This past Saturday, Beer Chicks Hallie Beaune and Christina Perozzi welcomed 2,000 eager beer drinkers to their 3rd Annual L.A. Craft Beer Crawl, co-hosted by 213 Nightlife in Downtown. Fortunately, I was able to finagle my way into the VIP portion of the crawl which limited attendance to a more negotiable 400 from 1 to 3pm.

The only downside was that with a mere two hours to cover seven bars before the masses were let in, it was less a crawl and more a sprint. There was no time to actually enjoy and finish our tasters of beer so we resigned ourselves to sips. But I wasn’t too sad about it since there was no way I’d be able to function if I had finished everything I tapped.

So I teamed up with athletic Neat bartender Cari Hah and fellow blogger Thirsty in LA at LACBC starting point Casey’s, where we strategized the speediest route through the downtown bars. After Casey’s where I quickly knocked back an Allagash Black and Green Flash Double Stout, we headed toward the next closest bar, Seven Grand. Before we got there we realized that the goal was to hit up all the VIP brews marked on the list. These were limited beers that would only make an appearance during the VIP hours.

At Seven Grand it was down with Deschutes Black Butte Porter XXIV, Firestone Walker Double DBA, The Bruery Melange 3 and a Deschutes beer cocktail. Then there was a mad dash all the way to Cana Rum Bar, over a half mile away near L.A. Live. We opted for hoofing it instead of catching a train because we didn’t want to risk having to wait around for one.

In the cool bar we were greeted with a beer float of Cismontane’s Black’s Dawn Stout and Scoops Brown Bread ice cream. But that and chatting up bartenders Danielle Crouch and Allan Katz were all we had time for since we only had less than an hour left and three more bars to hit (we decided to skip Broadway Bar because…meh, never been crazy about that bar).

A half mile later at Golden Gopher we ducked out onto the patio to enjoy quick sips of Drake’s Aroma Coma and then it was off to Cole’s, where we arrived with minutes to spare before the doors opened to the general public. By the way, oddly enough, other LACB crawlers we encountered along the speed walk didn’t take too kindly to our drunken high-fives at them. Maybe they were just grouchy because it was so hot out. Anyhoo, at Cole’s bartender Brent Falco hooked us up with an off-the-menu Bootleggers IPA poured from a growler.

Afterward we stumbled across the street to final destination Las Perlas for some Noble Ale Works’ Mucky Muck Double Black Rye Lager and Guelaguetza tamales. Pfew!

Such a good time. While I didn’t stick around to see what the general admission hours would be like, I do highly recommend the VIP hours for the limited release beers alone.