Microbreweries
Brouwerij West 4th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Brouwerij West in San Pedro, where the production brewery celebrated their fourth anniversary. The event included new beer releases, food trucks and live music.
Saturday was a very busy day in the South Bay with can releases, a soft open, and the Brouwerij West 4th Anniversary celebration. Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out how to be in multiple places at the same time, so I have to settle for being at one event at a time. To accomplish this I begin at the event furthest from my home and work my way back. That means I had to start at Brouwerij West first, which meant I got there long before the live music began. Continue reading
Photos from the Boomtown Brewery 5th Anniversary
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Boomtown Brewery, a production brewery in the arts district area of Los Angeles, where they celebrated their fifth anniversary. The event featured 24 Boomtown brews, including their Anniversary Ale, a very nice west coast IPA, and several barrel aged brews.
Entertainment was provided throughout the day by a host of DJs, as well as Boomtown’s standard entertainment of pool, darts, pinball, video games, and cornhole. Food, while I was there, was available from Highland Hickory BBQ (Buddy loved their pork shoulder) and Tripp Burgers, as well as a churro popup. Continue reading
Photos from the LA Ale Works 3rd Anniversary Block Party
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Los Angeles Ale Works, Hawthorne’s first production brewery, where they celebrated their third anniversary with a massive block party. The event featured a quadruple can release, four food vendors, DJs and live music, anniversary merchandise, and a michelada bar.
I had two events to cover Saturday; one was inside and the other, LA Ale Works’ Block Party, was outside. As it was a beautiful day in the South Bay it was not too difficult to decide which one I was going to do first.
After taking a few photos I decided it was time to try their “anniversary beer” which turned out to be seven different beers. They included Infinite Potential Munich lager, Cosmik Debris IPA, Flight Path DIPA, Scrappalicious Juicy IPA, From the Roots farmhouse ale, In For the Long Haul bourbon and rum barrel-aged barleywine, and Tropic Punch In mixed fermentation barrel beer; I opted to begin with Flight Path and had no regrets. Continue reading
Photos of the Absolution Brewing Company Christmas Party 2019
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, December 14, at Absolution Brewing Company in Torrance, where they held their annual Christmas Party. The event featured live music from Nasty Bad Habit, Montero Y Murillo, and The Noir. They had the Yuyo Bros food truck there for people seeking solid nourishment, and I guess Santa made an appearance after I left; we seem to always miss each other.
I am sorry for the delay in getting these photos up, but I have been under the weather (it took two days to write this!). Continue reading
Three Weavers 5th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Three Weavers Brewing Company, in Inglewood, where they celebrated their fifth anniversary with a tiki themed dance party featuring food trucks, live music, and a variety of beer slushies, mocktails, barrel aged brews, and the release of a collaboration anniversary beer.
While I was there, live music was provided by the Blackball Bandits and The Hula Girls; as I prepared to leave a third band, Skapeche Mode, was just arriving. Sadly, I needed to get Buddy home for his dinner so I missed their performance but I hear they are a lot of fun to watch. Blackball Bandits and The Hula Girls were definitely entertaining. Continue reading
Upshift Brewing Company Grand Opening Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at one of El Segundo’s newest craft breweries, Upshift Brewing Company, where they held their official grand opening. Attendees had 10 Upshift brews to choose from, as well as two food trucks; Cheddr Wheel and Swami’s Sandwiches. For entertainment there was a raffle, live music provided by Green Hills Band, and there was a mini car show in the parking lot shared with the food trucks. Of course, there was Giant Jenga and cornhole for the competitive types.
The beers Upshift currently has on tap includes their Kolschwagen, Bench Seat Blonde, PRNDL Pale Ale, Track Sesh IPA, Wind Wing IPA, Big Block Brown, Off Camber Amber, Pole Position Pale Ale, Pit Stop Porter, and their newest, G.T. Oatmeal Stout. Continue reading
Surfridge Brewing: and Then There Were Four
These photos were taken Thursday afternoon, October 24, at Surfridge Brewing Company, El Segundo’s fourth craft brewery. Yes, you read that right, El Segundo now has four craft breweries, making El Segundo twice the craft beer destination it was a mere month ago.
Followers of the Craft Beer Guy Facebook page may recall that I put up a few photos from Surfridge Brewing at the end of July, but in all honesty, owners Steve and Jennifer Lieberman were still keeping things close to the vest and really only let me photograph their six 20bbl fermenters. When I first saw the tasting room that was really what I wanted to shoot. Continue reading
Smog City West Ribbon Cutting Photos
These photos were taken Wednesday afternoon, October 23, at Smog City West, the newest of Smog City Brewing’s satellite tasting rooms, where they held a ribbon cutting to formerly open their newest location. They event was attended by a few dozen Smog City fans as well as Torrance mayor, Pat Furey, a couple city councilmen, representatives from LA County, the State of California, and several members of the Torrance Chamber of Commerce.
Attendees at the event had a tap list of 17 Smog City beers to choose from, including eight of which that came from the Smog City Wood Cellar and are only available at Smog City West; some of the Smog City Wood Cellar ales are also available in bottles to go. Continue reading
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