Rock & Roll Happy Hour

Warning: things are about to get a little heady into the brewing process, which is alright! Dan From Little Bird Brewing breaks down his thoughts an ideas when it comes to making the popular Hazy IPA with Hazy Bird Hazy IPA.

In today's beer world most people will reach for a light yellow beer when it's hot out. But a long time before now there was another light in body but flavorful and dark beer that people would reach for, the ESP or in this case an English Pale. Dark on color but huge on both flavor and drinkability Little Bird Brewing's West Kensington will transport you back in time where it would all "start in a...

Community is a big thing for Little Bird Brewing, being right in the middle of a neighborhood. It's a meeting place, a place to tell stories, a place to get away for a bit or just get to know your neighbors. No surpise the people who are always there are just as important as the beer. Today's beer the Nestor IPA takes its name from a beloved regular who loved this beer.

That little space on the corner of Thorn St & 32nd has going through a lot of changes and it's currently being reinvented again. This week Dan from Little Bird Brewing talks about the transition from Thorn St Brewing and what to expect in the tasting room at Little Bird. We start with something he knows a lot about, a Mexican Style Lager called Solita.

Can a snooty cocktail like an espresso Martini be "pinkies up" but still uber-crushable? The way Smile Spirits puts it together it 100% can be. Wrapping up the week with another 7% ABV beverage that is lighter then your massive 15% canned cocktail. The Smile Espressso Martini isn't the end of the night, it's the start of your afternoon.

Don't let the "Spicy" in the Smile Spicy Vodka Mule put you off. A recipe that came from batching cocktails as fast as you could pour them out and realizing that when the peppers don't sit on the liquid for long you get all the flavor and none of the punch!

It's been a Summertime favorite for me the Lemonade Tea Vodka. When you're out and it's hot its just the right about of sweet to tea and at 7% ABV you can have a few with out worrying about taking a nap on the 12th hole.

It's harder then you think to put a simple cocktail in a can. If you've been to a bar ever, you know that a cranberry vokda is an absoulte staple. It's flavorful, delicious and gets you where you need to be. But, sometimes when you try and put a delicate flavor like cranberry in a can it can come off a little like cough syurp. Smile hits a homerun with with their Cranberry Vodka Soda, that taste l...

Mitchell happend to be in the studios after a Last Call a few weeks back and we all "had a taste" of what Smile Cocktails was doing. Honestly, we all had a blast! So, this week Mitchell is back for a feature of his own. Smile fills that void between 10% cocktials and 5% seltzer and we start with the extremly popular Pineapple Orange Vokda Soda.

Coming from a background in coffee and beer the beer that Dan from TapRoom choose to end the week with its hitting home. The Breakfast Klub Vol. 2 is a beer with 4 different versions each sporting a different coffee varietal and I will tell you this 10% AVB beer could change the way you do brunch forever.

It's a West Coast IPA in the same way Moria was just "a mine." As Dan from TapRoom continues to show off what he can do with hops, he goes back to back with West Cost IPAs but MoonWabbler is most certianly in a class all of it's own. He digs into why and why this beer belongs on your table next time you're at TapRoom having a meal.

The hoppy love-fest continues today as we move from hazy beers to a Gold Medal winning West Coast IPA. A New Zealand hop focused WCIPA called Modern Love is a liquid love letter to San Diego's hop obession.

I should have been running the mics before we started today's beer, Dan from TapRoom is like having a secret brewers notebook filled with the best versions of past styles. Today we get into one of the most popular beers at TapRoom, PB Hazy. It' pays homage to the original Hazy beers that made their way to the West Coast from New England.

It's been 5ish years in the making to get Dan from TapRoom in the Alt 94/9 studios but we made it happen! All week we're diving into the beers he's cranking outta the North Park brewery. We start with a throwback collaboration with Living Haus Brewing outta Portland Oregon that takes inspo from a San Diego favorite from a few years back.

At the begining of the week Mo from Deft Brewing said they focused on three regions of beer styles: British, Germanic and Belgian. Up to this point we've yet to see a Belgian, so Mo is making up for lost time with a 10% ABV monster Belgian Quad called DeftCon 4.

It's one of the hottest days in July (so far) and Mo from Deft Brewing brings a Porter?! It's OK, Porters happen to be one of my favorite styles of beer and at one point in history more common then you're standard IPA. We get into a little history and a little style with Deft Brewing's Dawn of the Deft Porter.

Mo from Deft Brewing threw down the gauntlet AGAIN! What at first glance I thought was going to be another malty beer, he flipped the table and threw some hops at me. DeftHopt Red is one of three different inspirations for Deft Brewing's IPA offereings and like the beers showcased before is a real treat in a glass.

Mo from Deft is flexing the brewery's style prowess yet again with a beer I'm not sure we've ever had on the program before or at least not under the name Scottish Export. MacDeft is a oddly satifying malty summertime beer, malty sweetness on the nose but a dry a flavorful finish.

It's kinda of like the "secret beer garden" of San Diego, tucked away in a small corner of Bay Park, Deft Brewing has been cranking out fantastic beers for more then a few years and they aren't just all IPAs. This week we explore a bunch of differenmt styles coming out of Deft and we start things off with their best selling Bay Park Blonde Ale.

Just because it's Summer, doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy a nice bold Imperial Stout. Another Nickel Beer Co award winner Constantine Imperial Stout rounds out the week as Tom brought some Nibble chocolates to pairing along with this robust yet easy drinking stout.

With the roots O'Brien's has is Futbol it only makes sense for Tom and Tyson to team up for a Nickel Beer Company and San Diego Brewing colab, Raise the Cup IPA!

This beer seems to keep popping back up on the show and for good reason, a medal winner at the beer fest and magical anytime beer Carlsbad Crush from Burgeon is true San Diego favorite. SD Fair Craft Beer Experience Curator Tom Nickel even has a very surprising comparison.

Tom and Tyson drop by with another award winner that you can find at the San Diego Craft Beer Experience at the SD Fair this year. OB Brewing is not a brewery that will be pidgon-holed into a single IPA sytle of brewing, they make a vast array for styles one of them perfect for the fair or the ocean breeze, Rooftop Hef.

Summer is here along with the San Diego County Fair and with that a brand new Craft Beer Experience curated by Tom Nickel and Tyson Blake. All week these to icons of local beer will showcase what you can expect to enjoy when you head to the fairgrounds, starting with an award winning beer from Tyson's on San Diego Brewing Company, San Diego Gold.

Wrapping up a week worth of breweries you'll find at Rhythm & Brews this June 28th we end with "The Party Planner" Kylie from Pure Project! We get one more sample of what to look forward to with a crushable San Diego beer that is a staple for summertime, Tropical Mist.