Our Bottlecraft North Park manager, Gene, selects his favorite beers of the week. You can stay up to date on our beer shop favorites through our news feed and also through our Instagram.

1. Drie Fonteinen | Cuvée Armand & Gaston | Oude Geuze, 5.5%

   We were deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Armand De Belder over the weekend. Arguably the world’s most talented blender of traditional lambic, Armand embodied Drie Fonteinen in the wake of his father Gaston’s own departure to the Elysian fields. Armand was a giant in the lambic world and a link to the past – he will be sorely missed. A tribute to father and son blenders, each a master of their art. Drie Fonteinen began as a stekerij, or blendery – the “three fountains” taken as its namesake were the classic draft-options at such establishments of Geuze, Kriek and Faro. While taste and preference has waned for the lattermost, oak-aged lambic both unfruited and conditioned on cherries remain touchstones. After many years of purchasing other producers’ raw lambic and blending it themselves, the De Belder family began brewing their own – a notoriously difficult type of beer to make. Whereas their flagship Oude Geuze continues to incorporate lambic fermented elsewhere, Cuvée Armand & Gaston is a blend of one-, two- and three-year lambic created entirely at Drie Fonteinen. Op uw Gezondheid / À votre santé!

2. El Segundo | Fremont | Montegundo | West Coast IPA, 7.0%
   Two of the top West Coast IPA brewers on that entire selfsame coast have teamed up yet again! Just last month we were floored by El Fremonto, canned off at Fremont’s facility in Seattle (and depicting that city’s iconic Gas Works Park on the label). Now the script has been flipped, with another portmanteau mashup name and an artistic rendering of El Segundo’s industrial pipeline landscape (plus a plane taking off from nearby LAX airport). With a hop-bill of Amarillo, Columbus, Simcoe and Strata, expect citrus, pine, resin and tropical fruits over a crystal-clear lean-bodied ale.
    
3. Rochefort | Tripel Extra | Belgian Tripel, 8.1%
   When a venerable Trappist brewery has just three classic beers for decades on end, and then suddenly debuts a fourth one… we sit up and take notice. Pressed up against the French border in southern Wallonia, Rochefort is known the world around for its variations on a theme of Belgian Strong Dark Ales. The first new release from the monks of the Abbaye de Saint-Rémy since 1955 (!) breaks with tradition by opting for lighter candi sugar rather than the caramelized incarnation thereof. As always, the expressive yeast-strain will come to the fore with heavy clove, pear and apple notes, alongside vibrant and vigorous carbonation. We are delighted to be among the first retailers to offer this beer stateside!