My kind of day.

Saturday, April 9, 2011 was a lovely day filled with beer and bacon.

There were two separate beer events going on: the Drink|Eat|Play LA Beer Festival, and the ColLAboration mobile craft beer garden celebrating Tony's Dart's Away 1-year anniversary. Having attended the LA Beer Festival and other events like it for about 2 years now, I was intrigued by the ColLAboration event, which promised keepsake glasses, full pint pours, and my favorite local beer darlings Eagle Rock Brewery. I was not disappointed in my choice, which ended up offering a wider variety and more hard-to-find beers than I've been privy to try in the past at the LABF and Septemberfest. Though my four tokens were used on some easier-to-acquire beers that I haven't had yet, the communal tables at the (not too crowded, thank god) event made it easy to make friends and try more beers.

I started with Eagle Rock's Populist, their IPA. I've had it before, but it has been awhile since they often run out of it at the brewery and I haven't been able to have it in awhile.

I kept forgetting to take the picture before I started drinking -- you'll see this is a theme as the post wears on.

I next tried the Lokal Red from The Bruery, which I quite enjoyed. It had a nice floral element and some great hoppiness, which I always appreciate. I plan on trying to find this in the store to purchase, as apparently it is one of their standard brews.

Next I tried the Steelhead Extra Stout from Mad River. I didn't get a picture of it at all (fail) but it was a nice, thick, full-bodied stout. Good drinkability, but not one I think I'd buy again. My last beer of the day was Eagle Rock's 2011 Yearling, a sour ale. I don't usually go for sours, and this was a STRONG sour, so I can't say this was one of my favorite beers. Still, I am glad I got the opportunity to try it, as it is one of their "vintage" seasonals at this point and not generally available at the tap room.

As you can see, we had a rousing game of Apples to Apples happening in the background, which I won, obviously.

Did I mention all of this started at noon? So at about 4:30, I made it back home and took a power nap. Day drinking is a trip. This wonky day schedule eventually led me to Denny's at about 12:30am for BACONALIA.

Thanks to Noche for this photo.

Their bacon menu is absolutely ridiculous, as one might expect. I ended up going with the Triple Bacon Sampler, an arterial nuke complete with two strips of pepper bacon, two strips of hickory smoked bacon, two strips of turkey bacon (cheating), two eggs, and hashbrowns with cheddar and -- you guessed it -- more bacon.

It was obviously delicious.