Escape Craft Brewery

California Craft Brewers Conference After-Party at Absolution Brewing

This past weekend the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) held their CCBA Spring Conference in Long Beach, California. I was out of town for the event so was unable to attend, however, Absolution Brewing Company in Torrance held an after-party on Tuesday evening which I was home in time for.

Judging by the turnout at the after-party I can only imagine that it must have been a well-attended event as I saw representatives and owners from Escape Craft Brewery, Rok House Brewing, Old Stump Brewing, Faction Brewing, Scholb Premium Ales and several providers of hops.

Thank you to Nigel Heath of Absolution Brewing for the invitation. Cheers! Continue reading

Taking a Craft Beer Tour of Redlands

Back in 2012, I was at a craft beer festival where I met a Hangar 24 representative that invited me to take a tour of the Hangar 24 brewery in Redlands. Since this was in June, I figured that I would probably wait a while since Redlands can be pretty hot in the summer. In the meantime the craft beer movement around the South Bay suddenly exploded. Whenever I thought about driving the 80+ miles to Redlands, there always seemed to be a closer craft beer distraction that kept me from making the drive. On top of that, there was not a lot going on out there that I was aware of.

In the following years Redlands had their own craft beer explosion with the inclusion of Ritual Brewing at the end of 2012 and Escape Craft Brewery in 2015. Donkey Punch Brewing also opened in 2012, but never seemed to grow legs; I hear they may be closing soon.

Anyway, last August I ran across Escape Craft Brewery at the BEERS Summer Fest and was impressed enough that I now had three breweries in the same general vicinity that I wanted to visit; so Friday I made that happen. Continue reading

BEERS Summer Fest: Festivals only look easy to put on

These photos were taken at the inaugural BEERS Summer Fest, which was held Saturday at The REEF, Chair Parking Lot in downtown Los Angeles. As one might guess, I am approached on a regular basis to promote craft beer festivals; some are large, well established events and others are smaller inaugural events. Some inaugural events are bigger and more successful than expected and others are probably not going to have a second annual event. Since there are a lot of newer beer festivals that seem to get the beer donated and donate a very small portion of the proceeds to a charity so they can get the permit, I have decided to start asking questions about how much actually will be donated before I consider promoting the event. Of even more importance is whether or not I think I will go to it; because I am not in the habit of promoting events that I am not attending.

When I was first approached about promoting the BEERS Magazine BEERS Summer Fest I was taken aback when I saw the pricing structure. $10 to get in, all of which would go to the charity; then $25 for the pint glass that you would get your beer poured in. No glass, no beer. I could not recall any event that I have attended that used this method. There was a $5.00 discount if you pre-paid for your glass, but when I inquired about getting an additional discount for my readers I was told they could not do that. So I started to wonder how much they were paying for the glassware. Continue reading

Beer festival season: Upcoming events for August

It is hard to believe that it has been over a month since the last beer festival I attended, but the break is over as there are three local beer festivals coming up between now and the end of August.

The first up will be Beers Summer Fest which will be held Saturday, August 15 at The REEF, Chair Parking Lot, 1933 S. Broadway in Los Angeles. This event will feature 10 breweries; Anchor Brewing, Wicks Brewing, Absolution Brewing, The Great Brewing Company, Solarc Brewing, Mission, Figueroa Mountain, Fireman’s Brew, Escape Craft Brewery and The Dudes’.

Presented by BEERS Magazine, this inaugural event is a little different in that it costs $10 to get in, but if you want to drink beer you will have to purchase one of their commemorative pint glasses. The glasses are $25 at the door, or you can purchase them in advance via Eventbrite for $20. I am told that the entire $10 from the admission price will be donated to the beneficiaries, RISE – Reaching and Improving Society with Education and Smiles for M.I.L.E.S. Foundation.

There will be food, games and music in addition to the beer. You can get more information at http://beersfest.com/. Continue reading

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