I feel that I have been remiss in my beer alert duties. There are some new breweries that I should have put on your radar before now.

Let’s go through the list alphabetically, starting with Brouwerij West. For the longest time, I thought they were a Belgian brewer. And for a longer time, I didn’t pronounce their name right (it’s pronounced brewery). Nick Brown and Brian Mercer have been supplying their Blonde ale around town since last year so they aren’t technically new. But they have started selling their Tripel lately. It is the bigger brother to the blonde with 8.25% alcohol. And you may start seeing it and the blonde in bottles.

Iron Fist Brewing is a small, family run brewery on the ale soaked stretch of the 78 Freeway in Vista, California. You may have seen Velvet Glove their stout which has been on tap around town but they also have large champagne style bottles of their wit bier, Spice of Life, their dubbel which is appropriately named Dubbel Fisted and a Golden ale by the name of Golden Age. A wild ale and two imperial beers, one an IPA the other a stout are in the works as well.

Lastly, SoCal Beer Company has been holding, “get to know us” soirees around town all week. Starting at Blue Palms and continuing on to Blue Dog and Library Alehouse with their introduction of their Seismic IPA and Red Carpet Ale. In the near future both a pale ale and porter will join the standard line-up with seasonal releases to follow after that. These beers are the result of home brewing since college. The IPA was my favorite of the night with medium/low hop bitterness and a nice balance of biscuity notes. The Red Carpet was a trio of flavors as the hops and cereal were joined by sweetness from the dark malt.

For the craft beer of the week, we head to another young SoCal brewery, the fast growing Hangar 24 from Redlands for their Alt-Bier. It pours a lovely copper/brown with a minimal aroma but lots of malt taste and a pleasant sparkle to it. This would be a lovely spring BBQ beer. It is available in six-packs.

Your homework this week is to try your hand at some beer photography. I try to always have my camera with me to capture the sun reflecting off of an IPA or the cappuccino lacing on an imperial stout. Beer photos are a great way to see the visual that we sometimes miss as we savor the aromas and flavors of the pint in front of us. Once you have unleashed your beer Ansel Adams, e-mail me ([email protected]) your best shot(s) and if I get enough entries, I will do a post of the best ale, keg or tap photos.

Find more of Sean Inman’s writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.