The sixth annual Vegan Beer Fest hit Los Angeles this past weekend and it did not disappoint.
Presented by Tony Yanow (Golden Road Brewing, Mohawk Bend, Tony’s Darts Away); vegan blogger, quarrygirl; and event-planning expert, Nic Adler (The Roxy, Goldenvoice), the festival made an ambitious move from a parking lot in West Hollywood—where it was held last year—to Pasadena’s famous Rose Bowl Stadium and it was a perfect fit for this celebration of all things vegan.
For anyone who does’t already know, most beer is vegan. Some, like Guiness + Red Stripe, use something in the filtering process called isinglass—a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish—and others, like milk stouts or the like, include animal-derived ingredients, but most other beers are in the clear. Vegan Beer Fest brings many area and far-off, vegan-friednly craft beer producers together along with vegan and non-vegan restaurants and food vendors alike, encouraging them to show off specialty vegan menus for the day.
The result is a day full of beer samples and extravagant, increasingly impressively complex food offerings, from blowtorched vegan sushi to vegan fried chicken and bacon sandwiched between two donuts.
Really.
Below, some of what we captured/ate/drank, starting with a Neapolitan-style Lasagna Pizza from 800º Pizza + Crossroads Kitchen/Kite Hill; the Chicken + Waffle Melt from The Grilled Cheese Truck; their vegan menu for the day; our favorite food of the day, the Walnut Chorizo Tostada from Mud Hen Tavern; cuties, Chef Kajsa + Stacy Michelson from Mud Hen; the Mac + Cheese Waffle (featuring Follow Your Heart cheese) from Clara’s Cakes; Katie with said waffle; Clara + her mom showing off their MooShoes; the Ghostface Killah, an amazing ghost pepper-infused IPA from Boulder’s Twisted Pine Brewery; a Wolf Among Weeds IPA-infused cashew cheese from LA’s Nary Dairy; our friend Nic’s final slider from Native Foods; our very cute pals from Kombucha Dog; Brian L Patton, vegan chef and author of The Sexy Vegan Cookbook, showing off his bizarrely awesome shirt from Puppies Make Me Happy; the S’morrissey + Strawberry Lab donuts from Donut Friend; and musical headliners, Jamestown Revival.
You can see a ton more shots from the day of festivities via Vegan Beer Fest’s Instagram account—a great appetite stimulant and proof positive that you should mark your calendars for next year’s fest now.
