Local craft brewery mixes innovative beer with tasty food

RESTAURANT REVIEW



JUST RIGHT—LAB brewmaster Roger Bott waits while hops and grains percolate. Almost a third of the restaurant’s more than 30 beers on tap are mixed and mashed on site.

JUST RIGHT—LAB brewmaster Roger Bott waits while hops and grains percolate. Almost a third of the restaurant’s more than 30 beers on tap are mixed and mashed on site.

The LAB Brewing Co.

Craft breweries are one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. alcoholic beverage industry. Locally, several microbreweries have set up shop recently and are taking advantage of the community’s thirst for new and unique beers.

At the LAB Brewing Company in Agoura Hills, almost a third of the more than 30 beers on tap are mixed and mashed on site by brewmaster Roger Bott, a 34-year-old resident of Camarillo who’s nurtured his passion for beer since (don’t tell anybody) he was a teenager.

Tired of corporate life—he was an employee at Amgen in Thousand Oaks for 14 years before deciding big brew is better than big pharma—Bott decided to hop to it and get into the beer crafting business himself.

In 2011, Bott partnered with Bentley Richards, Rod Hecker and Moez Megji and opened the LAB at Megji’s former Moz Buddha Lounge on Agoura Road.

Business is booming.

“We’re in a perpetual state of happy hour here,” says Bott, who enjoys the enviable task of sampling his own product before it reaches the tap.

The hallmark of craft beer and craft brewers is innovation, and at the LAB (which stands for Live Art of Brewing), experimentation is a big part of the recipe. From the LAB’s three giant copper-clad beer tanks come a host of home-grown batches such as “Honey I’m Home” (honey blonde brew); “No Place Like Gnome” (Belgian pale ale); “Big Ass Red (West Coast amber ale); “Take Her Home” (Belgian Tripel), which packs a punch at 10.6 percent alcohol by volume; and, last but not least, the “After Midnight Moo,” a sweet stout with oatmeal and milk sugar that provides a nice smoothness and makes for a perfect late night brew.

“We’re trying to keep things new and inventive,” Bott says.

Importantly, the beer never travels more than 40 feet before it reaches the glass. “Talk about local,” Bott says.

“I’ve been talking and actively pursuing this for a long time, and when actually I started making the beer I thought, ‘This came out pretty good.’”

The U.S. craft brewer retail business reached an estimated $8.7 billion in 2011, up from $7.6 billion in 2010, the Brewers Association says. Almost 2,000 total breweries operated for some or all of 2011, the highest total since the 1880s, according to the association.

Surprisingly, Bott doesn’t shun, but embraces the new crop of local breweries—his competitors. Besides the LAB and Ladyface Ale Companie in Agoura Hills, there’s Wolf Creek Restaurant and Brewing Company in Calabasas competing for the local dollar.

So beer is back, not that it ever went anywhere. Today, however, it is the small crafter like Bott who is making inroads. Like Bott, customers are awash in excitement over the new golden age of beer.

“Beer has reached that same point where people are appreciating a well-crafted product, just like with wine,” he said.

As with wine, the beer-food pairings are important. We call it polished pub fare.

Offerings from Megji— the restaurant’s co-owner and executive chef—include a to-die-for mussel dish with lemon grass and Thai coconut sauce; a summer peach pizza with caramelized onion, toasted walnuts and local organic honey finish; and the restaurant’s trademark LAB burger made with house ground Wagyu Kobe and sirloin beef, arugula, bacon, and blue and Gruyere cheeses.

The menu is divided whimsically into “Petri Dishes” (appetizers), “Leaves and Shoots” (salads), “Botanicals” (veggies), “Sphericals” (burgers and pizzas) and “Solids” (meats and pastas).

New this summer is LAB’s “Ludicrous Lunch Spectacular,” in which the customer can choose any $10 item—the spicy Pasilla chili and portabello mushroom tacos dish is a favorite—and add fries, soup, salad, ice tea or house brew for only $1 each. Sit outside and enjoy the Santa Monica Mountains scenery while you eat.

Oh, by the way, it’s not all about the beer and food. There’s live entertainment Thursday through Saturday. The fun has just begun.

The LAB Brewing Company is in the Town Center Shopping Center, 30105 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills. The phone number is (818) 735-0091.

‘We’re trying to keep things new and innovative.’

— Roger Bott


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