Beerpalooza! Blue Palms Brewhouse 3rd Anniversary Outdoor Beer Festival

By Daniel Drennon Mon., Aug. 8 2011 at 10:30 AM

Categories: Beer

Matt Olesh

Tap handles at Blue Palms

Seems like just yesterday, Brian Lenzo opened Blue Palms Brewhouse in the historic Henry Fonda Music Box Theatre. Now Lenzo is about to unleash an outdoor beer festival that will accommodate 1000 beer drinkers to celebrate Blue Palms 3rd Anniversary. The celebration comes complete with one of the best hard-to-get beer lists we've seen in awhile, live music by The Firkins, a dunk tank, and -- vegans beware -- steamed cow legs for the featured food (you can take the boy out of Ohio...).

The festival happens Saturday, August 13, from noon to 8 p.m. at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Gower. Tickets are $45 which gets you a souvenir taster glass, ten 5 oz. pours of extraordinary beer, and enough cow leg to feed a small army. Examples of rare beers to be had are 50/50 Brewing's Totality Imperial Stout from Truckee, California. We ask you: who else gets beer from Truckee? Other highlights are the Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada collaborative beer, Life and Limb, brewed with maple syrup. Real beer drinkers have it on pancakes. How about a one-off cask of Alesmith's Speedway Stout? Abacus and the Abyss will be in the house. So will Marron Acidifie and Red Poppy. And we haven't even touched on the line up of Russian River sours. Killer IPAs will abound.

Lenzo hails from Ohio, came to Hollywood to pursue an acting career (say what?!?), and opened Blue Palms because he was tired of having to drive north to the bay area or south to San Diego to get good craft beer. Lenzo is so committed to customer service that he is asking his entire staff to become certified cicerones, thereby experts in every element of craft beer from the styles of beer to styles of appropriate glassware. Blue Palms hosts frequent event nights where customers can meet the brewers or enjoy a "tap takeover" when a brewery's entire line up is featured.

Over the summer, Lenzo and three other beer bar owners, Clay Harding of 38 Degrees, Ryan Sweeney of The Surly Goat and Verdugo Bar, and Tony Yanow of Tony's Darts Away and Mohawk Bend, teamed up to bring beer fans ColLAboration, a wildly successful series of pop-up beer gardens.

Here's two tips on attending the Blue Palms 3rd Anniversary outdoor festival. You can walk two blocks to Blue Palms from the subway. Designated drivers are free. You might need one or the other.