craft beer
LA Independent Beer Fest Coming Soon – Discount Inside
Get your tickets today!
With a reported 75 local breweries and counting, this day promises to be a blast with local food trucks, games, live music by Red Hot Tribute Band, and lots of local, fresh, independent craft beer. The venue, Shoreline Park, is pretty tough to beat if you enjoy Southern California. If you missed it last year, you can find my photos at https://craftbeerguy.com/photos-la-indie-beer-fest-2023/. Continue reading
11th South Bay Beer & Wine Festival Photos
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Ernie Howlett Park, in Rolling Hills, where close to 1,000 people gathered for the 11th South Bay Beer & Wine Festival. Presented by the Rotary Clubs of Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro and Southbay Sunrise (Torrance), all proceeds fund community outreach programs within the South Bay and Harbor cities of Los Angeles.
The event featured craft beer, wine, food and spirits (for VIP ticket holders) from 100 vendors, live music, a pretty upscale souvenir tasting glass, and free parking. Combine that with an outdoor venue that includes zero asphalt, just nice, cool, green grass. It really takes advantage of our local weather. When it all comes together it becomes pretty easy to see why I have called this one of the best craft beer festivals within 100 miles. Continue reading
11th South Bay Beer & Wine Festival Returning – Promo Code Inside
11th South Bay Beer & Wine Festival Returns May 19
Proudly presented by the Rotary Clubs of Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro, and South Bay Sunrise, this non-profit event puts 100% of the monies raised go back into helping families in the South Bay and Harbor areas.
I have to admit, I have been going back and forth about what I wanted to say about this event because I started attending it in 2015 when they had it at the South Coast Botanical Gardens. While it was a great venue, it was pretty obvious that they were going to outgrow it. That was their second annual festival and I was told they had about 700 attendees. The following year it was moved to Ernie Howlett Park and they had closer to 1,500 attendees. It was a good move. Continue reading
Boardroom Brewery Now Open in El Segundo
These photos were taken over the course of three years, beginning with my first visit in January 2020, a follow-up visit in January 2023, and ending with my visit on Memorial Day 2023 to Boardroom Brewery, El Segundo’s newest craft brewery.
So yeah, this tale begins back at the end of 2019 when Brouwerij West co-founder Dave Holop asked me if I knew anything about what was to be El Segundo’s fifth craft brewery. I was given an address and started dropping by every time I went to El Segundo. On January 8 I lucked out and showed up on a day that Forchi, the owner, happened to be there, having lunch as I recall. I introduced myself, and got permission to grab some photos. At that point in time Forchi knew he wanted to open a brewery; he was pretty much waiting for approval from the City of El Segundo and did not even have a name picked yet. If he did, he was holding it close to the vest. Continue reading
South Bay Beer and Wine Festival 10th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon, May 21, at Ernie Howlett Park in Rolling Hills Estates, where the Rotary Clubs of San Pedro, Palos Verdes Peninsula, and South Bay Sunrise held the South Bay Beer and Wine Festival 10th Anniversary. The event featured food, beer, wine, and spirits from more than 100 local providers, including Smog City, HopSaint, Firestone Walker, El Segundo Brewing, Rock & Brews, Shore Grille, Truxton’s, Tito’s Vodka, and many more.
With how lousy our weather has been lately, it is kind of amazing how the last few weekends have been perfect for a day of day drinking in the park. The beer gods have definitely smiling upon us lately with the weather they have been providing. I actually got my first sunburn of 2023. Continue reading
South Bay Craft Beer Options Update
UPDATE: February 12, 2021 – The accuracy of this article leaves a lot to be desired. Please check with the brewery directly.
UPDATES: December 14 –The Crac Brewery and Grub now open for to-go beer pickup.
Eureka Brewing Company now open for to-go beer pickup.
In case you had not heard, there is currently NO DINE-IN in LA County.UPDATES: September 13 – Burnin’ Daylight modifies Sunday hours.
Phantom Carriage adds days for to-go beer pickup.
UPDATE: September 4 – Culture Brewing Company now open.
I was going to update my last article on the South Bay breweries to-go and pickup options, but it looks like just about everything has changed so I might as well start from scratch.
Like the original article, this is solely a reference guide, so all breweries will be listed in alphabetical order for your ease and mine. Hours are subject to change so be sure to contact the brewery directly if you have questions.
Absolution Brewing Company – Cans, bottles, crowlers, growlers and kegs can be ordered online at https://www.absolutionbrewingcompany.com/shop-1. You can also order by phone at 310.490.4860 x101 or by email at orders@absolutionbrewingcompany.com. Deliveries are done Thursday through Sunday; order before 6:00 PM on those days for same day delivery. You can also pick up beers to-go at the brewery Monday through Wednesday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Thursday and Friday from 9:00 to 7:00 PM, or on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 7:00 PM.
Brouwerij West – Brouwerij West now delivers throughout California; please visit https://www.brouwerijwest.com/buybeer for Pick Up, Local Delivery, and Shipping options. You can pick up beer to go at the brewery, daily from noon to 7:00 PM. Credit cards are preferred. Continue reading
Hermosa Brewing Company’s 2nd Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday evening at Hermosa Brewing Company in Hermosa Beach, where they celebrated their second anniversary. The event featured food specials, the debut of Future is Unwritten, a new DDH Hazy Double IPA, Suitcase in Berlin Berliner Weisse with raspberries and blackberries, and Belle Plage, a French Saison with passion fruit. They also brought back their coffee Pale Ale collaboration with Later Days Coffee Co, Wakey Wakey. Live music was provided featuring local favorites Jeff Baker and Mike Longacre. Like last year’s celebration, two collectable anniversary glasses (a Teku and a Pilsner style glass) were available for purchase. Both glasses came with a fill of your choice and include $1.00 off all pours for the balance of the weekend.
Hermosa Brewing has some big news coming up, but I am not at liberty to discuss it at this point. Suffice it say, 2020 is going to be huge for Hermosa Brewing and will result in more fresh craft beer for the South Bay. Stay tuned, I should be able to announce it in the next several weeks. Continue reading
Christmas Eve at The 4th Horseman
These photos were taken Tuesday, Christmas Eve 2019, at The 4th Horseman in Long Beach. The 4th Horseman is a pizza and beer bar that opened in November of 2018; they specialize in craft beer, fine wine, and apocalyptic pizza. The primary reason it is even on my radar is that two of the four founders are Martin Svab and Ryan Hughes, previously of Carson’s Phantom Carriage Brewery. The other two founders are Jeremy Schott of The Dark Art Emporium, and Chef Adam Schmalz who helped open Gabi James in Redondo Beach and used to run the kitchen at Phantom Carriage.
While The 4th Horseman has been open for a little more than a year, this was my first visit. While I am not really a pizza guy, I could not help but notice the accolades they have been receiving in the press over the last several months, as well as some amazing photos I have seen friends post on Facebook and Instagram. When The 4th Horseman first opened, they did not open until 4:00 PM and driving to Long Beach from the South Bay at that hour just didn’t make sense. Well, they now open at 11:00 AM, and since they were having a Christmas Eve special going on I headed out, confident traffic would not be an issue. Continue reading
Zymurgy Brew Works to Become Smog City West
Smog City Brewing to assume Zymurgy Brew Works
By the time Zymurgy had their grand opening, Jenniwein and Baker had decided that their friendship was more important than their business relationship; Baker and Jenniwein had an amicable separation, leaving Baker to run Zymurgy on his own. Continue reading
Photos from the Media Preview of California Sun
These photos were taken Tuesday evening at California Sun, a new gastropub in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. California Sun is part of the Artisanal Brewers Collective, a restaurant group co-founded by Tony Yanow, formerly of Golden Road Brewing. California Sun features New York and Detroit style pizzas, for vegans, vegetarians and omnivores, as well as lots and lots of craft beer from around the country and beyond.
Anyone that knows me personally, or reads my site on a regular basis, is probably aware that pizza does not rank very high on my list of food choices; so what the heck was I doing at a pizza place that took over an hour of driving to get to? Well, there are three reasons actually. Continue reading
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