Clear your calendars; one week from today, Thursday September 5, I will be presenting my 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover at Tortilla Cantina in Old Torrance.

If you have attended any of the previous four tap takeovers, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect; if you have never been I can summarize with at least 25 South Bay breweries/cideries pouring from 50 taps.

When I started this in 2015, we had 10 South Bay breweries with 40 taps; in 2016 there were 15, and in 2017 we had 18 South Bay breweries with 40 taps. In 2018 there was a change of management at the original venue (Flights), and they decided they wanted to do their own thing. I wished them luck, and then approached Rick Gomez of Tortilla Cantina to see if they would be interested in hosting the 4th annual tap takeover. I approached Rick for three reasons; I knew he was a big supporter of the local craft beer scene, every South Bay brewery owner I spoke with knew and really liked Rick, and I knew he had 48 taps. I do not think Rick really knew what he was in for, but he went all-in and the 4th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover ended up featuring 22 local breweries participating, and with the help of a jockey box, 49 taps of craft beer!

Since the tap list is subject to change, and to be honest, there are a couple participating breweries that I don’t have a clue on what we will end up with, I can only say that this will be a mixture of some of the best the South Bay has to offer. There will be blondes, reds, West Coast IPAs, hazy IPAs, porters, stouts, Berliner Weisse-style, Hefeweizens, pale ales, nitro beers, sours, and probably a couple I forgot. There will also be two anniversary beers to commemorate this being the 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. One will be Better Weather Sweater IPA, a collaboration beer that we did at Smog City a few weeks ago, featuring 18 of the participating breweries. The second anniversary beer will be 2nd Cold War Russian Imperial Stout that I did in collaboration with the former Zymurgy Brew Works back in April.

As of today, the participating breweries (in alphabetical order) will be Absolution Brewing, Brouwerij West, Burnin’ Daylight, Common Space, El Segundo Brewing, Hermosa Brewing, Honest Abe, HopSaint, King Harbor Brewing, LA Ale Works, Phantom Carriage, Port Town Brewing, Project Barley, San Pedro Brewing, Scholb, Smog City, SoCal Cider, State Brewing, Strand Brewing, The Brewery at Abigaile, The Dudes’, Three Weavers, Tortugo Brewing, Ximix, Yorkshire Square, and for the last time [due to being sold] Zymurgy Brew Works.

The event begins at noon on September 5 and will run until 11:30 PM. Tortilla Cantina is a taco bistro and their full food menu will be available. Their standard Happy Hour pricing will apply from noon to 7:00 PM. From 7:00-9:00 there will be live music.

Since people always seem to ask, I will be there for a couple hours when they open at noon; and will return around 4:30 for the duration of the event. I suspect the “sweet spot” will be from 5:00 to 10:00.

Since the event is in Torrance, street parking is free as well as in the large parking structure a couple doors south of Tortilla Cantina. Of course, Uber and Lyft are highly recommended.

Tortilla Cantina is located at 1225 El Prado Avenue in Torrance; I really hope to see you there at the 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. Cheers!