Microbreweries
Absolution Brewing Celebrates 3 Year Anniversary
These photos were taken Saturday, March 18, at the Absolution Brewing Company tasting room in Torrance, where they celebrated their three year anniversary.
Say what you will about Absolution Brewing, these guys know how to throw a party, and Saturday’s extravaganza was no exception. In addition to the 20+ beers that were on tap at the main bar of the tasting room, they had four special firkins and about 10 other special brews which were available in the front office. For those with an appetite for food, Bartz Barbecue was there with their brisket and pork sandwich options.
As this was a daylong event, I split my day up with two visits. Continue reading
Los Angeles Ale Works Begins Soft Open
The South Bay has a new production brewery and tasting room as Los Angeles Ale Works held their soft open over this past weekend. If you did not hear about it, do not feel too bad as it was intentionally kept under wraps since LA Ale Works wanted to make sure they were ready for their anticipated crowds. Founder/Partner Kristofor “Kip” Barnes said that he wanted to be sure that first time visitors had a pleasant experience; after my visit on Sunday, I do not think that is going to be a problem.
The soft open will continue every Wednesday through Sunday until their Grand Opening, which will be held Saturday, February 11. According to their website, their hours are currently 3:00 to 10:00 PM on Wednesday and Thursday; 3:00 to 11:00 PM on Fridays; 12:00 to 11:00 PM on Saturdays, and 12:00 to 8:00 PM on Sundays. The Grand Opening will likely be a ticketed event, but the details on that have not been figured out yet. Continue reading
Absolution Brewing Mug Club Christmas Party Photos
On Sunday evening, Absolution Brewing Company held their annual Christmas party for members of their MUG Club loyalty program. Attendees were provided with a wide variety of snacks and were treated to a pint of Absolution’s cellar-aged Anniversary Ale. Of course, there were specials on any of the 19 other brews they pour; I spent my time enjoying their new 405 IPA. Finally, Absolution has brewed a true west coast style IPA. For entertainment, we enjoyed the rock and blues sounds of Nasty Bad Habit; it really was a good time.
You know, the ABC MUG Club makes for a pretty nice Christmas gift; in fact, I know one couple that was at the party last night because they had just received a membership as an early Christmas present. Membership includes a nice growler, a hat, shirt, discounts on beer and invitations to these private events. You might want to give yourself one. Cheers! Continue reading
LA Beer Bloggers Visit Brouwerij West
On Saturday afternoon, a small contingency of local craft beer writers, photographers and a brewer met at Brouwerij West in San Pedro for a personal tour given by Brouwerij West President and Chief Financial Officer, Dave Holop and Founder and Brewmaster, Brian Mercer, as well as their head brewer, Jeremy Czuleger.
As this was the first visit to Brouwerij West for several of the attendees, the tour included a brief history of Brouwerij West and how each of the principles became involved in craft beer as well as some history behind the warehouse that was built during World War II but did not get a whole lot of use because the war ended shortly after construction of the building was completed. Continue reading
Birthday Party Pig Roast at Strand Brewing Co
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Strand Brewing Company, where they held a pig roast to celebrate three birthdays. The birthdays being celebrated included Strand Brewing Company co-founder Rich Marcello, Barley Hops Grill co-owner Alex Bouffiou, and long time Strand Brewing fan, Leslie Cortez.
Barley Hops Grill cooked up two pigs, so I am sure there was enough for everyone. The cookies Rich was passing around were only surpassed by his beer. Cheers! Continue reading
Strand Brewing Celebrates 7 Years with Beer, Love & BBQ
This past weekend, Torrance’s oldest production brewery, Strand Brewing Company celebrated their 7th anniversary with a weekend of beer, love and BBQ at their new Dominguez Street location. The three day event featured new beers released by Strand along with food by Bartz Barbecue and live music from such artists as Big Bad Rooster and Strand co-founder Joel Elliott’s, Uncle Bill.
Due to time constraints I was only able to stop by on Saturday, which is when these photos were taken. If you have visited Strand Brewing’s new location, you know they have lots of space in their 36,000 square foot facility and they made the most of the space making it relatively easy for the more than 700 people a day that showed up to have room to eat, drink, play games and dance to the music.
Three years ago co-owner Rich Marcello confided in me that the morning of their 4th anniversary he was sitting on his surfboard wondering if anyone would show up to their anniversary party; they showed up in droves. I asked Marcello if he had those same concerns this year and he admitted that prior to opening the doors at 4:00 PM Friday he did wonder the same thing; however, those concerns were immediately put aside as more than 700 people showed up Friday evening. Continue reading
Absolution Brewing Shelby Beer Release Photos
Those of you that have been paying close attention may recall that back in May I mentioned that Absolution Brewing had entered into an agreement with Shelby Craft Beer & Beverages to begin brewing beers under the Shelby Craft Beer label. A couple months ago Shelby started showing off the first two brews, Shelby Snake Bite Lager and Big Block IPA at a few car events; this past Saturday at the Shelby Beer Bash 01 they officially released them at the Absolution Brewing tasting room, and it became available on draft.
To help celebrate the release, a contingent of Carroll Shelby vehicles were on display at Absolution’s parking lot with a couple Cobras and several Mustangs showing up. I showed up rather early and the tasting room was already packed with what had to have been primarily gear-heads as I recognized exactly one person that did not work there.
While I have had an opportunity to try the bottled version of the Snake Bite lager and Big Block IPA previously, this was my first opportunity to try it on tap and it was delicious. Big Block was appropriately named as it is definitely a big hop bomb. If you did not have an opportunity to get over to Absolution Brewing over the weekend, you can still try the two new releases on tap at the tasting room; and they may still have some bottles available to take home. Cheers! Continue reading
Media Night at Strand Brewing Company
Monday evening, Strand Brewing Company hosted members of the LA Beer Bloggers and other local media outlets with an intimate evening of craft beer, snacks and networking. Strand Brewing Company co-founder/co-owner Rich Marcello took time to speak with attendees individually; then took everyone on a tour of their [relatively] new 36,000 square foot facility on Dominguez Street. Marcello also showed off their shiny, new canning line which will be put into use shortly. He also made sure to let us all know that Strand Brewing will be celebrating their 7th Anniversary on the weekend of November 11 through the 13th.
In addition to the tour and plentiful beer, Marcello personally made up several snack trays that one would have thought were professionally done. Attendees also had a chance to chat with the reigning, and six times Tetris World Champion, Jonas Neubauer who also happens to run the tasting room. For those into Tetris, the World Championships have been going on for seven years, with Neubauer taking first place every year, except a couple years ago when he ranked second. We are all pretty proud of him.
Strand Brewing Company is located at 2201 Dominguez Street in Torrance. Their 7th Anniversary celebration will feature special beers, casks, music and general fun for the entire family. Visit the Strand Brewing website or their Facebook page for more information. Cheers! Continue reading
Cosmic Brewery Enters Soft Open Phase
The long awaited opening of Torrance’s newest production brewery, Cosmic Brewery, home of Cosmic Ales, is now a reality as they opened their tasting room to the public this past weekend. I only had a short window of opportunity to visit on Saturday evening but for making a last minute announcement on Friday that they would be open Saturday, the place was packed.
As you can see by my photos, as I watched the build-out of the brewery I never got any photos of the future tasting room. Owner Christopher Briles always kept that close to the vest and he did not want anyone to see it until it was ready. When it was revealed Saturday one had to admit, the cosmic theme is pretty cool.
The tap system is different than any tasting room I have visited in that you pour your own beer and are charged according to how much you pour. If you recall my article about zpizza a couple months ago, it is the same concept. You purchase a card that you insert on the tap, and you pour your beer. I did not play with it Saturday, but I will probably check it out this weekend. Continue reading
Bruery Terreux Now Open
These photos were taken Thursday afternoon at a preview of the new Bruery Terreux tasting room that is opening to the public at noon Friday. From this point forward they are open daily from 12:00-10:00 PM.
If you will recall, it was June 2014 that The Bruery announced that they were going to open Terreux (pronounced terr – ooh) as the location where they would concentrate on their wild ales and sours without risking the quality of the other fine brews The Bruery was turning out in Placentia. Because those pesky Brettanomyces really fly, they took no chances and opened the second facility three miles away in Anaheim; that and the City of Anaheim seemed really anxious to have them.
Bruery Terreux hoped to open their tasting room last summer, but I think we have all watched enough tasting rooms open around here to guess that wasn’t going to happen; permits, permits, permits. Anyway, it only took two years, which is not bad and it was worth the wait. Continue reading