microbrewery

Craft Beer Tour 2021: Vancouver, WA

These photos were taken Tuesday, September 28, day 14 of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, when I visited Trap Door Brewing in Vancouver, Washington. Yes, you read that right, I am in Washington.

Hopefully you have been following along and recall that when we left off, I was planning to drive to Boise in the morning. Continue reading

Craft Beer Tour 2021: Oregon City, OR

These photos were taken between September 18 and 22, days four through eight of my Craft Beer Tour 2021. There were several repeat visits, including McMenamins, Oregon City Brewing Company, and Shattered Oak Brewing, and a first time visit to Stickmen Brewing Company.

When I left Bend the weather had turned crappy, which was probably a good thing for Bend as the evening before had been quite smoky so I am sure the wind and rain helped clear that out, but it also cleared me out. Continue reading

Craft Beer Tour 2021: Bend, OR

These photos were taken September 17 and 18, days three and four of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, aka the search for fresh hopped beers; this time in Bend, Oregon. The breweries I visited were The Ale Apothecary, Crux Fermentation Project, Boss Rambler Beer Club, and GoodLife Brewing.

I intended to spend two nights in Bend, but the place I was staying at the first night didn’t have room for me for Saturday night, so I was going to have to play it by ear. I remember when I got out of the car when I arrived how great the air smelled, and there was a blue sky. To be honest, the air quality from Sacramento on had sucked due to the fires that had been in the area. I had put a post on Facebook asking the first bend brewery I should visit, and The Ale Apothecary was the first that came up that I had been to before, so I set my GPS for it and headed over. Continue reading

Greg Visits Far Field Beer

These photos were taken Saturday evening at Far Field Beer Company, the South Bay’s newest craft brewery, where they hosted a celebration of sorts for Instagram beerlebrity, GregVisitsBreweries, as he celebrated the 1,000th brewery that he has visited since he started counting back in the 20th century.

I first learned of Greg’s upcoming fete a couple weeks ago when my friend Jeff asked me if I followed Greg. When I admitted that I may have seen the name but that was it, I was informed that Greg had been documenting his brewery visits on Instagram and his 1,000th visit would be at Far Field Beer. Naturally, I reached out to Greg and we met at Far Field. Continue reading

Far Field Beer Grand Opening Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the South Bay’s newest craft brewery, Far Field Beer Company, who celebrated their grand opening in Lawndale. The event had a pretty nice turnout, with lots of families in attendance as well as many local craft beer fans that are frequently seen at the South Bay’s other tasting rooms. For a time they had a pretty consistent line for beer, but the staff made the line seem short and quick.

Like the soft open of last week, Far Field offered seven brews, including their Two Wheeler Berliner Weisse, All-Terrain Cream Ale, Common Misconception California Common, Feller Pilsner, Nebula Session IPA, Field of View Hazy IPA, and Home Range West Coast IPA. The primary difference being that in addition to full and half pours, 4 ounce tasters are now available. Corner Joint, a local restaurant literally around the corner, returned with their wide variety of pizzas available for those wishing solid food. Continue reading

Far Field Beer Company Soft Open Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Far Field Beer Company, in Lawndale, where they opened their tasting room to the public for the first time with a soft open.

For the soft open, Far Field offered seven brews, including their Two Wheeler Berliner Weisse, All-Terrain Cream Ale, Common Misconception California Common, Feller Pilsner, Nebula Session IPA, Field of View Hazy IPA, and Home Range West Coast IPA. Corner Joint, a local restaurant literally around the corner had a wide variety of pizzas available for those wishing solid food. Continue reading

Paperback Brewing First Anniversary Photos

These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Paperback Brewing Company in Glendale, where they not only celebrated their official grand opening, but their one year anniversary at the same time. So yeah, you read that right; it is their one year anniversary and they are just now officially open to the public. COVID strikes again.

If you will recall, last year the county let breweries open for a minute before they shut them down again; that is when Paperback was planning on opening to the public. Instead of filling their tasting room with customers like they had planned, they hooked up with a mobile canning unit and sold beer to go in cans and growlers. In fact, my first experience with Paperback was at a couple of the COVID can exchanges I have been putting on. When Paperback sent me a press release about their official opening to the public I decided to head over for what I discovered was also their one year anniversary. Continue reading

Introducing Far Field Beer Company

These photos were taken Wednesday afternoon, when I headed over to Lawndale to visit the soon-to-open Far Field Beer Company. Yes, you read that right; Lawndale is getting their first craft brewery and tasting room; and the SpaceX Corridor is back to having four breweries.

When I first heard that Lawndale was getting a brewery, I had to question it; for as long as I have been the Craft Beer Guy, I thought that Lawndale had some law that made it difficult, if not impossible, to open a brewery in the city. When I discovered their location, the north side of Rosecrans just west of Hawthorne, I was relatively confident that was Hawthorne. Well, apparently Lawndale does a little jog across Rosecrans for a couple blocks. So, while the post office and your GPS will tell you it is in Hawthorne, they got their Conditional Use Permit through Lawndale. 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

Eureka Brewing Company Now Open

These photos were taken over the last two and a half months at Eureka Brewing Company, in Gardena. They include photos of one of their first pilot brew days, the first day of canning, and day one of their “grand opening.”

I guess it is an understatement to suggest that the year 2020 has been a little tough on the local craft beer scene. The SpaceX Corridor took a double hit, beginning in February with the closure of State Brewing. About a month later LA County started getting hit with ridiculous rules that caused did nothing but cause hardships to our breweries, restaurants, and bars. It began our current period of “survival of the fittest” and a second brewery of the SpaceX Corridor, Ximix Craft Exploration, stopped production and closed up shop.

In the middle of August it was announced that King Harbor Brewing co-owner and head brewer Phil McDaniel was leaving; what may not have been common knowledge was McDaniel was opening his own brewery with childhood friend Adam Ansari. McDaniel and Ansari took over the former Ximix location, equipment and all, and changed the name to Eureka Brewing Company. Continue reading

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