San Pedro Brewing Company/ Port Town Brewing Co.
American Craft Beer Week 2014, Day1: Good, Better, Worst
Monday May 12 was day one of the 9th Annual American Craft Beer Week, and it is the third consecutive year that I have covered the event. In 2012 I participated by trying to find as many American craft beer locations as possible in the South Bay. In 2013 I set out to visit as many Great American Beer Festival gold medal award winning breweries as possible. Since there has been such an explosion of growth in the craft beer sector around here, I decided that this year will be devoted to the local craft breweries, brewpubs and gastropubs.
I started off by visiting San Pedro Brewing Company (SPBC), a brewpub that has been around for close to 15 years. They have won more than 40 medals at local county fairs, commercial beer competitions and international beer festivals. They have not entered competitions such as the Great American Beer Festival because they have a small brewing system and do not currently have the capacity to brew enough beers to handle the increased demand winning a competition like that would bring. That may soon change though as they are in the process of dealing with the paperwork to open a new location around the corner which will be called Port Town Brewing. SPBC Head Brewer Jason Welke will likely do the brewing for SPBC and Port Town with the SPBC system being used for experimental batches. The hope is to have Port Town Brewing open by next American Craft Beer Week. For those that like bourbon barrel aged brews, Wednesday evening at 6:30 SPBC will have their 2nd Bourbon Barrel Aged Beer Night featuring their Blitzen Belgian Winter Ale and Sunken City Imperial Stout. I went to their first barrel aged event in February and they had some delicious brews. If you are looking for something to do, you really cannot miss by attending this event. San Pedro Brewing Company is located at 331 W. 6th Street in San Pedro and is open seven days a week. Continue reading
3rd Annual Brew at the LA Zoo
Thursday morning as I was perusing my Facebook feed I noticed an update made by Beachwood BBQ & Brewing that said they were giving two passes to the Brew at the LA Zoo to the first five people that came in and asked for them. I had initially thought it was happening on Saturday, which was a busy day for me, so I did not plan on attending. When I found out it was actually on Friday evening, I decided to ride down to Beachwood BBQ & Brewing in Long Beach for a beer and to see if there were any passes left; fortunately, there were.
Brew at the L.A. Zoo is a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles, California. There were 23 Southern California craft breweries represented and one winery. In addition to the beer there was live music from Ivory Deville and Strangeheart, karaoke, DJ MORNINGSTAR and something I have never been able to do before; an opportunity to wander Zoo grounds after dark. As it turned out, most of the zoo was not available to us, which I suppose is understandable. We did have access to the elephants, gorillas and other apes as well as the new LAIR (Living Amphibian, Invertebrates, and Reptiles) exhibit. It was pretty cool.
The breweries in attendance were Widmer Brothers Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Blue Moon Brewing/Batch 19/Leinkugels Summer Shandy, Rock Bottom Brewery Long Beach, Heretic Brewing Company, Mad River Brewing Company, Stone Brewing Company, Fireman’s Brew, Golden Road Brewing, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Hangar 24 Graft Brewery, Crispin & Fox Barrel Cider Company, San Pedro Brewing Company/ Port Town Brewing Co., Angel City Brewery, Karl Strauss Brewing Company, The Lagunitas Brewing Company, Beachwood BBQ and Brewing, Inland Empire Brewing Company, I & I Brewing, Barefoot Wine, Surf Brewery, Old Orange Brewing, Tap It Brewing and Firestone Walker Brewing Company. There were far too many people and not enough time to try them all so I spent my time trying brews I had yet to experience. Continue reading