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Creature Comforts LA Soft Open Photos

These photos were taken Friday afternoon at Creature Comforts new Los Angeles location, located close to the Garment District area of L.A. Friday was day three of their soft open, which will last about a month.

For those unfamiliar, Creature Comforts is an Athens, Georgia based brewery. Because of weird laws in Georgia, they decided it made more sense to open a location in California than another in Georgia; so I guess we win.

To be honest, I had planned on going Wednesday, but they didn’t open until 4:00 and I cut it too close and hit the freeway just as rush hour started. My GPS estimated arrival time just kept climbing and I wasn’t making any progress so I made the call to wait until Friday or Saturday when they opened at noon.

I had been invited to join some people at Monkish at noon, and I had a feeling my buddy Joe “Dastardly Brews” Jupiter would be joining us, and I knew Joe was looking for something special for his 100th brewery, so I figured I would invite him along. It didn’t take too much convincing; so we finished our brews and headed to Creature Comforts. Continue reading

7th Annual Craft Beer LB Fest Photos

These photos were taken Saturday, September 16 at the Rancho Los Cerritos Historical Site in Long Beach, where Craft Beer LB held their 7th Annual Craft Beer LB Fest. The event featured plenty of craft beer from more than a dozen local breweries, sake, live music, and food for the approximate 1,000 attendees. It was a fun event that even the weather cooperated with.

I had to mention the weather because in the past I have mentioned how great the weather was, and frequently joke with festival organizer Dennis Trilles about how he seems to have a connection with the weather gods as no matter how sucky the weather might be prior to the event, it always seems to be nice on the day of the event. When I walked out of my house yesterday I could see that there must have been rain overnight. Having to utilize my windshield wipers on the way down to Long Beach I was beginning to wonder if I should have brought a windbreaker or not. While it was misting a little early on, the rain went away and the marine layer left everything comfortable in just a t-shirt. Continue reading

Photos from Chad’s Going Away Can Exchange

These photos were taken Saturday evening at the Craft Beer Reclamation Center, aka my house, where a couple dozen people gathered to say farewell to Chad Hazen (Bald Chad, Sofee Chad) with another craft beer can exchange. Chad has accepted a job with Boston Beer Company, so he is moving to Boston. I figured a can exchange would be a suitable way to send him off.

Of the close to 20 can exchanges I have put on since the Covid lockdown, this was definitely the largest turnout we have had, and I am sure Chad felt the love. In addition to the 40 four-packs that were involved in the can exchange, people brought literal gallons of beer, sake, and mead to share with attendees. Continue reading

Far Field Beer Company 2nd Anniversary Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Far Field Beer Company, in Lawndale, where they celebrated their second anniversary at their brewery/tasting room. The event featured live music, food popups, vendors peddling their wares, a photo booth, games, raffles, brewery tours, and about 19 tap offerings, including a couple anniversary brews (depending on who you talked to).

It was a lovely afternoon in the South Bay, and at least 100 people showed up (while I was there) to enjoy the mellow weather and join in the festivities with their families and four-legged friends. Continue reading

Five Point Five Brewing Company Grand Opening Photos

These photos were taken Friday afternoon at Five Point Five Brewing Company in El Segundo, when they officially opened their doors to the public, bringing El Segundo’s craft brewery count back up to four, joining El Segundo Brewing, Upshift Brewing, and Boardroom Brewery. Five Point Five is at the location previously occupied by Surfridge Brewing, and is now owned by the brewer for Surfridge, and his family.

Friday was their official Grand Opening, and while I arrived within the first couple of hours of their opening the doors, it was very well attended, not only by friends and family, but they also had attendees from El Segundo Brewing and Upshift, which is always a good sign, in my opinion. Continue reading

Blow a Glass at Scholb Premium Ales

These photos were taken this past Friday evening at Scholb Premium Ales, in Torrance, where they hosted Blow a Glass, a mobile operation that teaches glass blowing. Friday evening they set up shop in Scholb’s tasting room to display several of their glass water pipes and offered classes to those wanting to create their own glass.

I have to admit, I was hoping that there would be more in the way of demonstrations on how they create the intricate water pipes, but this was more for teaching people how to make their own drinking glasses. Since there was a lot of twirling of molten glass by newbies, I stayed out of the way which means I was unable to get the photos I was hoping for. Continue reading

Introducing Five Point Five Brewing Company

UPDATE: Five Point Five Brewing Company will officially open Friday, August 11.

These photos were taken Friday, August 4 at Five Point Five Brewing Company, the latest craft brewery to open in El Segundo. You may recall that four months ago Surfridge Brewing in El Segundo closed their doors; Five Point Five Brewing Company, headed by Surfridge’s former head brewer Jeremy Montemagni, will replace Surfridge.

Starting at the beginning, before Surfridge closed, owners Steven and Jennifer Lieberman moved to Connecticut and opened a new Surfridge location, and had their brewer, Jeremy, flying back and forth across the country to brew at both locations. As one can imagine, that was a pretty hectic schedule and really was not sustainable; that brought about the close of the El Segundo location. It was then that Jeremy and his wife Melissa decided to team up with the talented members of Melissa’s family and together they bought the old Surfridge equipment and got their own lease for the location. Continue reading

Photos from the Common Space/LA Ale Works Block Party

These photos were taken Friday afternoon at Common Space Brewery and Los Angeles Ale Works, where the two Hawthorne based production breweries teamed up to hold a block party as a part of the Los Angeles Beer Week 2023 festivities. Both locations had food, music, and games to accompany their plethora of craft beer.

I started off at Common Space where I met up with the guy that keeps more of the South Bay’s beer cold than any other single individual, my friend Phil and his wife Deborah.

While we were there, food was made available by Uncle Al’s BBQ, Long Beach Tacos, and Sad Girl Creamery to go along with the more than 20 craft beers pouring from their taps. I have to say, for being early Friday afternoon they had a pretty healthy number of customers. Continue reading

Photos from LA Independent Beer Festival 2023

These photos were taken Saturday, June 10 at Shoreline Aquatic Park in Long Beach, where the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild held their LA Independent Beer Festival to kickoff LA Beer Week (LABW14) for the first time since 2019, due to that pesky pandemic. The ticketed event featured craft beer from approximately 75 member breweries, food from seven food trucks and one ice cream vendor, live music and games.

The event was advertised to be hosting 75 local breweries, providing 150 beers. Well, I did not go through the trouble of counting every brewery that showed up, but I can assure you that there were well over 150 beers, because there were several breweries that brought more than two beers, in fact there were breweries like LA Ale Works that had what seemed like 20 offerings, and they were not the only ones. I would guesstimate that there were closer to 250 beers available. Continue reading

Boardroom Brewery Now Open in El Segundo

These photos were taken over the course of three years, beginning with my first visit in January 2020, a follow-up visit in January 2023, and ending with my visit on Memorial Day 2023 to Boardroom Brewery, El Segundo’s newest craft brewery.

So yeah, this tale begins back at the end of 2019 when Brouwerij West co-founder Dave Holop asked me if I knew anything about what was to be El Segundo’s fifth craft brewery. I was given an address and started dropping by every time I went to El Segundo. On January 8 I lucked out and showed up on a day that Forchi, the owner, happened to be there, having lunch as I recall. I introduced myself, and got permission to grab some photos. At that point in time Forchi knew he wanted to open a brewery; he was pretty much waiting for approval from the City of El Segundo and did not even have a name picked yet. If he did, he was holding it close to the vest. Continue reading

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