Long Beach
L.A. Independent Beer Fest Returns June 10
L.A. Independent Beer Fest Returns June 10
Returning after a three-year hiatus, L.A. Independent Beer Fest will once again kick off the 14th annual LA Beer Week. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn-chairs and enjoy the scenic views of the Long Beach Marina and Queen Mary. A dozen of LA’s best food trucks will provide a variety of delicious food options. Both live music and other games will be featured throughout the festival.
Tickets are now available on Eventbrite.com. General Admission tickets will be offered at $60, a limited number of VIP tickets featuring early 12pm entry at $75, and Designated Driver tickets at $20. Continue reading
2nd Annual Halfway to Halloween Hootenanny Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, April 29, at Rancho Los Cerritos Historical Site in Long Beach, where Obscura LB put on their second annual Halfway to Halloween Hootenanny. The fundraiser featured craft beer, ciders, kombucha, food, live music, and local vendors peddling everything macabre from books and art to chocolate.
Considering how flaky our weather has been so far this year, it was pretty cool how the weather gods smiled upon us with some amazing beer drinking weather. Continue reading
2nd Annual Craft Beer LB Homebrew Invitational Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site in Long Beach, where Craft Beer LB held their Second Annual Craft Beer LB Homebrew Invitational. The event featured brews from more than 40 homebrewers, a Pro Brewers lounge featuring local Long Beach breweries, food trucks, live music, games, a Kid Zone where parents could drop off the kids for a bit, and a bicycle valet for those that rode their bikes there. Proceeds went to benefit Rancho Los Cerritos.
The Pro Brewers lounge featured brews from Ten Mile Brewing, Syncopated Brewing, Ambitious Ales, Beachwood Brewing, Trademark Brewing, Ficklewood Ciderworks, Long Beach Beer Lab, and Altar Society Brewing. Continue reading
Halfway to Halloween Hootenanny Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, April 23, at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, where they hosted the 1/2 Way to Halloween Hootenanny craft beer festival, which was presented by LB Obscura, an event production company created by LB Craft Beer and Festival Obscura. The event is a fundraiser, with a portion of the proceeds going to support the Museum of Latin American Art. Perhaps unknown to most, this was also kind of a going away party for Martin Svab and Ryan Hughes; more on that later.
Regular readers will hopefully recall that last October I attended the inaugural Halloween Hootenanny at MOLAA; apparently it was such a success that it was decided that there was no reason to wait until next October to do it again (they will), and the 1/2 Way to Halloween Hootenanny was conceived. Continue reading
Winter Beer Dinner at Ballast Point Photos
These photos were taken Friday evening at Ballast Point Long Beach; where I participated in something I have not been able to do in over two years, attend a beer dinner. A four course meal curated by Ballast Point R&D Brewer Chris Takeuchi, combined with the fact that I had yet to visit Ballast Point’s Long Beach location, made it a pretty easy decision to accept their invitation. Together with my friend Alexis, sales rep for Eureka Brewing Company, we braved the Friday night traffic for what would be a fun and tasty evening.
So, getting first impressions out of the way first, their parking lot is massive which should probably give you an indication of what to expect inside. With a little patience we ended up with one of the best parking spots short of having a handicapped placard.
When we entered I was pretty surprised at just how massive the place is. The fact of the matter is that I never even made it upstairs so it is literally twice as big as what I observed. On top of that they have an outdoor patio which I am sure is nice most of the time; last night would not have been a good time for outdoor dining (too cold). Continue reading
Photos of the Halloween Hootenanny at MOLAA
These photos were taken Saturday at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, where they hosted the inaugural Halloween Hootenanny, which was presented by LB Obscura, an event production company created by LB Craft Beer and Festival Obscura. The Halloween-theme event featured an advertised 45 breweries, wineries, cideries and various vendors with everything from books to burgers and beyond. A portion of the proceeds went to the Museum of Latin American Art.
Since this whole pandemic thing started easing up, I have had the opportunity to attend a few public events, but I would venture to say this was the biggest event I have attended since 2019. The venue was spread out in such a way that I never really noticed any out of control lines. Continue reading
Long Beach Beer Lab 4th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Long Beach Beer Lab, where they celebrated their fourth anniversary and Oktoberfest. The festivities included live music by The Bodleys, face painting by Liza May, one liter steins of their Oktoberfest beer, and soft pretzels from Long Beach Bread Lab.
I ran into Long Beach Beer Lab founder/Chief Investigating Scientist Levi Fried shortly after I arrived and had to comment on how much growth there had been since my last visit; Levi responded that they had been busy the last two years. I knew it had not been two years since my last visit, but admittedly my last couple of visits had been for to-go purchases so I had not seen just how much they have grown. Continue reading
Craft Beer LB Fest 2021 Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the 5th Annual Craft Beer LB Fest, which was held at the Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site in Long Beach. The family friendly event featured craft beer from about a dozen Long Beach breweries, a couple homebrew clubs, and one cidery.
While I have attended each of the prior events, it seems that I typically had several events to photograph the same day, so I always attended the VIP session; I was late for the VIP session this time and it really showed me just how crowded this festival gets. Continue reading
Beachwood Brewing 10th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Beachwood BBQ & Brewing brewpub in Long Beach, where Beachwood fans gathered to celebrate 10 years of great barbecue and even better beer.
If you have attended previous anniversary celebrations at Beachwood, the first thing you would notice is that there was no line to get in. In fact, there were very few lines at all during the two hours I was there. The one thing that today had in common with prior years was the amazing beer selection. By my count there were 23 house brews on tap, including one hard seltzer, and Hoppa Emeritus on cask, as well as six guest taps, and eight Blendery options. Continue reading
A Visit to Trademark Brewing
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Trademark Brewing, a production brewery with a tasting room in Long Beach.
I had first become aware of Trademark Brewing probably in the summer of 2019; in fact, I am relatively confident that I had made plans to visit them in July, but there had been some delay in the planned opening date; a rarity, I know. I was able to sample their brews for the first time at the third annual Craft Beer LB Fest. A few months later COVID hit and pretty much put a halt to my ability to go out and visit new breweries. Continue reading
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