E-Malt.com News article: USA, CA: LAB Brewing Company enjoys community’s thirst for local craft beers

Craft breweries are one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. alcoholic beverage industry. In Agoura Hills, CA, several microbreweries have set up shop recently and are taking advantage of the community’s thirst for new and unique beers, The Acorn reported on July, 05.

At the LAB Brewing Company in Agoura Hills, almost a third of the more than 30 beers on tap are mixed and mashed on site by brewmaster Roger Bott.

In 2011, Bott partnered with Bentley Richards, Rod Hecker and Moez Megji and opened the LAB at Megji’s former Moz Buddha Lounge on Agoura Road.

“We’re in a perpetual state of happy hour here,” says Bott, who enjoys the enviable task of sampling his own product before it reaches the tap.

The hallmark of craft beer and craft brewers is innovation, and at the LAB (which stands for Live Art of Brewing), experimentation is a big part of the recipe.

From the LAB’s three giant copper-clad beer tanks come a host of home-grown batches such as “Honey I’m Home” (honey blonde brew); “No Place Like Gnome” (Belgian pale ale); “Big Ass Red (West Coast amber ale); “Take Her Home” (Belgian Tripel), which packs a punch at 10.6 percent alcohol by volume; and the “After Midnight Moo,” a sweet stout with oatmeal and milk sugar that provides a nice smoothness and makes for a perfect late night brew.

“We’re trying to keep things new and inventive,” Bott says.

Importantly, the beer never travels more than 40 feet before it reaches the glass. “Talk about local,” Bott says.

“I’ve been talking and actively pursuing this for a long time, and when actually I started making the beer I thought, ‘This came out pretty good’.”

The U.S. craft brewer retail business reached an estimated $8.7 bln in 2011, up from $7.6 bln in 2010, the Brewers Association says. Almost 2,000 total breweries operated for some or all of 2011, the highest total since the 1880s, according to the association.

Surprisingly, Bott doesn’t shun, but embraces the new crop of local breweries—his competitors. Besides the LAB and Ladyface Ale Companie in Agoura Hills, there’s Wolf Creek Restaurant and Brewing Company in Calabasas competing for the local dollar.

“Beer has reached that same point where people are appreciating a well-crafted product, just like with wine,” Bott said.


06 July, 2012