9th Annual South Bay Beer & Wine Festival Photos

These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Ernie Howlett Park in Rolling Hills, where the Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula and Rotary Club of South Bay Sunrise presented their 9th Annual South Bay Beer and Wine Festival, their annual fundraiser which was brought back after a two year hiatus due to a global pandemic that you may have read about.

Sponsored by Beer Paper, Suzy Zimmerman Insurance Agency, Matson & Southwest Port Services (who also kept the beer cold), VEFA, and armanio, the day featured local craft beer, food, wine and spirits from close to 100 vendors, as well as live music from the TAPS drum ensemble and Detour, as well as a beautiful spring day; it would have been tough to have planned a nicer day. Continue reading

12th Annual IPA Festival at Naja’s Place Photos

These photos were taken Thursday afternoon at Naja’s Place, on the International Boardwalk, where day one of their 12th Annual IPA Festival was held. As usual, the event featured IPAs of every type, from Sessions to Quads.

The weather was a typical, slightly cool, May Gray day, which may have accounted for the slow start to the event, but my Instagram and Facebook feeds seemed to indicate that as working stiffs got off work, Naja’s seemed to get a little more crowded.

Thursday was the kickoff event, with today (Friday) being their Locals Collaborations day, and Saturday being Pizza Port day which will feature a special IPA brewed for Naja’s Place. The event runs through the 25th. Continue reading

El Segundo Brewing 11th Anniversary Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at El Segundo Brewing Company, in El Segundo, where they celebrated their 11th anniversary. The day featured an anniversary beer, a couple can releases, and the Something Good LA food truck. Coincidentally, it was also the ninth anniversary of the launch of CraftBeerGuy.com.

It was a pretty hot day at the beach, and the throngs that came to help celebrate El Segundo Brewing’s milestone took full advantage of any shady spot they could find. Continue reading

Dust Bowl Brewing Enters Hard Seltzer Market With Thirty Three Hard Seltzer

thirty-three-hard-seltzer

Now Available from Dust Bowl Brewing

Last week Dust Bowl Brewing Co. announced the launch of Thirty Three Hard Seltzer, a new brand and new product category for the Northern California company. Rolling out in Cherry Lemon Lime flavor, the new product line distinguishes itself with an 8% ABV, a higher alcohol level than most hard seltzers. Thirty Three Hard Seltzer comes in 19.2oz single-serve cans and draft, and is targeted for sales in local retail chains, C-Stores and on-premise accounts.

“We produce a broad spectrum of beers and tend to be known for our higher strength offerings,” comments Don Oliver, Brewmaster. “We chose to play to our strengths and set our seltzer apart from the mainstream with a higher ABV and focus on the single-serve and draft packages. The Cherry Lemon Lime recipe was popular with our brewing team and very well received in our taprooms.”

The “Thirty Three” branding refers to 1933, the year prohibition ended. The eye-catching but simple label features the tagline, “Celebrating Repeal Day Every Day” as an added layer of brand messaging for the seltzer. The Cherry Lemon Lime flavor comes from a hand-crafted blend of cherry and Meyer lemon juice concentrates coupled with natural flavors. The result is a light, refreshing hard seltzer with just a hint of pink color in the beverage. Continue reading

Halfway to Halloween Hootenanny Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, April 23, at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, where they hosted the 1/2 Way to Halloween Hootenanny craft beer festival, which was presented by LB Obscura, an event production company created by LB Craft Beer and Festival Obscura. The event is a fundraiser, with a portion of the proceeds going to support the Museum of Latin American Art. Perhaps unknown to most, this was also kind of a going away party for Martin Svab and Ryan Hughes; more on that later.

Regular readers will hopefully recall that last October I attended the inaugural Halloween Hootenanny at MOLAA; apparently it was such a success that it was decided that there was no reason to wait until next October to do it again (they will), and the 1/2 Way to Halloween Hootenanny was conceived. Continue reading

A Visit to Border X Brewing

These photos were taken Friday afternoon, April 22, when I took a drive out to Bell to visit my friend, Robert Sanchez, who is the brewer at Border X Brewing. If Robert’s name sounds familiar, it is probably because he has been involved in the Greater Los Angeles craft beer scene since 2014. I first met him in 2014 when he brewed at Ohana Brewing Company, followed by stints at Kinetic Brewing, State Brewing, and Ximix Brewing.

Border X Brewing is a Chicano and woman owned brewery with two locations; the Bell location I visited and their original location in San Diego. The San Diego location had a 5-bbl brewhouse, with the Bell location housing an expanded 10-bbl brewhouse which now produces beer for both locations. If memory serves, the San Diego location opened around 2013, with the Bell location opening in March of 2019, just in time for the COVID shutdown a year later. When they shut down, the original Border X brewers left and Robert came on when things opened up last year. Continue reading

Karl Strauss and Sierra Nevada Debut Cold IPA Collaboration

karl strauss collab SAN DIEGO, CA – California brewery icon Karl Strauss Brewing Company is back with the latest release in their quarterly Collaboration Series, this time with the one and only Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. What’s Cooler Than Being Cool? Cold IPA will make its statewide debut on April 7th.

Already known for award-winning releases across the style spectrum, Karl Strauss is also quickly becoming recognized for their highly anticipated collaboration beers. By teaming up with the industry titans at Sierra Nevada (again), this release is on track to be Karl’s biggest collaboration yet. Both crews were eager to brew together, especially on such an innovative, breakthrough style. Continue reading

Photos of Kristie’s Going Away Party at Smog City

These photos were taken Friday evening at the Smog City Brewing tasting room in Torrance, where friends and coworkers gathered to wish Kristie Bjorklund a fond farewell as she said goodbye to the South Bay to pursue new adventures in Central California.

I was trying to think just how long I have known Kristie; I think it has been about 10 years. She has worked at Sierra Nevada Brewing, King Harbor Brewing, and most recently, at Smog City, primarily at their Steelcraft location. With her move comes a new job, this time with Firestone Walker in Paso Robles; so if you are going to the Invitational, be sure to tell her hello as she will be working. Continue reading

Photos from the Smog City 11th Anniversary

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Smog City Brewing Company’s brewery and tasting room in Torrance, where several hundred fans gathered to celebrate Smog City’s 11th anniversary. The event featured food trucks, live music, a dunk tank for charity, a mini market, games, and beer; lots of delicious Smog City beer.

While I was there, seafood was available from Anarchy Seafood, with burgers from Heavy Handed LA; after I left Baserriko Peppers came onboard with their sandwiches and churrasco.

There was live music provided by Fuzzy Logic, and a beer garden market village was set up featuring Macetas Plants LA, Gogoma Bakes Dog Treats, D’s Cookies, and local illustrator Evan Clark. Continue reading

Farewell Izzy Can Exchange Photos

These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at King Harbor Brewing Company’s tasting room on 182nd Street, where a couple dozen Craft Beer Guy followers and fans of King Harbor’s own beertender/quiz master extraordinaire, Izzy, gathered for another of my Covid Can Exchanges and to wish farewell to Izzy whose last official day was Sunday.

As Izzy said, I guess people were happy to see him go as this was the largest turnout we have had in the 13 can exchanges we have had since I started doing them, with 23 participants, providing 46 4-paks to choose from. We did have two duplicate beers show up, but I planned for this possibility and brought an extra to swap out; we ended up with 45 different beers to choose from. While it did take a little longer to choose our beers, everyone I talked to seemed very pleased with their picks. Continue reading

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