# Going to California.



## neal32 (5/1/14)

Hey fellow Aussiehomebrewers, I have been travelling for 9-10 months around Central/South America and my trip is winding up but not before I spend 10 days in CA. My plan is to rent a car and visit all the breweries/brewpubs I have always wanted to. I'm starting in LA, then probably going north through San Fran, Santa Rosa and then Chico to the big one! Then all the way down south to San Diego, then back to LA to fly out. Now, a few questions. I want to do as many brewery/brewpub tours as possible, does anyone have experience with this? Should I book in advance? Also Sierra Nevada does a Beer Geek tour, needless to say, I'm pretty keen. Has anyone here done it or knows if it is worth waiting for (It's only on Fridays). I'm pretty excited, any of your recommendations/experiences/beer recommendations would be welcome.

Cheers,

Neal


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## neal32 (5/1/14)

Also I am going to bring beers back, probably just Russian River ones and Arrogant Bastard(I brewed the clone of this and it was really good, really unique though, will be good to compare, hopefully my memory isn't too hazy :drinks: ) because I couldn't get them anywhere in Australia. How many can I bring back legally?


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## Samuel Adams (9/1/14)

Haven't done the beer tours myself but I do remember people on here saying bookings are a must for some places.
Sounds like a great way to spend 10 days, I'd love to do it myself & hopefully will. Let us know how it was and post some pics !

You can legally bring back 2.25L of alcohol without paying duty and can bring more but you may have to pay duty on it which gets expensive.


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## jaypes (9/1/14)

Here's a few in San Francisco


*Good Pubs in SF to sample local brews:*
21st Ammendment (brewery)
Magnolia GastroPub (brewery)
Thirsty Bear (Brewery)
Kate Obriens
Also, check out this site for a list of serious beer bars http://blog.zagat.com/2013/03/7-serious-craft-beer-bars-in-san.html. Monks Kettle is awesome but not in the best neighborhood…go for lunch ;-)

*Breweries in San Francisco, but you can taste the beer in most bars selling good beer.:*
Thirsty Bear http://thirstybear.com/
21st Ammendment http://21st-amendment.com/
Anchor Brewing http://www.anchorbrewing.com/
Magnolia http://www.magnoliapub.com/
Speakeasy http://goodbeer.com/wordpress/

*Around the Bay*
North Bay (heading towards NAPA)
Marin Brewing http://www.marinbrewing.com/
Moylans http://www.moylans.com/
Russian River http://russianriverbrewing.com/brew-pub/ (Pliny the Elder)
Lagunitas lagunitas.com

East Bay
Drakes, San Leandro http://drinkdrakes.com/
Altamont Beer Works, Livermore (wine country) http://altamontbeerworks.com/ (A Fair Trek. Good if you also like wine tasting as there are 40 wineries nearby)
Schubros, San Ramon http://www.schubrosbrewery.com/ (would give it a miss)
Heretic http://hereticbrewing.com/ (master brewer is Jamil Zainesheff of the homebrew network podcasts…great if you want to know about how to brew any style http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show).
Trumer, Berkeley http://www.trumer-international.com/ (Pilsner)


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## zappa (9/1/14)

I made the trip to Santa Rosa yesterday especially to visit Russian River Brewing. This is what I found when I got there.... 




Was totally devastated. Anyway, have convinced SWMBO that we absolutely must make our way back there on Sunday (she reckons I had a tear in my eye. It worked).

Really loving the craft beer bars around California, and even some of the supermarkets have some pretty awesome beers (just picked up some Alesmith, Arrogant Bastard and Clown Shoes). They even sell hops, grain (by lb or bulk - weyermann for example), yeast and all grain equipment at wholesale foods... Awesome!


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## browndog (9/1/14)

neal32 said:


> Hey fellow Aussiehomebrewers, I have been travelling for 9-10 months around Central/South America and my trip is winding up but not before I spend 10 days in CA. My plan is to rent a car and visit all the breweries/brewpubs I have always wanted to. I'm starting in LA, then probably going north through San Fran, Santa Rosa and then Chico to the big one! Then all the way down south to San Diego, then back to LA to fly out. Now, a few questions. I want to do as many brewery/brewpub tours as possible, does anyone have experience with this? Should I book in advance? Also Sierra Nevada does a Beer Geek tour, needless to say, I'm pretty keen. Has anyone here done it or knows if it is worth waiting for (It's only on Fridays). I'm pretty excited, any of your recommendations/experiences/beer recommendations would be welcome.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Neal


Having done the SN Beer Camp, I can highly recommend going to SN and doing the tour. Zappa, if you are still in the area, head to Lagunitas just south of Santa Rosa, you won't be dissapointed, very similar beers to Russian River.


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## Blitzer (9/1/14)

Russian River apparently has sour beers on par with the best in Belgium. I would be drinking those because good sours are hard to find, IPA's aka. Pliny the Elder can be found a dime a dozen in the US.


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## zappa (9/1/14)

Yep, the sours are at the top of my list. I'll see if I can convince the missus to go to Lagunitas on the way back. I have found plenty of lagunitas on tap at various bars and every bottlo has at least their IPA. I haven't been able to find any Russian River though, in bars or bottlo's. Have asked for it.


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## browndog (9/1/14)

There is also Bear Republic just north of Santa Rosa.


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## SimoB (9/1/14)

Do yourself a favour and download the a couple of episodes of Brew Dogs. They do San Diego, San Fran and they list the 5 top breweries and top 5 brew bars of the area, some of them look amazing...


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## kenlock (9/1/14)

SimoB said:


> Do yourself a favour and download the a couple of episodes of Brew Dogs. They do San Diego, San Fran and they list the 5 top breweries and top 5 brew bars of the area, some of them look amazing...


Brew Dogs Facebook page with the top 5s and TV show link.

America's 100 Best Beer Bars 2014 and Zymurgy's 2013 Best in America lists.


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## JotaPerro (9/1/14)

Neal, visited CA early last year, and as far as breweries go saw San Diego, San Francisco and the surrounding area. Each of the brewery websites will mention if you need to book in advance. And it might be worth checking them out on facebook, a lot of them post info regularly. Green Flash was the only one we booked early based on availabilities on the website, and Stone was the only other one that had limited tour sizes. We turned up to find that the next available tour slot was in a few hours, but they have a really great bistro with a massive bottle list to keep you busy while you wait. Some have tours, some have taprooms/bistros, some have both. Often for $5 you get a tour and a few tasters at the end.

Lost Abbey in SD was one of my favourites. They don’t do tours, but their tasting room was one of the best. Alesmith, Green Flash, Stone, White Labs and Ballast Point are all worth a look in the greater SD area.
North of SF, Moylans, Lagunitas, Russian River and Bear Rebublic are all worth the trip. They all have bistros and taprooms(not sure about Lagunitas, we arrived on a public holiday, so they only had tours of the brewhouse, but that did include tasters). And yes Russian River is well worth the hype. Didn’t go to any of the breweries in SF city, but as jaypes says Monks Kettle is awesome. Massive bottle list and good food but very small and very crowded at peak times. City Beer is another bar/bottle shop worth a visit. There's bar in both SD and SF called Toronado. Didn't make it there, but it was frequently recommended. 

You didn’t mention when exactly you’re going to be there. If you’re there in February, then there are a lot of good events at the SF beer week http://www.sfbeerweek.org/ and you would be there in time for the annual release of Pliny the Younger from RRBC http://russianriverbrewing.com/brews/pliny-the-younger/ As zappa mentions, a lot of supermarkets have good craft beer bottle selections. Especially somewhere like Wholefoods.


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## Spiesy (9/1/14)

Off to Vegas next week for 3-nights (fun) and then L.A. for 4-nights (work).

Staying in Anaheim in L.A. (unfortunately).

This is my 5th visit, from memory, but any recommendations for these areas are always appreciated.


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## rehab (9/1/14)

I opted to not stay in Anaheim despite going to Disney as there is next to nothing easy to get to craft bar wise there. I was 2 minutes from Hollywood Blvd and went to a great dive bar "Blue Palms Brewhouse" had a projector screen of the rotating tap list live and up to date all the time.

I think there may be a few bottle o's that are not too shabby in Anaheim area if you can drive at all...


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## SimoB (9/1/14)

kenlock said:


> Brew Dogs Facebook page with the top 5s and TV show link.
> 
> America's 100 Best Beer Bars 2014 and Zymurgy's 2013 Best in America lists.


Even better!


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## Kranky (9/1/14)

SF - For beer bars Monks Kettle, Toronado, City Beer (also a bottlo) and Beer Revolution (in Oakland, about a 15 minute walk from the BART) are the best bars I've been to in the area.

Heading north Lagunitas, Russian River, Bear Republic and Anderson Valley (don't be put off if you've had the grey imports) are all well worth a visit. North Coast is a bit further on at Fort Bragg - a nice drive, an excellent RIS and a great gift shop. I wouldn't stay there though the town is a dump.

San Diego has a smorgasbord of breweries and beer bars. You will want to bring a designated driver though, public transport was not good and taxis have a habit of not showing up. Lost Abbey was my favourite. Alesmith, Ballast Point and the Pizza Ports were all great. For beer bars Hamiltons, Toronado SD, Churchill's and Neighborhood are all superb.

As for bringing back beer - check with your airline how many bags you can bring back and consider paying for an extra bag or two. One of my mates just came back from the USA and he hauled back 40 beers. Write a up a list of what the beer costs in case customs want to charge duty (they usually don't). If you like a beer that comes in cans bring cans back, they are lighter than glass so you can bring back more. Ballast Point's Sculpin IPA is a good example.


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## Spiesy (9/1/14)

stillinrehab said:


> I opted to not stay in Anaheim despite going to Disney as there is next to nothing easy to get to craft bar wise there. I was 2 minutes from Hollywood Blvd and went to a great dive bar "Blue Palms Brewhouse" had a projector screen of the rotating tap list live and up to date all the time.
> 
> I think there may be a few bottle o's that are not too shabby in Anaheim area if you can drive at all...


I have no choice as work puts us up in Anaheim, still - I'm looking forward to it.

My favourite beer hangout in Anaheim has recently closed, which really sucks (Alcatraz Brewery @ The Block), but we've been scouring the web for new places to hit up when in town…


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## rehab (9/1/14)

I searched using this when I was going over:

http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Craft+Beer&find_loc=Anaheim%2C+CA

(Sorry if I can't link to this site mods) 

I found bars and liquor stores that way...


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## rehab (9/1/14)

Oh yeah and anyone that is going to LA needs to go here: http://ramirezliquor.com/store/ 
That store is beer Disneyland and has EVERYTHING you could want beer wise and then some. Only reason I missed out when we went was they were closed on a Sunday for delivery but I had a nice order lined up! 

(again apologies to mods if linking is out of line)


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## /// (9/1/14)

Go to Societe and Thorn St in SD. Societes The Pupil IPA is breathtaking, Thorn St are good mates of mine.


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## Dan Dan (9/1/14)

zappa said:


> I made the trip to Santa Rosa yesterday especially to visit Russian River Brewing. This is what I found when I got there....
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That just like the time I packed up the family and drove across the country to go to Wally World, only to find it was closed.


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## neal32 (9/1/14)

JotaPerro said:


> Neal, visited CA early last year, and as far as breweries go saw San Diego, San Francisco and the surrounding area. Each of the brewery websites will mention if you need to book in advance. And it might be worth checking them out on facebook, a lot of them post info regularly. Green Flash was the only one we booked early based on availabilities on the website, and Stone was the only other one that had limited tour sizes. We turned up to find that the next available tour slot was in a few hours, but they have a really great bistro with a massive bottle list to keep you busy while you wait. Some have tours, some have taprooms/bistros, some have both. Often for $5 you get a tour and a few tasters at the end.
> 
> Lost Abbey in SD was one of my favourites. They don’t do tours, but their tasting room was one of the best. Alesmith, Green Flash, Stone, White Labs and Ballast Point are all worth a look in the greater SD area.
> North of SF, Moylans, Lagunitas, Russian River and Bear Rebublic are all worth the trip. They all have bistros and taprooms(not sure about Lagunitas, we arrived on a public holiday, so they only had tours of the brewhouse, but that did include tasters). And yes Russian River is well worth the hype. Didn’t go to any of the breweries in SF city, but as jaypes says Monks Kettle is awesome. Massive bottle list and good food but very small and very crowded at peak times. City Beer is another bar/bottle shop worth a visit. There's bar in both SD and SF called Toronado. Didn't make it there, but it was frequently recommended.
> ...


Good info, I'll be there from the 12th to the 22nd. So I will miss out on the February events and the release of Pliny the Younger  I will also ring up about the beer geek tour at SN today, I have a couchsurfing host lined up for Chico so going up there is a definite! It's only a few days away now and am getting pretty exicted. I will be taking photos as well.


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## Conestoga (10/1/14)

If you like sours, you absolutely have to visit The Bruery.


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## Bizier (10/1/14)

On top of all the great suggestions here, I'll second:
SN tour, I saw an early iteration of it and it was great.
Toronado, I stayed around the corner in SF and was able to drink RR consecration at happy hour for like $3 or something.


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## rehab (10/1/14)

http://www.brewerytoursofsandiego.com/dailytours.html or http://www.sandiegobrewtours.com/beer-tours.html could be useful for going to SD if you have a day or night to commit to going on a tour.


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## JotaPerro (10/1/14)

I have to add this non beer place, http://ilikeikesplace.com/ for anyone going to the bay area. Only had the chance to visit once, but it was the deli best style sandwich I've ever had. There's one close to Russian River too.


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## Samuel Adams (10/1/14)

JotaPerro said:


> I have to add this non beer place, http://ilikeikesplace.com/ for anyone going to the bay area. Only had the chance to visit once, but it was the deli style sandwich I've ever had. There's one close to Russian River too.


mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Ike's Place :icon_drool2:


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## Bizier (10/1/14)

And if they're still open, there is a place called Zodiac Goat or similar in Santa Rosa who do actual decent coffee. If you are like me, that is need to know info.


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## neal32 (12/1/14)

OK, in between kiteboarding and getting drunk in Dominican Republic I have drafted up a rough plan for my Californian pilgrimage. 13th-15th Los Angeles. Will visit Eagle Rock Brewery, The Bruery, Beachwood BBQ & Brewery, Angel City Brewery and Golden Road Brewering. In addition will do all the touristy stuff, tossing up whether to do Disneyland or not. On the 15th drive north to Firestonewalker and do the tour at 3.30pm (Still need to book) then after the tour, sit at the brewpub and drink every delicious beer they have. 16th wake up hungover goto Santa Rosa via Lagunitas do the tour at 1pm (Maybe go north to Bear Republic then loop back down,I really enjoy Hop Rod Rye and Racer 5, but we will see how hungover I am and if I want to drive 60 extra miles), then check into a hotel, then onto the big one, Russian River, where I will...wait for it.....drink all there delicious beers (Try all the samplers then start putting back some Plinys). Will be sure to buy some takeaway Pliny's from here as well. 17th, wake up very hungover and begin the trek to Chico, maybe do Bear Republic on the way if I missed it the previous day, booked in for the beer geek tour at 2.30pm, then will do the normal tour after that, then after that.......drink all their delicious beers. 18th Goto San Fran, hopefully do the Anchor brewery tour, then go to a great bar and.......drink all their delicious beer. 19th probably feel like death, contemplate jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, but won't because more breweries await. Drive to San Diego, stay their until the 22nd and do the following breweries : Alesmith, Ballast Point, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Alpine, Pizza Port, Stone and maybe Modern Times (The dude that runs themadfermentationist.com, excellent website). A lot planned, hopefully I will get to them all. Anything I missed, someone let me know! Also does anyone have any cool ideas for things to ask from generous brewers? Also I plan on bringing back Pliny, Arrogant Bastard and maybe some Firestonewalker beers if they are good, anyone have any other suggestions? As for beer glasses, keen to buy a couple of Sierra Nevada I.P.A glasses, a hefe glass and maybe a pint from Russian River. Also the odd t-shirt.

Wow, now I'm getting excited. Have a sick camera, http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-cybershot-dsc-rx100-m2, so will try and take a lot of photos, if not too drunk/dead/homeless.


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## Snowdog (12/1/14)

I'll put in a good word for Speakeasy Ales & Lagers http://goodbeer.com/wordpress/ on Evans Ave in San Francisco. It's_ a_ worthy little place.Tours are at 3:30PM Tuesday-to Saturday. Recommend booking but walk-ups are usually accommodated. Try their Double Daddy if you can.


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## neal32 (14/1/14)

Ok, First half of the day here. First pic is of my breakfast on Venice Beach and also the choice of beer I had for breakfast. The 3rd is of the menu at the Venice Ale house. Arrogant bastard was scarily similar to the one I brewed, I think it was the first brew on my 4v Herms, so mine was slightly hoppier and stronger. As a beer, it was excellently brewed if not a little one dimensional, because of the the buttload of Chinook. Very easy drinking. The 2nd was the Ballast Point Scalpin?(Spelling) IPA. Good Balanced IPA, once again, very easy drinking, especially after drinking generic Central/South American beer for 9 months. (Maybe because I overhyped it in my head, I was expecting to be slapped around the head with aroma and flavour, I think my beers have more of both :/) Enjoy the pics. The only problem is staying under the 0.08 BAC level driving to the different places :/


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## neal32 (14/1/14)

Did get comments about my strangeness for taking photos of the beer fridge whilst giggling like a school girl.


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## rehab (14/1/14)

Get into the Ruination/RuinaTen from Stone with the latter having a bit of Citra chucked in. If you are still alive after going to Venice Beach that is. 
I remember going there and actually fearing for my life with some of the characters I came across!

There were only a few needles in the sand..... tickles after a while h34r:


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## Spiesy (14/1/14)

The music trade show I'm going to LA for has a Stone Brewing Bar at it. Awesome!


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## gilmoreous (14/1/14)

Check out Lady Face brewery too. Nice beers but the food is excellent and its a bit on its own as you drive out of LA. We stopped for lunch there and enjoyed it. I didn't like Toronado but then I'm not into big Belgian beers. Zeitgeist (in SF) has a good tap selection too. In San Diego check out Monkey Paw too.


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## zappa (15/1/14)

Made it back to Russian River (Wally World for adults). Worth it in every way!




The sours were definitely the highlight. They only had Supplication and Pliny the Elder bottled, so grabbed myself half dozen supplication.

Also managed to get a beer in at Bear Republic and Lagunitas. If I were to come again, would definitely spend more time at Lagunitas.

Did Sierra Nevada today. Didn't have time to do the beer geek tour, but did do the brewery tour. Well worth it. Amazingly green brewery!


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## neal32 (16/1/14)

OK, did the tour at Firestone Walker today and will upload photos soon. All the beers there were excellent. The tour was good as well. Tomorrow it's Lagunitas and Russian River. Will try and be more vigilant on the photos.


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## Bizier (16/1/14)

gilmoreous said:


> Zeitgeist (in SF) has a good tap selection too.


Zeitgeist is rad.

I still have some matchbooks with soft porn on them that state: Warm Beer, Cold Women.


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## Spiesy (16/1/14)

_"Going back to Cali, strictly for the weather_
_And the weed hops, stinky green"_

_



_


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## neal32 (17/1/14)

Waiting for Lagunitas to open now for the tour, then Russian River tonight. Here's some photos from Firestone Walker. Their barleywine was awesome, best beer i've had for a while.


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## neal32 (21/1/14)

OK, bit of an update, will post pics when I get back, been super blazed and drunk so motivation hasn't been high to upload photos. I'm in San Diego now and have done a bulk of the breweries down here. Top 3 tours where in reverse order, Green Flash. Cool beers, cool brewery and pretty lively tour. 2nd Lagunitas. Excellent beer, excellent tour (Favourite beer was definitely Lagunitas Sucks, very good beer. 1st was the beer geek tour at Sierra Nevada, it was ridiculous. Every question was answered, no secrets, got to taste the wort from the mash, the boil which was super cool, I remember being impressed of the quality of the extract, it seemed to me at the time that they use a softer water (They did tell me they add phosphoric? acid to the water). Met Steve Dressler along the way and followed him around sampling all the beers out of the fermenters and brite tanks, even offered free hops but told him we can't get flowers into Australia :/ . Got a free(empty) growler at the end along with some other merch. Went out drinking in Chico that night as well, good beers, very cheap and the Aussie accent can get you quite far (Not as far as getting some random girl that likes your accent to show you her boobs, on the street....so I've been told). Anyway the good times are still rolling for another 2 days. Best beers have been Lagunitas Sucks, the barleywine from Firestone Walker and Modern Times Fortunate Islands. All the San Diego beers are slightly more minerally, enhancing the bitterness but making it less rounded and balanced at least to my novice palate and therefore I prefer the Firestone/Lagunitas ones.

The beers I'm bringing back are 2 x Pliny's, 1 x Palate Wrecker, 1 x Hop Stoopid.


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