Goose Island And Shock Top Specialty Brews Blend Perfectly With Bands And Bugs In 2013

Always a fun event, the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival elevated itself in 2013 with the addition of a craft beer garden.

In an enhancement to the usual selection of beers, there were also several selections from Chicago craft brewer Goose Island and and also a wild variety of flavors from Shock Top.

The beers poured in the sandals-friendly and palm tree scenic Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach, CA, were:

• Shock Top Lemon Shandy
• Shock Top Belgian White
• Shock Top Raspberry Wheat
• Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple Wheat
• Good Island Honker’s Ale
• Goose Island IPA
• Goose Island Harvest Ale
• 312 English Summer Ale
• Kolsch

Having this variety of quality craft beers where bands played continuously in a sandy lagoon a few shuffle steps to the Pacific Ocean, where the bright Southern California sunshine eventually gives way to a spectacular sunset and then a star-filled night, is a tremendous enhancement to this event. It was held Sept. 20-22.

I spent much of my time flirting with the perky blonde beer pourer at the Goose Island taps. I had Honker’s Ale, the Harvest Ale and then IPA. Honkers Ale is the “lightest” of the three, the Harvest Ale has the ability to be dark but not overly heavy and the IPA is a nice balance between the two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All three are great for the bands, which ranged from punk and reggae on Friday to Bruce Springsteen and Journey cover bands on Saturday to New Orleans Zydeco on Sunday. And frankly, Sunday is one of the most fun days at the Lobster Festival.

Just about everyone in the South Bay passes through the gates at some point, making this a fun, annual Beach Cities event. It’s always held the third weekend of September,

The singles mainly come for the beers and the bands, while the families are there primarily for the bugs.  The lobsters are a full dinner and are quite tasty. I know this from the past but not the present, for this year I opted for the steak dinner.

Yes, at a lobster festival, I had steak! My reasoning was simple: lobsters are a bit messy and I was feeling somewhat refined on this particular Saturday night. And the steak was terrific; if I had it in a restaurant I would most definitely return to have it again.

There’s more food than steak and lobster dinners, by the way. Booth serve Cajun food, BBQ and  BALEEN Kitchen in the adjacent King Harbor Marina tempted people with its lobster mac ‘n cheese and lobster sliders.

And then it’s party time to the fun bands that get people off the chairs at the table to dance at the stage.

For a full review of this event, go to: www.pubclub.com/losangeles/rblobsterfestival.htm

The official site of the Lobster Festival is: http://lobsterfestival.com/

Cheers!