These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club, where the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club Junior Foundation held their 2nd Annual Pub at the Club Craft Beer, Wine and Food Festival. 100% of the ticket sales went to the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club Junior Foundation, a charity dedicated to developing champions on and off the court by supporting all athletes, including special needs and Para-athletes.
Price of admission included unlimited tastings from more than 15 breweries, 10 vintners, and 10 local restaurants. The breweries that I noticed in attendance included El Segundo Brewing Company, Strand Brewing Company, Stone Brewing, Rob Rubens Distilling & Brewing, Lagunitas, Eel River Brewing, Coronado Brewing Company, Black Market Brewing Company, Bootleggers Brewery, Smog City Brewing, Sierra Nevada, Speakeasy Ales and Lagers, Los Angeles Ale Works, Ritual Brewing Company, and Santa Monica Brew Works. Continue reading
These photos were taken Thursday at the 3rd Annual South Bay Tap Takeover, which was held at Flights, in Hawthorne. The event featured 18 of the South Bay’s best production breweries and brewpubs, filling up 39 tap handles.
Although I did not arrive until a little after 4:00 PM, my Facebook feed indicated that people began streaming in pretty much as soon as the doors opened. By 6:00 we had the place packed and it remained that way until close to 10:00; after that, people kept arriving to sample some outstanding brews.
I had the opportunity to speak with many of the attendees and discovered that this was the first time visiting Flights; it seems safe to say that they will all return. Continue reading
It is an end of an era for the Los Angeles craft beer scene as long time craft beer photographer and general all-round nice guy, Bernie Wire enters his last few days as a Los Angeles resident.
Saturday afternoon, a steady stream of Bernie Wire fans and friends came to El Segundo Brewing Company to bid farewell to Bernie as he and his wife Anne Marie prepare to move back to Minnesota; Anne Marie hails from the Land of 10,000 (closer to 12,000 actually) Lakes, so they have plenty of family out there.
Bernie took time to visit with everyone that came out, and then treated us to a little concert. After the concert, I noticed lots of tears in the tasting room as people began to realize that this was really good-bye. Continue reading
These photos were taken Friday evening at The Standing Room, in Hermosa Beach, where local punk rock legends Pennywise held a private tasting of their new collaboration with Lost Coast Brewery, Pennywiser Session IPA.
All four members of Pennywise, Jim Lindberg, Fletcher Dragge, Byron McMackin, and Randy Bradbury, were in attendance along with huge contingent of their fans. The members of the band did interviews, posed for photos and enjoyed both pints and bombers of the tasty, low ABV IPA.
Since Pennywise is a South Bay band, they initially contacted a few of the South Bay’s numerous breweries to do the collaboration with, but they ended up going with Eureka’s Lost Coast Brewery, most likely because Lost Coast brews about 20 times more beer than any of our local breweries are capable. Apparently, Lost Coast Brewery owner/founder Barbara Groom came out of retirement to brew this particular IPA which was dry-hooped with Cascade, Crystal, Chinook and Citra hops, which provides a nice citrus nose and a pleasant, mild hoppy flavor. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday morning at King Harbor Brewing Company’s Waterfront Tasting Room where they held another in their continuing series of Summer Party Crew 2017 events; this week being their Paddle & Pour (+ Donuts).
The morning began with a dozen or so attendees renting stand up paddle boards for an hour out on the water. After they worked up their appetites, everyone headed to the Waterfront Tasting Room for a pairing of King Harbor Brewing Company beers and Blue Star Donuts.
The pairing began with a pour of Future Waves IPA paired with a Blueberry Bourbon Basil doughnut. The mellow grapefruit bitterness went well with the sweetness of the blueberry. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday at Strand Brewing Company’s Backyard Barbecue (first three pages); and King Harbor Brewing Company’s Summer Fun Feast, as both production breweries celebrated summer with craft beer, barbecues, and games.
The Backyard Barbecue at Strand Brewing featured 15 taps spread out over two bars, food from Chefs in Shorts, and live music by Bill Benzel and Jim Earp, Jim Kimo West, Ryan Collazo, and Big Bad Rooster. With all the kids, dogs and families in attendance, as well as the aroma wafting from the grill, it really did feel like a backyard barbecue. Continue reading
It was two years ago that I made my first visit to Flights Beer Bar and met the owner Jerry “Jammer” Jamgotchian. Within days of our meeting, Jerry expressed interest in having a Craft Beer Guy event at his recently opened 40 tap gastropub. At the time, the South Bay had 10 production breweries and I requested that all 40 taps be dedicated to these 10 breweries for the 1st Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. Jerry not only agreed to this, but also invested in a new cold box so Flights could store the additional beers that were brought in for the event. To say the event was a rousing success would be an understatement. Continue reading
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at the Triangle Lot where DTLA Breweries United held their second annual DTLA Breweries United Fest. The event featured limited edition and specialty beers from the seven Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) breweries that make up DTLA Breweries United. Those breweries include Angel City, Mumford Brewing, Boomtown Brewery, Arts District Brewing, Iron Triangle, Indie Brewing and Dry River Brewing.
The proceeds from the event went to the Keep A Breast Foundation.
I had to take advantage of attending this event as I just never seem to get to DTLA when it comes to craft beer; in fact, I was going through my notes and realized that it has been almost two years since my last visit there. Back then only Angel City and Mumford had tasting rooms open to the public; as of today all seven members of the DTLA Breweries United have tasting rooms. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Stout Burgers & Beers Hollywood location, where Stout’s Beer Fest for Beer Geeks held The Rarest Experience craft beer festival. The event featured 30 very rare beers from 22 craft breweries around the country and Belgium. These beers were not just rare, but a few were the last you will ever see in the US.
Joey Anderson, the National Beer Manager for Stout Burgers & Beers, curated the event with extremely rare beers collected and cellared by Anderson over the years. Some of the beers were actually sourced from the private collections of the breweries; to give you an idea of how rare some of the beers were.
Take a look at the official list: Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Beer Camp on Tour craft beer festival held at Queen Mary Events Park and presented by the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.
This was my first time attending Beer Camp, and while I had heard some negativity about last year’s event, it was pretty evident to me that they had learned from whatever mistakes those were as this was truly an amazing event to close out LA Beer Week. While I did not make the effort to count all the breweries in attendance, there were reportedly at least 100 breweries, pouring well over 200 beers. In addition to the beer, there were a dozen food trucks, live music from The Expanders and Orgone, games, plenty of shade and much cooler temperatures than the 100+ degree weather we experienced at the kickoff festival last week. Continue reading
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