Beachwood Brewing

Craft Beer LB Fest 2018 Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the second annual Craft Beer LB Fest, which was held at the Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site. The event featured craft beer from 14 Long Beach area breweries, food from a few local restaurant pop-ups, live music, as well as games and activities for every age group. A portion of the proceeds from the event went to the Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site.

Attending this event confirms that the Long Beach craft beer scene is really growing. Like last year’s event, participating breweries included old-timers like Belmont Brewing, Ballast Point, and Beachwood, as well as several breweries such as Ambitious Ales, Hog Canyon Brewing, and Steady Brew Beer Company that have yet to open or just opened recently. Continue reading

Festival Obscura at Sunnyside Cemetery

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the inaugural, and hopefully the first of many, Festival Obscura at Sunnyside Cemetery in Long Beach, California. The event was a fundraiser for Sunnyside Cemetery; the second oldest cemetery in Long Beach and one of the oldest in California.

While the rest of the country was baking under a nationwide heat wave, the temperature in Long Beach was more like the mid to high-70s, with a cooling breeze that really felt nice; especially if you were in the shade.

While I did not count them, the sold-out event featured more than 40 craft breweries, wineries, and cider makers. In addition to the libations, there were at least 20 booths featuring macabre artists, historians, merchants, and at least one tarot card reader. There were also several food trucks, and live music provided by at least two bands that I noticed. Continue reading

Brewmo Pseudo-Sumo Showdown at Three Weavers

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Three Weavers Brewing Company in Inglewood, where they held their 1st Annual Brewmo Pseudo-Sumo Showdown. The inaugural event was sponsored by BSG CraftBrewing, Prospero, and Stradling Attorneys at Law.

The “sumo wrestlers” were brewers from about 14 LA County Brewers Guild member breweries stretching from Palmdale to San Pedro and Long Beach.

The brewers were broken into four groups; Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. Following strict sumo wrestling protocol, the matches were best two out of three, double elimination with the winners advancing to the Cellar and Brewhouse Divisions. Continue reading

5th Annual South Bay Beer & Wine Festival Coming May 20

4th South Bay Beer & Wine Fest

5th Annual South Bay Beer & Wine Festival – May 20

The 5th Annual South Bay Beer & Wine Festival will be held on Sunday, May 20 from 1:00-5:00 PM at Ernie Howlett Park in Rolling Hills Estates.

Presented by the Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula and Rotary Club of South Bay Sunrise, a major portion of the proceeds from this year’s charity fundraising event will go to support the Pediatric Therapy Network and Wounded Heroes of America.

If you have attended any of the previous South Bay Beer & Wine Festivals, you know what a great time will be had; but if you have not, let me clue you in. Continue reading

N’owt But Stout Festival at Yorkshire Square

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Yorkshire Square Brewery in Torrance where they celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by holding their first annual N’owt but Stout Festival. The N’owt (Nothing) but Stout festival featured nothing but dark beers, like stouts, porters and dunkels from 15 breweries selected by Yorkshire Square’s head brewer, Andy Black. They also had their Early Doors Pub Bitter available because a couple of Yorkshire’s regular customers wanted to come, but did not like stouts. The Early Doors made for a great palate cleanser after drinking something like Mikkeller’s Black Tide.

Besides Yorkshire Square, the other participating breweries were Beachwood Brewing, Stereo Brewing, Verdugo West Brewing, Craftsman Brewing, Eagle Rock Brewery, Karl Strauss, Green Cheek Beer Company, State Brewing, King Harbor Brewing, Firestone Walker’s Propagator, Inland Wharf Brewing, Mikkeller Brewing, Smog City Brewing and El Segundo Brewing Company. Food was available from either Vic’s Smokin’ BBQ, or BatterFish. Continue reading

Photos from the 2nd Annual LA Beer & Food Festival

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Mack Sennett Studios in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild held their second annual L.A. Beer and Food Festival.

The event featured 50 LA Brewers Guild member breweries and brewpubs, pouring at least 100 different beers; as well as a half dozen local eateries providing samples of their specialties.

One thing that going to events like this does, is emphasize how fast the brewing community around us is growing. When I first started visiting craft breweries, it was easy to keep current with growth; I even covered grand openings in Pacoima, San Fernando and Lancaster. These days there are probably more breweries in the brewers guild that I have not visited, than have. For the record, I have visited more than half of the breweries that were there Saturday. Continue reading

2017 Great American Beer Festival Awards Ceremony Photos

These photos were taken Saturday morning at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival Awards which was held in the Mile High Ballroom at the Colorado Convention Center. The awards ceremony is the highlight of the three day event put on by the Brewers Association.

This year’s competition featured 7,923 entries from 2,217 breweries in 50 states and Washington, D.C. The competition took place in six sessions over a period of three days and was judged by 276 beer experts from 13 countries. In addition to commercial brewery entries, the judging panel also evaluated 118 Pro-Am entries. The competition was made possible with the help of 365 volunteers. Continue reading

GABF Begins: Day One

These photos were taken Thursday evening at the Colorado Convention Center, where the Brewers Association is holding their 36th annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF). The event runs through Saturday.

If you have never attended GABF, think what it might be like to be a kid locked overnight in a candy factory; where would you begin? That is precisely the predicament I faced as I entered the huge venue, filled with 800 breweries pouring more than 3800 beers. In a word, it is a little overwhelming; I probably wandered around for close to 30 minutes, chatting with friends from various Southern California breweries and taking photos before I had my first beer. I did not want to spend my time drinking beer I can easily get at home, but with 800 breweries to choose from, where do you start? Continue reading

Beer Camp on Tour – Long Beach Photos

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

LA Brewers Kickoff and a Proposal

These photos are from Saturday at the LA Brewers Kickoff of Los Angeles Beer Week 9 (LABW9), which was held at the Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown Los Angeles. This outstanding event featured close to 60 Los Angeles craft breweries along with 30 out of town craft brewers and about 10 food trucks. In addition to the beer and food there were games, live music and plenty of water and shade for those seeking to escape the high air temperature.

I did not ask how many tickets were sold, but I suspect there were about 1,000 people in attendance. With close to 100 booths to visit, lines were never really an issue; with the exception being when a brewery had a scheduled release of a special beer they brought. Even then, once the beer was opened, the lines seemed to disappear rather quickly. Continue reading

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