Offbeat Brews: Pie-Flavored, Frozen, and Superhero

There are two new ways to try your foam. A third? Dress like a caped hero.

Stalwart beer drinkers might firmly say that straight-up foam is the best sort of foam, but inventive types, big-minded brewers, and beverage-talented tinkerers beg to differ.

Straight-up foam does have its merits, of course, but summertime has a way of introducing a few fresh ways to consume a brew. Here are a few offbeat liquids filling Golden State glasses:

Windowsill: Last year we were charmed by June Gloom, a local-nice brew from the Venice Beach Beer Company. This year's offbeat suds hail from The Bruery in Placentia. The name of the beer is indeed Windowsill, which should give you a clue as to what the flavor is. Think about it. Thinking? Okay, it's a raspberry rhubarb pie-inspired beer. Evan Kleinman and KCRW helped organize a contest to name it, the guys at Hot Knives suggested "Windowsill" as the great name, and the rest shall be history. Well, not exactly history: Word is the OC brewery will start serving Windowsill in its tasting room toward the end of summer.

Frozen Beer: When you see these two words together, and you think of all of those baseball games when you sipped a fairly refreshing brew that wasn't *quite* cold enough, you probably pause and think "uh, yeah, this is a pretty brilliant concept." Kirin is the company behind the cold stuff, cold stuff that it is now available at Katsuya at The Americana, Chaya's Downtown Beer Garden, and Dodger Stadium, plus Katana on Sunset (during the restaurant's Red Sun BBQ on Sundays). Oh, and if you're wondering what frozen beer is, exactly, picture a beer topped with frozen beer foam. It keeps the beer beneath chilled for thirty minutes. Beverage innovation!

Superhero Craft Beer Festival: This is an event, not an actual beverage, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it. Why? Because a bunch of people will be standing around in shiny capes drinking quality suds. Is there anything else to say? Nope. It's happening during Comic-Con International, though not at the con itself, on Saturday, July 20 in San Diego.

And if you can't get enough of costumes and craft beer ... the California Beer Festival is headed to Southern California soon. Loads and loads -- meaning dozens upon dozens -- of Golden State breweries will alight in Claremont and Ventura over two September weekends. And the quirky part? There's usually a guy in a bear suit wandering the grounds.

Uh, this is the California Beer Festival. Shouldn't everything with "California" in the name feature a guy with a bear suit? The bear being one of our proud symbols. Someone please make this an official rule.

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