These photos were taken September 23, day nine of my Craft Beer Tour 2021. As Dom was recovering with her parents, and Matt loves showing off Oregon to me, we headed off to Hood River to visit pFreim Family Brewers and Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River; the fact that we had to go through the Columbia River Gorge to get there was icing on the cake.
We started off at pFreim Family Brewers, which seemed to begin filling up as we arrived. Matt got a quinoa salad and I set up a flight made up of their Pilsner (because you kind of have to), Jammy Pale Ale (really was jammy), Strata IPA, Kolsch, pFreim IPA, and Flanders Blonde (first time ever). Each of them seemed to be better than the last, and I am falling in love with Strata hops.
pFreim Family Brewers is located at 707 Portway Avenue in Hood River. They are open daily and offer can’s, bottles, and crowlers to-go. I think I noticed a dog or two on their patio. Continue reading
These photos were taken between September 18 and 22, days four through eight of my Craft Beer Tour 2021. There were several repeat visits, including McMenamins, Oregon City Brewing Company, and Shattered Oak Brewing, and a first time visit to Stickmen Brewing Company.
When I left Bend the weather had turned crappy, which was probably a good thing for Bend as the evening before had been quite smoky so I am sure the wind and rain helped clear that out, but it also cleared me out. Continue reading
These photos were taken September 17 and 18, days three and four of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, aka the search for fresh hopped beers; this time in Bend, Oregon. The breweries I visited were The Ale Apothecary, Crux Fermentation Project, Boss Rambler Beer Club, and GoodLife Brewing.
I intended to spend two nights in Bend, but the place I was staying at the first night didn’t have room for me for Saturday night, so I was going to have to play it by ear. I remember when I got out of the car when I arrived how great the air smelled, and there was a blue sky. To be honest, the air quality from Sacramento on had sucked due to the fires that had been in the area. I had put a post on Facebook asking the first bend brewery I should visit, and The Ale Apothecary was the first that came up that I had been to before, so I set my GPS for it and headed over. Continue reading
These photos were taken over the course of two days, September 16 and 17, days two and three of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, or the quest for the best fresh, wet hop IPA in the land; no judgement though. Anyway, as the title suggests this takes place in and around Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Blame it on old age or whatever you want, but for some reason I thought I had been to Klamath Falls back in 2018, but when I got into town nothing looked familiar and when I looked through the list of breweries I had visited in Oregon, I realized I was thinking of Grants Pass and I had never been here before. As I thought about it, I remembered I never traveled to Bend, the eventual destination, from the south. I was on the other side of the state. Continue reading
So, I am on the road again; this time for the Craft Beer Tour 2021, which I considered calling the COVID Beer Tour, but let’s keep our fingers crossed. This is the first road trip I have done without Buddy in a very long time, so please forgive me if I forget to mention whether or not the location is dog friendly or not. This is also the first time that I am trying out using AirBNB, which as of this writing, has been okay.
These photos were taken September 15, day one of this adventure. Now, to be honest, I was not exactly aiming for Sacramento as my destination for day one; I wanted to go to Roseville, but AirBNB figured it was close enough, and they don’t really tell you where you are going to be until you make the reservation, but the price was right, so I ended up spending the night in Sacramento. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the 5th Annual Craft Beer LB Fest, which was held at the Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site in Long Beach. The family friendly event featured craft beer from about a dozen Long Beach breweries, a couple homebrew clubs, and one cidery.
While I have attended each of the prior events, it seems that I typically had several events to photograph the same day, so I always attended the VIP session; I was late for the VIP session this time and it really showed me just how crowded this festival gets. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the El Segundo Brewing Company tasting room, where El Segundo Brewing celebrated their 10 year anniversary. The event included the release of their Hüftgold Festbier and VollerKOLSCHster, as well as the re-release of their 10th anniversary triple IPA. The Slice and Pint provided bratwursts and sauerkraut, and Röckenwagner Bakery provided their giant pretzels. Live Bavarian polka music was provided by Hammerstein Band (their singer had a beautiful voice).
This was a very fun event, and very well attended; I heard several people mention that is almost seemed like the pre-COVID days. With all the smiles and a tap list boasting more than 20 available brews, I have to agree. Continue reading
These photos were taken Thursday at Tortilla Cantina in Torrance, where they hosted my 7th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover, featuring 28 of the South Bay’s craft breweries, with more than 50 taps pouring, and a couple brews that came in cans as keg space was becoming an issue.
I do not know what to say other than thank you to everyone that came out to enjoy the liquid gold provided by the participating breweries, cidery, and meadery. And thanks definitely have to be given to the servers who were kept pretty busy from noon until well after 10:00. The star of the day has to go to Rick who literally took things into his own hands when kitchen staff came up short. Continue reading
The 7th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover is two days away, and as hard as it may be for me to believe, this may be the first time that I am not going to be rushing around trying to fill taps with less than 24 hours to go; knock on wood.
Just in case this is the first you have heard about my event, shame on me, but this is what you need to know.
The tap takeover is returning to Tortilla Cantina in Old Torrance, from noon until 10:00 PM. Tortilla Cantina is located at 1225 El Prado, in Torrance. Parking is always free in Torrance and there is a large parking structure just south of Tortilla Cantina. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday evening at Far Field Beer Company, the South Bay’s newest craft brewery, where they hosted a celebration of sorts for Instagram beerlebrity, GregVisitsBreweries, as he celebrated the 1,000th brewery that he has visited since he started counting back in the 20th century.
I first learned of Greg’s upcoming fete a couple weeks ago when my friend Jeff asked me if I followed Greg. When I admitted that I may have seen the name but that was it, I was informed that Greg had been documenting his brewery visits on Instagram and his 1,000th visit would be at Far Field Beer. Naturally, I reached out to Greg and we met at Far Field. Continue reading