live music
Photos from the Project Barley Ribbon Cutting
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Project Barley ribbon cutting, Lomita’s first nano brewery. The event was well attended by friends, family, the Lomita Chamber of Commerce, and various representatives of the Lomita City Council, the State Assembly, State Senate, and the County of Los Angeles. And with that, Lomita became a craft beer destination, sharing the city with Burnin’ Daylight which is about a mile away.
The tap list consisted of their Witbier, Mexican Lager, Pacific Cream Hwy Creme Ale, Parkers Milk Stout, Neverland IPA, Marine Layer Hazy IPA, and Blonde Kettle Sour. There was a hotdog and brat station provided by The Standing Room, whose owner is one of the owners and co-founders of Project Barley. Live music, while I was there, was provided by Barclay Roach; music continued through the day with performances by three other soloists and duos.
The Grand Opening weekend continues when they open at noon Sunday. After that, Project Barley is scheduled to be open seven days a week. Continue reading
Photos from Small Town Feel at Burnin’ Daylight
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company in Lomita, where they held their Small Town Feel Summer Beer Festival. Like their grand opening of a few months ago, they took full advantage of their parking lot and ability to pour guest taps by utilizing several pouring stations to provide 20 different brews, including several collaboration brews.
The tap list showcased just how busy Burnin’ Daylight co-founder and head brewer Brendon Lake has been over the last few months. Burnin’ Daylight brews included their Brewtiful Blueberry Blonde, Strawberry Lemon Lager, Raspberry Lime Grove, Small Town Feel DIPA, Nana’s Porter with Peanut Butter, Rolling Pils, Switchgear Imperial Stout aged bourbon barrels, Bourbon Daylight, Dark Harbor Coconut on Nitro, and Peach Sour Dry Hopped with Citra. Continue reading
11th Annual L.A. Beer Week Kickoff Festival Photos
These photos were taken Saturday at the LA Beer Week Kickoff Festival which was held at the Los Angeles Center Studios in Los Angeles. This event marked the beginning of the 11th Annual L.A. Beer Week and featured more than 90 independent local craft breweries, pouring a reported 250 brews.
Similar to last year, it was a pleasant, mostly overcast day, which sure beats the 100+ temperatures of years past. I did not even notice the sunburn on my face until Sunday.
The annual event also featured games, a DJ, live music, a panel discussion, and food trucks and popups from Slice and Pint, Simmzy’s, Bartz Barbecue, Cousin’s Maine Lobster, Baby’s Badass Burgers, Angry Pig, and Street Kitchen. Continue reading
King Harbor Brewing 5th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon in Redondo Beach, where King Harbor Brewing celebrated their 5th anniversary at their brewery and main tasting room. The ticketed event included a 1 1/2 hour VIP session, followed by a four hour long General Admission session.
VIP attendees were treated to a special menu that included tasters of their award winning Ride the Wild, Radberry Wild, and King Swirly II through IV. VIP attendees also received a bottle of King Harbor’s anniversary beer, Grand Cru; a Flanders style wild red ale aged in Cabernet Sauvignon oak barrels to take home with them. Head Brewer Phil McDaniel gave tours to those interested in how he makes his “sugar water.”
All attendees received very nice commemorative glassware and had access to close to 30 different King Harbor brews, including nine previously unreleased beers, a couple slushies, several beer cocktails made with Tiki Hut and Hermosa Cerveza, and the three entrees to the Employee Beer Contest. Continue reading
Photos From The Propagator Turns 3
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s – The Propagator location in Marina del Rey, where they held a block party in their parking lot to celebrate their third anniversary. The event featured live music, games, and lots of Firestone Walker brews and food. There was an on-site art sale with the proceeds benefiting the nonprofit Venice Arts. They also had a graduate of the Venice Arts creating art in real time, as well as an area for attendee to create their own street art.
While it was a free to attend event, they did offer a $15 punch card which was good for two beers, a small plate of food, and a commemorative Klean Kanteen stainless steel pint cup. Continue reading
Photos from the 2019 Chino Brew & Chew
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at the Chino Fairgrounds in Chino California, where Soroptimist International of the Chino Valley presented the 2019 Chino Brew & Chew. The seventh annual event featured brews from 16 local craft breweries, live music by Road Kill Gypsies, games, vendors, and several gourmet food trucks. Monies raised from the event went to benefit community programs in the Chino Valley such as funding scholarships to Chino High Schools and Chaffey Community College, Chino Campus.
I had been given a last minute invitation to Brew & Chew, so I did not really have any idea of what to expect; but it was a very nice event. The breweries came from the Chino Valley area, which encompassed parts of San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Orange County. It was a nice mix of breweries I have not visited since before I started CraftBeerGuy.com, breweries I have been meaning to get to, a few I never heard of, and one or two that have not even opened yet. Continue reading
Photos from the Burnin’ Daylight Grand Opening
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company, a brewpub that is the first for the City of Lomita, where they celebrated their long-awaited grand opening. The event featured a ribbon cutting (that I missed) and a beer garden featuring live music, a DJ, a silk screener, food from the Burnin’ Daylight kitchen, and unlimited pours of dozens of beers.
The grand opening was a ticketed event for those attendees that wanted to go out back to the parking lot that was set up as the beer garden. For the price of admission, attendees received a commemorative tasting glass and unlimited pours of Burnin’ Daylight’s brews, as well as the collaboration brews they had done with El Segundo Brewing. Since Burnin’ Daylight is a brewpub, they are able to have guest taps; they took advantage of this by including brews from El Segundo Brewing, Riip Beer, Smog City, Three Weavers, Beachwood, Stone, Tortugo, and HopSaint. If you did not want to go to the beer garden, you were able to buy full pours in the brewpub. Continue reading
Photos from Absolution Brewing’s 5th Anniversary
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Absolution Brewing Company in Torrance, where the production brewery celebrated five years of brewing beer. The free-to-attend event featured about 20 Absolution brews, live music, karaoke, food trucks, and games. Attendees that purchased a VIP ticket also received anniversary glassware with a pour of their anniversary beer and a 4-pak of their anniversary beer.
As Absolution has recently begun canning some of their beers, they used their anniversary to release a canned version of their Floc-Ness Monster DIPA. On Saturday, the 4-pak cans were available on a 1-to-1 basis only, so I am not sure if they were all sold or not. You might stop by the tasting room and see what their new brewer, Erik DeBellis, has been doing. They have completely revamped from the Old World/New World theory.
While I was there, Nasty Bad Habit provided the live music, which was followed up with karaoke. There was another band that finished the evening, but I had left long before they came on. Food was available from Seafood Anarchy and Chow Down, with some cheese goodies from Spicy Mos. Continue reading
Photos from the 2nd Annual N’owt but Stout Festival
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Yorkshire Square Brewery in Torrance, where they held their 2nd Annual Now’t but Stout Festival, a fundraiser benefiting the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild, featuring dark beers from more than 25 Los Angeles area breweries, and a couple from San Diego.
N’owt but Stout may have been a little misleading as there were many Porters, a Black IPA, a Scottish Ale, and a Pub Bitter available as well; but to be honest, after a few stouts you have of need something to mix it up with. Beachwood’s Hoppa Emeritus Black IPA and Cellador’s Vacant Lot barrel-aged sour took care of that for me.
In addition to the numerous beer choices, the event featured the Slater’s 50/50 and Cena Vegan food trucks, live music from Vagrant Nation, and cornhole. Attendees were also given the opportunity to vote for the Peasant’s Choice Award for the Most Adequate Ale. Continue reading
Common Space Brewery 1st Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Common Space Brewery and Tasting Room in Hawthorne, where they celebrated their first anniversary with several hundred of their fans. The event featured their first can release, an anniversary beer, several food trucks, live music, and games that were enjoyed by adults and children alike. And there were dogs; lots and lots of dogs.
While I try to visit as many of the local breweries as possible, there has been so much growth around here that it just is not possible for me for me to visit everyone as much as I might like; Common Space would be one of those. One thing I noticed right away was that Common Space has become a very family and dog friendly taproom to visit. I think it would be safe to say that a large portion of the people attending had either a dog or a kid with them, and while I see a lot of whining on social media about kids and dogs at breweries, it was obvious that Common Space welcomes both with open arms. Continue reading