Brian White Farewell Party at Monkish Brewing

On Saturday evening, Monkish Brewing Company held a farewell party for their Beer Evangelist, Brian White. A couple dozen friends joined the Monkish staff in congratulating White and wishing him the best in his future.

White assures me we will still see him around at various craft breweries and functions. He is not leaving the beer scene, just changing it up a bit. I am sure this is not the last time his name will be mentioned or photo shown here. Good luck, Brian. Cheers! Continue reading

Photos from Chads Rare Beer Tasting for Richstone Family Center

I am not going to say I told you so, but I was not kidding when I suggested that Chad Hazen’s prior beer tasting benefits for the Richstone Family Center were better than any beer festival I have attended; and that includes the Firestone Invitational. Yesterday’s rare beer tasting at the Steinhaus at Alpine Village was no exception; everyone had the same comment as soon as they walked into the area set aside for us, where do I start?

Shortly after the event started, a Craft Beer Guy follower walked up to thank me for promoting the event as he had had “Heady Topper, Westvleteren 12, Rare Barrel, and Dark Lord all in the first 15 minutes.” Try doing that at your favorite beer festival.

As you look through the photos you are going to notice lots and lots of great beer and lots of big smiles. People really could not help themselves; it really was like an adult version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, with all the attendees having won a Golden Ticket. Continue reading

Bottle List for Chad’s Rare Beer Tasting Released

As I announced last week, local craft beer hoarder Chad Hazen, in conjunction with King Harbor Brewing Company and Steinhaus Restaurant and Beerhall at Alpine Village, will be holding his third in a series of rare craft beer tastings with 90% of the proceeds going to benefit the Richstone Family Center in Hawthorne.

I have mentioned numerous times that Hazen’s prior events have been better than any beer festival I have attended to date; now I have obtained a list of the beers that will be there so you can see for yourself. Just take a look at Chad’s Beer Cellar Bottle List Continue reading

Dog Adoption Sunday at Brouwerij West

These photos are from the Dog Adoption Sunday event held at Brouwerij West this past Sunday afternoon. The Los Angeles Animal Services and ARF Harbor Shelter brought six dogs to the Brouwerij West tasting room for adoption; I know at least two of them found new homes that day. I have to say, I had an opportunity to meet most (if not all) of them, and they were really very well-behaved dogs. I kept thinking they must have brought the cream of the crop.

In addition to the adoptable dogs, many others brought their pups to the obviously dog friendly tasting room and they all seemed to enjoy the company of the others. ARF Harbor Shelter is looking for homes for their residents and I am sure volunteers are always welcome.

I also had a personal first, and that was my first time having chorizo. Apparently I had it from one of the best, The Chori Man; a fourth generation chorizo artisan from San Pedro. I definitely recommend stopping by if you see his food tent set up anywhere. Cheers! Continue reading

Chad’s Beer Cellar Fundraiser May 7, 2016

craft beer

Hundreds of rare beers at Chad’s Beer Cellar Fundraiser

Regular readers of this site have probably noticed that I promote quite a few craft beer events, with an emphasis on those that are fundraisers. Whatever the event the primary factor in determining whether or not I will promote the event is value. I do not want anyone to attend an event and not be glad they did. On May 7, Chad Hazen and King Harbor Brewing Company are holding their third in a series of rare bottle shares with the proceeds going to the Richstone Family Center in Hawthorne.

Ever since last December, I have been telling anyone that would listen that this event was coming up and it is not one to be missed. Actually, what I have been telling people is that this bottle share is better than the Firestone Invitational when it comes to the number of available beers and there are no lines since ticket sales are limited to 100 attendees!

The first of the bottle shares was in December of 2014 when local craft beer aficionado and beer hoarder Chad Hazen decided he wanted to quit drinking beer for a year while he trained for a marathon. As he travels a lot for work he had built up quite a collection of craft beer and he felt it would be too much temptation to have all that beer around while he trained. He got together with King Harbor Brewing Company, he is one of the investors, and they decided they would have a bottle share benefiting Richstone Family Center. Instead of attendees bringing their own bottles, Hazen provided about 80 from his collection to be shared with the 50 attendees that purchased tickets. As you can see from the list of beers, it was an amazing time. Continue reading

Photos from Laughs By Volume III

These photos are from Laughs By Volume III, which was held Saturday afternoon at Honeypot LA (HNYPT) in downtown Los Angeles. There were probably 50 or 60 people in attendance that were treated to various beers from such breweries as Stone Brewing, Absolution Brewing, Four Sons, Mission Brewery, Smog City, Refuge Brewery, Anaheim Brewery, Telegraph Brewing, Pizza Port, Julian Hard Cider, 21st Amendment, The Lost Abbey, Victory Brewing, Oskar Blues, Ska Brewing, Brewery Ommegang, Boulevard Brewing, Maui Brewing, Double Mountain, Gentse Gruut and a host of others.

As Laughs By Volume is about the comedy as much as it is the beer, we were treated to about an hour of standup provided by Martin Montana, Daniel Storrow, Jeff Capri, Lance Paullin, Melissa Shoshahi, and Chad Shapiro. It was pretty obvious that the audience enjoyed the show as much as they did the craft beer. Continue reading

Laughs By Volume III this Saturday

Just a final reminder that this Saturday Laughs By Volume, the comedy show featuring unlimited pours of craft beer, will be held at from 4:00 to 7:00 PM at Honeypot LA, located at 212 W. 12th Street in Los Angeles.

The event will feature six comedians, Martin Montana, Daniel Storrow, Jeff Capri, Lance Paullin, Melissa Shoshahi, and Chad Shapiro. In addition to the comedy there will be at least 40 craft beers to sample from such breweries as The Dudes’, Stone Brewing, Absolution Brewing, Four Sons, Mission Brewery, El Segundo Brewing, Great Beer Co, Smog City, Refuge Brewery, Timeless Pints, Anaheim Brewery, Telegraph Brewing, Pizza Port Brewing, Julian Hard Cider, Tahoe Mountain Brewing, 21st Amendment, The Lost Abbey, Bear Republic, Victory Brewing, Oskar Blues, Ska Brewing, Alesmith, Brewery Ommegang, Boulevard Brewing, Maui Brewing, Double Mountain, Brouwerij Wolf, and Sixpoint Brewery.

Tickets for Laughs By Volume III are $30.00 at the door or $25.00 if you purchase them online here. I have a discount code for you; use Promo Code CBG23 to save 10%. Included in the price of admission you get a souvenir PINT glass, unlimited pours and a gift bag containing coupons, products and special offers from their participating sponsors valued at more than $300. Continue reading

Photos of the 2nd Annual L.A. Local Craft Beer & Artisanal Food Fest

These photos were taken at the 2nd Annual L.A. Local Craft Beer & Artisanal Food Fest which was held at the Steinhaus at Alpine Village in Torrance on Saturday afternoon. The event featured 31 Los Angeles area craft breweries and maybe a dozen artisanal food vendors from the LA area.

L.A. Local provided the first opportunity for most of the attendees to try brews from several breweries that have opened within the last year like Scholb Premium Ales, Dry River Brewing, Brouwerij West, HopSaint, Iron Triangle, Mumford Brewing, State Brewing and Honest Abe. Other breweries in attendance included Three Weavers, Port Town, Smog City, Monkish, Phantom Carriage, The Dudes’, Claremont Craft Ales, Ohana, Enegren, California 101 Cider House, King Harbor, Strand, Absolution, MacLeod Ale Brewing and several others. Continue reading

Photos from the Scholb Premium Ales Ribbon Cutting

These photos were taken at the ribbon cutting for Torrance’s latest craft brewery, Scholb Premium Ales; which was held at the production brewery’s tasting room in Torrance on Friday afternoon. The Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC) ribbon cutting was attended by friends and family of the Schulz’s and Kolb’s as well as the City of Torrance Mayor Pat Furey and city council members Kurt Weideman, Heidi Ashcraft and Mike Griffiths along with many TACC representatives.

For their grand opening, Scholb introduced a couple new beers to their taps, bringing the number of brews currently available to eight. Today they offered their SoCal Blonde, Roll With It Brown, Cherry Wood Smoked Brown, Columbia Street Pale, Havanuther Session IPA, Dad’s IPA, Not Lyin’ Rye IPA and my current favorite, Bat Ray Red IPA. Continue reading

Craft Beer and Sushi

This past Sunday was Tanya’s birthday and I wanted to do something special for her. Initially we had discussed doing a craft beer tour down in San Diego or perhaps head up the California coast towards Paso Robles; both ideas were definite possibilities until I asked, “Do you want to go have sushi?” It was at that point that craft beer became a secondary destination and Matsuyama Japanese Fusion in Roseville became our primary destination.

Now, one might think that driving 400 miles for sushi was a little extreme, but if you have ever had a meal prepared by Matsuyama’s owner Song Kim, you know that it isn’t all that extreme. I have known Song since around 2008 and have introduced his work to friends of mine from around the world and everyone has loved it; even those that were not sure that they even liked sushi. Heck, Tanya would never consider sushi until she tried Song’s. I figured that since Roseville is up by Sacramento, and Sacramento’s craft beer scene has been growing, it should be easy to find a craft brewery not too far from Matsuyama. Continue reading

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