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Bernie Wire Farewell Party at El Segundo Brewing

It is an end of an era for the Los Angeles craft beer scene as long time craft beer photographer and general all-round nice guy, Bernie Wire enters his last few days as a Los Angeles resident.

Saturday afternoon, a steady stream of Bernie Wire fans and friends came to El Segundo Brewing Company to bid farewell to Bernie as he and his wife Anne Marie prepare to move back to Minnesota; Anne Marie hails from the Land of 10,000 (closer to 12,000 actually) Lakes, so they have plenty of family out there.

Bernie took time to visit with everyone that came out, and then treated us to a little concert. After the concert, I noticed lots of tears in the tasting room as people began to realize that this was really good-bye. Continue reading

Pennywiser Private Tasting at The Standing Room

These photos were taken Friday evening at The Standing Room, in Hermosa Beach, where local punk rock legends Pennywise held a private tasting of their new collaboration with Lost Coast Brewery, Pennywiser Session IPA.

All four members of Pennywise, Jim Lindberg, Fletcher Dragge, Byron McMackin, and Randy Bradbury, were in attendance along with huge contingent of their fans. The members of the band did interviews, posed for photos and enjoyed both pints and bombers of the tasty, low ABV IPA.

Since Pennywise is a South Bay band, they initially contacted a few of the South Bay’s numerous breweries to do the collaboration with, but they ended up going with Eureka’s Lost Coast Brewery, most likely because Lost Coast brews about 20 times more beer than any of our local breweries are capable. Apparently, Lost Coast Brewery owner/founder Barbara Groom came out of retirement to brew this particular IPA which was dry-hooped with Cascade, Crystal, Chinook and Citra hops, which provides a nice citrus nose and a pleasant, mild hoppy flavor. Continue reading

Paddle and Pour and Doughnuts at King Harbor Brewing

These photos were taken Saturday morning at King Harbor Brewing Company’s Waterfront Tasting Room where they held another in their continuing series of Summer Party Crew 2017 events; this week being their Paddle & Pour (+ Donuts).

The morning began with a dozen or so attendees renting stand up paddle boards for an hour out on the water. After they worked up their appetites, everyone headed to the Waterfront Tasting Room for a pairing of King Harbor Brewing Company beers and Blue Star Donuts.

The pairing began with a pour of Future Waves IPA paired with a Blueberry Bourbon Basil doughnut. The mellow grapefruit bitterness went well with the sweetness of the blueberry. Continue reading

Craft Beer Backyard Barbecue and Summer Fun Feast

These photos were taken Saturday at Strand Brewing Company’s Backyard Barbecue (first three pages); and King Harbor Brewing Company’s Summer Fun Feast, as both production breweries celebrated summer with craft beer, barbecues, and games.

The Backyard Barbecue at Strand Brewing featured 15 taps spread out over two bars, food from Chefs in Shorts, and live music by Bill Benzel and Jim Earp, Jim Kimo West, Ryan Collazo, and Big Bad Rooster. With all the kids, dogs and families in attendance, as well as the aroma wafting from the grill, it really did feel like a backyard barbecue. Continue reading

DTLA Breweries United Fest Photos

These photos were taken Sunday afternoon at the Triangle Lot where DTLA Breweries United held their second annual DTLA Breweries United Fest. The event featured limited edition and specialty beers from the seven Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) breweries that make up DTLA Breweries United. Those breweries include Angel City, Mumford Brewing, Boomtown Brewery, Arts District Brewing, Iron Triangle, Indie Brewing and Dry River Brewing.

The proceeds from the event went to the Keep A Breast Foundation.

I had to take advantage of attending this event as I just never seem to get to DTLA when it comes to craft beer; in fact, I was going through my notes and realized that it has been almost two years since my last visit there. Back then only Angel City and Mumford had tasting rooms open to the public; as of today all seven members of the DTLA Breweries United have tasting rooms. Continue reading

The Rarest Experience at Stout Burgers & Beers

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Stout Burgers & Beers Hollywood location, where Stout’s Beer Fest for Beer Geeks held The Rarest Experience craft beer festival. The event featured 30 very rare beers from 22 craft breweries around the country and Belgium. These beers were not just rare, but a few were the last you will ever see in the US.

Joey Anderson, the National Beer Manager for Stout Burgers & Beers, curated the event with extremely rare beers collected and cellared by Anderson over the years. Some of the beers were actually sourced from the private collections of the breweries; to give you an idea of how rare some of the beers were.

Take a look at the official list: Continue reading

Beer Camp on Tour – Long Beach Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Beer Camp on Tour craft beer festival held at Queen Mary Events Park and presented by the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.

This was my first time attending Beer Camp, and while I had heard some negativity about last year’s event, it was pretty evident to me that they had learned from whatever mistakes those were as this was truly an amazing event to close out LA Beer Week. While I did not make the effort to count all the breweries in attendance, there were reportedly at least 100 breweries, pouring well over 200 beers. In addition to the beer, there were a dozen food trucks, live music from The Expanders and Orgone, games, plenty of shade and much cooler temperatures than the 100+ degree weather we experienced at the kickoff festival last week. Continue reading

LABW9: So You Want to Open a Brewery in LA?

These photos were taken Tuesday evening at Los Angeles Ale Works, in Hawthorne, at the sixth edition of “So You Want to Open a Brewery in LA?” an LA Beer Week panel discussion moderated by Celebrator Beer News writer Tomm Carroll. If you have attended any of the previous five seminars hosted by Carroll, you know that he typically puts together a great group of panelists and last night was no exception.

The panelists included Laurie Porter of Smog City Brewing, Greg Bechtel of Simmzy’s Burbank, Gary Croft of Yorkshire Square, Bill Baker of Zymurgy Brew Works & Tasting Room, Rick Blankemeier of Modern Times, Will Shelton of Concrete Jungle Brewing Project, Brent Knapp of Common Space Brewery, Kip Barnes of LA Ale Works, and Brendan Lake of Burnin’ Daylight Brewing Company. Continue reading

LA Brewers Kickoff and a Proposal

These photos are from Saturday at the LA Brewers Kickoff of Los Angeles Beer Week 9 (LABW9), which was held at the Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown Los Angeles. This outstanding event featured close to 60 Los Angeles craft breweries along with 30 out of town craft brewers and about 10 food trucks. In addition to the beer and food there were games, live music and plenty of water and shade for those seeking to escape the high air temperature.

I did not ask how many tickets were sold, but I suspect there were about 1,000 people in attendance. With close to 100 booths to visit, lines were never really an issue; with the exception being when a brewery had a scheduled release of a special beer they brought. Even then, once the beer was opened, the lines seemed to disappear rather quickly. Continue reading

Chad’s Beer Cellar IV Photos

These photos were taken Saturday at the Chad’s Beer Cellar IV bottle share which was held at King Harbor Brewing Company in Redondo Beach. This event was the fourth and possibly final bottle share put on by local beer hoarder and King Harbor Brewing investor, Chad Hazen. All the funds from the event went to benefit the Richstone Family Center which is located in Hawthorne. The Richstone Family Center is dedicated to preventing and treating child abuse.

First off, I would like to personally thank everyone that showed up. While my involvement with the event was limited to getting the word out, the previous events never sold out, which I found incredulous considering the quality of the beers that were made available. I made it a personal goal to see that they did sell all 100 tickets this year, and it happened. While all the monies have not been tabulated yet, with ticket sales, raffles and the silent auction, over $8,000 was raised for Richstone. Of course, none of this would have been possible without Chad.

The first of these bottle shares was held in December of 2014 when Hazen decided he wanted to quit drinking beer for a year while he trained for a marathon as he felt his collection of beer was just a little too much temptation. He got together with King Harbor Brewing Company and they decided they would have a bottle share benefiting Richstone Family Center. Continue reading

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