As I announced almost a month ago, and have tried to continually remind you on my Facebook page, this Thursday, September 3, Flights Beer Bar in association with CraftBeerGuy.com will hold their first ever 40 Taps of South Bay Craft Tap Takeover. I have to admit, there are a couple things about that opening line that I would like to point out. The first is, I am unaware of any prior event in the South Bay that has ever dedicated 40 taps to 10 South Bay craft breweries, so it isn’t just their first ever, I am pretty sure it is the first ever. Secondly, I was not sure if I should call it their inaugural event or 1st Annual because there is already talk of making this an annual event; these comments are coming from participating breweries and the owner of Flights, who has gone to the extreme for this event. Let me give you a couple examples.

First off, the beer. When I was approached about the idea of having a “Craft Beer Guy” party I immediately knew that I wanted to showcase the South Bay’s breweries. I also knew that 40 new kegs was quite an order so I was pleasantly surprised when Flights owner Jerry Jamgotchian didn’t blink an eye and said that 40 kegs was not a problem. A couple people asked me, “But where is he going to keep all that beer?” It was a great question that only had one solution; he was going to need a bigger cold box; so that is what he did. He had a second, bigger cold box added.

A couple weeks ago someone suggested maybe having a few shirts made and raffle them off; buy a beer, get a ticket. I brought it to Jerry for some input and his response was, “How about we make hundreds and give them to everybody?” Well, that is what he did; there will be free t-shirts for the first couple hundred people that ask for one (as supplies/sizes last).

Initially I was planning on providing our finalized tap list, but as I was typing this I was called by Flights manager and beer buyer, Marc, and we are still making last minute adjustments. I will tell you that we are going to provide you with everything from Berliner Weisse to wild ales, blondes to wits, browns to ryes, session IPAs to double IPAs, Belgian-ish, English and a couple on nitro. You get the idea; we have done our best to put together the best the South Bay has to offer with a little something for everybody. This is tougher than it sounds. There are going to be a couple brews that I haven’t had yet, so I am relatively confident we will have something new for you too.

I would like to thank all the South Bay craft breweries that will be featured; Absolution Brewing, Strand Brewing, El Segundo Brewing, Smog City Brewing, Three Weavers, The Dudes’ Brewing, King Harbor Brewing, Phantom Carriage, Monkish Brewing Company and Cosmic Brewery. When I initially announced this event, HopSaint was hoping to be brewing enough to participate but things happen. Luckily, the same day that I was told HopSaint was backing out; Cosmic Brewery informed me they were moving to Torrance. Problem solved, besides, they are already brewing. Next year we are going to have more breweries to choose from and picking the best 40 beers to showcase will be that much tougher.

Since people have asked, there is NO ADMISSION CHARGE; you simply buy your food and drink. Flights has really good food, people thank me for suggesting them all the time. Their food happy hour will run from 11:00 AM until 7:00 PM. In addition, anyone with an industry business card will save 10% on any food and drink. If you are not in the craft beer industry, simply download the free Craft Beer Guy mobile app. You can get it at your favorite app store; it is available for IOS and Android devices. Just search for craftbeerguy and you will see my photo when you have the right one; it should be close to the top.

This is going to be a great time and I hope you will join us. The event officially begins at 4:00 PM and will go on until at least midnight; but they will stay open until 2:00 AM if the crowd justifies it. Flights is located at 5119 W. El Segundo Boulevard in Hawthorne. That is just east of the 405 freeway on the north side of the street. Cheers!