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Central Arizona Craft Beer: It is exploding

For those of you that noticed that this site was a little silent last week, that was due to the fact that I made my annual journey to Tempe, AZ to photograph a trade show. Since I do not have a lot of time to go out and explore when I am working, I pretty much had to rely on what the hotel bar or Hooters had on tap; which was generally Bud, Guinness and Kilt Lifter for what seemed forever.

In 2013, World of Beer opened a couple blocks from the event location, so my free time was generally spent there as they have a great selection of beers from not only breweries around the world, but around Arizona generally as well.

In 2014 I decided to come into Tempe early and discovered that there were quite a few breweries in surrounding cities that were not too far away, but nothing that was going to be close enough for me to visit while working. World of Beer to the rescue; again. Continue reading

Scholb Premium Ales – From the Beginning

Torrance has a new tasting room to visit; production brewery Scholb Premium Ales has begun their soft open. A week ago they opened for a few hours on Sunday and this past weekend they were open on Saturday and Sunday. Beginning this next weekend they will add Fridays; on April 7 they will begin normal tasting room hours, Thursday and Friday 4:00-9:00 PM, Saturday 1:00-9:00 PM and Sunday 12:00-6:00 PM.

I stopped by Saturday afternoon after finishing the craft beer panel at the Torrance library primarily because it was virtually next door to the Torrance Civic Center library; they are a couple hundred yards west of Absolution Brewing, in the same business park. In the short time we were there I noticed a nice group of people coming and going; it was obvious that people were taking advantage of the fact that the two tasting are so very close to each other.

Scholb had four of their brews available when I was there Saturday; SoCal Blonde, Roll With it Brown, Havanuther Session IPA and my favorite, Bat Ray Red IPA. By next weekend they should have at least five beers on tap at which time they will begin serving flights. Continue reading

Local Craft Brewing at the Torrance Library

On Saturday afternoon I moderated a panel at the Katy Geissert Civic Center Library to highlight Torrance’s prominence in the South Bay’s burgeoning craft beer industry. Hosted by the Torrance Public Library, the panel consisted of Rich Marcello from Strand Brewing Company, Laurie Porter from Smog City Brewing, Alex Rabe from The Dudes’ Brewing, and Bart Bullington from Absolution Brewing Company.

The questions ranged from why was Torrance chosen to set up shop, how they got into craft beer and challenges faced by new breweries, to what would you do if AB InBev approached with suitcases full of money (apparently $1 billion is the magic number).

It was a fun discussion and hopefully those that attended learned a little more about the breweries and the craft beer community in general; it was nice having two panelists that are primarily on the sales side of their respective breweries (Marcello and Porter); and two panelists that are the brewers for their brewery (Rabe and Bullington). Continue reading

Photos from Laughs By Volume II

On Sunday afternoon, PINT Magazine held their second in a series of comedy shows featuring craft beer, Laughs By Volume; this time held at Honeypot LA. One thing that was readily apparent to anyone that may have attended the inaugural Laughs By Volume is that practice makes perfect. While there may have been a couple issues that resulted in Laughs By Volume II getting a late start, it was like a well oiled machine when compared to the first one.

We had a pretty nice turnout considering only about 100 tickets were to be sold; I would venture to say that we had pretty close to that many in attendance, if not a few more. I took some time to chat with a few of the attendees, all of which were first time attendees, and everyone seemed to really enjoy everything about the event. There was plenty of beer, really funny comedians and virtually no lines; except maybe for the bathrooms.

The breweries featured included Sixpoint Brewery, The Lost Abbey, Anthem Cider, Brouwerij Wolf, Double Mountain Brewery, Tahoe Mountain Brewing Co., Anaheim Brewery, The Great Beer Co., Mission Brewery, Four Sons Brewing Co., Stone Brewing, Eagle Rock Brewery, Maui Brewing Co., Alesmith Brewing Co., 21st Amendment Brewery, Telegraph Brewing Co., Smog City Brewing, Absolution Brewing, Avery Brewing, The Dudes’ Brewing, Refuge Brewery, Timeless Pints, Boulevard Brewing, Brewery Ommegang, Three Weavers and El Segundo Brewing. Continue reading

Guinness: My First Love

For those that have not take the time to read everything I have written on my beer experience growing up, suffice it to say that nothing my dad was drinking was worth swiping from the fridge. Being proud of my Irish heritage I loved the time I spent in San Francisco as it was so very Irish. As I spent my summers roaming the streets of The City I always saw signs for fish and chips and for Guinness. In my young mind I just put Guinness together with fish and chips, like peanut butter and jelly. The first time I went to San Francisco after turning 21 I headed over to Edinburgh Castle Pub on Geary Street for my first Guinness, served with fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. A lifelong love affair has existed since.

So, what brought that up? Well, it is St. Patrick’s Day and since I stumbled upon a couple samples of Guinness’s “newest” brews, I thought today would be a good day to share the experience.

I am sure someone is thinking, “But it’s not craft!” well, it tastes like craft to me. Besides, when you have been around 250+ years it is likely you are going to exceed whatever production limit the Brewers Association sets for being called craft. Besides, it is St. Patrick’s Day and even if you are not drinking a Guinness you are probably going to have a beer that is an Irish Stout or on nitrogen; and you can thank Guinness for those. Continue reading

Monkish Brewing Celebrates Four Years

This weekend Monkish Brewing Company celebrated four years of brewing excellence by providing access to a half dozen of their rare fruited saisons as well as several barrel-aged and brett saisons. They also released their most recent collaboration with Select Beer Store, Select Monk 4.

I headed over to Monkish after Phantom Carriage’s One Year Anniversary party ended and found the tasting room packed and everyone in a great mood. Congratulations to Henry, Adriana and the entire Monkish team on a very successful four years. I feel fortunate to have you close enough to have witnessed the evolution. Cheers! Continue reading

Phantom Carriage Celebrates One Year

When I left off, we had left the Froth Awards at Saint Rocke and headed to Carson to catch the tail end of Phantom Carriage’s One Year Anniversary party which was held Saturday afternoon. Phantom Carriage pulled out all the stops which required them to take over the parking lot as well as the blendery’s tasting room.

I got there pretty late, but even as it may have been clearing out you could tell that this sold out event was rocking as everyone was in full party mode. With the beer selections that had been available earlier, it is no wonder why everyone was in a great mood. They had cellar blends Volume 1 through 5 to accompany Oude Muis, Muis, Citra Muis, barrel-aged Centennial Muis, Broadacres, Strawberry Broadacres, Triple Berry Melange Broadacres, Dragonfruit Broadacres, barrel-aged Peach/Nectarine Broadacres, Bergman, Blackberry Bergman, Baskerville (clean and on Brett), Wit Zombie, Pineapple Wit Zombie, Amarantha, Lugosi, Dolores, Tagalong Dolores, Toasted Coconut Dolores, Fleet Street IPA, Tripel Curse and Fog Island. As soon as I walked in, brewer Brendan Lake approached me with the last of the Vermiste Kat which was their collaboration with Cascade, so even though a lot of the super-rare varieties were already gone by the time I got there, the Vermiste Kat was a great way to start off. Continue reading

Photos of The 3rd (Occasionally) Annual Froth Awards and Beer Experience

That was one busy Saturday, there were beer events going on all over the place; it took some careful planning to attend the events I did. One was a scheduling conflict between Phantom Carriage’s 1st Anniversary and Easy Reader’s 3rd Occasionally Annual Froth Awards and Beer Experience that was held at Saint Rocks at the same time. After lots of bouncing back and forth in my mind about which event to attend first, the Froth Awards won out; if for no other reason than I could stop by Monkish after Phantom’s event ended.

In the beginning, the first Froth Awards paired our five local breweries with five local restaurants and created a friendly competition between the breweries with the attendees voting on which pairing was best. The winners were those of us that attended. The Awards continued the following year, with five breweries again being paired with five restaurants. This time there was no voting because we all knew that we were the winners once again. Continue reading

Nick Shattuck Live at King Harbor Brewing Company

On Friday evening, North Redondo was mellowed by the gentle tunes of local musician and general nice guy, Nick Shattuck as he performed at the King Harbor Brewing Company tasting room to a crowd of what seemed thousands. In addition to Shattuck’s tender tunes, attendees had their first opportunity to try King Harbor’s latest release, St. Jameson Stout. To be completely honest, I was there for the St. Jameson, which is a delicious Irish Dry Stout aged on Jameson soaked oak chips, having Shattuck there just ensured that King Harbor would be hopping with lots of photo ops. He did, it was.

I have to think back to two years ago and remember how empty King Harbor’s brewhouse was compared to today; and the tap list has literally tripled in size with a lot more diversity. Speaking of two years ago, King Harbor’s 2nd Anniversary is coming up on April 2. If you were at last year’s event you know what a good time it was; this year it is going to be even bigger. While everyone is welcome to come to the tasting room, if you want to participate in the festivities you will need a ticket. They have two prices, depending on if you want a bottle of their anniversary beer or not. You can get details and order on BrownPaperTickets.com. Cheers! Continue reading

King Harbor Brewing Hosts Business & Beer

These photos were taken Thursday evening at the March gathering of the Business & Beer networking group which was held at the King Harbor Brewing Company tasting room. There was a pretty nice turnout with people coming and going throughout the event.

For those that are self-employed or whose job description includes networking, Business & Beer is a great way to accomplish either of these goals while enjoying some of the best beers the South Bay has to offer. Business & Beer is a local business networking group that has been around since July 2012; they have no rules like mandatory meetings or dues, so if networking is an important part of your job description and you enjoy craft beer, Business & Beer is probably just right for you. They meet at a different brewery or brewpub on the second Thursday of every month from 6:00-8:00 PM. You do not need reservations and you can consider this your personal invitation.

Thanks to Calibrated Solutions for sponsoring the photos. Cheers! Continue reading

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