Beer News

Waves of Grain Beerfest coming June 30

Waves of Grain flier

Waves of Grain at Shade Hotel benefiting The Richstone Family Center

The second annual Waves of Grain Beerfest will be held this Sunday, June 30 at the Shade Hotel in Manhattan Beach. This is a fundraiser benefiting the Richstone Family Center whose efforts are concentrated on preventing and treating child abuse.

This second annual beer festival will feature more than 40 craft brewers and a barbecue with a whole roasted pig. Among the breweries attending are Anchor Brewing, Beachwood, Ballast Point, Cosmic Ales, El Segundo Brewing, Monkish, Strand Brewing, Smog City, Stone, Dogfish Head and The Dudes’ Brewing. I went to this event last year and had an absolute ball. Considering last year had 25 breweries represented and this year has 40; that sounds like a whole lot more fun. You can find my photos from last year’s event at http://www.gotbaddog.com/waves-of-grain-beerfest-2012/.

Waves of Grain is Sunday, June 30, 2013 from 3-6 PM. You can purchase tickets online ahead of time for $40 each (there is a $3.19 fee per order, not per ticket); or you can buy them at the door for $50. There is no guarantee there will be tickets at the door though, there is limited space so I highly advise buying your tickets ahead of time. The Shade Hotel is located at 1221 N Valley Dr Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. I hope to see you there; be sure to smile if you see my camera pointed at you.

The Dudes’ Brewing at Nelson’s Beer Garden

A pretty major advantage to living in Southern California is that the weather is pretty awesome at any given time; in fact, you can schedule an outdoor event almost any day of the year and there is a good chance it is going to be nice out. Saturday afternoon, June 22, we headed up to Palos Verdes and Nelson’s new beer garden at the Terranea Resort. They are having their annual summer concert series, this time with a beer garden. When we were there, a solo guitarist Wise Katubadrau was performing. The reason I was aware of this event was that Torrance’s newest microbrewery, The Dudes’ Brewing Company, was the guest tap of the week this past weekend. When they put out the notice of this event I knew I would have to go, because the scenery would be great; and as predicted, it was very nice out.

Nelson’s is a restaurant at the end of the Terranea Resort; looking over the cliffs. It is very scenic and pretty kicked back for being at an upscale resort. Parking is kind of a hassle unless you are lucky enough to find some free parking; otherwise they have paid self parking and valet options starting at $10 and going up to $25. You might find value in the $25 parking though because you can catch a ride on their shuttle down to Nelson’s. The walk down might be pleasant but I suspect the walk back up the hill would become tiresome, especially after a few beers.

The Dudes’ Brewing Company just opened about three months ago, but are already making a name for themselves in the South Bay. They have yet to open a tasting room due to growing pains and some unforeseeable circumstances, but they hope to have one open by the end of summer. The Dudes’ had four taps pouring at Nelson’s with their Day One Pale Ale, Grandma’s Pecan Brown Ale, Grinning Face Porter and the most photogenic of them all, their Double Trunk DIPA. As this was my first time to Nelson’s I cannot tell you how the crowd compared to other events but by the time we left there was a pretty long beer line. I guess Dudes’ did abide at nelson’s Beer Garden.

Nelson’s Beer Garden is located at 100 Terranea Way, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA Continue reading

James “Tony Soprano” Gandolfini Dead

James Gandolfini

James Gandolfini
September 18, 1961- June 19, 2013

It was announced this afternoon, June 19, 2013, the actor James Gandolfini suffered a heart attack and died in Italy. While this is not really beer related, I happened to meet Mr. Gandolfini this past October at the 1st Annual Rocktoberfest at LA Live, benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project. I only spoke to him for a short while, but he came across as a very nice guy and posed for the photo with a humorous attitude. Rest in Peace, sir; you were one of my favorite actors. You can see all the photos from the 1st Annual Rocktoberfest at LA Live on GotBaddog.com

LA Beer Blogger Summit #5

When it comes down to it, there is only one reason why American craft beer is taking off the way it is and that is because the people love it. In these days of the Internet (believe it or not, it wasn’t always here) and social media, people write on their Facebook pages or Twitter to talk about their passions; some even start blogs or other websites to promote these passions to others. Craft beer is no different; for as many new microbreweries as there are popping up around the country, it seems that there are at least a dozen people writing about each one. Some of us try to write about all of them.

Today, I went to Schooner at Sunset, a gastropub in Sunset Beach, to attend the LA Beer Blogger Summit #5. As the name implies, it was a gathering of a group of craft beer fans that have decided to promote the American craft beer or local craft beer scene. Due to another obligation I was only able to stay for the first 90 minutes, but by the time I left I would guess that there were 30-40 people there and more arrived after I left. It was a pretty impressive showing with blogs, social media and print formats being represented. Some people had large networks of craft beer related sites while others were there to learn a little more and make some connections. With the motto of Collaborate and Educate the LA Beer Blogger Summit has a lot of potential to do just that.

The networking event featured guests Jerry Kolbly and Evan Price of Nobel Ale Works, from nearby Anaheim, and live music by Aloha Radio. While Schooner at Sunset has a very nice list of guest brews on their taps, they were enhanced by some additions provided by Nobel Ale Works; Rosalita (Hibiscus Lager, 4.5% abv), Breakaway (Pale Ale, 5% abv), Big Whig (IPA, 6.8% abv) and Too Darn Hot (Habanero IPA, 6.8% abv). Since the event I had to go to was a food event I did not eat there this time (yes, I have been there before), but the food smelled great and the couple I was sharing the table with were very complimentary of it. Continue reading

38 Degrees 4th Anniversary Photos

These photos are from the 38 Degrees Ale House and Grill 4th Anniversary Celebration, held today in Alhambra. 38 Degrees Ale House and Grill is a gastropub that I visited for the first time back in February when they had their Pliny the Younger release party. Even though it is a 30 mile ride out there, I knew that I was going to have to return; their guest tap list was pretty impressive and the food looked and smelled good. When I heard they were having their 4th anniversary celebration I knew that this would be an outstanding event.

We got there shortly after the scheduled start time and the 38 Degrees fans were already beginning to fill the place up and I could not help but notice the number of flights that were being purchased. Of course, when you look at the list of beers they had available it is easy to understand why. From their Facebook page, the taps were pouring: Continue reading

Smog City Brewing Ribbon Cutting

These photos are from the Smog City Brewing Company’s induction to the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC). The event, better known as a “ribbon Cutting” was attended by numerous members of the TACC, a Torrance City Councilman representing Mayor Scotto’s office; as well as a representative from Assembly member Al Muratsuchi’s office. There were also many, many customers. As one first time visitor told me, “I think they are going to do pretty well here.” I have to agree; I think they are going to do very well. Continue reading

New Indiana law brings new rumors

Three Floyds Brewing

Three Floyds Brewing flight

Yesterday morning I was perusing my Facebook feed and saw a notice that Three Floyds Brewing would be suspending brewery tours until further notice. Now normally this would not even cause me to raise an eyebrow, but as my girlfriend is going there next week I thought I should look a little deeper.

I followed the link and found a lot of input from a lot of people, a lot of it inane, but someone made the suggestion that that brewery tours were being suspended due to upgrades being made at Three Floyds because of a new Indiana law that had just been signed which would allow for increased production of beer by Indiana microbreweries. The law, House Bill 1293 (http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2013/HB/HB1293.1.html), states in relevant part: “Creates an artisan distiller’s permit for a person who desires to commercially manufacture not more than 10,000 gallons of liquor in a calendar year (excluding the amount of any liquor sold through a liquor wholesaler).” This will become effective July 1, 2013. So, what might this mean for us?

From what I am reading, while microbreweries might be limited to producing 10,000 gallons to be sold in their brewpubs and tasting rooms, if they get a distributor their only limitation is how much they can brew. Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to find Zombie Dust at the local Total Wine. That would be the nicest thing Indiana has done in a while.

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