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Photos from Matinee Meltdown at King Harbor Brewing

These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at the King Harbor Brewing Company tasting room in Redondo Beach, where they held their first in what is hoped to be a continuing series of monthly Matinee Meltdowns; an afternoon of live music, DJs, local art and, of course, King Harbor Brewing’s craft beer.

Matinee Meltdown is the brainchild of former King Harbor Brewing rep, Pete Mauch, who also happens to have a band called Doom Lodge, a self-described Doom Punk Trio out of Hawthorne, whose musical genre falls under Psych Rock. In addition to the live music, DJ Dan Kennedy aka ShoeBox spun records when Doom Lodge wasn’t playing one of their two sets. Continue reading

Photos from the 2nd Anniversary Block Party at LA Ale Works

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Los Angeles Ale Works (LAAW), in Hawthorne, where they celebrated their second anniversary with an 80s themed block party featuring several food trucks, DJs, live music, pop rock beer slushies, candy necklaces, Micheladas, a laser light show, a double juicy IPA can release, and lots of other L.A. Ale Works beers.

I arrived about an hour after the official start time and the block party was already filling up with LAAW fans along with their families and dogs. DJ Sundy was providing music and food was being served up by Bartz BBQ, Kogi Korean BBQ, Hustle & Dough, and Scoops on Tap.

Inside the tasting room, there were at least 25 beers on tap, including the two beers featured in their can release, Lazer Star and Night Beams. There was an outdoor bar set up for their Reserve Beers, featuring options like Celestial Blüme Berliner with tea, Channel Conditions Brett Saison, and Olivera Blanc and Olivera Noir, their beer/wine hybrids. Also available were the 2017 and 2018 Rush’n Attack Imperial Stouts, Heavy Impulse Barleywine, and Sled Dog Imperial Stout. The outside bar is also where you would go for the pop rock slushies and Micheladas. Continue reading

Photos from Hermosa Brewing’s 1st Anniversary Shindig

These photos were taken Friday evening at the Hermosa Brewing Company taproom in Hermosa Beach, where Hermosa Brewing kicked off their three day, 1st Anniversary Shindig. In addition to the 12 taps of Hermosa Brewing’s beers, the event features live music, and food and beer specials, including beer mocktails.

I arrived rather early in the evening, and while it was not very crowded when I first got there, it did not take long for the place to begin filling up. The live music, performed by Zeal Levin, began at 6:30 was pleasant and not overpowering; although I guess he did take up a couple spots that would have otherwise been used by the attendees. No one seemed to mind; it was nice to be able to be close to the music without having to yell over it. Continue reading

Celebrating SF Beer Week with Humphry Slocombe Ice Creams

These photos were taken Thursday afternoon at Humphry Slocombe in Venice, and Firestone Walker’s The Propagator in Marina del Rel. Humphry Slocombe is an ice cream shop that opened in Venice this past August; it is the fourth in a chain of ice cream shops that has two locations in San Francisco where it was founded, and one in Oakland. The Propagator, if you were unaware, is Firestone Walker’s Los Angeles area brewpub; but you probably already knew that.

I frequently mention that I am not a foodie, I said that in my last article, so why am I visiting and writing about an ice cream shop? Well, as I mentioned above, Humphry Slocombe was founded in San Francisco, and it is currently SF Beer Week (it runs from February 1 – 10). In honor of the event, Humphry Slocombe joined forces with a few of its favorite Bay Area breweries to launch a series of one-time-only, beer-infused ice creams. As I was invited to try out some of these creations, I accepted the invitation and brought my friend Jaymes, of King Harbor Brewing and formerly AJ’s BBQ. Jaymes is a foodie the way I am a beer guy; maybe more. He plans vacations around the food he will find there, so I figured he would enjoy this adventure; I was right. Continue reading

Photos from the Media Preview of California Sun

These photos were taken Tuesday evening at California Sun, a new gastropub in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. California Sun is part of the Artisanal Brewers Collective, a restaurant group co-founded by Tony Yanow, formerly of Golden Road Brewing. California Sun features New York and Detroit style pizzas, for vegans, vegetarians and omnivores, as well as lots and lots of craft beer from around the country and beyond.

Anyone that knows me personally, or reads my site on a regular basis, is probably aware that pizza does not rank very high on my list of food choices; so what the heck was I doing at a pizza place that took over an hour of driving to get to? Well, there are three reasons actually. Continue reading

A Visit to Hermosa Brewing Company

These photos were taken Friday evening at Hermosa Brewing Company, a relatively new taproom in Hermosa Beach. It is literally around the corner from The Brewery at Abigaile, so I headed there after attending Abigaile’s Meet the Brewer event.

Regular readers may recall that in my review of 2018 I said that there were a couple breweries in the South Bay that I had yet to visit; one was Tortugo Brewing, which I took care of a few weeks ago, the second was Hermosa Brewing Company. While I had visited Hermosa Brewing back in August, it was pretty much to choose a couple of their beers for the 4th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. This was my first visit with customers. Continue reading

Photos from Meet the Brewer at The Brewery at Abigaile

These photos were taken Friday evening at Alta House, formerly known as Ocean Bar, which is the upstairs area of Abigaile and The Brewery at Abigaile. The event was hosted to introduce The Brewery at Abigaile’s new brewer, Josh McCombs.

A question that I have been asked pretty frequently lately is, “What’s going on at Abigaile?” It was a legitimate question since their last brewer that I was aware of, Mitchell Riser, left several months ago and since they are licensed as a brewpub, they need to be brewing beer. That issue was resolved at the beginning of January when Josh McCombs came onboard as their new brewer. Continue reading

Photos from Bar Talk with Brooklyn Brewery

These photos were taken Wednesday evening at Beelman’s in downtown Los Angeles, where they hosted Brooklyn Brewery’s “Bar Talk: Craft Beer, Innovation & The Great Cape Debate with Steve Hindy & Garrett Oliver”; which was then followed up with an after party a couple doors down from Beelman’s at Spring Street Bar. For those unaware, Steve Hindy is the founder of Brooklyn Brewery, and Garrett Oliver has been their brewmaster since joining Brooklyn Brewery in 1994.

The event was to announce the launch of Brooklyn Brewery’s distribution in California, and as Garrett Oliver put it, they go where their beer goes. Apparently this was one of the few times that Hindy and Garrett has shared the stage together but, to this observer, the discussion ran so smoothly you might have thought it was entirely scripted; it was not. Continue reading

The Meltdown – Power Plant Release Photos

These photos were taken Friday afternoon at El Segundo Brewing Company, and Friday evening at Tortilla Cantina, home of the 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. Friday was day one of El Segundo Brewing’s release of their Power Plant Triple IPA, which included a synchronized release with about 20 other locations in Southern California; one of which was Tortilla Cantina.

This is the time of year that triple IPAs start finding their way up and down the state of California, probably due in large part to the fact that for the last 15 years Russian River Brewing has released their Pliny the Younger Triple IPA on the first Friday of February. El Segundo Brewing has been releasing Power Plant at about the same time for the last five years. Continue reading

Burnin’ Daylight Soft Open Photos

These photos were taken Thursday afternoon at the soft open of Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company, a brewpub in the City of Lomita. As you can tell from the photos, the long anticipated opening was very well received.

The doors officially opened at 3:00 PM; I arrived by 3:30 and there was already a line out the door. By the time I got done taking my first batch of photos, the line had doubled in length. You would think that the staff at Burnin’ Daylight had been doing this for years, as the wait was never more than 13 minutes when the line was the longest I saw (I was in it). It was pretty obvious that the customers were enjoying the brews, and the few I spoke with about the food said it was very good; the inside seating area sure smelled good with the spices from the chicken wings wafting through the air. Continue reading

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