Los Angeles
L.A. Brewers Beer Week 2015 Kickoff Party Photos
These photos were taken at the LA Brewers Beer Week Kickoff which was held Saturday afternoon, June 20 at Exposition Park. The kickoff was the official launch of LA Beer Week 2015 (#LABW7) and was a fundraiser with a portion of the proceeds being donated to L.A. Kitchen. The event featured more than 75 breweries pouring a reported 200+ beers, ciders and home brewed sodas. I did not count them but I can assure you there were so many outstanding options that it would have been virtually impossible to try them all in the five hours we had available. There were numerous times I headed off to try a beer that I wanted only to be distracted by something else on the way. I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the available options were brews I had yet to try.
In addition to the massive quantities of beer, there were eight food trucks, four bands, educational panels and a few games. There were about 3,000 people including attendees, volunteers and the breweries but there was very little in the way of lines. I think the longest line I saw was for people waiting to buy tote bags that were being offered there.
As it is Father’s Day and there are a lot of things going on, so I will go ahead and post the photos now and give an in-depth review later in the week. Suffice it to say, it was a great time with very little to find negative about the entire experience. The LA County Brewers Guild did a great job and is to be commended on putting on a great event. Of course, I am extremely appreciative of Absolution Brewing Company for sponsoring me at the LA Beer Week Kickoff. Cheers! Continue reading
Barbara’s at the Brewery
My daughter wanted to take me out to lunch this past Sunday, specifically somewhere I had not yet visited. As she rattled off the various craft breweries and gastropubs that were midway between where she lives and me it was discovered that I had visited each of them. She then mentioned Bonaventure Brewing in downtown Los Angeles. I had been meaning to stop by there for a while, so we decided to meet there for lunch. Unfortunately, it never dawned on me that they would not open until 4:00 PM, so we arrived at The Bonaventure a couple hours before the brewery opened and the hotel’s cocktail lounge did not even sell the beer brewed on premise. This was not what I wanted to hear. As we were meeting my daughter there we had to find a quick substitute before she went through the trouble and expense of dealing with the valet. Tanya got on her iPhone to query Google and started looking for brewpubs in the downtown LA vicinity; the closest to us was Barbara’s at the Brewery. I had heard of the place but had never been there so it sounded like the place to be.
As we passed Union Station and Olvera Street I mentioned that Barbara’s must be part of Angel City Brewery; I have only been there once and I recalled that it was a pretty large facility so it was entirely possible that I had missed something. As we pulled up to Barbara’s I quickly realized that this was not associated with Angel City; but it sure did not look like they had room for a brewery either. There was a large smokestack that had “BREWERY” painted on it which did nothing to ease my confusion. When I walked in it quickly became evident that Google had misled me once again.
Barbara’s at the Brewery is not a brewpub, I am not even sure I would classify it as a gastropub either; it is a restaurant that serves craft beer. I asked our server what the deal was with the brewery smokestack and the “at the Brewery” in their name and was informed that the complex they are located in used to be a Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery many years ago. She thought that it may have been a brewery for someone else before PBR brewed there. The complex itself is called “The Brewery” and is now probably best described as an art colony, with Barbara’s being the location for food and drink. Continue reading
Photos from the Pac City Brewery ribbon cutting
Tuesday afternoon I took advantage of the great Earth Day weather and rode out to the Los Angeles suburb of Pacoima to attend the ribbon cutting and soft opening of Pacoima’s first production brewery, Pac City Brewery. Pac City Brewery is a three (3) barrel microbrewery that will not have a tasting room in the foreseeable future but plans on working closely with local eateries and drinking holes to ensure their beers are readily available to those seeking it out. While they cannot have a tasting room, they will be able to hold events that include their beers on the spacious property that their brewery is located on.
The Pac City Brewing team is made up of CEO and head brewer Robert Cortez, Miguel Duran, Fernando Palacios and Robert’s brother Art Cortez. The ribbon cutting was attended by several friends and family members as well as the LA City Council, the Chamber of Commerce, LAPD and several representatives of the local craft beer scene.
After a short speech the ribbon was cut and guests were invited in to sample four of their brews, their Caramel IPA, Not so Amber Ale, Toasted Oat American Wheat Ale and their Chocolate Raspberry Coconut Porter. They also offered ginger ale and tea that are brewed on-site as well as pizza and sandwiches. Judging by the smiles, everyone had a good time. I will be sure to let you know when I hear about any special events that are open to the public. Pac City Brewing is located at 12780 Pierce Street, Unit #5 in Pacoima. Congratulations and good luck to Robert and all the team. Cheers! Continue reading
Tomm Carroll’s birthday party at Chloe’s at Golden Road
With the primary question being, “is there beer after 60?”, local beer celebrity and writer Tomm Carroll celebrated his 60th birthday Sunday afternoon with about 100 friends and family joining him at the exclusive Chloe’s at Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles. Chloe’s is a private, members-only club at the Golden Road Brewing pub that one must work in the beer industry to be invited to join. This was my first time to visit Golden Road, so it was pretty cool to be invited to join the festivities.
For those that think the name Tomm Carroll sounds familiar, there are a couple of good reasons for that. First off, there are about three guys named Tomm Carroll that are involved in the Southern California craft beer scene. This particular Tomm Carroll is a contributing writer for Celebrator Beer News with his regular column, Live and Drink in L.A. as well as Beer Paper LA where he has an entertaining series Los Angeles, BC (Before Craft).
The afternoon consisted of camaraderie, tasty snacks including crab cakes, sliders, pretzels and more, birthday cake and beer. In fact, lots of beer. In addition to the seven Golden Road brews they had on tap there was an amazing bottle share that featured a veritable who’s who of beer which such brews as a 2007 Dark Lord, Gueuze Cuvée René by Brouwerij Lindemans, a Mont des Cats by Abbaye Mont des Cats and even a 1993 Samichlaus to name but a few. Suffice it to say, there were more bottles than people to drink them so I think Tomm’s beer collection may have gained a few new members.
As far as the question, is there beer after 60? It seems safe to say that there is plenty of beer after 60. Happy birthday, Tomm. Cheers! Continue reading
LA Beer Bloggers Holiday Potluck at Sunset Beer Company
Back in June I became familiar with the LA Beer Bloggers, a group of altruistic craft beer bloggers living or working in or around the City of Los Angeles; working together to foster craft beer culture. As King Harbor Brewing Company’s Head Brewer Philip McDaniel put it, these are the people that keep the local craft beer breweries in business and help make them successful. After all, there is only so much one can hope to accomplish with paid advertising, especially for start-ups that do not really have a large advertising budget. Nothing beats word of mouth when it comes to referrals and the LA Beer Bloggers do just that via their blogs and other forms of social media.
Sunday evening, December 8, the LA Beer Bloggers held their first annual Holiday Potluck at Sunset Beer Company, a bottle shop and tasting room located in Los Angeles. We had about 20 people show up with munchies ranging from bread sticks to shrimp and hummus to salads. As it is the Christmas season, there were quite a few sweets involved but when mixed with craft beer it made for a pretty healthy meal. For our part, Tanya made breadsticks, pretzel rolls and mustards using spent grains and beers donated by Redondo Beach’s first production craft brewery, King Harbor Brewing Company (KHBC). For dessert she made Russian Tea Cakes / Mexican Wedding Cakes from flour she produced using brown ale malted grains also donated by KHBC along with various dipping sauces; some of which were flavored with KHBC’s Brown Ale. Judging by the responses to these treats, I suspect all the LA Beer Bloggers will be heading to Redondo Beach when King Harbor opens their doors early next year.
It was a good time of networking and enjoying beer and food; as you can see from the photos, everyone seemed to be having a good time. Thank you to the LA Beer Bloggers for the invitation and to Sunset Beer Company for hosting the event. Special thanks to those that contributed to the meal with food or special beers that were brought from home or purchased in the bottle shop; and extra special thanks to King Harbor Brewing Company for donating the main ingredients to our contributions.
Sunset Beer Company is located at 1498 Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. King Harbor Brewing will be at 2907 W. 182nd Street in Redondo Beach. Happy Holidays and 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
I Shoot Beer People – A Tribute to Bernie Wire
Have you ever seen the movie Memento? That is kind of what my life seems like at times. If I took your photo I will remember your face, which does not necessarily mean I will remember your name; but it is a start. While I have been taking photos of beer and breweries and anything else that was in my view for many years, I only recently got into taking photos of the local craft beer scene relatively recently; primarily because the craft beer scene around here is pretty new. When I really became aware of what was happening in the South Bay was during American Craft Beer Week in 2012. My girlfriend had changed the meds she had been on and could now enjoy a brew or two with me, so we dove into the new South Bay craft beer scene.
On day two of the 7th Annual American Craft Beer Week, May 16, 2012 I was in Select Beer Store in Redondo Beach and I saw this guy taking a photo of his beer. I was not ready to catch it as it was happening so I asked him if he would oblige me by reenacting the shot for me. Little did I know that we would continue to run into each other and eventually become friends. As it turned out, not only do we both enjoy craft beer, we both like to promote local breweries and we use photography to accomplish this. This was the first time I met Bernie Wire.
Bernie is kind of a legend in these parts and Tuesday evening Mohawk Bend, a gastropub with [a reported] 72 different craft beers hosted an art exhibit of some of Bernie’s works. The photos were nice, but I think Bernie would be the first to admit that the turnout is what really made this event. It is not easy driving out to Los Angeles in rush hour traffic, but people were eager to show their support and appreciation to Bernie. It was a very nice event attended by great people. Continue reading
Dry River Brewing Crew-members Reception
These photos are from the Dry River Brewing Company Crew-Members-Only Reception which was held at Namaste Highland Park in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. The reception was held to thank the backers of their recently funded Kickstarter campaign. Attendees were treated to several of co-owner/brewer Dave Hodgins’ creations; Horchata Cream Ale, Jamaica-Weisse, Arnoldo Palmero and Hop on Board IPA. They were all good, with Hop on Board being my favorite.
Congratulations again to Dave Hodgins and Vanda Ciceryova and we cannot wait to see Dry River Brewing begin producing at a commercial level. Continue reading
3rd Annual Brew at the LA Zoo
Thursday morning as I was perusing my Facebook feed I noticed an update made by Beachwood BBQ & Brewing that said they were giving two passes to the Brew at the LA Zoo to the first five people that came in and asked for them. I had initially thought it was happening on Saturday, which was a busy day for me, so I did not plan on attending. When I found out it was actually on Friday evening, I decided to ride down to Beachwood BBQ & Brewing in Long Beach for a beer and to see if there were any passes left; fortunately, there were.
Brew at the L.A. Zoo is a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles, California. There were 23 Southern California craft breweries represented and one winery. In addition to the beer there was live music from Ivory Deville and Strangeheart, karaoke, DJ MORNINGSTAR and something I have never been able to do before; an opportunity to wander Zoo grounds after dark. As it turned out, most of the zoo was not available to us, which I suppose is understandable. We did have access to the elephants, gorillas and other apes as well as the new LAIR (Living Amphibian, Invertebrates, and Reptiles) exhibit. It was pretty cool.
The breweries in attendance were Widmer Brothers Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Blue Moon Brewing/Batch 19/Leinkugels Summer Shandy, Rock Bottom Brewery Long Beach, Heretic Brewing Company, Mad River Brewing Company, Stone Brewing Company, Fireman’s Brew, Golden Road Brewing, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Hangar 24 Graft Brewery, Crispin & Fox Barrel Cider Company, San Pedro Brewing Company/ Port Town Brewing Co., Angel City Brewery, Karl Strauss Brewing Company, The Lagunitas Brewing Company, Beachwood BBQ and Brewing, Inland Empire Brewing Company, I & I Brewing, Barefoot Wine, Surf Brewery, Old Orange Brewing, Tap It Brewing and Firestone Walker Brewing Company. There were far too many people and not enough time to try them all so I spent my time trying brews I had yet to experience. Continue reading
Fun in the Sun with Dry River Brewing
Last week I attended the LA Beer Bloggers Summit at Haven Gastropub and among the people I met were Dave and Vanda of Dry River Brewing Company in Los Angeles. Dave and Vanda are currently brewing out of their home on a pretty limited basis, but they have been making appearances with their beers at various functions and generating chatter as well as a fan base. When I met Dave and he told me about Dry River Brewing, you could tell this was a guy with a vision. He explained how Dry River Brewing had partnered with the LA River Revitalization Corporation to help with the redevelopment and revitalization of properties along the LA River corridor in accordance with the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan. This caught my interest because it seems that I have been seeing a lot more talk about the LA River lately and when I stopped to think about it, I had never really seen the LA River beyond passing it on the freeway or when it was included in some chase scene for a movie. I had already made a mental note that I had to do something about that. Dry River Brewing took care of that.
Sunday afternoon, Dave and Vanda held a little get-together at their home for friends, investors, supporters of their Kickstarter program and beer aficionados. I knew they lived in the general vicinity of the LA River, so I figured I would head out a little early and see what I have been missing; was I ever surprised. The first portion of the photos were taken by Marsh Park on the LA River. There is so much more to see that I am planning on making a special trip to explore more of the river. The rest of the photos are from the Dry River party. Dave and Vanda presented two of their beers, their Rio Seco Pale dry-hopped with Amarillo hops and a yet to be named porter which seemed to be a crowd favorite. I look forward to seeing Dave and Vanda’s vision come to fruition and I have to thank them for introducing me to the LA River. Continue reading