Lucky Baldwin’s taps into IPA mania

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If you like your beer to be hoppier than a pogo stick competition, here’s some hoppy (er, happy) news for you: Lucky Baldwin’s is throwing its 11th annual IPA festival June 13-21.

More than 50 of the 62 taps at each of its two locations will be devoted to IPAs, including such cult beers as Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute and the rarer 120 Minute IPA, Russian River’s Blind Pig and double Pliny the Elder (that scholarly libation was already on tap Thursday but wasn’t yet on the menu -- consider it a festival preview) and Victory’s Herkules IPA. (‘That’s a rare keg,’ Lucky Baldwin’s owner David Farnworth says. ‘I only have one.’)

Celebrants get a glass for $8, which includes the first pour. Standard IPAs will be $3, doubles $4 and Belgians $6 (they have to get through customs, y’know).

‘The interesting thing is that when we first started the IPA festival, we used to have to drive up to San Francisco to find IPAs,’ says Farnworth, noting that now Southern California has become renowned for its IPAs. Indeed, the two IPAs usually available at Lucky Baldwin’s are from Escondido (Stone) and Pasadena (Craftsman).

Lucky Baldwin’s’ Pasadena location is at 17 South Raymond Ave. The Sierra Madre pub is at 21 Kersting Court.

-- Blake Hennon