There’s a Mad Beer Scientist in that LAB Brewing Company!

There are a limited amount of craft beer lovers that get the chance to ditch their 9 to 5 to fulfill their dream of opening their own brewery.  Owner Roger Bott of LAB Brewing Company in Agoura Hills, CA not only was privileged enough to scratch this accomplishment off his bucket list, but he was also fortunate to use the skills gained from his previous employment to better his dream.  Roger worked for 14 years at mega-biopharmaceutical company Amgen which creates products that help people with serious illnesses. Roger continues to help people with his oh-so-rejuvenating elixir-like beers that have earned him his nickname, Dr. Hops, and have helped him Leave Amgen Behind (LAB).

Roger started brewing when he was 15 years old because he was tired of getting illegal aliens to buy beer for him.  His first brew was amazing and he was hooked.  Roger’s second batch was contaminated and was crap.  Fortunately, it was the last bad beer that he made.  His scientific background from Amgen in dealing with aseptic technology, yeast handling, water chemicals, and fermentation science has helped him perfect his craft recipes and partially turned him into a mad scientist of craft beer.  He still home brews 24 years later and continues to experiment with grains and hops.

Dr. Hops loves big pale ales and he specializes in crafts that are approachable and smooth.  LAB has three flagship beers: Hop Solution DIPA, Take Her Home Belgian Style Tripel, and Honey I’m Home Blonde.  The Hop Solution is very citrusy with tones of grapefruit but balanced and drinkable.  It’s also incredibly dangerous because it dons an ABV of 9.9% and it tastes so amazing that you can pound down a pint like an 8 year old drinking a Squeezit.  LAB’s Belgian Tripel is perfectly balanced so the Belgian yeast is not overpowering but has the right amount of sweetness which is the perfect equation for one astounding beer.  The Honey I’m Home Blonde was crafted up because Roger was tired of people asking, “What’s your light beer?”  His blonde is made with organic local honey, is sessionable, and super easy to drink.  In addition to his three flagships, Roger distributes one seasonal which is currently the Sochi Stout Russian Imperial.  At 10.2% ABV, this beer made me fall in love with stouts again with its rich chocolaty coffee flavor.

The distributor for LAB currently consists of Roger’s Chrysler.  He has six accounts that cover Thousand Oaks, Malibu, Agoura Hills, and Van Nuys, but he is pushing for more distribution – possibly up to 26 accounts.  He has no intentions of driving his kegs outside of the San Fernando Valley, so sorry people of LA, you’ll need to make the trek up the 101 to have some of his craftastic concoctions.  Trust me, this is not a bad thing because the brewpub at LAB hits hard on Roger’s three core principals of a fun environment: good beer, good food, and good music.  He takes care of the “good beer” principal on his own and Chef Dusty knocks it off the Bunsen burner with his gastro pub style cuisine.  Doc Hops supports local musicians by having bands and artists play three to four nights a week on LAB’s sound stage conveniently placed in the dining area of the brewpub.

LAB has some exciting ventures coming in the future, but there’s no need to have Doc make you a flex capacitor made of hops to travel to the beer future, these events will be here before you’ll recover from your last three pints of Hop Solution.  Roger intends to focus on lagers by brewing a schwarzbier. A session IPA is also in the works that will give the hop heads something to gloat about, but will still allow them to drive home. LAB currently has a collaborative beer with Enegren Brewing Company that’s sitting in a whisky barrel right now: a barley wine with Belgian yeast, coco nibs, and cinnamon.  Bottling LAB’s crafts may also be on the horizon which seems like a goal that would be easy for Doc because if he can produce energy yielding anaerobic metabolic processes where organisms convert carbohydrates and glucose into ethanol using a bioreactor, then he can do just about anything.

Even if biotechnical practices aren’t your strength, Dr. Hops has perfected his beer equations so you can both enjoy amazing crafts and chemistry again.  Roger’s pursuit of producing approachable and smooth beers at his incredible brewpub is no easy feat as he does just about every job at LAB to include being the manager, head brewmaster, sales manager, host, and janitor.  All of this hard work is still way better for Roger than working at Amgen, and judging by the fine beer that he creates, craft beer lovers also agree with him.