The destination of Beaumont was selected as being the shortest distance to travel to find better air quality based on maps provided by AirNow.gov where there was also a brewery.
Within 60 minutes, Beaumont gave us clean air, a full 20 degrees cooler than at home but they had no brewery. Instead, we found refreshment at The Craft Lounge Tap Room and Bottle Shop. Hubby had a Rain Pilsner from Pure Project, a reliably good beer. I had the Nachtkrapp Schwarzbier from Ogopogo Brewing. The beertender described it as similar to Deschutes Black Butte Porter. I was impressed he even knew that beer seeing as that brewery is located in Bend, Oregon - 900 miles away from Beaumont! Aware that Black Butte Porter was an excellent beer, I was in for trying Ogopogo's Schwarzbier.
That beertender knew his stuff. The Nachtkrapp was out of this world. Only today, I discovered that the Nachtkrapp was awarded the Gold medal at the 2024 World Beer Cup. Deschutes took home four medals in 2024, three of them Gold. Ogopogo was in very good company.
We only had one and then we drove back to the Coachella Valley finding conditions were much improved. Closer to home, we stopped for a beer at La Quinta Brewing and it turned out they had another beer on tap from Ogopogo Brewing! It was their Sharlie Hazy IPA but I didn't try it because 1) I'm generally not a fan of that style of beer, and 2) I wanted to stay within the dark roast style of the Schwarzbier I had previously.
Kenna at LQB suggested their Tanline Brown which was a great followup to the Schwarzbier. But it got me to thinking, what are the chances that I would run into two beers from Ogopogo Brewing - a brewery I had previously never heard of - in the same day?
Ogopogo is located in San Gabriel, CA, a little bit east of Los Angeles. They only brew four core beers but as I learned from their website, one is a Silver medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival two years in a row (2019 and 2020): Boeman Belgian White. The Sharlie Hazy is another of their core beers available year round. After the win at the World Beer Cup, Ogopogo brewed their Nachtkrapp again and made it available on tap for, I suspect, a limited time.
I happened to have been in the right place at the right time.
Lessons learned: The next time I go back to LQB, I need to try the Sharlie Hazy IPA. And, the next time there's a dust storm in the Coachella Valley, I need to head to San Gabriel.
H/T to the Craft Lounge Tap Room's beertender who turned me onto Ogopogo Brewery and to Kenna for recommending the Tanline Brown. Don't forget to tip your knowledgable servers!
