blendery
Cellador Ales Celebrates 7 Years
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, December 16 at Cellador Ales, a blendery in Torrance, where they celebrated seven years of blending sour ales. The event featured $5.00 pours, new beer releases, snacks and cake.
To say that Cellador Ales has had a tough row to hoe is definitely an understatement. Yeah, everyone has had a tough three years due to the global pandemic, but Cellador has had to tackle a couple extra hurdles.
Last June, Kevin and Sara Osborne announced that their brewery/blendery and taproom in North Hills would close at the end of 2022. According to Kevin’s announcement, it was a combination of Covid related “financial issues, lease issues, personal life changes, and more.” Continue reading
Cellador Ales Relocates to Torrance
These photos were taken Friday, February 3 at Cellador Ales new blendery location at Smog City Brewing’s Wood Cellar, where I met up with Cellador’s sales manager, Alex Ourieff, to discuss what is new with Cellador Ales since they closed their tasting room in North Hills at the end of last year.
Those of us into sour ales were saddened last June when Kevin and Sara Osborne announced that their brewery/blendery and taproom would close at the end of 2022. According to Kevin’s announcement, it was a combination of Covid related “financial issues, lease issues, personal life changes, and more.” Continue reading
Phantom Carriage Closing Photos
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Phantom Carriage Brewery in Carson, where a few dozen of their fans gathered to raise their glasses for a final time at the brewery/blendery which officially closed Sunday at 8:00 PM.
After celebrating Far Field Beer Company’s first anniversary, my friend Tomm Carroll joined me as we paid a final visit to Phantom Carriage, which is closing due to their building having been sold and the new owner apparently having different plans for the location. Continue reading
Phantom Carriage Three Year Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday evening at Phantom Carriage Brewery in Carson, where they held their 3 Year Anniversary Party & Nuclear Blast Beer Release party. The event featured more than 20 of Phantom Carriage’s wild beers, including cellared rarities, plus rare guest beers from local craft breweries. Naturally their house-smoked BBQ was available, as was the music; the horror films, as usual, were available inside.
If you had not heard, Phantom Carriage has stepped up their brewing game and are actually canning some of their beers now; on Saturday they released a collaboration they did with Nuclear Blast USA, the self-described “world’s biggest independent heavy metal record label.” The beer, Blast Beast, is a Black India Pale Lager. I do not know how much is still available; you should probably just head over now if interested. Continue reading
An Accurate List of All the South Bay Breweries
Recently there have been a couple articles circulating around social media claiming to list all of the South Bay breweries; one that went around yesterday missed four or five of them, depending on whether or not a tasting room was required. As the Craft Beer Guy I have been fortunate to have this craft beer boom explode all around my home; I also feel obligated to provide an accurate list of all the breweries currently brewing in the South Bay as well as the next two scheduled to open.
In order to not show favoritism, and to give credit where credit is due, I will list all the South Bay breweries by the date they opened. As I have visited each brewery, I will provide a link to each so you can look at my articles to determine if you want to visit them. The photos are in order as well. Continue reading
Lugosi Bottle Premiere and Halloween Celebration at Phantom Carriage
These photos were taken at the Lugosi Bottle Premiere and Halloween Celebration that was held Saturday evening at Phantom Carriage blendery and tasting room in Carson. The event featured the release of a bottled version of Lugosi, a high gravity dark wild sour ale aged in oak with Brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and Pediococcus; featuring sweet cherry, vanilla, and stone fruit.
Since it was also a Halloween party, Phantom Carriage played Universal Studio’s 1931 version of “Dracula” on a large screen in the back parking lot. As Dracula starred Bela Lugosi, and they were releasing the bottled version of Lugosi, it only made sense that this would be a good time to invite Bela Lugosi, Jr. to join the fun, which he accepted and brought along a good portion of his family. Continue reading
Bruery Terreux Now Open
These photos were taken Thursday afternoon at a preview of the new Bruery Terreux tasting room that is opening to the public at noon Friday. From this point forward they are open daily from 12:00-10:00 PM.
If you will recall, it was June 2014 that The Bruery announced that they were going to open Terreux (pronounced terr – ooh) as the location where they would concentrate on their wild ales and sours without risking the quality of the other fine brews The Bruery was turning out in Placentia. Because those pesky Brettanomyces really fly, they took no chances and opened the second facility three miles away in Anaheim; that and the City of Anaheim seemed really anxious to have them.
Bruery Terreux hoped to open their tasting room last summer, but I think we have all watched enough tasting rooms open around here to guess that wasn’t going to happen; permits, permits, permits. Anyway, it only took two years, which is not bad and it was worth the wait. Continue reading
Phantom Carriage Celebrates One Year
When I left off, we had left the Froth Awards at Saint Rocke and headed to Carson to catch the tail end of Phantom Carriage’s One Year Anniversary party which was held Saturday afternoon. Phantom Carriage pulled out all the stops which required them to take over the parking lot as well as the blendery’s tasting room.
I got there pretty late, but even as it may have been clearing out you could tell that this sold out event was rocking as everyone was in full party mode. With the beer selections that had been available earlier, it is no wonder why everyone was in a great mood. They had cellar blends Volume 1 through 5 to accompany Oude Muis, Muis, Citra Muis, barrel-aged Centennial Muis, Broadacres, Strawberry Broadacres, Triple Berry Melange Broadacres, Dragonfruit Broadacres, barrel-aged Peach/Nectarine Broadacres, Bergman, Blackberry Bergman, Baskerville (clean and on Brett), Wit Zombie, Pineapple Wit Zombie, Amarantha, Lugosi, Dolores, Tagalong Dolores, Toasted Coconut Dolores, Fleet Street IPA, Tripel Curse and Fog Island. As soon as I walked in, brewer Brendan Lake approached me with the last of the Vermiste Kat which was their collaboration with Cascade, so even though a lot of the super-rare varieties were already gone by the time I got there, the Vermiste Kat was a great way to start off. 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 Samhain Ball at Phantom Carriage
These photos are from the Samhain Ball which was held Saturday evening at the Phantom Carriage blendery and tasting room. For those that would otherwise have to Google it, Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. As you may have noticed, this is another culture’s celebration that falls within our Halloween season and Dia de los Muertos. Like visiting Bravery Brewing was the logical choice on the 4th of July, Phantom Carriage was pretty much made for these types of holidays. Besides, it was also co-owner and founder of Phantom Carriage, Martin Svab’s birthday so it truly was the logical choice.
We were among the first to arrive and there was a little stress because there was not a line outside, but it was pretty early, on a Saturday night and it was Halloween; there would be nothing to worry about. Within an hour the tasting room began filling up with TV and movie characters, ghouls, sexy Indians and the clamor of a few hundred people having a good time.
The Samhain Ball featured an evil DJ spinning Halloween-inspired tunes, a costume contest and haunted horror film screenings throughout the night both. Of course, they also had a special beer list including their own Haunted Dolores and Lugosi as well Alesmith’s “Evil Dead Red” and Tap It Brewing’s “No Soul Sour Red”. It was a fun night with good beer and imaginative people; congratulations to Phantom Carriage and happy birthday to Martin Svab. Cheers! Continue reading
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