Newport Beach Beer Festival

The Event

For all my beer lovers, check out Newport Beach Beer Festival hosted by Rock Star Beer! Located at Newport Dunes Resort, this event has the perfect Southern California vibe. There is parking on site for $10. I highly suggest taking an Uber because the parking lot gets full fast and especially if you want to drink. Set on the sandy beach of the bay, there were dozens of top Socal breweries pouring samples. Make sure to get VIP tickets so you can enter the event 1 hour early. When you enter, one of the staff will hand you a plastic cup for your sample pours. Don’t lose it! If you have VIP tickets, you can access the VIP section and sample exclusive cocktails and beer.

The Beer

Tickets were all inclusive, so we got unlimited samples from over 150 craft beers!  Lines were long, but they move quickly. Once you get a full cup, swing over to the next line and enjoy your beer till you reach the front. This year was the most beer they have ever served so there was a wide selection of IPAs, were stouts, lagers, ales, etc. My absolute favorite was from Knee Deep Brewing, they had a Nutella Stout and I fell in love with it! We had a VIP ticket, so we were able to enter the exclusive grassy area and try cocktails made with Bai and a yummy Lemon Shandy.

The Food

If you get hungry, they have a variety of food trucks. So if you’re craving tacos, fries, or dessert, it’s all located in the front by the entrance. Lines are long, so while someone is waiting in line to buy food, send someone else in your group to get some cups of beer! We tried the Super Nachos from Samurai Burrito and it was the best $12 we've ever spent. 

The Music

We ended the night with some amazing music from The Black Eyed Tease underneath the large pop-up tent! With cover bands of Black Eyed Peas and No Doubt, of course, everyone will get on their feet and dance! Listening to throwbacks with a drink in hand, everyone was having a great time. In the VIP section, there was a small gazebo with a DJ and room to dance.

I loved the venue because of all the open space, plus we got to see a beautiful Newport Beach sunset. Everyone was happy and having a great time! Events like these are great if you are still new to the beer scene and want to learn more! Some of the breweries were passing out stickers, coasters and pins for free! Overall we had a great time, check out the Rock Star Beer's website for a schedule of  future events! 

CHEERS!

Spa Thyme: Gourmet Food for your Body

Treat yourself with some yummy products created by Spa Thyme. They are a super cute Etsy shop that creates food oriented beauty goods. For those that are craving some coffee or mimosas, this is the perfect opportunity to indulge in some sweet treats. It’s super important to pamper your body so you can feel revitalized and ready to take on the day. Here are two products that I absolutely love.

Gourmet Coffee Lip Scrub

Ingredients: Granulated sugar, extra virgin olive oil, ground coffee, tocopherol (vitamin e) and flavor.

Another reason to wake up in the morning, this coffee lip scrub smells amazing! It’s in a tiny jar, but a little goes a long way. Don’t use too much product, just use enough to cover your lips. Incorporate this into your morning routine so you get polished lips before applying some lipstick or lip gloss. My lips dry out very often, so I try to exfoliate them at least once a day to get rid of the dead skin. The coffee scent and sweetened taste makes this one of my favorite scrubs! After I rinsed off, I was amazed at how soft my lips were.

Mimosa Body Scrub

Ingredients: Organic cane sugar, Organic coconut oil, Apricot kernel oil, Tocopherol (Vitamin E) and essential oils.

Brunch is always a good idea! After traveling to Thailand, my skin definitely needed some scrubbing. I didn’t moisturize (other than sunscreen) and exfoliate during my trip, so I had a lot of dry patches. This Mimosa scrub smells heavenly, a blend of orange and champagne, it’s like a celebration in a jar! The scrub is very gentle and not too abrasive, you don’t need to use a large amount. My focus areas are my knees, shoulders, and elbows, so I spent a little more time there buffing the dry skin out.  After scrubbing my whole body, it was time to rinse off. My skin felt silky, smooth after! The oils in product left my skin moisturized so I didn’t even need to use lotion!

Do yourself a favor and try some new scrubs out. Check out Spa Thyme, gourmet food for your body! They have all kinds of bath goodies, like soaps, scrubs, and soaks for you to indulge in. My skin was glowing, and I felt so renewed! Let me know which one’s you want to try, for me, it’s ALL of them.

OC Beer & Music Festival // Santa Ana

Set in the heart of downtown Santa Ana,

OC Beer and Music Festival

embodied the chill vibe of this up-and-coming city. DTSA is now one of my favorite places to hang out, dine, and drink some craft beer! For all my beer lovers,

Rock Star Beer

has blessed up with another great event. You can get unlimited beer samples from local breweries, listen to amazing cover bands, and grab some grub from select food trucks.

With VIP tickets in hand, we were allowed to enter an hour before general admission and experience two VIP venues across the street. At the Festival Hall, Suja served three different mixed drinks using their juice. Even at a beer festival, we got to sample cocktails! Next, we went to The Underground, which was straight downstairs from the Festival Hall. There they had a DJ spinning and they had multiple breweries to taste. Here I discovered my new favorite from Latitude 33, their Honey Hips Blonde was so good! It had hints of honey and citrus and definitely satisfied my craving for a sweet beer. At this festival, there are a variety of booths, like water stations, merchandise and we even talked to a guy who sold organic fruits and vegetables by subscription boxes. After we tried everything in the VIP venue, we headed back to the main building, the Yost Theater.

In the background, they had a Katy Perry and Pink cover band playing top hits, and people were rocking out and dancing just like if the performers were the actual singers. At the Yost, there’s also a 2nd-floor room and balcony, where there was even more brews to try. We had a great time meeting new people, learning about different types of beer and listening to talented artists.

We made sure to Uber to the event and back, definitely take advantage of the unlimited beer until they run out, stay and have a good time!

There were a lot of popular local breweries pouring their top drafts, with a wide variety too. I saw IPAs, stouts, ales, everything across the beer spectrum. There were many different types of beers to taste, so if you’re not quite a beer expert yet, Rock Star Beer festivals are a perfect place to learn. Once you’ve tried them all, rule out your favorite and keep coming back for more. They host multiple events a year, and are expanding to new cities this year! Check out to see if they’re coming to a city near you. Cheers!

Thank you again, Rock Star Beer for having us at another

OC Beer & Music Festival

!