El Segundo
Five Point Five Brewing One Year Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, August 10, at Five Point Five Brewing Company in El Segundo, where dozens of their fans gathered to celebrate Five Point Five’s One Year Anniversary. While I was there, the day included raffles, 10+ beers on tap, Micheladas, and hard seltzers; they also had smash burgers from Cuzzi Burger as well as their Pi LA pizzas. As I was leaving I noticed an obvious musician entering, so I am presuming they had music in the evening.
The reason I said there were 10+ beers instead of a more specific number is because their Proud Mary Irish Red came on nitro and CO2, and their anniversary beer, which apparently you had to ask about, was Proud Mary aged in whiskey barrels. I think this option was also available on nitro or CO2; I had the nitro version and it was quite nice. I did not know ahead of time that it was aged in whiskey barrels, but it was pretty obvious after the first sip. Continue reading
Sugar Monkey Brewing Grand Opening Photos
These photos were taken Friday afternoon at the Sugar Monkey Social Club, in El Segundo, where they celebrated day one of the Sugar Monkey Brewing Grand Opening. In case you missed my article about their soft open, Sugar Monkey took over the old Upshift Brewing location.
I arrived shortly after they opened and they already had a pretty decent crowd forming, and ‘The Best Umbrella’ pizza, manned by Sugar Monkey’s head brewer, Jason Eich, was cranking out pizzas as fast as his pizza oven would allow. Continue reading
Introducing Sugar Monkey Brewing
These photos were taken Wednesday afternoon at the new Sugar Monkey Brewing, at the Sugar Monkey Social Club, in El Segundo, where they opened their doors for day one of their soft open. For those wondering, yes, Sugar Monkey Brewing took over the old Upshift Brewing location.
For those paying close attention, yes, I did mention the Sugar Monkey Social Club; which I will do my best to explain. The back of Sugar Monkey Brewing has a nice tented area, with plenty of seating, and that section is the Sugar Monkey Social Club, with the taproom being Sugar Monkey Brewing. Continue reading
El Segundo Brewing 13th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at El Segundo Brewing Company, where they were celebrating 13 years of being the South Bay’s most hopcentric brewery. The day featured food from Buddha Boy Tacos, the White Dog of the Year finals, a dog adoption put on by SPCALA, and a tap list offering 22 selections, including their anniversary brews, Greetings from El Segundo TIPA and Lost in the Mail QIPA.
It was a pretty nice afternoon as far as the weather was concerned, so that was a pleasant change from our recent temperatures. There was a nice group of beer consumers, and lots of dogs, which is always a good thing in my book. Continue reading
The Meltdown 2024 Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at El Segundo Brewing Company, where they held their annual can release of Power Plant Triple IPA and Nuclear Power Plant, their quadruple IPA.
So, it is that time of year again when everyone releases their Triple IPAs, or like ESBC, a Triple and a Quad.
I had a very busy Saturday scheduled, so I arrived at El Segundo Brewing when they first opened, and they already had several people there enjoying both the Power Plant and Nuclear Power Plant. In addition to the beer, co-founder Tommy Kelley was melting down a wheel of raclette cheese to go over a bowl of potatoes. People seemed to enjoy it, but I had places to go and people to see so I was unable to try it out. Continue reading
Bernie Wire Visits the South Bay
These photos were taken Friday afternoon at The Slice and Pint (in El Segundo), El Segundo Brewing Company, and Naja’s Place in Redondo Beach as I joined, the loved by all, Bernie Wire in his return tour of a few of his favorite haunts. For those not in the know, Bernie was a photographer of craft beer events, and breweries, a couple years before I started doing it on purpose. Bernie was always a fan favorite (he’s a lot nicer than me), but he moved to Minnesota a few years ago, so if you are new to the LA craft beer scene you may not know him, otherwise, I am sure you will recognize him in the photos if you don’t know him personally.
Several of his friends and fans started the afternoon at The Slice and Pint where we enjoyed fresh beer as well as multiple items from the Slice and Pint menu; including, salad, chicken wings, meatballs, pizza and more. The Slice and Pint will satisfy most of your culinary desires if you are in the neighborhood. Continue reading
Five Point Five Brewing Company Grand Opening Photos
These photos were taken Friday afternoon at Five Point Five Brewing Company in El Segundo, when they officially opened their doors to the public, bringing El Segundo’s craft brewery count back up to four, joining El Segundo Brewing, Upshift Brewing, and Boardroom Brewery. Five Point Five is at the location previously occupied by Surfridge Brewing, and is now owned by the brewer for Surfridge, and his family.
Friday was their official Grand Opening, and while I arrived within the first couple of hours of their opening the doors, it was very well attended, not only by friends and family, but they also had attendees from El Segundo Brewing and Upshift, which is always a good sign, in my opinion. Continue reading
Introducing Five Point Five Brewing Company
UPDATE: Five Point Five Brewing Company will officially open Friday, August 11.
These photos were taken Friday, August 4 at Five Point Five Brewing Company, the latest craft brewery to open in El Segundo. You may recall that four months ago Surfridge Brewing in El Segundo closed their doors; Five Point Five Brewing Company, headed by Surfridge’s former head brewer Jeremy Montemagni, will replace Surfridge.
Starting at the beginning, before Surfridge closed, owners Steven and Jennifer Lieberman moved to Connecticut and opened a new Surfridge location, and had their brewer, Jeremy, flying back and forth across the country to brew at both locations. As one can imagine, that was a pretty hectic schedule and really was not sustainable; that brought about the close of the El Segundo location. It was then that Jeremy and his wife Melissa decided to team up with the talented members of Melissa’s family and together they bought the old Surfridge equipment and got their own lease for the location. 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
Photos from the El Segundo Brewing Co. 12th Anniversary
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, May 13, at El Segundo Brewing Company in El Segundo, where they held their 12th anniversary. The low-key event featured the release of two high-octane brews and food provided by Gochu Gang Korean BBQ.
So yeah, I initially described the event as low-key, but it might better be described as a reunion of long time ESBC fans. While they may not have had multiple food trucks and live music, they did have 20 high quality El Segundo Brewing beers on tap, including their two high-octane anniversary brews; Greetings From El Segundo TIPA (11% ABV) and Lost in the Mail QIPA (13.2 ABV), which were also released in cans. Continue reading