craft brewery
Craft Beer Tour 2024: Oregon City and Portland
These photos were taken Friday, October 25 at Oregon City Brewing Company and Arch Bridge Taphouse in Oregon City; and Sunday, October 27 at Belmont Station and Great Notion Brewing Company in Portland.
So yeah, Thursday morning I left Novato for the 10 hour drive to Oregon City. Would flying be easier, perhaps even cheaper? Perhaps, but you cannot bring as much beer on a flight as I was planning on bringing back home. Continue reading
Creature Comforts LA Soft Open Photos
These photos were taken Friday afternoon at Creature Comforts new Los Angeles location, located close to the Garment District area of L.A. Friday was day three of their soft open, which will last about a month.
For those unfamiliar, Creature Comforts is an Athens, Georgia based brewery. Because of weird laws in Georgia, they decided it made more sense to open a location in California than another in Georgia; so I guess we win.
To be honest, I had planned on going Wednesday, but they didn’t open until 4:00 and I cut it too close and hit the freeway just as rush hour started. My GPS estimated arrival time just kept climbing and I wasn’t making any progress so I made the call to wait until Friday or Saturday when they opened at noon.
I had been invited to join some people at Monkish at noon, and I had a feeling my buddy Joe “Dastardly Brews” Jupiter would be joining us, and I knew Joe was looking for something special for his 100th brewery, so I figured I would invite him along. It didn’t take too much convincing; so we finished our brews and headed to Creature Comforts. Continue reading
Hōkūle’a Brewing Company Soft Open Begins
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Hōkūle’a Brewing Company, when they officially opened their doors to begin their soft open, which will go on for a few weeks.
Although I arrived shortly after Hōkūle’a opened their doors, they already had 15 or 20 people seated trying the three Hōkūle’a brews that were available on day one; as well as the ciders from Southern California Cider Company (who shares the spot with Hōkūle’a), and a mead from Honest Abe’s.
Hōkūle’a’s three brews included their Gremmie Pils, Keiki IPA (a session IPA), and Key Lime Pai, a kettle sour. I think I enjoyed the Keiki IPA the most, but Key Lime Pai was definitely a crowd favorite when I was there. Continue reading
Hokulea Brewing: From the Beginning
The long awaited opening of Hokulea Brewing Company is upon us as it was announced today that Hokulea will begin their soft open Saturday, August 18. These photos show the build of Hokulea from when I first visited the location back in June 2017, through today.
Hokulea Brewing combined forces with The Honest Abe Cidery to create a brewpub with a brewery, cidery, and poke bar with 40 taps. Since they are a brewpub, they can sell beers from other breweries which is the plan is while Hokulea builds up its tap list of in-house brewed brews. You may notice the two very large fermenters in the photos; those are for the cider side of the house.
The soft open begins Saturday, and will continue daily until they have their official grand opening sometime in September. In the beginning, they hope to be able to offer food tastings, with the kitchen opening full time as soon as possible. Continue reading
A Visit to Ten Mile Brewing Company
When I first started writing about craft breweries, it was pretty easy to keep up and even stay on top of things. Heck, you used to be able to visit all the Torrance breweries in one day without making it almost a chore. But the times are definitely changing and it has become difficult for me to stay current with the craft beer growth happening with our neighbors to the south of me, the Long Beach area.
Last Saturday I was in Signal Hill, a close neighbor of Long Beach, for the Festival Obscura at Sunnyside Cemetery. As I was talking to the guys manning the taps at the Ten Mile Brewing booth I learned that the craft brewery and tasting room were literally across the street from the cemetery; you could see the sign through the trees. I decided I would make one more stop after I finished up at the festival. Continue reading
King Harbor Brewing Village Tap Room Now Open
These photos were taken Thursday evening at King Harbor Brewing Company’s new satellite tasting room located in the Riviera Village area of Redondo Beach.
Redondo Beach’s first, and so far only, production brewery has announced that their dominance of Redondo is nearing completion with the opening of their second satellite tasting room, thus creating their own Beermuda Triangle.
Those of you that attended the Riviera Summer Festival last weekend and were paying attention, may have noticed that the King Harbor Village Tap Room had opened their doors for a “very soft” soft opening; apparently it was very well received by those that did notice. Thursday evening’s soft open was primarily a friends and family event, but a sandwich board was placed outside so those strolling by were aware that the doors were now open and the taps were flowing. Continue reading
Scholb Premium Ales Celebrates Two Year Anniversary
These photos were taken Sunday at Scholb Premium Ales in Torrance, where they celebrated two years of brewing. The event featured $5.00 pours from their 17 taps, their first bottle release, live entertainment, food, games, raffles and giveaways all day long.
While the anniversary party was advertised minimally, the Scholb tasting room filled up nicely with both regular attendees and a few first-timers. Scholb gave away Scholb glassware to the first 100 customers; and gave raffle tickets with every beer purchased. Bibb’s BBQ filled the brewery with great aromas, while DJ Cancun Joey and CAL1FA filled the room with their mellow tunes.
Scholb also used the opportunity to have their first bottle release, Tall, Dank & Handsome; it is a full-bodied IPA featuring Mosaic and Columbus hops to give it its lingering dankness. 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
Common Space Brewery: From the Beginning
Hawthorne now has their second craft brewery, Common Space Brewery, and these photos document their build since I started visiting their location in July of 2017 up through their soft open which ended Wednesday evening. The production brewery and tasting room are massive, utilizing a 24,000 square foot warehouse with 27′ high ceilings and a 1,000 square foot outdoor patio. The beer is pretty good too.
Founded by South Bay local Brent Knapp, Common Space brought on former Speakeasy Ales & Lagers Head of Brewing Operations, Kushal Hall, which means Common Space is starting off with a brewer that is well-versed in brewing large amounts capable of distributing. As you look through the photos you can’t help but notice how large the brewhouse is and they have plenty of fermentation vessels to keep the South Bay and beyond satiated with Common Space brews. Continue reading
Canning Expatriate at Three Weavers Brewing
Last week I was asked to meet a potential client at Three Weavers Brewing Company in Inglewood; since I don’t seem to get out there enough, I agreed and intentionally arrived a little early. It wasn’t long before Three Weavers Production Team Member, my buddy and all round nice guy Jared Gonzalez noticed my presence and offered to take me on a little tour of the production facility since I had not been there in a while.
Three Weavers has grown a lot as far as production capacity is concerned; including something like five new 90 bbl fermenters that were recently obtained. I did not have my camera with me and mentioned that I wanted to return to photograph this for comparison, if nothing else. It was then that Jared asked if I had seen the new canning line; I had not.
I guess this is where the geeks separate from the crowd; as I looked at the idle canning line and heard that it is capable of filling 250 cans a minute with its 30 head Innofill Can DVD can filler, I was impressed. However, it was when I turned around and saw the Ska Fab Can-i-Bus Depalletizer that I knew I wanted to come back and watch this thing in action. I did that Wednesday morning and these are the photos I took of the process. Continue reading