The Brief

Yuzu, matcha, shiso — you’ve likely had them at a Japanese restaurant. But how about in a beer?

A handful of independent breweries here in Los Angeles are pushing creative boundaries, blending European beer-making methods with Japanese ingredients, resulting in some truly remarkable creations.

Like a tart matcha wheat beer crafted by a medical researcher with a Ph.D. Or a Belgian-style tripel brewed with sake yeast in a Covina business park. It all fits right in with the region's emphasis on embracing new and cutting-edge beer styles.

It's notable that the experimentation with Japanese ingredients is happening here, not Japan. That's because the Japanese craft beer scene, while burgeoning, is still small compared with its U.S. counterpart. (It’s only been in existence for about 30 years, after a change in local microbrewing laws). So it's still got a fair way to go to catch up.

Here are some of the SoCal breweries marching to their own, Japanese-inspired drums.

n/Soto and Cellador Ales

Alex Ourieff, owner of Cellador Ales in Torrance, specializes in farmhouse ales, a brewing method traditionally used by European farmers.

Today, that style means using ingredients sourced from local farmers, fermented inside wine barrels with a blend of yeasts and bacteria to create distinct flavors. Ourieff’s beers tend to be more sour, but they also have floral and fruit-forward notes, which add depth and make each batch always enjoyable.

After forming a relationship with n/soto, a casual upscale Japanese restaurant located in West Adams, Ourieff and n/soto general manager Mark Nechols decided to collaborate on a beer.

The vision was to create something that would complement the restaurant’s izakaya-style menu, a Japanese version of bar bites, which features everything from grilled skewers to crispy tempura.

n/soto x Cellador Tart Wheat Ale only available at n/soto in West Adams.

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Courtesy n/soto

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A shiso leaf grown at Yasutomi Farms in Pico Rivera, used for the n/Soto x Cellador Tart Wheat Ale collaboration.

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Courtesy Cellador Ales

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The beer, n/soto x Cellador Tart Wheat Ale, uses one of Cellador Ales' Belgian-style witbiers (a wheat beer) as its foundation, known for its creamy mouthfeel and golden appearance due to its unfiltered brewing process.

It's then combined with yuzu, the Asian citrus fruit; sansho, a green peppercorn known for its subtle numbing heat; shiso, an aromatic herb that’s part of the mint family, locally grown at Yasutomi Farms in Pico Rivera; and ginger, sourced from Her Produce in Fresno.

Finally, the beer is naturally carbonated with local honey.

Nechols says he wanted to challenge the stereotype that traditional Japanese beers are pale, crisp, and easy to drink, like those offered by Sapporo, Kirin Ichiban, and Asahi. (Those are not sold at n/soto by the way.)

Alex Ourieff, owner of Cellador Brewery in Torrance, where he creates his barrel tart farmhouse ales.

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Courtesy Cellador Brewery

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“ I think we made a beer that has good drinkability using only local products, and that’s along the lines of what I was thinking with this collaboration,” Nichols said.

When I tried the beer recently, it was tart and slightly funky, underscored by subtle herbaceous flavors. The added ingredients complemented the light, wheat-based style of beer that I already enjoy, and its subtlety made sense in a Japanese restaurant.

The beer is currently available only at the West Adams restaurant, with plans to keep it in rotation for the foreseeable future.

Ikasu brewing

Located inside the Native Son tap room in downtown Los Angeles, you can find Ikasu Brewing, and owner Masahiro Kitano, who goes by Masa. Kitano has the look of a mad scientist, with messy hair and wild eyes behind his glasses, perhaps because that's not too far from the truth.

After earning his Ph.D. in medical science from Osaka University in Japan, he came to Los Angeles to begin a post-doc fellowship, initially at Cal Tech and later at USC, studying cancer biology.

Masahiro Kitano, the owner of Ikasu Brewing, who goes by Masa, holds up a taster of one of his recent craft beer creations.

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Gab Chabrán

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During that time, a fellow post-doc introduced him to the concept of home brewing. He started experimenting and eventually joined the local homebrew organization SoCal Cerveceros, where he began entering his creations in contests — and winning.

That’s when he got the idea to start Ikasu, a name that’s slang for something that’s cool and in the moment, aimed at creating one-of-a-kind beers that showcased Japanese ingredients.

“There are so many unique Japanese ingredients that never show up in beer, and I wanted to experiment with that,” Kitano said.

For his first, now flagship beer, called LArigato (‘arigato’ means thank you in Japanese), he wanted to produce a rice lager, the most common type of beer found in Japanese brewing, which uses rice instead of malt barley.

For his creation, he bought Japanese rice grown in California and ground it into a rice powder to create what he felt was a fuller-bodied flavor and softer mouth feel.

He also made a variety of other malt-based beers, like Goma Me (‘goma’ means sesame in Japanese), a dark, porter-style beer made with black sesame seeds. It combines roasted flavors with a hint of umami, similar to the taste of black sesame seed ice cream.

“ Usually, umami is an off flavor in beer, but if it's intentional, it gives a different story,” Kitano said.

Those roasted umami flavors really came through when I tried it, complementing the creamy texture of this beer style, making it a great alternative for when you get sick of drinking Guinness.

His most experimental beer is the Matcha Tart, inspired by the sour German tart wheat beer known as a gose, which is renowned for its unique blend of salty, sour and refreshing flavors.

Kitano himself describes the addition of matcha as a “super weird combination,” and it certainly was that.

I could taste the notes of matcha’s earthy flavors, along with a savory umami undertone and just a hint of tartness. I’m personally not a big matcha drinker (I prefer coffee), so it’s not something I would order regularly. Still, I appreciated the lengths Kitano is willing to go to create something completely original.

Finally, I also sampled the Yuzuko Show, a saison, a Belgian-style farmhouse ale. Kitano makes it with a fermented mixture of chili pepper, yuzu peels and salt. I could definitely taste the black pepper and citrus; I suggested to him it could be a a perfect base for a michelada.

Kitano now has six beers on rotation at Native Son, as well as kegs at a few select locations around L.A.

Nova Brewing Company

Way east of Los Angeles, in Covina, is Nova Brewing Company, a small three-person operation. It’s led by James Jin, who is the head brewer and co-owns the brewery with his wife, Emiko.

Jin, who is Korean-American, grew up in Southern California and attended UCLA, where he studied Japanese. After graduating, he participated in an exchange program in Japan and traveled back several times, teaching English. He then moved to Thailand for four years before running out of money and returning home.

He took a job at Mutual Trading, a Japanese importing business, where he met Emiko, who is Japanese, while they were both taking a sake sommelier course.

Growing up, Jin said he’d always had a strong interest in both Japanese culture and craft beer. In 2019, he completed two apprenticeships at prominent breweries in Japan, Inaba Brewery and Kiuchi Brewery, which produce both craft beer and sake. There, Jin learned the ins and outs of brewing both.

James Jin and his wife, Emiko, owners of Nova Brewing Company.

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Courtesy Nova Brewing Company

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“I’m serious about sake, but I love being playful with beer,” Jin said.

Later that year, he and Emiko took over an older brewery space in Covina and began making their own beverages. They now have seven craft beers and five sakes, with Emiko overseeing the financials.

Jin focuses on creating a product that’s as natural as possible, even down to the water, which goes through a two-part filtration system before it gets added to his beer and sake.

While many craft beers today are heavy on hops, Jin prefers to go in a different direction, playing with the level of malt for a smoother flavor profile and using hops sparingly to include only a hint of bitterness.

The current lineup of the craft beers at Nova Brewing Company.

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Gab Chabrán

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Jin’s two signature beers, part of his Ginjo 7 series, are two blonde ales, both brewed with sake yeast. The white label blonde is light and crisp due to the addition of steamed rice, while the blue label contains wheat and oats, giving it a creamier mouthfeel. Both had floral notes from the sake and went down easily.

Another beer, the Oolong Island, features roasted oolong and yellow peach, providing a perfect amount of sweetness balanced with a slight nutty note. The name itself is a play on the Long Island iced tea cocktail, as an homage to its combination of flavors.

While Jin is happily at home in his Covina location, he eventually hopes to move the business closer to Los Angeles and build a large facility devoted to craft beer and sake. For now, he’s renovating his current space for those willing to make the trip to taste his unique creations.

You can also get his beers at a couple of different outlets.

Topline:

The backstory: Once a year, dozens of sound artists converge on the hill with views of the harbor below to perform their audio art, which can range from serene to “beautifully weird.”

What to expect: This year includes a performer bending a bar of tin with his bare hands to get it to emit what’s called a "tin cry" and synthesizer-based soundscapes that take inspiration from both the ocean and the industrial space below.

When to go: Soundpedro is free and lasts from 7-10 p.m. Saturday.

More info at the Soundpedro website.

You may know about Union Station as an L.A. landmark or as a transportation hub — but how much do you know about its rich architectural history?

To foster that interest and knowledge, Metro created a series of public tours of the station this spring.

“There's so much that you might just walk by without really having the opportunity to delve deeply into,” said Zipporah Lax Yamamoto, deputy executive officer of Metro’s art program. “[The tours are] a really wonderful opportunity to be able to spend time with the station, learn more about the historic landmark, which belongs to all of us.”

Union Station in Los Angeles

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Myung J. Chun

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Getty Images

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Architectural style

It’s called Union Station because when it opened in 1939, it connected the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway.

While it was designed by father-and-son team Donald and John Parkinson, the architects who gave us L.A. City Hall, its style is very different. Union Station’s interior and exterior mixes art deco, Spanish colonial and other styles into a hybrid dubbed Mission Moderne.

As you begin the tour, entering from Alameda Street, tour guides ask you to look up at the decorative elements in the high ceilings. The beams and geometric patterns may look like wood — but they’re actually just painted to look that way.

A community destroyed by development

Along the way, the tour gives background on pieces created more than 30 years ago. These include "City of Dreams/River of History" by artists May Sun and Richard Wyatt in 1995. Sun’s piece uses remnants of the Chinese American homes torn down to build the station, a reference to the high price that community paid for this building’s construction.

Detail from "City of Dreams/River of History," created by artists May Sun and Richard Wyatt at Union Station.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

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“It was an enormous price. Chinatown ceased to exist in this area. … The families that lived here during that time are still around and maintain archives of that time period and the original Chinatown here, and we've worked with those families to have those objects on display,” Lax Yamamoto said.

Meanwhile, Wyatt’s large-scale mural includes the face of a Chinese man, along with nine other people of different races, ethnicities and ages; a nod to the diversity of the city since its founding in the late 1700s.

There are also stops to see new art installed for the World Cup.

A mural by Richard Wyatt at Union Station

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

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There are three tours left in the series but the RSVPs have reached their maximum; however, Lax Yamamoto said Metro will decide whether to continue them based on what people have thought about the tours.

Meanwhile, Union Station is set to swell with people in the next couple of months as L.A. hosts World Cup games. The station is the site of an official FIFA-sponsored Fan Zone from June 25-28.

When I first came to the states many years ago, if I’d mentioned Arsenal, people would have thought I was referring to the U.S. military or something. But all that has changed. You can now watch U.K. premier league games in sports bars, most kids play soccer, and Ted Lasso is must-watch TV.

To which I say — welcome. We English are proud of the fact that soccer began with us more than 150 years ago. And every World Cup, we think, surely this will be the year that the trophy returns home — the year that we’ll win!

Queen Elizabeth II awarding the Jules Rimet World Cup Trophy to Bobby Moore after England won the 1966 World Cup final at Wembley.

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I mean it did happen … once… back in 1966. It’s such a long time ago the game was televised in black and white and shillings were still being used. My mother was nine months pregnant with my brother, and got so excited jumping up and down she went into labor and had him the next day. World Cup Willie they called him. Actually his name is David, but never mind.

Since then, every four years everyone in the U.K. watches the games with bated breath. And then something stupid will happen, and we’ll lose, like that time in 1998 when David Beckham (who played for England before he came to L.A. Galaxy) lost his temper and was sent off, and we’ll sit there, gloomy and despondent. I know because I was there in my friend’s living room in London, gloomy and despondent, thinking just once, just once, maybe could we please have a win?

David Beckham's infamous 1998 red card in the England vs. Argentina game.

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The last World Cup, I went to Ye Olde Kings Head in Santa Monica to watch England play. At 7 a.m. it was full of people already on their third pint of beer. And when the team got through to the next round, the gentle men of England ran outside the pub, whipped off their shirts and started weaving through traffic, singing football chants and acting like hooligans. I really couldn’t decide if I was embarrassed or if it felt like home.

Anyway, this time, since I’m now an American citizen, it’s in my contract that I need to support Team USA. I’m a dual citizen, though, so I’ll also be cheering for England. If by any chance Team USA and England play each other, my two selves will be watching, with a cup of tea in one hand, and a cold brewski in the other, and the polarities will explode, or something. But what will probably happen is that both teams will be eclipsed by Brazil or France playing the beautiful game… beautifully. Cheers.

Stereotypes die hard. Los Angeles actually has a massive public transport system serving the region, which boasts the world's longest light rail line in the form of the 58-mile long Line A (or for old-timers, the Blue line) and tons of buses.

But if you opt to engage in the gladiator sport that is L.A. driving — a reminder you're going to need to park that thing too.

Here's where we come in.

Curb parking

No surprise, our curbs are painted in different colors with different restrictions.

Heads up: Red, White and Blue curb regulations are in effect 24/7, unless otherwise noted. And additional restrictions could apply if posted on a sign, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

Red Curbs — Nope

• No stopping, parking or standing 
• Doesn't matter if there's a driver or passenger inside the car

Yellow Curbs — Depends

• For commercial loading only
• Vehicles with a commercial license plate can park here, but only if they are actively loading or unloading stuff, for a maximum of 30 minutes
• Restrictions are in effect Monday through Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. unless otherwise posted on signs
  
  • That means you can park in yellow zones after 6:00 p.m. with no restrictions, unless otherwise noted
• Vehicles without a commercial license plate may load and unload passengers or baggage, for a maximum of 5 minutes

White Curbs — You gotta get going fast

• Passenger loading only for a maximum of 5 minutes

Blue Curbs (Accessible Parking Zones) — If you have the placard

Those famous 'clashing' L.A. parking signs

Before we move on to other facets of parking in Los Angeles. We want to take a moment to address a persistent complaint about confusing parking signs that are often clustered together.

When you encounter this phenomenon, we suggest patience. You don't need a degree in math, probably just a pen and paper.

For the sign in the video, here's when you can and cannot park (we think):

• No parking on Mondays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. because of street cleaning
  
  • all other days you can park between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., but please be aware there's a 2 hour parking limit
• Every night, you can stop your vehicle for 10 minutes only for passenger loading between 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
  
  • If the curb is not white, then you can park outside of the 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. window without that restriction
• You can park for 2 hours:
  
  • Between Tuesdays and Saturdays between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
  • But remember on Mondays, parking is prohibited from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. because of street cleaning
  • On Sunday, you can park for 2 hours between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Heads up: When in doubt, find somewhere else to park.

Meter parking

LADOT says it operates some 38,000 parking meters in the city. Sometimes it feels as if there are as many meter enforcement people out there.

There are different ways to pay — coins, credit cards, and via text or an app at a number of meters.

Heads up: If a meter is broken, meaning it cannot accept coins or a credit card, then you can only park for free up to the posted time limit.

Other no-no's

Here are several other no parking rules, pulled from this list from LADOT

• In alleys, except for to unload things or passengers
• Within 15 feet of a fire station driveway or fire hydrant
• No double parking
• In a center median strip, unless signs indicate otherwise

Parking on a federal holiday

Certain city parking regulations are not enforced on national holidays. They are enforced on state holidays.

• Time Limit
• Parking meters
• No Parking with specified days and times only
• No stopping with specified days and times only
• Street sweeping (also not enforced the day after Thanksgiving and after Farmworkers Day)

If a national holiday falls on a Saturday it will be observed by the city on a Friday. If it falls on a Sunday it will be observed by the city on a Monday. Parking restrictions are not enforced on both the holiday and the observed holiday.