop cam. I especially like their hop cam because it helps me to mentally plan my food/beer pairing before I even get there.  I enjoyed Beachwood BBQ’s 4^th anniversary beer (review coming soon) which was described as a golden imperial stout.  Talk about a rule breaker but it paired very nicely with my brisket sandwich and hushpuppies.

Not only is this a great beer destination they are also the producers of my new favoritel iApp.  This FREE app comes equipped with their most updated menus, hop cam images and bottled beer and wine lists.  But, my favorite function on this app is the beer journal.  It uses the same categories I use on my Beer Goggles section with easy to use touch selections to quickly add information without having to type every word.  You can get quite detailed without having to type out a single word. Now I don’t have to worry about remembering my old school beer review notebook.  You can find the app in iTunes store.

Cheers!