LA Beer Blogger Summit
LA Beer Bloggers Summit at Smog City Brewing
Sunday afternoon, February 23, the LA Beer Bloggers held their 10th LA Beer Bloggers Summit, this time at one of my favorite local microbreweries, Smog City Brewing Company. The LA Beer Bloggers are a group of craft beer aficionados that promote craft beer either professionally or as a hobby. The summits are held every month or so at various breweries, brewpubs and gastropubs in the greater Los Angeles area. These events give the writers and photographers an opportunity to network with others that have the same passion for craft beer and to experience new locations they may not have visited before.
Today’s event included a panel on photography and how it is utilized as a marketing tool to promote businesses that are too new to afford a marketing team. The panel, moderated by John Michael Verive, featured Joshua Liberman from The Tao of Photography; Bernie Wire of Friends of Local Beer, Laurie Porter of Smog City and Tyler Graham from the Stone Brewing Company marketing team. Their discussion included topics such as how they got into photography, the use of social media, favorite tools and methodologies. Of course there was lots of networking and plenty of great beers. Cheers! Continue reading
LA Beer Bloggers Summit #9 at 38 Degrees Ale House
Sunday afternoon I headed out to Alhambra to attend the 9th LA Beer Bloggers Summit which was held at 38 Degrees Ale House & Grill. In addition to the networking opportunities with other beer bloggers and other various media formats we were treated to talks by 38 Degrees co-owner Clay Harding, Danny and Franny Fullpint and the Ohana Brewing Company crew. Clay Harding talked about his history and how 38 Degrees Ale House & Grill came about and spoke a little on their upcoming events. Danny Fullpint and Franny Fullpint gave us a brief rundown on how they got The Full Pint to its current position in the craft beer world. Ohana Brewing Company owner Andrew Luthi introduced us to his brewing team consisting of Eric McLaughlin, Erick “Riggs” Villar and Robert Sanchez. Ohana Brewing also provided samples of three of their craft beers; Pacific Ale, Saison Noir and Wee Smokey. As Ohana Brewing was just recently granted a Conditional Use Permit to open a tasting room and growler fill station literally right next door to 38 Degrees, we were given the opportunity to visit the storefront location. All in all it was another fun afternoon of networking and enjoying good craft beers.
LA Beer Bloggers is an informal network of bloggers from Los Angeles and Orange Counties that dedicate their time towards the promotion and growth of the local craft beer scene. With all the new craft breweries popping up brewers and brewery owners rely on word of mouth to become known to the beer drinking public; beer writers help make this possible on a larger scale.
38 Degrees Ale House & Grill is located at 100 W. Main Street in Alhambra, CA. They have a very nice tap list and very good food. When Ohana Brewing gets their tasting room open you will want to be sure to kill two birds with one stone and visit both locations. Cheers! Continue reading
LA Beer Blogger Summit #7 at Angel City Brewery
Saturday afternoon I headed out to Los Angeles and visited Angel City Brewery as they were hosting the LA Beer Bloggers Summit #7; a networking event made up of beer bloggers from all over LA and Orange County. This is the third one I have attended and each gathering seems to be larger than the last. This particular event we were treated to a short talk by head brewer Dieter Foerstner who told us a little about his LA Beer Week (LABW5) release, Honey Chrysanthemum Ale, and how he was able to purchase the tea at the Japanese market across the street from the brewery and how he got his honey from a local source that never considered using honey in beer. After Dieter’s talk and some samples of their Scrumdiddlyumptious Brown Ale they had a panel moderated by John Verive of Beer of Tomorrow with panelists Tomm Carroll, LA correspondent for The Celebrator; Sarah Bennett, a writer for LA Weekly and Beer Paper LA; and Whitson Gordon, the Editor in Chief of Lifehacker.com. It was interesting and I know I got some ideas on the direction I should take with this craft beer adventure.
It was my first time visiting Angel City Brewery and I must admit I was not expecting what I discovered. The place is huge and quite photogenic, I could spend some time wandering around and catching interesting sights. My one disappointment was self inflicted; for some reason I did not even ask about flights until after I ordered a pint, so I only got to try two of the eight they had on tap. I guess I have no choice but to go back there and try again. Angel City Brewery is located at 216 South Alameda in Los Angeles. They do not serve food, but they have food trucks that stop by; you might want to look around at one of the nearby restaurants though as they allow you to bring food in and have plenty of tables to enjoy your food and beer at.
On the way home we stopped by to check out the crowd at Smog City Brewing. Cheers! Continue reading
LA Beer Bloggers Summit at Haven Gastropub
Sunday July 14, Haven Gastropub in Pasadena, CA hosted the LA Beer Bloggers Summit #6. This was my second visit to one of these gatherings and I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet more of the people that are behind the scenes in promoting the craft beer scene in Southern California, and specifically Los Angeles and Orange counties. This was my third or fourth visit to Haven Gastropub, but my first couple of visits they were not really brewing yet. When I was there back in May they were just releasing their first batch of Simcoded American Pale Ale. Things have really changed in the last two months.
As our host for the event, Managing Partner and Beverage Director Wil Dee spoke for a while on the growth and mindset of the new Haven Collective, which includes their various restaurant locations and the brewery. He also discussed their future plans and how they chose their new Head Brewer, Brian Thorson. He then turned the floor over to Brian who proceeded to discuss the various beers he is currently brewing. When I was there in May they released the Simcoded Pale Ale; by yesterday they had added More Please, a Kölsch; Jimmy Hafen, their Hefeweizen; Orange Face (O Face), an American Amber / Red Ale; Performance Enhancing Drink (P.E.D.), an American Brown Ale; Disco Pants, a Black Lager and Double Hubble, a Double IPA. They also provided us a sample of their next IPA, Hop Sing. You can tell things are really picking up at Haven with the addition of Brian Thorson.
These photos are from the event at Haven Gastropub with a stop by the Stone Brewing Company Store which is right around the corner. They make some great mustard and it is too cheap to not make the stop since we were in the neighborhood. We had a great time networking with other beer bloggers and I look forward to their next summit. Haven Gastropub is located at 42 S. De Lacey Avenue in Old Pasadena, CA. They have good food and very fine craft beers. Continue reading
LA Beer Blogger Summit #5
When it comes down to it, there is only one reason why American craft beer is taking off the way it is and that is because the people love it. In these days of the Internet (believe it or not, it wasn’t always here) and social media, people write on their Facebook pages or Twitter to talk about their passions; some even start blogs or other websites to promote these passions to others. Craft beer is no different; for as many new microbreweries as there are popping up around the country, it seems that there are at least a dozen people writing about each one. Some of us try to write about all of them.
Today, I went to Schooner at Sunset, a gastropub in Sunset Beach, to attend the LA Beer Blogger Summit #5. As the name implies, it was a gathering of a group of craft beer fans that have decided to promote the American craft beer or local craft beer scene. Due to another obligation I was only able to stay for the first 90 minutes, but by the time I left I would guess that there were 30-40 people there and more arrived after I left. It was a pretty impressive showing with blogs, social media and print formats being represented. Some people had large networks of craft beer related sites while others were there to learn a little more and make some connections. With the motto of Collaborate and Educate the LA Beer Blogger Summit has a lot of potential to do just that.
The networking event featured guests Jerry Kolbly and Evan Price of Nobel Ale Works, from nearby Anaheim, and live music by Aloha Radio. While Schooner at Sunset has a very nice list of guest brews on their taps, they were enhanced by some additions provided by Nobel Ale Works; Rosalita (Hibiscus Lager, 4.5% abv), Breakaway (Pale Ale, 5% abv), Big Whig (IPA, 6.8% abv) and Too Darn Hot (Habanero IPA, 6.8% abv). Since the event I had to go to was a food event I did not eat there this time (yes, I have been there before), but the food smelled great and the couple I was sharing the table with were very complimentary of it. Continue reading