King Harbor Brewing Company
4th Annual South Bay Beer & Wine Festival Photos
These photos were taken Sunday at the 4th Annual South Bay Beer & Wine Festival which was held at Ernie Howlett Park in Rolling Hills Estates. This annual fundraising event was presented by the Rotary Clubs of El Segundo, Palos Verdes Peninsula and South Bay Sunrise; the event featured about 30 craft breweries as well as 15 wineries and food from close to 30 local restaurants. All proceeds fund the community outreach programs of Rotary Clubs within the South Bay and Harbor cities of Los Angeles.
The beer portion of the event was curated with the assistance of Beer Paper L.A.’s own Daniel Drennon, which has caused some to know the festival as the Daniel Drennon (DFD) Invitational. The list of breweries pouring was pretty much an A to Z list of craft with everything from Absolution Brewing and Arts District Brewing to Yorkshire Square Brewery and Zymurgy Brew Works. Of course, the selections were not limited to Los Angeles area breweries as we were joined by Avery Brewing and Ska Brewing from Colorado, as well as such California powerhouses as Sierra Nevada and Firestone Walker. Continue reading
2nd Annual Jeff Sanders Memorial Homebrew Competition
These photos were taken at the 2nd Annual Jeff Sanders Memorial Homebrew Competition which was held Saturday at the Robert Gennaria Memorial Odd Fellows Hall in Redondo Beach. The event was put on by the Strand Brewers Club and was sponsored by South Bay Brewing Supply, King Harbor Brewing Company, Naja’s Place, Smog City Brewing Company, and Strand Brewing Company.
There were 47 entries judged, all of which were limited the Jeff’s favorite styles, which meant there were lots of barleywines, English-style ales, porters and such.
As of this writing, the winners had not been announced, so check the Strand Brewers Club website or Facebook page over the next few days for the announcement. Cheers! Continue reading
Photos from the King Harbor Brewing 3rd Anniversary
These photos were taken Saturday at the King Harbor Brewing Company 3rd Anniversary celebration. The event featured three bands, three food trucks and over 30 variations of King Harbor Brewing’s craft beer which was enjoyed by well over 500 attendees.
To give you an idea of how much progress King Harbor has made since they opened their doors in 2014; on their opening day they had two variations of The Quest, and two variations of Abel Brown. On Saturday they had three variations of their King Swirly the 3rd anniversary ale.
In addition to the music, food and King Harbor brews that were available, there were games like corn hole, giant beer pong, a dunk tank and Jenga. There was also an Employee Beer Contest which consisted of six beers that were created by teams made up of King Harbor’s employees. The beers included Guava Lava Gose, One Night in Brussels Belgian Strong Ale, Muffin Top Sour, Just a pHaze Pale Ale, The Real Slim Hazy NE IPA, and Ruby Redondo Rye IPA. Attendees voted on their favorite which gives the brewers bragging rights; the winner has not been announced at the time of this writing. Continue reading
LA County Brewers Guild Inaugural Beer and Food Fest Photos
These photos were taken at the inaugural L.A. Beer and Food Festival, which was presented by the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild Saturday afternoon at the Mack Sennett Studios in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.
I was going to say that for an inaugural event, the turnout was outstanding; but the reality is that they sold out 650 tickets, which is pretty outstanding whether it was the inaugural or 10th annual event. The reality is that the venue probably could not hold much more and remain comfortable.
With close to 50 breweries, all members of the L.A. County Brewers Guild, and at least 15 food vendors there was something for everyone. Although the photos may give the impression that the place was packed, there were virtually no lines for beer. Some of the food vendors may have had a little trouble keeping up with demand, but I heard no complaints because everything (that I tried anyway) was delicious. Continue reading
Zymurgy Brew Works Guest Brewer Night with Phil McDaniel
These photos are from Wednesday evening at Zymurgy Brew Works & Tasting Room, when they held the third in a series of “Learn to Brew” guest brewer nights. Wednesday’s guest brewer was Phil McDaniel, the head brewer at King Harbor Brewing Company (KHBC) in Redondo Beach; the beer being brewed is one of my personal favorites from KHBC, Tiki Hut IPA.
About 15 people attended with a pretty even mix of homebrewers and those that had never tried brewing before; this was also the first time visiting Zymurgy for some with a few people that had yet to visit KHBC. This made for some interesting questions and McDaniel was more than willing to provide valuable answers; covering such subjects as various grain bills and their affect on a beer, as well how he decided on what hops to use.
McDaniel gave us a little background story on his brewing pedigree; including the fact that he started off by volunteering at Bootleggers Brewery (with about two hours notice), before moving on to such prestigious breweries as The Bruery and Stone Brewing Company. 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
Photos from the 5th Annual Kraft Bierfest at Alpine Village
These photos were taken at the 5th Annual Kraft Bierfest that was held Saturday afternoon at Alpine Village in Torrance. Having attended every Kraft Bierfest since inception I can say that Saturday’s event reminded me of their first event in 2012 in that there was lots of quality beer but not very many people there to drink it. Since Alpine Village buys the beer they pour, rather than relying on donations, this means it is probably going to be a good time to visit there as their tap list probably has a lot of leftovers available.
In 2012 they had about 100 beers and maybe 200 attendees (probably a generous headcount); on Saturday they had about 50 beers, if there were 100 people that showed up I would be surprised. There was very little in the way of advertising, which was the obvious reason for so few showing up. But, as was pointed out to me by a few people, what was lacking in attendance was definitely made up for with the quality of beers available. In fact, this event was one of the “biggest” I have attended as far as ABV is concerned, in quite a while. Continue reading
Photos from Rock & Brews 6th Annual Local Craft Beer Fest
These photos were taken at the 6th Annual Local Craft Beer Fest which was held at the El Segundo Rock & Brews on Sunday afternoon. Admission to the family and pet friendly event included 10 beer tickets, with a choice of 12 local breweries; as well as a barbecued tri-tip lunch.
As far as the breweries pouring at the event, there was the cast of usual attendees like El Segundo Brewing, Strand Brewing, King Harbor Brewing, Ohana Brewing, Barley Forge Brewing and Three Weavers. Relative newcomers like Iron Triangle, Indie Brewing, Reel Brewery and Solarc Brewing welcomed the new kids on the block, Rob Rubens Distilling & Brewing and Two Coast Brewing Company.
While previous editions of the Local Craft Beer Fest featured games, this year they decided to replace the games with live music provided by local alternative 80’s band, The One 80’s. To say they were well received would be an understatement. They had everyone up on their feet rocking out; I think live music is a nice touch to this annual event, I hope they keep it up. Cheers! Continue reading
Pints for Prostates at Shade Hotel Redondo Beach
These photos are from the Pints for Prostates beer tasting that was put on by the Torrance Memorial Medical Center and held at the newly opened Shade Hotel Redondo Beach. The event was a kickoff to the annual Movember fundraiser that is meant to draw attention to men’s health issues; specifically prostate and testicular cancers as well as mental health and suicide prevention. When I grew a mustache for Movember back in 2010 the program was primarily to bring awareness that one in seven men would be diagnosed with prostate cancer, today it also includes suicide prevention as more men die from suicide than testicular or prostate cancer.
Pints for Prostates was sponsored by Shade Hotel, The South Bay Mo Bros’, King Harbor Brewing Company, Strand Brewing Company, and Hop Saint Brewing Company. Timothy Lesser, MD, Garret Matsunaga, MD, and David Wallis, MD each spoke on the importance of early detection and men’s health and a couple survivors spoke of their experience while one person told us what happened when his father delayed being examined. Continue reading
Photos from Laughs By Volume 5
These photos were taken at Laughs By Volume 5 which was held Sunday afternoon at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center in Redondo Beach. Laughs By Volume is a combination comedy show and craft beer tasting; Sunday’s event featured the comedy of JOnesy, Julian Michael and Cisco and beers from breweries like Arsenal Urban Ales, Stone Brewing, Bear Republic, 21st Amendment, King Harbor Brewing, Refuge Brewery, Hi-Wheel Wine & Mead Company, Mother Earth, Eel River, Sixpoint Brewery, Arrogant Bastard, The Dudes’, Ex Novo Brewing, Victory Brewing, Locust Cider, Julian Hard Cider, Smog City Brewing, Ska Brewing, Boulevard Brewing, and Brasserie d’Achouffe.
While this was venue was the best of those used so far and the beer selection was top notch, and everything was set up and ready to go with plenty of time to spare, this event had the lowest attendance of any of the previous events because it turned out that Eventbrite had ticket sales unavailable for six days. Unfortunately, no one really said anything about it, so we did not know; as soon as we were made aware of it, the issue was resolved. From now on tickets will be made available via two outlets; Eventbrite and [most likely] Brown Paper Tickets.
Despite the low attendance, everyone there seemed to be having a great time with plenty of craft beer and no lines. The next Laughs By Volume will likely be held in the Inland Empire with shows in Redondo Beach and Phoenix, Arizona following shortly thereafter. Cheers! Continue reading