Inland Empire

What happens when great minds come together? If I told you they got “Glazed & Confused,” you might be thinking about a Harold & Kumar movie. Personally, I’d rather think the name was inspired by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant; at least that’s the soundtrack I had in mind as I popped open my Ironfire and Wicks collaboration.

“Glazed & Confused” is an Ironfire sequel of sorts. Back in December, they worked with OpenTap (a California app) to brew “Civil Strife,” a salted caramel White Russian pale stout. “The beer had a lot going on and received extremely positive feedback,” Greg Webb informed me, “So, naturally we knew we were going to have to make another one.  We figured the more creative the better. We also know that brewing something a little more off the wall is more fun with friends.”

Webb reached out to David Nichols at Donut Bar Temecula and Ryan Wicks to see: “What they thought about doing a three-way collaboration and brewing up a vanilla glazed donut golden stout.” With the addition of Rusted Iron Coffee Roasters, it became a star-studded, four-way collaboration.

The beer would be brewed at Ironfire and, like all sequels, they had to go bigger: bigger cast, more laughs, and more plot twists. True to form, this sequel would have a premiere date. It would be released at Ironfire’s Wetwood Saturday, one of the most anticipated events on the calendar. It’s the day when Ironfire releases its acclaimed Last Rites as well as digging into their treasure chest of vintage releases. Glazed & Confused may have been second bill (or lower), but it was a still a premiere.

I’d first been alerted to the beer when Ironfire posted an intriguing teaser on social media. It was a video of donuts bobbing around the mash tun like characters in a toddler’s picture book. Not just plain donuts, they had the whole assortment of flavors and colors. I’d like to think that each donut flavor was carefully hand-selected by the team for its flavor profile. But, I’m probably naïve in telling myself the same every time I ask the store clerk to throw me a random assortment together.

It was an image that immediately reminded me that I hadn’t spoken to Webb for quite a while, something I was about to rectify. Several conversations with Webb and Wicks would follow, probably exposing my unhealthy addiction to donuts. But, I do have a greater obsession with beer and how this idea of dropping donuts into a golden stout might play out.

Neither concept is new. Golden stouts have been around for a few years, and it seems like almost everyone has had a go at brewing one. Brewed like a stout, it substitutes coffee for roasted grain in an effort to achieve the flavor without the color. Other additions might include vanilla, lactose, cacao nibs, and oats. I haven’t been thrilled with the style. I love coffee. But to me it just seems like someone accidentally dropped a spoonful of instant coffee granules in my beer.

Glazed & Confused would also contain lactose, something I was further skeptical about. For me, it works in darker, fuller-bodied stouts. But while I’ve found a minority of milkshake IPA’s to be agreeable, I’ve yet to find one with enough hops to cut through the sweet sugar. I’ve shifted on several styles over the years, but I just think coffee and lactose need a little more work in lighter beer profiles.

But what about the donuts? Yes, just like the Homer Simpson memes, I was obsessed by the idea. Donuts in beer are not new either, as anyone who’s followed Dunkin’ Donuts will know. It’s a natural fit. After all, donuts and beer are both just sweet, bready dough at heart. But how would they play out in a light-colored pastry stout? Spoiler alert: it’s 9% ABV.

About six weeks after seeing Ironfire’s video, I got my cans of “Vanilla glazed donut golden stout, brewed with coffee and lactose sugar.” A huge pink-glazed donut decorates the can, cartooned to look like a face, complete with bloodshot eyes. I was back to images of Harold & Kumar, until the “Glazed & Confused” font redirected me to the similarly-named 1990’s movie. By association I was back to Led Zeppelin. The band’s song does not feature in that movie – the director had approached them and been rejected – but that’s what I was humming as I transferred my can from fridge to glass.

Having approached this beer with skepticism, the results were very impressive. You get the elements of vanilla, lactose, and dough in the aroma, alongside an enticing level of hop citrus and spice. The lactose comes through a little sugary at first. While not suppressed by the hop citrus, it is just tempered a little. The donuts add breadiness to the pale malt body, while the coffee just seems to swim quietly in the background. It drinks amazingly well for a 9% beer.

I really enjoyed it. They managed to produce a beer that tasted just like a sugar-glazed donut. It’s inevitably sweet given the concept, but they balance it out really well with the hops. The coffee, which had given me a little more apprehension, is more of an underbody. Such is the drinkability, you’d never guess at the 9% ABV. It’s a perfect harmony of three of my favorite things: coffee, donuts, and beer. The donuts take center stage, making it a little on the sweeter side, but everything is very well-balanced.

“It’s a fun beer, not something to be taken too seriously,” Wicks informed me when I messaged him inconsiderately enthused on a late Saturday evening, “It’s not a brewer’s beer, but more of a fun challenge, like those cooking shows where they have a random basket of ingredients.” He added: “It came out well-balanced and everything worked harmoniously. It’s crazy crushable for a 9% beer. Greg knocked it out of the park on that one.”

Both brewers have been busy with collaborations of late, a seemingly happy consequence of a restrictive past 12 months. On the same day as the Glazed & Confused release, Ironfire also released Scapegoat, a hazy double IPA they did with Relentless. If juicy IPA’s are your thing, this one is amazing. Ryan Wicks, for his part, has been hopping all around Riverside county. “Last year I had multiple collabs lined up before the shutdowns,” he added, “So this year I’m making it a point to brew collabs with all my favorite brewers.”

Collabs definitely seem to be on the rise as brewers break out of their covid-induced cabin fever. If 2020 left us Dazed and Confused, 2021 may see us more Glazed and Amused.

Raised in England, Andrew Smith “thought” he knew everything about beer before moving to the United States. He covers food for Locale Magazine and runs a local Coachella Valley blog at CVBeerScene.com

With hindsight, 2020 probably wasn’t the best year to open a brewery. It was March when Lake Arrowhead Brewing got approval to open its taproom – the same month the state went into mass lockdown. In a resort town, heavily dependent upon tourism, it wasn’t the grand opening that owner Travis Lanthier had anticipated. They were well supported by the local community, but what followed was a logistical obstacle course. 

There has been at least one silver lining, or a gold lining to be more precise. The brewery’s flagship, Pinnacles Pale Ale won a gold medal at the US Open Beer Championship. “This was the first beer our new brewers brewed in our facility,” Lanthier enthusiastically told me when he first got the news, “So, we are excited for what the future holds.” 

The 2020 opening meant that I’d not had chance to make it up to Lake Arrowhead, but I did manage to snag a crowler of Pinnacles Pale Ale prior to interviewing Lanthier. More on that later, but first: 

BEER PAPER: Congratulations on the gold medal. That must feel like quite an achievement in your first year. 

LANTHIER: Thanks Andrew. That means a lot. Winning a gold medal in the first year is something that never even crossed my mind when putting the brewery together. Me not being a brewer, it means that we have the right brewers on the team. It also validates the path that we have laid out in the beer program, one we are still in the middle of building. We are very lucky to have Rich [Shaltz] and Vince [Bao]. 

BP: What is about Pinnacles Pale Ale that made it such a hit? 

LANTHIER: It was a goal of ours from the beginning to have a solid mountain pale ale. I don’t really know why but I just associate pale ales with the mountains. Alper’s Trout from June Lake Brewing, Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale have always just resonated as a beer style that represents a mountain community. You feel comfortable drinking a pale ale in the mountains and I think that has something to do with what made it an initial hit with our tasting room customers. It has the right amount of maltiness you want in a craft beer and finishes crisp, while being light enough to not weigh you down. 

BP: You’ve stuck to mostly traditional styles with a few twists – basil in the strawberry blonde and cucumber in the Kolsch. How do you sum up your approach? 

LANTHIER: Our approach is “approachable beer.” The Lake Arrowhead community thrives on summer up here so you’ll notice a lot our beers are lower in ABV and something you’d want to drink while enjoying a nice day outside. Although, as the seasons change so will our beer styles. In the winter, expect traditional darker beers with some fun winter flavors in the mix. It’s important to us that we nail the fundamental beer styles first. Being the only brewery in Lake Arrowhead, we see a lot of people who have never been to a brewery or are just looking to taste the local flavor. We don’t want it to be an intimidating experience.

BP: What made you settle on Lake Arrowhead? 

LANTHIER: My wife/co-owner and I grew up in Lake Arrowhead. We moved around a bit from Portland, to Mammoth, to North County San Diego and always loved the beer scenes there. We would always talk about how there needed to be a brewery in Lake Arrowhead and how every little mountain town has one or two except for Lake Arrowhead. Fast forward ten years. The building we always thought the brewery should be in became available. We just knew it was the right timing. 

BP: There’s a noticeable group of breweries opening up in the mountain and remote areas where recently there were none. Have you noticed much of a change up there? 

LANTHIER: I haven’t noticed much of a change up here with breweries opening up, but it makes sense to see that happening. Airbnb has transformed the way people visit the San Bernardino mountains so I can only imagine it’s happening in a lot of other mountain and remote areas. 

BP: How frustrating was it to get cleared to open right when the pandemic hit? 

LANTHIER: Very frustrating. 

BP: How has Covid changed your business plan? Was it a case of throwing the old plan out the window? 

LANTHIER: Covid has forced us to execute plans that we thought wouldn’t happen until after we got on our feet a bit. We built the brewery around an idea of mostly on-premise sales. When you walk in, it’s open air, the bar looks right at the production area, and you feel like you’re right in the action so to speak. So, to shift to a to-go model from the beginning was not ideal but we knew we needed to do something. 

We had a pallet of crowlers, six different pilot beers, and didn’t know how long the shutdown would last. So, we decided on releasing one beer a week, online, with pickup at the brewery. Within six weeks, we were selling out in less than five minutes. It was fun for the community in a very unsettling time and gave us a chance to try the limited release model. It’s something that we will be implementing in the business model moving forward. 

BP: Since you opened during Covid, myself and many others haven’t had a chance to visit. Can you give us a brief overview of what to expect? 

LANTHIER: Our brewery is located lakeside in a converted metal butler building. We have a small tasting room that leads to our 3,000-square-foot beer garden, surrounded by old growth forest. The interior is a mix of modern and industrial with an open-air brewery production area. We have a core beer lineup mixed with a variety of rotating taps featuring one- offs, seasonals, and root beer.

BP: Your crowlers are something of a souvenir. Can you tell us a little more? 

LANTHIER: For a brewery our size where 4-packs don’t always fit into the mix, the crowler makes the most sense for us as takeaway packaging. We didn’t want to just slap a logo on it. Creating a souvenir was actually the driving force behind the idea. Lake Arrowhead is a tourist-driven community so, we wanted to make something that was giftable and photographable. The idea of going heavy on the branding for the crowlers was an opportunity to create a standalone product that represents the brewery while touching on a little bit of Lake Arrowhead culture. 

BP: What are your hopes moving forward? 

LANTHIER: Moving forward, we’d like to be self-distributing throughout San Bernardino Mountain range and open up a second tasting room somewhere on the mountain. Long term, we hope that LABC will stand the test of time and create a good life for everyone involved. 

BP: Thanks, Travis. 

Early accolades bode well for Lake Arrowhead Brewing, and I can certainly vouch for the quality of their Pinnacles Pale Ale. It’s streamlined and light in body, like a good west coast IPA or the Extra Pale Ale’s that you used to see 20 years ago. That light body truly accentuates the finest local water resource, while pushing the fresh hop burst to the forefront. It’s a showcase of Cascade hops, packed with fresh lemon and grapefruit citrus as well as a touch of floral spice and pine. It really fits the warm SoCal climate while evoking imagery of natural mountain cedar and pine. It’s a hophead’s delight while dialing it in at a steady 37 IBU’s.  I thought this pale ale was excellent, and thought their North Bay IPA was even better. 

Andrew Smith discovered beer at a young age back in England. He “thought” he knew everything about beer before moving to the States 20 years ago. He covers the Inland Empire on his own blog at CraftBeerIE.com  

Believe it or not, there’s been quite a bit of activity on the Inland Empire beer front – even during Covid. Oscar’s Brewing (Temecula), Hops & Spokes (Yucaipa), and Lake Arrowhead Brewing have all opened this summer. Solaris (Murrieta), Joshua Tree Brewery, and Three Marm (Crestline) have expanded their soft openings. And Temecula Brewing is currently clearing its final hurdles. If you’re keeping score at home, Brew Rebellion and Sanctum have closed.

February 2020 seems like another era. That’s when GreyWolf Brewing opened up in Norco. I’d been talking to Chad Adams prior to the opening. We knew that the Inland Empire was ripe for growth, all you needed to do was make good beer. Covid had other plans.

Circumstances deferred my first visit until June, but I’d been getting rave feedback from trusted sources. A homebrewer turned pro, Adams had hit the ground running. It helped that he landed on the location vacated by Sons of Liberty Aleworks, after they moved to Tennessee. He had to install his own equipment, but it was logistically perfect and already had a well-primed, thirsty clientele. More importantly, he was making great beer, right from the outset.

It’s a diverse portfolio that ranges from solid lagers to exceptional IPA’s and strong ales. Adams likes traditional styles, but he also has his own ideas of how things should taste. Tartarus Warhammer has already established itself as the brewery’s flagship. It was originally Adams’ homebrew award-winning Belgian Tripel. Leading with a Tripel is rare and unintentional, but Warhammer is already crafting its own fan club and reputation across the IE. I’ll let Chad tell the rest.

BEER PAPER: Thanks for talking to us today, Chad. You opened your brewery right before the pandemic hit. Has that changed your business model?

ADAMS: 100%. Initially, my plan was all onsite sales, with cans as a supplement. After five weeks, the pandemic changed all of that. Thankfully, I’d built flexibility into the business and was able to switch over to can sales, without actually missing any business days.

BEER PAPER: You probably haven’t sold as much beer as planned, but have you found it to be more work than you envisaged?

ADAMS: Sales are at about 35% of projections. The amount of work is about two to three times greater. I had intended to hire on at least one taproom assistant by this point, but with the reduced income, cannot afford the expense. Canning manually takes up a lot of time, but is absolutely essential. The frustrating part about the changes are that it takes some time to figure out exactly what the requirements are, develop a plan to comply, and implement.

BEER PAPER: You’ve quickly developed a strong reputation in your immediate surroundings. How has the reception been?

ADAMS: The community of Norco is AMAZING. They really do love their craft brewery. They are the reason I am still able to stay open. Norco is very community focused, call it a small-town vibe. They take care of each other, and have included me and the brewery in that community. Making great beer and a memorable experience, I believe, are the main ingredients in the recipe.

BEER PAPER: Covid really hindered everyone’s travel plans, but have you seen drinkers coming from further afield?

ADAMS: I have started to see an increase, yes. Partially due to social media presence, but also with partnering food trucks from outside the area. Great beer and the experience help keep people interested. The issue is letting people know we are here. Word of mouth, or organic growth was part of the plan. With all that has happened, the consumer is more critical about where they spend their money, and whether it is worth the risk. Customers telling your story and how focused you are about safety and sanitation are key to calming those fears.

BEER PAPER: You’re one of very few brewers I can think of that leads with a Belgian Tripel. I think it’s one of your favorites too. Can you tell us the story behind it?

ADAMS: Tartarus Warhammer was my first original recipe as a homebrewer. I have always been an incessant researcher when it comes to the history of a style. I had picked up “Brew Like A Monk” by Stan Hieronymus as I was curious about the general Belgian theory of creating recipes. Belgian brewers view style guidelines as just that, a guideline, compared to the German laser focus on adhering to tradition. I feel that the Belgians allow for a little more personal expression. The other side of this is that I was not 100% pleased with commercial offerings. To my palate, each offering either had too much of one character or lacked what I felt the style should have. Today’s version is actually the same recipe I first created. I scaled it up to my 5-barrel system, and despite years of experimentation, have never improved upon the original. Some of the techniques used in the process go against the grain of “how beer is supposed to be brewed,” but I think the results speak for themselves.

BEER PAPER: When I tasted your Oatmeal Pale – which I enjoyed – I immediately asked you if it was a hazy that didn’t haze. Can you tell us more about that and how it relates to your brewing styles?

ADAMS: Appropriate to the style, I prefer my beers to be as clean and bright as possible. The development of this recipe stems from the understanding of what each ingredient provides to the overall result. One of my tenets is that if you don’t know what an ingredient will provide, don’t use it. To me, American Pale Ale is generally too bitter and thin. I wanted to create a fuller experience, which generally is provided by today’s NEIPA style. I jokingly call this beer a double marketing fail. People see Oatmeal and immediately move to the next menu item. Those who get past that, see Pale Ale and, again, keep reading.

BEER PAPER: You’ve got a few good brewery cities around you (Corona, Riverside, Redlands, Cucamonga), but you’re the only one in Norco. What made you decide to set up there?

ADAMS: As my wife pointed out, Norco chose us more than we chose Norco. We are both outdoorsy. My wife actually spent her teenage years and her college years living in Norco, so we were familiar with the mentality of the community. The main factor was that the previous brewery in this location, Sons of Liberty, had announced that they would be moving. I had been actively searching for a location for about a year, so the timing was right.

BEER PAPER: Can you tell us more about your secondary hobbies, like gardening and DIY, and how they translate into what you do at the brewery?

ADAMS: The gardening stems from my mother. Growing up, we didn’t have a whole lot, and this was a way to help provide food for the family. It also taught me that fresh produce tasted better, and started me down the path of cooking and ultimately to creating recipes for wine and beer. I actually started making wine three years before my first attempt at beer. The DIY side came from my father. He was always working on projects in the garage or fixing something that had broken. I am curious by nature, so I was always taking things apart to figure out how they worked. When it came time to install and run a brewery, those lessons I learned continue to help me out. This is the business part of me speaking, but when one can fix a problem without having to “call a guy,” you save money and time.

BEER PAPER: How do you feel about our Inland Empire beer scene? Is there a message you’d like to send to our larger readership further west?

ADAMS: Our beer game is strong out here. Many of us are fairly young in our brewing careers, but we have a solid understanding of the process and are focused on quality. Many of us share ideas and work together, in addition to each having our specialties and strengths. We are focused on raising the bar and sharing our talents with the world.

BEER PAPER: When we spoke last you said you were working on Saisons – I see you have one on tap now. What else do you have planned?

ADAMS: I have a Festbier and an Italian Pilsner on my current brew schedule, once I have fermenters open up. With the decrease in sales, I have had to use my tanks for storage. I also just picked up some Kveik yeast that I will be using to make a Hazy IPA; hopefully, I will have this brewed in the next month. I am making my first seltzer this week (pilot batch). I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Raised in England, Andrew Smith “thought” he knew everything about beer before moving to the United States. He covers food for Locale Magazine and runs a local Coachella Valley blog at CVBeerScene.com