Absolution Brewing Company
Laughs By Volume II – Comedy & Craft Beer-Discount Codes
The Laughs By Volume craft beer and comedy tour has expanded their list of participating breweries by 50% and has added some new discount codes to help you get to and from the event safely.
Laughs By Volume is best described as a comedy show featuring six comedians and unlimited pours from at least 20 different breweries. Laughs By Volume II will be held Sunday, March 20 at Honeypot LA from 2:00 to 5:00 PM. Honeypot LA is located at 212 W. 12th Street in Los Angeles.
The comedians that will be featured include Geoff Keith who has been seen on Comedy Central, HBO and MTV; Jonesy who has been on David Letterman, MTV and VH1; and MoMo Rodriguez who has appeared on the Carlos Mencia Tour. Also performing will be Graham Currin from Comedy Time TV, Ryan Higgins who competed on TBS’s National Comedy Competition; and Laura Crawford. Continue reading
Laughs By Volume II, March 20 – Discount Code
UPDATE – Price Change: After some discussions we have decided to lower the price to $25.00 for General Admission ($26.62 with fee) and Designated Driver tickets are $12.00 ($13.29 with fee). The CBG10 Promo Code will save you 10% on admission and you will get an extra 30 minutes at the end of the event.
Laughs By Volume II, March 20 – Use promo code CBG10 to save $$
Since the inaugural event the organizers and I have been working together, in that they bounce ideas off me and if I have a suggestion that makes sense they modify things accordingly. For instance, the first event had three sessions; it turned out that was not the best idea. The mid-afternoon session was the best attended of the three, so Laughs By Volume II will be one session, from 2:00 to 5:00 PM.
When I mentioned that there was going to be a series of these events the plan was to use different venues around Southern California. It was decided that this was a little too ambitious for a new venture, so it was decided that they would keep these shows a little more local to the Greater Los Angeles area. Laughs By Volume II will be held at Honeypot LA instead of out in Chino. Continue reading
Photos from PINT Magazine’s Inaugural Laughs by Volume
On Saturday afternoon PINT Magazine held their inaugural “Laughs by Volume” craft beer festival at LA Mother which is located at The Carriage House in Hollywood. Laughs by Volume provided a twist to the typical craft beer festival in that they added comedy to the mix by having local comedians Evan Wecksell, Sammy Obeid, Jason Love, Atsuko Okatsuka, Jonesy and Stevie Mack perform for the festival attendees.
Laughs by Volume was held over three sessions, with the first beginning at 1:00 PM, followed by 5:00 and 9:00 sessions. As I had other events to cover, I opted to attend the 1:00 show. To say that the event got off to a shaky start would be an understatement but when I stop to think about it, they had the same issues I have seen at just about every beer festival I have attended. Things like jockey boxes messing up, not enough ice, or volunteers not showing up.
Luckily, the 1:00 show was not very crowded so any slight inconveniences were pretty much blown off; additionally, people that attended the first session were told they could stick around for the second session. It is my understanding the 5:00 show had the most pre-sold tickets; I have a feeling it came off as much more organized by then because everything was set up pretty well and there was plenty of ice for all the beer by the time the 1:00 session ended. Continue reading
Laughs By Volume Update: New Breweries Added
A couple of weeks ago I informed you of an upcoming craft beer event, Laughs By Volume, which is being held January 30, 2016 at LA Mother, located at 1627 N. Gower Street in Hollywood.
In my initial post I listed the participating breweries as Santa Monica Brew Works, Absolution Brewing, The Good Beer Company, Hand-Brewed Beer, Fireman’s Brew, The Bruery, The Great Beer Company, Four Sons Brewing, Kinetic Brewing Company, Congregation Ale House and Pacific Plate Brewing. I am happy to announce that the number of participating breweries has been increased to include Timeless Pints, Mission Brewery and The Dudes’ Brewing Company however, Congregation will not be participating.
I also mentioned that everyone attending Laughs By Volume will receive a gift bag with products, discounts and special offers from all the participating sponsors; this too has been expanded and is now valued at over $300! Continue reading
Laughs By Volume, January 30: Discount Code
Happy New Year, everyone; I have a feeling this is going to be a fun, beer-filled year. I would like to tell you about an upcoming craft beer event that will be held January 30, 2016. Laughs By Volume, presented by PINT Magazine will present a new twist on your typical local craft beer festival by including comedy from local comedians. Included in the price of admission is a souvenir PINT glass, three hours of unlimited tastings of at least 20 different brews, six comedy acts and an amateur comedy contest with a cash prize. So, if you get funnier the more you drink, you might want to enter the contest.
As far as the breweries represented, at this time they will have Santa Monica Brew Works, Absolution Brewing, The Good Beer Company, Hand-Brewed Beer, Fireman’s Brew, The Bruery, The Great Beer Company, Four Sons Brewing, Kinetic Brewing Company, Congregation Ale House and Pacific Plate Brewing.
Comedians scheduled to appear include Evan Wecksell, Sammy Obeid, Jason Love, Atsuko Okatsuka, Jonesy and Stevie Mack. These guys have been on everything from MTV to David Letterman so it should be pretty fun. Continue reading
The Craft Beer Guy 2015 Year in Review
HopSaint Brewing Company Now Soon!
There were several beer buyouts that seemed to dominate most other craft beer sites, but the craft world in my immediate domain only seemed to increase. Yeah, Golden Road got bought, but I only went there for special events and I guess that means there will be fewer of them there in the future. In the meantime, the reach of this site seems to be increasing. In the beginning people pretty much pigeonholed this site as covering the South Bay craft beer scene only. This year I covered various local beer events from the Antelope Valley to Orange County. Attendees have come up asking if I am now covering the west side, or wherever we might be. I guess the answer is yes; and I will expand my area as long as it is requested.
2015 in the South Bay ended pretty much as it started, with the soft open of a new brewpub. In January Phantom Carriage officially opened, and at the end of December HopSaint Brewing Company opened their doors. While they are open daily, the official opening of HopSaint will be January 1, 2016 when they will start serving lunch at 11:30 AM. Continue reading
Photos of the 4th Annual Alpine Kraft Bierfest
These photos were taken at the 4th Annual Alpine Kraft Bierfest which was held at the Alpine Inn Restaurant at Alpine Village in Torrance. The craft beer event featured beers from all over the United States with a couple very rare Belgian brews added for good measure. While I did not take the time to count each of the breweries represented or the number of various beers available for sampling, they advertised over 40 breweries and 100 beers. I know there were a couple other craft beer events going on in Southern California this past weekend, but if you drove away from the South Bay instead of towards it, you may have messed up.
The Kraft Bierfest was held over the course of two sessions, beginning Friday evening and concluding with an afternoon session on Saturday afternoon. This was the second time they have split the event up over two sessions. Last year, to avoid the possibility of the best brews running out during the first session, Alpine’s event coordinators decided to split up the beers by day and put up a schedule of appearance for the brews so people could choose which day would have the most beers that they wanted to try. This time they made every brew available on both days but cut off serving brews that were limited on Friday so some would be available on Saturday. While there were people that were not too happy when the Agrestic or Winter Harvest ran out on Friday, the people that showed up on Saturday were quite grateful.
While I do not have the final numbers, it seemed like there may have been people in attendance on Friday night than Saturday afternoon; I doubt if either session had more than a couple hundred people in attendance. The only line I recall seeing that had more than four people in it were the first few people that arrived Saturday and headed straight for the Agrestic. I would not be surprised to see this event go back to being a one session deal. Continue reading
Christmas Shopping Survival Tips – For the South Bay, anyway
As you probably heard, Thanksgiving is around the corner and based on my server stats that means for most of you the Christmas holiday shopping/spending season will begin Friday. Since I live in Torrance and we are the center of the craft beer explosion in the Greater Los Angeles Area, I figured I should give some tips to those of you that will be coming to our malls; primarily Del Amo Fashion Square and the South Bay Galleria. You are in luck; if you do have to venture to these locations for your Christmas shopping there is quite a bit of good beer available without having to give up your parking spot. Of course, if you can drop the wife off you can take your own mini craft beer tour and avoid the parking situation entirely, but if you have to go inside I have you covered.
I ventured off to the newly remodeled Del Amo Fashion Square and immediately rewrote this article in my head. I had planned one thing but parking was mind blowing and it was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving at 1:00 PM. My advice is that if you are shopping at Del Amo, find a central parking spot and stick with it. Trying to drive to the other end would just be silly. I don’t visit the mall often, but when I do I find the parking is best on the east side; so you want to get to the southwest corner of Madrona and Fashion Way. When you see the AMC sign, turn south into the parking lot. You may end up having to use the structures, but they are new and I really have no knowledge of how well they are set up.
On the outside of the mall, on the east side, there is a large courtyard area that features places like Starbucks, PF Chang’s and has the entrance to the theaters. Also in that group are three locations that have pretty decent offerings of craft beer and most carry at least a couple local brews. Continue reading
Absolution Brewing Begins Expansion
It seems like only yesterday that I was reporting that the City of Torrance had granted production brewery Absolution Brewing Company their Conditional Use Permit. The reality is that it was just two years ago, November 19, 2013 that Absolution appeared before the Planning Commission. In that time they have gotten a new brewer, Bart Bullington; as the initial brewer, Wes McCann went back east to brew when his wife was reassigned in the Navy. They bottled a barrel-aged brew and then began brewing in Denver so they could begin bottling six-packs of their Cardinal Sin red ale and Angel’s Demise IPA. Now they have removed their original brewhouse and have begun some pretty massive expansion at the Torrance tasting room.
Today I was there when they received a new boiler and three new 30 bbl fermenters. When I spoke with Bullington about their immediate plans, they plan on getting five more 30 bbl fermenters but in the meantime they will utilize the 15 and 20 bbl fermenters they started with. A couple more brite tanks are on the way as I write this; I will go back tomorrow and see what else is new.
Absolution has stocked up on a few of their brews, but some options will be removed from the tap list as the expansion proceeds and some tap out. If push comes to shove they can get some of their beer back from the distributor, but they have enough to hold them over for a while. They hope to be brewing again by the end of the year. Continue reading
Rock & Brews’ 5th Annual Local Craft Beer Fest
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at the El Segundo Rock & Brews Garden on Main 5th Annual Local Craft Beer Fest. The family and pet friendly event featured beers by 16 breweries, from Valencia to Redlands and all over the South Bay area. Included in the price of admission, attendees were treated to a nice barbecue, a raffle, face painting, and games for people of all ages.
A few of the breweries in attendance included Absolution Brewing, Strand, El Segundo, Three Weavers, Phantom Carriage and Barley Forge. There was also a first time attendee for any festival I have attended, Reel Brewery. Reel Brewery is currently contract brewing but hope to open a tasting room in 2016 in Van Nuys, around the corner from MacLeod’s. I noticed that Santa Monica Brew Works was converting people with their PCH – Pale Chocolate Heaven. I tried Reel Brewery’s Hollywood Pilsner which was their take on Firestone’s Pivo Pils with their heavy dry-hopping; it was interesting enough that I look forward to visiting their tasting room when it does open. Continue reading
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