Category Archives: Bootleggers Brewery

“You Just Got DoorDashed…With Beer!” (+promo code)

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Surely I’m not the only beer geek that gets anxiety about what to bring to a party. Bring something old school and there’s a chance it’ll be a cooler-turd. Bring something too fancy? There’s a chance it will be handed off as a hostess gift and not cracked at all. This all changed when I saw Doordash now delivers beer.

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One minute I’m using an app, 39 minutes later this arrives.

Now, I can show up empty handed, do some recon, then phone-ninja some sweet-sweaty goods, rip my shirt off, flick my hair back, then jump into a karate stance, yelling “you all just got Door Dashed by the Nagel!” Then I might crack a brewery-fresh hand-delivered growler and chug a few gulps, then pour some out on the lawn for my pep-pep, then pour some for your lady, because she probably can’t one-hand pour a growler. She’ll wink, and I’ll…OMG what? I was totally daydreaming there for a bit. Sorry about that.

But yeah, this Door Dash beer delivery thing is totally real, I just pinched myself, and yes, the app is still on my phone, I click on ‘alcohol’, chose one of four breweries in my local area, chose what you want to drink, agreed that I’m over 21, then paid. OMG whoops, I just ordered some beer!

My first order I was totally skeptical. I thought the beer is going to arrive warm, out of date, and just a tad bit spendy. But listen up, I spent about the same as I would with gas, time, and actual beer cost! Note that some breweries don’t charge for growler glass, which washes out the delivery fee. You also must tip, which adds a few bucks, but hell, I’d kick down a few bills to have someone show up poolside with 64oz of fresh local beer.

The delivery time said 51 minutes. My order: two growlers and a six pack from Bootlegger’s Brewery, a scant 2.5 miles away, on the Sunday before July 4. Thirty-nine minutes later, the doorbell rang. The dogs barked. and a smiley delivery dude was at the door wielding a box, full of sweaty brown glass. The six-pack date: 12 days old. The growlers, poured fresh and tags filled out by hand.

Color me impressed. Now I keep thinking of ways to save time by using Door Dash. Hit the gym and order beer on my way home? Sit in the jacuzzi and order more beer while I’m on my last? Doing it. Ordering brewery-fresh beer while eyeballing my grocery store’s abysmal selection? Yep.

For a limited time, use doordash.com or the app and use promotional code “OCBEER” to take $7 off of orders $20 or more for a limited time. Get a burger, pizza, or even Indian food while you’re at it, when it arrives, be sure and pop in the karate stance and say, “you just got doordashed!” to your baby’s mama, or beer-bellied friends.

Sponsored post. Thanks Door Dash for including local beer in OC!  

 

Fresh, Local DIPA Tasting on a Thursday Night

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With three fresh local Double IPA’s in the fridge, what better way to spend a Thursday night than to geek out on some beer. Having been to multiple tastings, I decided to start things off blind, having my daughter pour them into random glasses, noting which was which. My previous familiarty is as follows: Bootleggers Brewery Knuckle Sandwich (10% ABV): I’ve tasted every major release with a few bottles each time. Golden Road’s Better Weather IPA (9.4%) is a newer beer, but recently drank 3 of the four cans in the last week, this was my last can in the fridge. Noble’s Tongue Tickles is a brand new beer and have never tasted it. Each beer I believe has been packaged within 1-2 weeks.

IMG_2623Now, my first instinct was to see if I could tell which was which by sight and smell which is fairly obvious for Knuckle Sandwich (KS) being darker. The other two are similar in hue, one slightly clearer than the other. Aroma-wise, I picked out Golden Road (GR) as having a more straight forward “west coast” DIPA aroma, leaving the other guy to be Tongue Tickles…and…I was right!

These glasses suck for actual beer evaluation, so I used my Sierra Nevada IPA glass for further analysis, rinsing and palate cleaning after each. Now, I can honestly say these are all very different aroma/flavor wise and the final outcome is opinion on what I prefer.

Bootleggers Knuckle Sandwich: This release seems much different than previous with an overwhelming burnt sugar, caramel, perfumey character that rides over the hops. The areas where KS win for me is appearance and mouthfeel. KS has a very pleasant foamy body chased by sweet beer and boozy finish. It seems more balanced to the malty side with this release and can taste a lot of residual sugar (edit: my bottle settled out to 1.022 in the hydrometer over night). Overall I prefer a dryer DIPA, but I can see why people love this beer.

Golden Road Better Weather IPA. Funny story about this beer; I associated GR’s IPA with being low ABV and didn’t look at the can. After one, I had a noticeable buzz but thought nothing of it. After my second pint, holy hell! I stumbled to grab the can and saw 9.4%. Very glad I was at home! Anyhow, if you can’t tell by my boring story, this is a very drinkable west coast style DIPA. Lots of citrus, catty pine, some mango on the nose with some booze that lingers the hop oils on the palate for upwards of twenty seconds(!). The bitterness rides a little too long, making the front of my tongue numb after larger sips..but all in all, I like this beer. It’s pretty standard in way of DIPA flavors. It’s very well made and recommend it.

Noble Ale Works Tongue Tickles DIPA: Based on the aroma alone I can tell there’s New Zealand hops in this guy. Being a huge fan of Nelson, Galaxy and Matueka, I feel these hops push IPA’s in a refreshing direction (Think Stone Brewing Enjoy By that’s loaded with NZ and American hops). Tickles has a lot of that west coast still intact, but adds a passion fruit, white grape and pineapple aroma. The body is slightly prickly on the tongue and being the lowest ABV of the three at 8% means there is minimal boozey finish. Of the three, this is the beer I drank in its entirety.

Basically it goes like this: I’m not as much of a fan of Knuckle Sandwich with the overall sweetness being more than I’m used to. Golden Road’s Better Weather IPA is a great west coast hopped beer, but 9.4% for an IPA? It’s almost a triple IPA for fucks sakes. Of the three, I’m really loving Noble’s Tongue Tickles for the unique hop choice, comfy 8% ABV, nice clarity and solid lasting flavor. I’d like to put it next to Enjoy By to see how it stacks up.

Have you done a similar tasting with fresh local beers of the same style? I’d love to hear about it! Saturday November 16th, Valiant Brewing Co is releasing their DIPA for the first time in bottles.

 

Great American Beer Festival – OC Preview

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Screen Shot 2013-09-30 at 8.58.37 PMSad as it is, a few of my favorite breweries won’t be at GABF this year. My hometown homies at Noble Ale Works, south county’s Cismontane Brewing Co. as well as Societe Brewing Co. down in SD didn’t make the registration cut. Their world-class beers won’t be touching the lips of craft beer desperados like a county fair kissing booth. While ‘merkans are stumbling around GABF’s halls and barfing on John Elway’s tassel loafers, Societe, Cismontane and Noble will be back at home, plotting their next attack while getting stronger than ever. I’ll miss ya boos.

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Don and Dave Larsen (Cismontane/Good Beer Co), Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Co mix it up with Patrick Rue in the Bruery’s 2012 GABF Booth. Photo – Nagel

Of those lucky enough to make the big dance, I asked each a few questions for 2013:

  1. How many GABF’s is this for your brewery?SAISON_RUE_v01
  2. What are you bringing?
  3. What categories did you enter?
  4. Doing any events or excited about attending any?

“This is the Bruery’s fifth GABF, fourth will a full force of beer.” says their director of marketing Ben Weiss. Tart of Darkness, Saison Tonnellerie, Oude Tart with Cherries, Sour in the Rye with Peaches, and Chocolate Rain will be poured throughout the fest.

Bruery events! Go here, see the Bruery. Taste their beer. 

Valiant-Brewing

This is Valiant’s first GABF!
“We’re bringing Mounds of Grounds, Pathos, Fields Ablaze, Axiom, Stentorian and First Flight. We entered a few categories:
8- Coffee beer, 13b-Imperial Porter, 69-French & Belgian Saison, 43b-Belgian Style Dark Strong, 84a-Barleywine
newport-beach-brewing-companyThis is Newport Beach Brewing Co‘s tenth GABF, but brewer Derek Bougie’s fifth.
Pouring and submitted Newport Beach Blonde (44 Golden or Blonde Ale), Newport Coast Steam (37B American Style Amber Lager), Bisbee’s ESB (58B Extra Special Bitter), Funky Monkey (24A wood barrel aged sour beer – 3 bottles per session) and JDs Reserve #2 (23 Wood barrel aged strong stout). Derek says, “I don’t have any events planned but that doesn’t mean I wont get around. I will be driving over with the New BrewThursday guys so I know we will get around to some breweries. Which ones I don’t know yet. Most likely ones we haven’t been to yet. Im hoping to bring some hardware home for the OC.”
Bootlegger’s-BreweryThis is Bootleggers Brewery’s sixth GABF.
“We’re pouring Pumpkin Ale, Black Phoenix Stout, Dr. Tongue, Far Out IPA and Old World Hefe” says Patricia. They entered seven categories:Bootlegger Pumpkin Ale- Category 05B; Pumpkin Beer; Black Phoenix Stout- Category 08 Coffee Beer; Dr. Tongue- Category 13A Other Strong Beer; Far Out IPA- Category 52 American-Style India Pale Ale; Old World Hefeweizen- Category 66 South German-Style Hefeweizen; Lupulin Thrill IPA- Category 52 American-Style India Pale Ale; English ESB- Category 58A Extra Special BitterBootlegger’s crew along with Tustin Brewing crew will be boarding our own beer bus and touring Colorado Breweries all day Friday.  Stops includes New Belgium, Odell’s, Funkwerks, Left Hand Brewing and more!
Left-Coast-Brewing-CompanyLeft Coast Brewing Co – 9 years.
Oggis Pizza & Brewing Co – 13 years. They’re bringing:
Left Coast- Hop Juice, Trestles IPA, Tommy Session Pale Ale, Una Mas Amber Lager, Barrel Age Voo Doo.
Oggis – Double Up IIPA, Black Magic Stout, McGarveys Scottish, Paradise Pale Ale,  California Gold.
“We have really high hopes for winning medals for both companies. We are excited about releasing our Barrel Age Voo Doo on draft. We have only released it in bottles in our tasting room.”, Tommy Hadjis, General Manager.
Tustin-Brewing-Co
Jerrod from Tustin Brewing Co. says, “We are pouring Golden Spike Blonde Ale, Blimp hangar porter, and Old Town IPA…two of which are GABF medal winners in the past. I entered ten categories. Not sure how many Gabf’s this us for Tustin.” Look out for the Bootleggers/Tustin Brewing Co. party bus!
Stay Tuned as I stalk Victor Novak around Denver! 
Taps-Fish-House-Brewery
Special thanks to Brew Beer Blog for letting me quickly grab his brewery logos. #i’m lazy

 

Bootleggers Moves to the Right Side of the Tracks / 5th Anniversary Details

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P1050168There’s a lot to miss about Bootleggers Brewery’s old location: Sure I’ll miss the circa-1998 Home Depot resin chairs and wobbly tables. I’ll miss the stereo trying its hardest to muffle music through years of death metal, dust and yeast farts. I’ll miss tip-toeing by the Breaking Bad creeper RV cooking meth by the train tracks. I’ll miss being walked in on while peeing by a group of girls due the lack of proper locks on the restroom door (Hi ladies!). You bet your ass I’ll miss flashing my balls at the Amtrak Surfliner rumbling by. This truly saddens me.

Death metal closed the doors at Richman.

On February 23, 2013, we came, we drank and we danced the old tasting room away.  A couple weeks went by, and the new tasting room finally opened. Bavarian picnic tables were erected. Cornhole bags flew back and forth with laser-like drunken precision. The sound of girls cheering wildly playing Lawn Jenga filled the air. The beer flowed again, and it was good.

Typical Tuesday night out with the beer peeps in the new tasting room.

 

The new location couldn’t be more perfect. Edging the corner on the downtown Fullerton map, Boots is now part of the DTF tribe. I’ve always said Bootleggers is a perfect kicking off point for a night out in Fullerton, now you can simply park on Sante Fe and actually ‘crawl’ your pub crawl.

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Amerige IPA admires the sunset

The new Boots tasting room has it all: Separate sex bathrooms, a proper Joust arcade game, forty taps, and a tasty pizza place moving in next door. The beer garden extends three areas: inside with a custom-made penny bar, outside with umbrella-covered tables and a covered/lit alcove area. For food trucks, the easy access driveway on the side makes the location a modular beer geek restaurant. The view is also stellar, especially at sunset. There’s also a pilot brewery (the production brewhouse is nearby at another location) which will serve one-off beers in the tap room.

P1050170After five years of constant growth and success, it’s nice to see a hard work pay off. On Sunday April 28, Bootleggers will host its ‘fif’ Anniversary party at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center (for the second year in a row). You should probably go! Here’s the details from Bootlegger’s website:

Sunday, April 28th We will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary with Bootlegger’s Music & Beer Fest at The Muck: Celebrating 5 years!!! The celebration will be held from 1-5pm at the historic Muckenthaler Center in Fullerton. Tickets can be purchased here or they can be purchased at Bootlegger’s Tasting Room & Pilot Brewery at 130 S. Highland Ave in Fullerton ahead of time to avoid the online service charge. Additional tickets may be available at the door for $40, but will depend on availability.

Included in the ticket price will be:

  • 10 taster tickets (additional tickets will be available for purchase)
  • Commemorative tasting glass
  • Live bands performing on stage
  • Over 30 house beers on tap including several barrel aged rarities and sour beers
  • Local guest brewery beers
  • Access to The Muckenthaler Gallery exhibit showroom.  The featured gallery will be: Vintage Travel
  • Mechanical bull ride, Bocce ball, a dunk tank, and MORE!!

In addition, there will be 3 gourmet food trucks: Dos Chinos, TJs Woodfire Pizza, and The Viking Truck as well as Brew Haw BBQ and desserts by Brew Cakes available there for you to purchase. We will also be unveiling our 80th Anniversary Ale. A portion of the proceeds from this event will go towards The Muckenthaler Cultural Center!  For additional info on the Muckenthaler Cultural Center visit: http://themuck.org

Tickets: http://bootleggers5th.brownpapertickets.com/

Pics of new and old tasting room:

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Mucking it up at the Bootleggers Fourth Anniversary

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“If it rains, we will all strip down in our undies and roll around in the mud and do the happy rain dance as we drink!” – Patricia Barkenhagen

I’m sure I’m not the only guy that read that and thought, HELL TO THE YES. Throwing an anniversary party on Friday the 13th during a storm seems like a hell of gamble. Little does everyone know, ‘gamble’ is Bootleggers owner Aaron Barkenhagen’s middle name. If I told my wife I was going to max out the credit cards to start a brewery she would probably say, “I don’t think Sears and JCPenny have brewing equipment you fucking idiot.” Then I would probably make a pork chop sandwich and watch some hockey with one hand down my pants. C’est la vie.

“Chill the fuck out, it’s only rain at a beer fest”

Has the gamble paid off? From my perspective, yes. Bootleggers has a solid core of beers led by Knuckle Sandwich, Golden Chaos, Plum Riot and Black Phoenix. Their family of beers is mammoth! Bootleggers tasting room has at least 15+ beers on tap at all times. Their beers are popping up everywhere, stores, restaurants, even Angels Stadium.

Walking into the Historic Muckenthaler Mansion grounds for the party; taster glass, map and tickets in hand, I yell “Let’s get weird!” as a crowd mutters a resounding “yeah!” The map of the Muck shows the pouring stations and what’s flowing at each. “Quite a bit of sours at station four and five” yells a six foot red-head gal. I play coy with a bourbon barrel aged 78; Bootleggers 3rd Anniversary Ale, toss it down, and pretend not to see someone I just unfollowed on Twitter. White people problems. The thirty-plus fest beers are a few of the usual suspects, varied sour and brett options, bourbon barrel aged versions and some with fruit and other yummy adjuncts. Kombucha? You betcha. Olallieberry? I like it very. Bourbon Barrel Black Phoenix? Crack remix.  Despite cold hands and damp feet, The beer was heart warming and a nice start to the fest. As I missed last year’s party, it was also a good book-end to get this year going proper.

Guest taps from Cismontane Brewing, Eagle Rock Brewery, Hangar 24 Craft Brewery and the Bruery were on hand to pour and celebrate with the damp fracas at the Muck. Evan Weinberg of Cismontane erps, “I’d be perfect if I had foot warmer, or a fluffer, or whatever” while he stick-handles a sesh Saison. Derek Bougie of Newport Beach brewing company strolls by like a cop patrolling a beat in his bright yellow security jacket. This is getting WEIRD and I like it. The brother from another motherfunker, Tyler King (and gal) poured their cedary milk stout Bourly Gourde and supersour MotherFunker with icy hands and wide smiles. Hangar24’s options were devoured almost instantly! Note to self, hit Hangar24 first. Eagle Rock’s Populist and Solidarity were also on hand to celebrate. I sip back-to-back Solidarity’s as the English Mild kicks out some solid roastyness with a sessionably low ABV. I love this beer.

I stop by the suspect Bud Light draft station and tip my cap at Bootleggers (and Roscoe’s Famous Deli) server Dana for my ration of Knuckle Sandwich. The Simcoe® hops in this beast have a way of sucker punching me in the nose every time! My favorite of the night is easily Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Black Phoenix. Imagine a flock of huge black birds carpet-bombing a crowd with whiskey barrels. Sorry to be so literal, but ZOMG it’s incredible. Aaron informs me they’re bottling this beer soon, along with their Galaxian Barleywine. Bet your ass I’ll be in line for them both.

Due to the rain, the live music was relegated to indoors. Sadly, my lifelong wish to see a  band get struck by lightning will have to wait even longer. I pop in for a listen and scope out the exhibits, but was distracted by a full bladder. The real entertainment indoors is the long line for the restrooms. Girls line one side of the tight hallway, dudes on the other. So close you could chat about which sex pees slower. Two guys behind me are pointing out the finer notes of anal sex with a man, a fact that makes me laugh hysterically while shake-peeing. “I’m spoken for, gents” I say as they laugh nervously and unzip.

As the night nears an end, I head over to the mechanical bull to witness some robotic shenanigans. Shocked to see Mika Soriano, Aaron’s sister in-law and Bootleggers employee, waiting in line to ride the bull. Due to her petite package, she has to be ass-pushed onto the thing. It starts to buck and flail, then spins quickly as she flies off like a ragdoll. Yeehaw! She talks me into a ride as the clock strikes 9:30 and they pack it up. As I just had ball-surgery three weeks ago, I’m eternally grateful…thanks, Time.

Best Friday the 13th ever.

Photos taken with my Polaroid Mio camera on Fuji Instax Mini Film. Other shots:

Other notes: The anniversary party, held at the historic Muckenthaler Mansion in Fullerton,  sits about a mile to the north of the (current) brewery and tasting room. The Muckenthaler mansion was added to the register of Historic Places in 1999. The original owners, Walter and Adella Muckenthaler commisioned the large home to be built in 1924 for $35,000, roughly a fifth of the cost Barkenhagen spent on starting Bootleggers. The home, a Spanish Colonial Revival was fairy common in that period. The Batchelder tiles surrounding the fireplace and the solarium floor shows the level of detail and craftsmanship of the foregone American Arts and Crafts movement.

 

Thrilled About Lupulin!

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High on lupulin after a night out at the Bootleggers tap take over at Bruery Provisions, I was thrilled to help write some text for a beer label. Bootleggers Lupulin Thrill is a fantastic hopped up IPA with nice citrus-pine notes on top of a slightly biscuity maltyness. I suggested the pic be a hop cone riding a tongue roller coaster, but Bootleggers did a great job with an actual roller coaster. I need to buy some bottles for posterity!

Chocosauraus Rye – A Collaboration Parody

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One fine morning in Fullerton, Aaron Barkenhagen of Bootleggers was surfing Craigslist for brewing equipment. The W4M topic caught his eye and he came upon the following ad:

“Hmmm, Every guy loves a spontaneous gal with a sweet tooth, gonna get some of this action!” thought Aaron.

From Mr. Wort to B. Ann O’Myces

I’m totally Mr. Wort. I want to get FUNKY with you soon girl! I’m a super sweet dude too, lets hook up for a beer, k

O’Myces replies:

 

Ooh, I love a nice sour, know where I could get one? Here’s a recent pic I took!

 

Aaron replies:


The Bruery has one, I’ll meet you there Friday night. I’ll have the “Drink Local” shirt on!

As this long (and totally believable) story goes, Aaron walks into the Bruery, Tyler King sitting off to the side waiting for Mr. Wort to walk through the double doors. “Aaron?”, “Hi Tyler!”. “Are you Mr. Wort?”, “YEAH, Are you B. Ann O’Myces? Oh shit…B. Ann O’Myces with a picture of a heart in a petri dish…How could I be so naive?!? Brettanomyces seeks wort! I get it now! hahaha!”, I figured this would be a great way to do a beer collaboration, with creepy dudes from the internet”. “Right-o!”.

Both grab a beer and decide on the collaboration over the hilarity. “Chocosaurus Rye” is born.

Beer Info: Orange County is surrounded by fantastic breweries these days and in the spirit of the growing local craft beer movement, we have decided to team up with some of our friends for a series of collaboration ales. The first beer is Chocosaurus Rye, which we brewed with the fine folks of Bootlegger’s Brewery. Located less than four miles from our own brewery and started within months of each other, Bootlegger’s have been great friends of ours since the beginning and it seemed fit to brew our first local collaboration with them. Chocosaurus Rye is an amalgamation of our two breweries styles: a dark rye lager that was finished with cacao nibs and vanilla beans. There aren’t many lagers that work well in the winter, but this one, full of rye spice and chocolate should do the trick.  7% abv.

It should hit the shelves before Feb 2012. The Bruery Reserve Society members have until 1/23 to purchase a two bottle allocation.

Here’s a video preview:


Apologies to Patricia 🙂

Barkenhagen’s Speakeasy (aka Bootleggers Brewery)

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The year is 1921. I’m thirsty for a goddamn beer. Damn prohibition. I tip a paperboy on the corner of Harbor and Commonwealth in Fullerton and ask what’s the scuttlebutt on some blind pig action. He says “I don’t know from nothin’ mistuh” and points down Valencia, the bad part of town. I tilt my seat back in my hayburner as the local residents watch us roll under the canopy of elm trees. My bearcat lights a ciggy as we pull into the orange shipping area of town. The other cars around tell us we struck gold. (20’s slang guide here)

Fast forward 90 years, Bootleggers gives a nod to that era. Sitting down in their tasting room in Fullerton, I get the sense they were going for either a 1920’s speakeasy, or they just don’t give a crap about the decor. The brewery and tasting room sit with eight fermenters bubbling blowoff tubes around various unmatching tables and chairs. The room smells like spilled beer, sanitizer, and yeast farts; which is precisely what a brewery should smell like. As I walk around, my shoes make a tacky noise similar to walking around a budget movie theater with spilled soda on the ground. As I park my ass in a circa 2003 Home Depot Resin chair, I clean the remnants of the last satisfied customer’s beer rings off the wobbly table with conveniently abandoned food truck napkins. Music pumps out of a muddled speaker above the restrooms, making familiar music seem dreamy and distant.The Amtrak Surfliner Train flies by outside and rattles the walls at regular intervals, perhaps re-agitating the beer aging in wooden barrels a few feet away. I contemplate running outside real quick and flashing my dick at unsuspecting train travelers, but the beer I’m drinking gets the best of me. I firmly place a foot on a table leg to prevent my beer from moving around the table top like air hockey, and take a sip.

Having just hit Bootleggers two days earlier I was really looking forward to sucking down the best beer ever; Bourbon Barrel Imperial Black Phoenix from my first official beer review. Black Phoenix is a year round offering at Bootleggers and the slight modifications they concoct keep this cowboy returning. The chipotle stout is easily one of Orange County’s greatest dark beer offerings (Cismontane’s Blacks Dawn and the Bruery’s Black Tuesday among others).  On Thursday, they had the barrel aged Imperial version, the regular version on CO2, and a version on Nitro. As the tap was blown on my fave, I went for something I’ve never tried before, Plum Riot.

Along with 18 taps, Bootleggers offers bottles, kegs, and growler fills for take away.

I was saving Plum Riot for just this occasion; when all my favorites were out. I wasn’t disappointed either! Call the Fullerton Plum Riot Police, this is one tasty Belgian Dubbel! Aroma, I get freshly toasted bread with sour plum jam…YUM! Color is a hazy blushing pale plum with a pinky finger head that fizzed away quickly. Tasted some plum hard candy and some subtle spices that didn’t stick around. This isn’t a very complex beer but would be great paired with BBQ or Teriyaki as it would draw some sweetness from the sauce. For a 7.8% ABV beer, I didn’t get the slightest hint of boozyness and was quite drinkable and refreshing.

The head cheese and his bearcat; Aaron and Patricia Barkenhagen run the joint. (credit Derek Bougie)

Bootleggers draws in all walks of life. One table was filled with some dolled up gals stopping in for a beer before going out on the town. Another table had an older couple chatting about a recent Fullerton Police beating.  Near the door is a gaggle of hipster looking types drinking non-PBR product. As the night wears on, the tasting room line is almost out the door. The music is completely drowned out by the crowd, until 9PM, when the death metal kicks in. Last minute growlers are filled and the place empties out.

9PM Leave or Death (metal)

With eighteen taps, Bootleggers has something for everyone. I highly recommend stopping in and doing a tasting flight for $4.50 with some friends. Whichever beer is your favorite, grab a pint, a growler fill, or a keg for your next party. I was shocked a 5 gallon keg of IPA was around $65! Compare that to any craft beer keg at Bevmo (over $100) and you’ll never do that again! Also keep in mind you’re supporting local business and drinking super-fresh beer! Applesauce!

They’re open Thurs-Sun and have food trucks on most nights. The location makes a great jumping off point for a night out in Downtown Fullerton. Check their website for details!