Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company

South Bay Collaboration Brew at Smog City Brewing

These photos were taken Friday morning at Smog City Brewing, where brewers and owners of 21 of the South Bay’s breweries and cideries met to brew an anniversary beer to commemorate the 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover which will be held Thursday, September 5 at Tortilla Cantina in Old Torrance.

A couple months ago I got the idea that since this was the 5th anniversary of the South Bay Tap Takeover that perhaps participating breweries might want to each do an anniversary collaboration with CraftBeerGuy.com. I had spoken with a couple breweries that hinted they might be interested when I went to State Brewing and their head brewer Rob Scott and he suggested that perhaps we could do a collaboration that included all the participating breweries. I immediately knew this would be a much better option so I started thinking about which local brewery would be big enough and central to everyone. To me, the logical choice was Smog City Brewing, so I approached Porter about it; he readily accepted. Continue reading

Photos from the Burnin’ Daylight Grand Opening

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company, a brewpub that is the first for the City of Lomita, where they celebrated their long-awaited grand opening. The event featured a ribbon cutting (that I missed) and a beer garden featuring live music, a DJ, a silk screener, food from the Burnin’ Daylight kitchen, and unlimited pours of dozens of beers.

The grand opening was a ticketed event for those attendees that wanted to go out back to the parking lot that was set up as the beer garden. For the price of admission, attendees received a commemorative tasting glass and unlimited pours of Burnin’ Daylight’s brews, as well as the collaboration brews they had done with El Segundo Brewing. Since Burnin’ Daylight is a brewpub, they are able to have guest taps; they took advantage of this by including brews from El Segundo Brewing, Riip Beer, Smog City, Three Weavers, Beachwood, Stone, Tortugo, and HopSaint. If you did not want to go to the beer garden, you were able to buy full pours in the brewpub. Continue reading

Burnin’ Daylight Soft Open Photos

These photos were taken Thursday afternoon at the soft open of Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company, a brewpub in the City of Lomita. As you can tell from the photos, the long anticipated opening was very well received.

The doors officially opened at 3:00 PM; I arrived by 3:30 and there was already a line out the door. By the time I got done taking my first batch of photos, the line had doubled in length. You would think that the staff at Burnin’ Daylight had been doing this for years, as the wait was never more than 13 minutes when the line was the longest I saw (I was in it). It was pretty obvious that the customers were enjoying the brews, and the few I spoke with about the food said it was very good; the inside seating area sure smelled good with the spices from the chicken wings wafting through the air. Continue reading

Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company: From the beginning

These photos were taken between June 23, 2017 and January 18, 2019 of the construction of Lomita’s first brewpub, Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company. While it has been a long journey, your patience is about to be rewarded.

It was April 18, 2017 when Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company had their Conditional Use Permit granted by the Lomita City Council; it took the changing of some laws, but Lomita really wanted to get in on the craft beer craze going on in the South Bay. Two months later I started stopping by to take photos of the build. There would be periods with lots of change and some that seemed nothing was happening, but the Lake family, Head Brewer Brendan along with mom and dad Shannon and Bob, kept plodding along and are now ready to announce the soft open of Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company. Continue reading

The Craft Beer Guy 2018 Year in Review

It is that time of year again, when I try to summarize what has happened in the past year, as far as local craft beer is concerned and the highlights of the Craft Beer Guy year. As I typically do, I read over last year’s review to see what predictions I may have made, and how they panned out.

Burnin' Daylight

Burnin’ Daylight Brewing – Coming soon!

Last year I predicted that Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company, a brewpub in Lomita; and Port Town Brewing, a production brewery in San Pedro would be open by the end of 2018. While I am sure the respective owners would have loved to see that come true, alas, it was not to be. That being said, Burnin’ Daylight is now brewing beer and they are just waiting for some final checks from places like the county health department. If all goes well, Burnin’ Daylight should be open for at least a soft open by mid-January 2019. Port Town Brewing had a larger obstacle, aka the City of Los Angeles, but they are making progress and might just open their doors before 2019 ends.

I have to admit, with all the growth that is going on around here, I kind of feel like a slacker. It used to be a lot easier to keep up, but I am ashamed to say that there are at least two breweries in the South Bay that I have yet to visit; trying to keep up with the Long Beach area has proven tough. I have to rely on craft beer festivals like Festival Obscura to keep me somewhat in the loop. Continue reading

5th Annual Brewer’s Chili Cook-off at Select Beer

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Select Beer Store in Redondo Beach, where they held their 5th Annual Brewer’s Chili Cook-off. The annual event has been a fundraiser for the last few years; this year the beneficiary was Providence TrinityCare Hospice. I am not sure if they choose different beneficiaries every year or not.

This year, there were nine participating breweries; Bottle Logic, Yorkshire Square, Cellador Ales, Three Weavers, Riip Beer, Burnin’ Daylight, L.A. Ale Works, King Harbor Brewing, and Firestone Walker’s Propagator.

I am not really sure that I have attended any of the prior events, so I know nothing about the prior competitions other than what I overheard and my understanding is that in previous competitions all the chilies were somewhat similar. This year each chili was quite different from the others. Continue reading

Lomita One Step Closer to Two Craft Breweries

burnin' daylight brewing

Burnin Daylight Brewing Co. Coming to Lomita

On Monday evening, a couple dozen people attended a City of Lomita Planning Commission meeting, where the topic of discussion was whether or not to allow a brewery to sell their beer on premise, and if so, to determine if Project Barley would be granted a Conditional Use Permit to open a microbrewery with a tasting room on Pacific Coast Highway in Lomita.

If the above paragraph makes you wonder how Project Barley somehow gives Lomita two craft breweries, then you do not follow this site as closely as you should. Last April I wrote that Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company was granted their Conditional Use Permit by the Lomita City Council; Burnin’ Daylight had a couple extra hoops to jump through as there were a couple laws that had to be modified to allow them to sell beer to go. Burnin’ Daylight will be a brewpub, which means their rules are a little different, by definition. Project Barley can manufacture beer, but a law needs to be changed to allow them to have a tasting room, and the first steps were crossed this past Monday evening. Continue reading

The Craft Beer Guy 2017 Year in Review

As the year draws to a close, it is time to think back on what 2017 has brought to the craft beer world; more specifically what has happened in the Craft Beer Guy world. As 2016 came to a pretty crappy end for me, I did not do one last year; for that reason, I will begin with the end of 2016 as it segued into 2017.

steelcraft soft open

Smog City – Steelcraft – Bixby Knolls

My coverage of 2016 ended pretty much the way 2017 started, with the opening of Smog City Brewing Company’s satellite tasting room, Smog City – SteelCraft in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach. They opened the location at the end of December; by the middle of January they had applied for, and were granted the ability to sell growlers and bottles to go.

Later in January the inaugural L.A. Beer and Food Festival was presented by the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild. The sold-out event featured close to 50 member breweries of the LA Brewers Guild as well as 15 local food vendors. This year the L.A. Beer and Food Festival will be held Saturday, January 27. Buy your tickets now, before it sells out.

Just a bit of trivia; while there were about 50 LA County Brewers Guild members in January of 2017, today there are almost 70! Continue reading

LABW9: So You Want to Open a Brewery in LA?

These photos were taken Tuesday evening at Los Angeles Ale Works, in Hawthorne, at the sixth edition of “So You Want to Open a Brewery in LA?” an LA Beer Week panel discussion moderated by Celebrator Beer News writer Tomm Carroll. If you have attended any of the previous five seminars hosted by Carroll, you know that he typically puts together a great group of panelists and last night was no exception.

The panelists included Laurie Porter of Smog City Brewing, Greg Bechtel of Simmzy’s Burbank, Gary Croft of Yorkshire Square, Bill Baker of Zymurgy Brew Works & Tasting Room, Rick Blankemeier of Modern Times, Will Shelton of Concrete Jungle Brewing Project, Brent Knapp of Common Space Brewery, Kip Barnes of LA Ale Works, and Brendan Lake of Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company. Continue reading

Subscribe To Our Newsletter
Archives