Needless to say we had an absolutely lovely time at the festival; drank unlimited delicious craft beers, sampled some fine vegan cuisine, and played a splendid acoustic set while basking in the sublime California sunshine. Thanks to Nic Adler, Scott Reifman, Heather Kohos, and all at the Roxy for taking great care of us as always.
As per vegan beer.
Apparently the reason some beers are not considered "vegan beer", is because they use ingredients in the brewing process which technically contain animal products. Obvi. The reason you may not know this is because in most cases the animal products are used in small amounts as clarifying agents, for head retention (mmmmm, fooooaaaaamm), and coloring. Not to mention the U.S. does not have any laws requiring the listing of non-vegan products. For those of you that are concerned vegans or just pleasantly interested, here is a very informative web site that will get you privy to the vegan beer concept: nomeatathlete.com/vegan-beer/. I've found a few other sites that hip the public to which beers are in the vegan realm and which beers are not.
Clearly I've found this subject rather stimulating.
But not quite as stimulating as Colman's stretching routine before our set:
Not really, but I thought it was funny.
Several of our favorite beers are technically vegan, including Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam, and Stone Brewing Co.
Naturally we "sampled" these in copious quantities.
We also discovered a couple brewing companies which we were delighted with. One was Epic Brewing from Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah! Who knew? Along with sharing a couple lovely brews at the fest, Epic Brewing also donates to jazz music education. Bonus!
Another favorite was Smog City Brewing. This very new brewery is right here in Los Angeles, just launched this year. Though they don't have an official website, you can read a little about them here. Their imperial IPA was a big hit with us as it was with everyone apparently. They ran out pretty darn fast.
Along with the beer, I personally sampled some vegan chocolate covered bacon (what!!??), french fries with hummus (the cornerstone of beer-y vegan cuisine), and some delicious vegan tacos made with soyrizo. Yep, soyrizo. It's like chorizo but....not. And they were mighty tasty I must add. These I got at the Plant Food For People truck which I highly recommend checking out. From what I gather on the net, they are located in Highland Park and I'm not sure if it's strictly a taco truck kind of thing or if they have a place, but you can look into it here. Great stuff.
All in all, we had a super-rad time at the LA Vegan Beer & Food Fest. Definitely look forward to next year's.
More soon.
Ty
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