Offbeat Brew Bashes: Avocado Beer + Zoo Fun

Favor your foam in an offbeat setting or with an unusual flavor? Your weekend is ahead.

The iconic scene of a group of pals gathered around a booth, in the back of a low-lit tavern, with a pitcher of the local beer in the center of the table, has become well-known for a reason. This was, after all, the way that a lot of people enjoyed a cold one for a lot of years.

Of course, breweries with tours and beyond-the-brewhouse happenings have blossomed alongside the craft beer movement, which means that not only are foam fans trying their suds in different ways, they're sampling them in new spots.

This isn't to say that the tavern's back booth and a group of old pals isn't still a classic. It is. But that group of pals just might be taking a night or two to head for another place, for a fresh experience, and that place might include...

Angel City Brewery: The Arts District beer-maker has made a name for itself both in its quality product and its daylong alfresco parties. One of those days is coming right up, and the center sip is a memorable one: Avocado Ale. Angel City only makes avocado-tinged beer once a year, and the batch is on the limited side.

Fun fact: Some "37 pounds of avocados were used" and a quartet of brewery employees spent four hours readying the avocado -- oh, and cilantro, too. Curious as to how this might taste? Be there on Sunday, Aug. 9.

Los Angeles Zoo: Brew at the Zoo, the annual round-up of local craft breweries and food truck fare, comes around but once a year at the Griffith Park animal park, and Friday, Aug. 7 is the evening.

Shall there be tuneage? There shall, as well as the occasional yip or squeak or roar from a resident animal. Many of the beasties may be tucked up asleep, since this is an evening soiree, but you might spy something sweet inside the LAIR (Living Amphibians, Invertebrates, or Reptiles) or along the open pathways of the zoo. Cost? It's fifty bucks and guests should be 21+.

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