Lloyd Brown
Upshift Brewing – El Segundo’s Newest Craft Brewery Opens
I remember the day well, July 19, the day I began to experience self doubt as to how in touch with the local craft beer scene I really was. I was enjoying a beer at Burnin’ Daylight when I received a text from Dave Holop of Brouwerij West asking me what I knew about three potential new breweries opening in El Segundo; like he said, I always seemed to be in the know for the latest brewery openings. I began to have my doubts.
I immediately started doing some research and reached out to the ones I could; the first to respond to me was Upshift Brewing. A week later I made my first visit to Upshift; the first six photos are from that visit. To be honest, they were so close to completion that we spoke about the possibility of Upshift being featured at my 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. Within a couple weeks it became clear that this wasn’t going to happen, so I put them on the back burner and waited to hear from them regarding their opening date. Continue reading
Barktoberfest 2019 at Absolution Brewing Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Absolution Brewing Company, in Torrance, where they held Barktoberfest 2019; an afternoon where the dogs literally took over the production brewery’s tasting room, with a portion of the proceeds from the beer sold going to benefit spcaLA.
After leaving the Craft Beer LB Fest I headed home to get Buddy, one of the South Bay’s well known brewery dogs to join me at Barktoberfest. He was in doggy heaven.
The extremely dog friendly event featured live music from Nasty Bad Habit, a food popup, and lots of dogs that all seemed to enjoy each other’s company. It is not unusual for there to be a dog or two that is not as ecstatic to hang out with other dogs, but everyone seemed to happy to be there; there were dog smiles everywhere. Continue reading
Smog City West Soft Open Photos
These photos were taken Wednesday afternoon at the soft open of Smog City West in Torrance; the second of Smog City Brewing’s satellite tasting rooms. Located at the space formerly occupied by Zymurgy Brew Works & Tasting Room, the interior has been completely redone, save the cold box and draft lines. Smog City West has a nice bar to sit at, as well as numerous tables and stools; so there is plenty of room for patrons to enjoy the 18 beers they currently have available.
The tap list currently includes seven Smog City favorites such as Little Bo Pils, Smog City IPA, and Bourbon O.E., but they also have eight of their small batch and experimental brews that are not available anywhere else; primarily saisons, sours, and barrel-aged blends. So if those are the style of beers you enjoy the most, Smog City West is where you want to be.
The soft open hours will be 3:00-9:00 Wednesday thru Friday, 12:00-9:00 on Saturdays, and 12:00-8:00 on Sundays. The soft opening will continue through Saturday, October 12, at which time the hours will change to 3:00-9:00 on Wednesday and Thursday, 12:00-10:00 on Friday and Saturday, and 12:00-8:00 on Sundays. Continue reading
Photos from the Wild Beer and Cheese Pairing at King Harbor Brewing
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at King Harbor Brewing, in Redondo Beach, where Head Brewer Phil McDaniel hosted a wild beer and cheese pairing. The ticketed event had about a dozen attendees and featured pairings of King Harbor’s Radberry Wild, Ride the Wild, and Grand Cru wild ales with cheeses from Four Fat Fowl, Cyprus Grove, and Cheeseland.
It has been suggested that I am an anomaly in the craft beer world, in that I am not particularly fond of pizza or cheese. I discovered that I was not alone, as a couple of attendees confided that they were not really “into cheese” before this cheese pairing; by the end of the event I think we were all convinced that we just had not tried the right cheeses. I spoke with one person that was not a fan of wild ales at all, but the cheese paired with them made them quite enjoyable. Continue reading
Photos from the Project Barley Ribbon Cutting
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Project Barley ribbon cutting, Lomita’s first nano brewery. The event was well attended by friends, family, the Lomita Chamber of Commerce, and various representatives of the Lomita City Council, the State Assembly, State Senate, and the County of Los Angeles. And with that, Lomita became a craft beer destination, sharing the city with Burnin’ Daylight which is about a mile away.
The tap list consisted of their Witbier, Mexican Lager, Pacific Cream Hwy Creme Ale, Parkers Milk Stout, Neverland IPA, Marine Layer Hazy IPA, and Blonde Kettle Sour. There was a hotdog and brat station provided by The Standing Room, whose owner is one of the owners and co-founders of Project Barley. Live music, while I was there, was provided by Barclay Roach; music continued through the day with performances by three other soloists and duos.
The Grand Opening weekend continues when they open at noon Sunday. After that, Project Barley is scheduled to be open seven days a week. Continue reading
Project Barley: From the Beginning
These photos photo-document the build of Lomita’s newest craft brewery, Project Barley. It took a couple modifications of Lomita’s laws to make it happen. In April of 2018, the City of Lomita Planning Commission paved the way for Project Barley to brew beer in Lomita; in May the Lomita City Council granted them the right to have a tasting room. In June of 2018 the build process began, and that is when I started stopping by to take photos of the build. 14 months later the build was complete, and Head Brewer Rives Borland began brewing.
The brewhouse consists of a 3bbl brewhouse with four fermenting vessels. Co-founder Brent Reger spent a lot of time using wood from an old basketball court to top the bar and decorate the walls. If one looks closely, everything from the logo on the bar and tables to the light framing over the brewhouse is shaped to resemble a stem of barley; it came out looking pretty nice. Continue reading
Angel City 7th Annual Avocado Fest August 3 and 4
Join Angel City Brewery this year for their 7th annual Avocado Fest: California Grown! Help them celebrate the release of their Avocado Ale, a crisp and refreshing Kolsch style ale, perfect for quenching your summer thirst! Come enjoy Avocado food, great music, and fun games over the course of our two day festival, on August 3rd and August 4th, where they will celebrate all things grown here in California!
They will have a special can release of Avocado Ale right after it is canned at noon Friday, August 2nd.
Both Days:
Live mural painting presented by Art Share-LA Continue reading
A Visit to Long Beach Beer Lab and Ten Mile Brewing
These photos were taken Friday, June 14, at Long Beach Beer Lab and Ten Mile Brewing; both of which are located on Willow Street in Long Beach and Signal Hill, and opened in late 2017. This was my first visit to Long Beach Beer Lab since they opened, and it was a return visit to Ten Mile Brewing.
I had an appointment of sorts in Long Beach at around 5:30, and traffic from the South Bay to Long beach just sucks at that hour, so I figured I could visit a few of the newer Long Beach craft breweries beforehand thus beating traffic. The main problem I had was the expectation that since it was a Friday, most of the breweries would be open around noon. It turned out that the only one in the neighborhood that did was Long Beach Beer Lab, so that is where I started. Continue reading
Shelby’s Baby Shower at Tortilla Cantina
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Tortilla Cantina, in Torrance, where local craft beer aficionado Paul Quintana held a baby shower for his daughter Shelby, and her boyfriend Zach, to help welcome his first grandchild into the world.
While you may not find a lot of baby shower photos on this site, Paul and his daughter both follow Craft Beer Guy, either via this website or its Facebook or Instagram pages; or all of the above. Combine that with the fact that they were holding the event at Tortilla Cantina, the new home of the South Bay Tap Takeover, and it was an invitation that would be hard to turn down; in retrospect, I am very glad I attended, it was a fun event. Continue reading
Photos from the 2nd Annual Brewmo Pseudo-Sumo Showdown
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at the Three Weavers Brewing Company parking lot, where they hosted their 2nd Annual Brewmo Pseudo-Sumo Showdown as the after-party to the 2019 Los Angeles Beer Week. Sponsored by BSG CraftBrewing, Prospero, and Stradling Attorneys at Law, the event featured action-filled sumo wrestling by more than a dozen LA Brewers Guild member breweries, a beer garden, food trucks, a mariachi band, a DJ and lots of dogs.
The participating breweries included Absolution Brewing, Arrow Lodge Brewing, Bravery Brewing, Brouwerij West, Common Space Brewery, Eagle Rock Brewing, Firestone Walker – Propagator, HopSaint Brewing, Imperial Western Beer Company/Arts District Brewing, King Harbor Brewing, Lucky Luke Brewing, Pacific Plate Brewing, Simmzy’s – Burbank, The Dudes’ Brewing, LA Ale Works, and Three Weavers. Continue reading
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