live music
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
Burnin’ Daylight 1st Annual Anniversary Party Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company, Lomita’s first brewpub, where they celebrated their first annual anniversary party. The event featured 25 craft beers on tap, live music, food, the release of their canned anniversary beer, Burn One West Coast IPA, and the best weather we have seen this decade.
As we have become accustomed, Burnin’ Daylight took advantage of their parking lot and the ability to have guest taps to throw one heck of a party. Guest taps were provided by Beachwood Brewing, El Segundo Brewing, HopSaint Brewing, Smog City, Stone Brewing, and Topa Topa Brewing. Live music was provided by The Vibe Tribe, and food was available from Burnin’ Daylight’s own kitchen and outside grill. I am not sure who was in charge of the weather, but kudos to them for an amazing day.
While Burnin’ Daylight may only be one year old, they have quickly risen to be one of the most popular breweries in the South Bay. Throughout the day I spoke with several people that agreed that Burnin’ Daylight was one of the best new breweries in the last few years. Judging by the number of people that showed up, that opinion seemed to be the consensus. Continue reading
Photos of the Absolution Brewing Company Christmas Party 2019
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, December 14, at Absolution Brewing Company in Torrance, where they held their annual Christmas Party. The event featured live music from Nasty Bad Habit, Montero Y Murillo, and The Noir. They had the Yuyo Bros food truck there for people seeking solid nourishment, and I guess Santa made an appearance after I left; we seem to always miss each other.
I am sorry for the delay in getting these photos up, but I have been under the weather (it took two days to write this!). Continue reading
Three Weavers 5th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Three Weavers Brewing Company, in Inglewood, where they celebrated their fifth anniversary with a tiki themed dance party featuring food trucks, live music, and a variety of beer slushies, mocktails, barrel aged brews, and the release of a collaboration anniversary beer.
While I was there, live music was provided by the Blackball Bandits and The Hula Girls; as I prepared to leave a third band, Skapeche Mode, was just arriving. Sadly, I needed to get Buddy home for his dinner so I missed their performance but I hear they are a lot of fun to watch. Blackball Bandits and The Hula Girls were definitely entertaining. Continue reading
Upshift Brewing Company Grand Opening Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at one of El Segundo’s newest craft breweries, Upshift Brewing Company, where they held their official grand opening. Attendees had 10 Upshift brews to choose from, as well as two food trucks; Cheddr Wheel and Swami’s Sandwiches. For entertainment there was a raffle, live music provided by Green Hills Band, and there was a mini car show in the parking lot shared with the food trucks. Of course, there was Giant Jenga and cornhole for the competitive types.
The beers Upshift currently has on tap includes their Kolschwagen, Bench Seat Blonde, PRNDL Pale Ale, Track Sesh IPA, Wind Wing IPA, Big Block Brown, Off Camber Amber, Pole Position Pale Ale, Pit Stop Porter, and their newest, G.T. Oatmeal Stout. Continue reading
Sierra Nevada Hop Harvest Festival Photos
These photos were taken Saturday, October 19, day 20 of Craft Beer Tour 2019; my annual craft beercation taken before and after the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver. These photos were taken at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California; primarily of their 2019 Single, Fresh, Wet & Wild Hop Harvest Festival, which was put on by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and the California Craft Brewers Association. I say the photos are primarily of the Hop Harvest Festival because I did go to the taproom a couple hours earlier just to figure out where everything was; and it was a little too early for me to check in to my room.
Since the entire reason that I returned to the Pacific Northwest two years running is fresh hop IPAs, attending this event seemed like a match made in Hop Heaven. I have to give credit to HopSaint Brewing Company owner Steve Roberts for putting this event on my radar. A few days before I left for Denver, and GABF, I went to HopSaint where Steve same up to say hello. After chatting a bit about GABF he mentioned they would be pouring at Sierra Nevada’s Hop Harvest Festival shortly after GABF ended. When I saw that it was being held on the 19th I took it as a sign, since that was the date I would be entering California anyway; and I would be driving right by Chico anyway. Continue reading
Barktoberfest 2019 at Absolution Brewing Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Absolution Brewing Company, in Torrance, where they held Barktoberfest 2019; an afternoon where the dogs literally took over the production brewery’s tasting room, with a portion of the proceeds from the beer sold going to benefit spcaLA.
After leaving the Craft Beer LB Fest I headed home to get Buddy, one of the South Bay’s well known brewery dogs to join me at Barktoberfest. He was in doggy heaven.
The extremely dog friendly event featured live music from Nasty Bad Habit, a food popup, and lots of dogs that all seemed to enjoy each other’s company. It is not unusual for there to be a dog or two that is not as ecstatic to hang out with other dogs, but everyone seemed to happy to be there; there were dog smiles everywhere. Continue reading
Summit Beer Festival 2019 Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Marina Green Park in Long Beach, where the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) culminated their three day celebration of California craft beer and the CCBA’s 30 years of protecting and supporting the more than 1000 breweries in the state of California with California’s largest craft beer festival which featured 170 craft breweries from around the state.
To be honest, I almost did not make it due to the fact that I seemed to have picked up some type of convention crud on Thursday. I didn’t feel too bad on Friday, so I toughed it out and substituted handshakes with fist bumps; unfortunately, while that may have prevented me from spreading the bug to others, it did nothing to make me feel better Saturday. I felt worse than I have in years and it was very hot which did not make it any easier on me. But, as I am having another craft beer festival in a few months there was research to be done; so I struggled through it. Continue reading
5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover Photos
These photos were taken Thursday, September 5, at Tortilla Cantina Taco Bistro and Sports Bar in Torrance, where they hosted my 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. This year’s event featured beer, cider and mead from 26 of the South Bay’s best breweries and cideries, and live music featuring Ashleigh Correa. For the first time, there were two anniversary brews commemorating five years of putting on the South Bay Tap Takeover.
One of the anniversary beers was Better Weather Sweater IPA, which was a collaboration beer brewed at Smog City last month with 20 South Bay breweries. Better Weather Sweater came out amazing; it is very well balanced and with a 5.9 ABV, it is perfectly crushable for this heat we are going through. Better Weather Sweater will be released today (Friday) at all the Smog City locations and at several brewpubs throughout the Los Angeles area. It is perfect for those that complain about IPAs being “too hoppy” as that is not going to be a complaint from anyone. The second anniversary beer was 2nd Cold War Russian Imperial Stout, a collaboration I did with Zymurgy Brew Works back in April. As Zymurgy was sold to Smog City, this was officially the last Zymurgy beer to be commercially available. Continue reading
5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover Coming September 5
Better Weather Sweater Collaboration Brew Team
If you have attended any of the previous four tap takeovers, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect; if you have never been I can summarize with at least 25 South Bay breweries/cideries pouring from 50 taps.
When I started this in 2015, we had 10 South Bay breweries with 40 taps; in 2016 there were 15, and in 2017 we had 18 South Bay breweries with 40 taps. In 2018 there was a change of management at the original venue (Flights), and they decided they wanted to do their own thing. I wished them luck, and then approached Rick Gomez of Tortilla Cantina to see if they would be interested in hosting the 4th annual tap takeover. I approached Rick for three reasons; I knew he was a big supporter of the local craft beer scene, every South Bay brewery owner I spoke with knew and really liked Rick, and I knew he had 48 taps. I do not think Rick really knew what he was in for, but he went all-in and the 4th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover ended up featuring 22 local breweries participating, and with the help of a jockey box, 49 taps of craft beer! Continue reading
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