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Brouwerij West 4th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Brouwerij West in San Pedro, where the production brewery celebrated their fourth anniversary. The event included new beer releases, food trucks and live music.
Saturday was a very busy day in the South Bay with can releases, a soft open, and the Brouwerij West 4th Anniversary celebration. Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out how to be in multiple places at the same time, so I have to settle for being at one event at a time. To accomplish this I begin at the event furthest from my home and work my way back. That means I had to start at Brouwerij West first, which meant I got there long before the live music began. Continue reading
Photos from the Boomtown Brewery 5th Anniversary
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Boomtown Brewery, a production brewery in the arts district area of Los Angeles, where they celebrated their fifth anniversary. The event featured 24 Boomtown brews, including their Anniversary Ale, a very nice west coast IPA, and several barrel aged brews.
Entertainment was provided throughout the day by a host of DJs, as well as Boomtown’s standard entertainment of pool, darts, pinball, video games, and cornhole. Food, while I was there, was available from Highland Hickory BBQ (Buddy loved their pork shoulder) and Tripp Burgers, as well as a churro popup. Continue reading
River Visits Tortilla Cantina
These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at Tortilla Cantina in Torrance, where they hosted a family event for one of their regulars, Paul Quintana. You may recall that back in July I covered a baby shower at Tortilla Cantina; Sunday’s family gathering was the formal introduction of the Guest of Honor of that shower, River, to his extended family.
There had to be at least 50 friends and family in attendance and River seemed to be enjoying all the attention he was getting as much as the aunts and cousins giving it to him.
Tortilla Cantina is a great place to hold events like this, especially if you have friends and family that enjoy craft beer. You could never provide Tortilla Cantina’s beer variety at home, and they provide really good food; I will personally vouch for the taquitos. Continue reading
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
Photos from the LA Ale Works 3rd Anniversary Block Party
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Los Angeles Ale Works, Hawthorne’s first production brewery, where they celebrated their third anniversary with a massive block party. The event featured a quadruple can release, four food vendors, DJs and live music, anniversary merchandise, and a michelada bar.
I had two events to cover Saturday; one was inside and the other, LA Ale Works’ Block Party, was outside. As it was a beautiful day in the South Bay it was not too difficult to decide which one I was going to do first.
After taking a few photos I decided it was time to try their “anniversary beer” which turned out to be seven different beers. They included Infinite Potential Munich lager, Cosmik Debris IPA, Flight Path DIPA, Scrappalicious Juicy IPA, From the Roots farmhouse ale, In For the Long Haul bourbon and rum barrel-aged barleywine, and Tropic Punch In mixed fermentation barrel beer; I opted to begin with Flight Path and had no regrets. 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
The Sun Sets on an Era at Smog City
These photos were taken Friday evening at Smog City Brewing’s tasting room at their production brewery in Torrance, where several dozen friends, regular customers, and co-workers of Smog City’s taproom manager Jason “Breezy” Briseño gathered to say farewell as Friday was his last day.
Briseño started working as a beertender at Smog in 2014; since then he went on to become their Retail Director and taproom manager of all three Smog City locations. He will be spending the next few months doing consulting jobs and some mixology while he waits on the processing of his visa to move to Australia with his wife, Lauren, who just happens to be from Australia. Apparently Lauren has family in Australia that are involved in the wine and restaurant business, with one of her relatives getting ready to open a brewery; Briseño seems to be looking forward to the opportunity to help them get it off the ground. Continue reading
The Art of Craft Beer Can Art
Having observed the surge of craft breweries in the Greater Los Angeles area, with an almost inside view of the South Bay craft scene in its infancy, the sheer number of new breweries around here is nothing short of amazing. I mean, El Segundo has four breweries now, Lomita has two! It is easier to name the cities that don’t have a brewery than to remember all of them that now do; and they all have multiple breweries, except for Hermosa Beach which had The Brewery at Abigaile close while writing this.
Beyond the obvious expansion of breweries, and that’s not even counting all the satellite taprooms that are popping up, one thing that has really surprised me is how quickly these new breweries have started canning or bottling. I remember when mobile canning was a thing, which wasn’t really that long ago, but everyone is getting their own canning or bottling line, and you have El Segundo Brewing with one of each. Burnin’ Daylight is celebrating their one year anniversary this Saturday, and they have been canning for probably six months. That was just unheard of few years ago. One of the spinoffs of this trend is that of can art. Continue reading
Photos from the Juicy Brews Beach Party at Brouwerij West
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Brouwerij West in San Pedro, where they hosted the Hop Culture Juicy Brews Beach Party Craft Beer Festival. The festival, which was also a fundraiser for the Palos Verdes Land Conservancy, featured craft beer from more than 25 of the top breweries in the country. In addition to copious quantities of really good beer, there were food trucks, including The Highroller Lobster Company and Love Hour, as well as music provided by DJ Thom Lessner.
While I am not sure it was actually “beach party” weather, it was a very pleasant day without being too cold or too hot. As Hop Culture is out of Pittsburgh, I am sure our weather was more beach-worthy than a January afternoon in Pittsburgh.
The sold out event featured a who’s who of craft breweries, such as Arizona Wilderness, Bottle Logic, Creature Comforts, Great Notion Brewing, J Wakefield, The Rare Barrel, Russian River, and Homage Brewing. There were fewer than 1,000 tickets sold, so the Brouwerij West beer garden area was more than large enough. I only noticed two lines the entire day; one was for Homage Brewing and another for the J Wakefield booth which featured several collaboration brews they have done. As one participant noted, it was one of the few craft beer festivals where Russian River did not have the longest line. 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