Flash UYE Happy Hour – Advanced Craft Beer 3411 @ Abraxas

So I’d never been to Abraxas before but it had a massive co-​sign from Patrick. Patrick knows beer like Bo Knows everything. Other great Unilocalers were attending so I got my butt to the Beach.
Unilocalers Helping Unilocalers was my personal theme for the night. Kristy Q hooked up a ride from Zekes to Abraxas and Yislin C hooked up a ride back to the Metrorail station. Patrick hooked up beer knowledge. Michelle C hooked up laughs. Arwen G hooked up Hermosa Beach nostalgia. Donna hooked up porn gossip. Eschel hooked up snark. Michelle W hooked up a mother’s watchful eye by bringing her Mom along.
I’ll keep saying it, Unilocalers are fun people who make a good time great. You get a few of them together and it’s like Mobile Ambiance. The party doesn’t follow them, they ARE the party.

So our famous beer snob Patrick L. decides to have a get together at Abraxas. Awesome, we have been wanting to come here as we have never been. I know one thing if Patrick says they have great beer to choose from, then they do. I may be the «cork dork» but as far as my knowledge on beer well, let’s just leave that one to him.
Funny thing is on Unilocal it is listed as a wine bar so I was very happy at first until I was told um no it is more of a beer bar. They do have some wine, not really anything I cared for so I decided to stick with beer. From the outside it is cool, all white building with blue lights, cool looks quite trendy.
When we got inside, it is small, just smaller than it looks from the outside.
It is basically a dive bar, but a cool one. The young lady who was our bartender was awesome, she gave great service and was so sweet. It is very dark inside, tables, bar stools, and well yeah that is about all. What a fun place to meet a group of friends. They do not serve food but have plenty of menu’s to order delivery.
The beer list was incredible, it reminded me of a fine wine list at an upscale fine dining establishment. So many to choose from. Nate ordered a really nice beer and was nice enough to let me sample it. It was very good. I ordered a Saison (DuPont) I believe on draft. P, knew I would like it as I have had it before.
What did I love about this place:
Some very cool people to hang out with, fun time!
Very chill inside, non pretentious, relaxing, quiet, no tourist, more locals.
Awesome beer list, great pricing and Happy Hour specials
Spectacular Service
Thanks Patrick for putting this together, it was a very fun evening, with some great people. Great place, great company, yep life is good!
Looking forward to making this a repeat often!

Do I need to sign a Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form in order to review this happy hour event? «Q» had been wanting to go to Abraxas for months, and on Friday we were finally going to make it happen. Earlier in the week, I had the idea to just open it up to everyone and make it a chill, come-​as-​you-​are happy hour.
I wanted a simple evening at a relaxed bar with cool Unilocalers, and that is exactly what I got. I liked the vibe. Thanks for dealing with the Friday-​evening traffic exacerbated by the president’s motorcade to make it out — I know it wasn’t what you’d call smooth sailing out there on the roads.
It’s no secret that I love Abraxas. Beyond the fact that it has an extensive bottle menu and always-​interesting tap list, I think it appeals to me because it has that illicit feel I sometimes talk about when I review bars. It «looks» like an illegal bar being operated out of someone’s house. That it’s located in a quiet residential area and there’s a shower in the restroom only help promote that «speakeasy» feel.
And you can order food for delivery, with menus for lots of South Beach restaurants at your disposal. Eschel, Kristy and I ordered from the Sandwicherie, which proceeded to eff up our order, getting not a single one of our sandwiches quite right. But whatever, it’s cool, it’s a beer night — so we gave it a collective shrug and went with it. Besides, at least they didn’t put mayo on my sandwich!
Beer-​wise, the 2-​for-​1s were flowing early on. To start out with, I opted for the relatively light Hitachino Nest White and Radeberger Pilsner drafts. Then I ordered a large bottle of Jolly Pumpkin’s Bam Noire, one of my favorite funky farmhouse ales. You know, I always get a kick out of tasting the wild and crazy beers with people, because everyone’s palate is different — other people pull aromas and flavors that haven’t occurred to me. Eschel called the Bam the «Ketchup Beer,» and several others agreed with his assessment upon tasting. I found that odd at first, because I’d had that beer probably 10 times, and while I’d been able to think of many descriptors for that tart, funky beer, «ketchup» is one that never came to mind. Yet with subsequent sips, I did get the notes of tomato and salt.
We sampled a dark 13% Belgian ale. Sweet and port-​like with lots of dark fruits, coffee notes and a viscous mouthfeel. Some liked it, some didn’t. I know Yislin liked it as evidenced by her ultra-​classy polishing off the dregs right from the 750ml bottle… smart girl, those dregs are high in vitamin B :) Loved that! For me, I’m going with a solid B. Taste and mouthfeel were on point for this style, I felt, but it had a muddled finish and (to me) a too-​alcoholic aroma that I would consider a flaw. I could see age mellowing that out some — this could easily be a better beer 5 – 10 years from now than it is today.
We also sampled Old Numbskull from Alesmith out of San Diego. This is a classic American-​style barleywine, with high hop bitterness and massive caramel, toffee and cocoa malt character to balance out the hops and mask the 11% alcohol. Again, some liked it, some didn’t. I’m going with an A here, as it pretty much hit that style category right on the screws — a benchmark example.
Michelle C, Dom, Yislin, Michelle W and her mom, Kristy, Donna, Eschel, Nate, Grace and Arwen (Lord Elrond graciously allowed her to leave Rivendell to come party with us), it was great to hang out with you all. Thanks to Camille, Diego and Alessia at Abraxas for treating us well and keeping the brews coming!
Y — I think «The L’Heure Verte Absinthe UYE» would be a tougher sell ;)

How could one not attend a flash UYE Happy Hour with our resident beer snob, music geek and quintessential gentleman?
Yeah, there’s no way I’d miss P poppin’ some bottles of the fancy stuff.
Everyone knows Abraxas is da bomb and with bomb-​ass winning Unilocalers, this intimate group of cool kids made for a very enjoyable night.
P popped a barleywine and a dark belgian ale– I cannot for the life of me recall the names but here are my very sophisticated tasting notes:
Dark Belgian Ale– Coffee is all i tasted. Drink a bottle of this and you’ll be droppin’ panties faster than Charlie Sheen wins.
Barelywine– totally enjoyable and I was quite surprised that I liked this. P gets 4 panties dropped on a scale of 1 – 5 dropped panties for this one.
A couple of Scaldis Noels accompanied by pre-​party Peruvian beers made me feel all too happy to be droppin’ mad sausage knowledge with my gurls.
Now for the name droppin’
P– you are the fricken bomb. All the ladies should be throwing their panties at you, especially after those strong ass beers.
Q– You are my hair and soul sister! Everything is funner when you’re around.
Michelle W and Mommy– You gals are dolls and so sweet, great to see you and lookin’ forward to dive barrin’ in Sobe.
Mickie Blue Eyes– I missed your sunshine. Great hangin’ out
Dom– You are an awesome dude!
Eschel– What a pleasant surprise seeing you here. Nice chatting.
Donna– OMG I am still laughing about the Christina Hendricks thing. You are hot stuff!
Nate’s Beard– panty dropper.
Nate– Awesome meeting you, you are as winning as your tweets. You must be drinking Tiger Blood.
Arwen and Grace– So awesome that you all came out! Great meeting you both.
Great times, great beers, great company. Thank you Patrick for the Flash UYE Happy Hour. My only complaint is that there was no such flashing of any kind. Oh well, maybe the Absinthe Flash UYE?

The same nerds that were stuffed in lockers and got over 100% of their recommended daily allowance of wedgies in middle school are now driving luxury cars and have enough leisure time to making and tasting beers. The conversation during Wednesday Beer Geek night revolve around trips to breweries, and home brewing fantasies and failures. Some even jot down notes for future analysis –
Diego the owner reminds me of Fredo Corleone from the Godfather series with his slicked-​back pony tail and dark features. What you need to know is he’s the Beer Boss. He gives cicerones (beer sommeliers) and brand representatives offers they can’t refuse and they usually stop by with some rare treasures to show their respects –
32% ABV Tactical Nuclear Penguin by Brewdog. First taste gave me a coughing fit that made a brown man turn red… in a good way.
27% Utopias by Sam Adams. Double the price of the Tac-​Pen and tastes more like a barrel aged cordial than a beer.
10% ABV Heaven & Hell by Brouwerij De Molen. If you could taste a black hole this would be it.
Tastes are usually brought around in colada cups because of their exclusivity. For example, I’ve only seen 2 out of the 2,000 bottles of Heaven & Hell produced… ever.
You shouldn’t feel intimidated by the beer snobs, they’re a friendly albeit misunderstood group of outcasts that have started a community based on the their four elements water, hops, malt and yeast.

Really loved this place! first time I checked it out was this Tuesday for trivia night, where Unilocal completely poned all the other teams, and took home first and second prizes. The beer selection is awesome what I love the most is the feel of the place.
Its like somebody’s awesome loft, with a bar smack in the middle. They even have a huge mirror and the posters of Mile Davis, John Lennon, etc are amazing, not to mention the couches are super comfortable and you can tell its totally a locals crowd. I’m going to have to come visit Frenchie, AC, Eve and the beach locals more often now… f’sure!
Only thing that kind of sucks is the lack of parking since the area is mostly residential parking.