Scholb Premium Ales

Discover Torrance: My Spring Break Staycation

These photos were taken April 1st and 2nd during my Spring Break staycation, when I stayed at the Bluestem Hotel and paid visits to the Madrona Marsh, Monkish Brewing, Smog City Brewing, Hermosa Brewing, Red Car Brewery, The Brews Hall, HopSaint Brewing, Absolution Brewing, Scholb Premium Ales, and Project Barley Square. This article is sponsored by Discover Torrance.

Numerous friends have asked, “You are retired, isn’t every day a staycation for you?” Well, maybe kinda, but sometimes one can be unhoused without being homeless. Sometimes, things can be too toxic to stay home; like if your home is being fumigated. While I have lived here longer than many of my readers have been alive, the reality is that when friends come into town I don’t help much when it comes to answering questions about what is the best deal as far as the 20+ hotels available in the City of Torrance. I decided I would reach out to the Discover Torrance Visitors Bureau to find out where the best deals were. That is when Debbie Hays, the Sales/Community Representative for Discover Torrance, stepped in and introduced me to the Bluestem Hotel. 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

Strand Brewers Club Meeting at Scholb Premium Ales

These photos were taken Wednesday evening at Scholb Premium Ales in Torrance, where they hosted the March meeting of the Strand Brewers Club, a local home brewing club. The meeting was the first I have attended in quite a while, so among other things, it gave me the opportunity to see some old friends as well as meeting the new officers of the club.

After everyone had a chance to grab a Scholb brew, Michael, the new club president had everyone introduce themselves then they sat down to business, which included discussion about their upcoming monster brew that will be held at Scholb, the upcoming Southern California Homebrewers Festival, as well as the venue for their next few monthly meetings and their monthly Final Friday gathering. Continue reading

Scholb 7th Anniversary Photos

These photos were taken Saturday evening at the Scholb Premium Ales brewery and tasting room, in Torrance, where Scholb celebrated their seventh anniversary with a very nicely attended celebration.

The free to attend event featured food from Buddha Boy Tacos, live music by The Brian Sisson Band, a bouncy house for the kids, free pie, and two new beer releases. Continue reading

2nd Annual Ugly Sweater Party at Absolution Brewing Photos

These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the 2nd Annual Ugly Sweater Party at Absolution Brewing Company, in Torrance. Since I had not brought my camera into Scholb Premium Ales in a while, I decided to walk over and grab a couple beers and photos there too.

Absolution’s Ugly Sweater Party featured photos with a petite Santa, raffles, a photo booth, Jenga, cornhole, darts, foosball, and music by DJ Jay Dieguez. In addition, there was food by Fresh off the Yacht, an Ugliest Sweater Contest, and lots of delicious beer. Continue reading

8th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover Photos

These photos were taken Thursday, September 1, at Tortilla Cantina in Torrance, where they hosted my 8th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. The event, meant to celebrate the South Bay’s vibrant craft beer scene featured 19 breweries from Torrance, Redondo Beach, Inglewood, Torrance, Carson, Lomita, Hawthorne, El Segundo, Gardena, and Lawndale.

The featured South Bay breweries included Smog City, HopSaint, Scholb, Hermosa Brewing, Yorkshire Square, King Harbor Brewing, Far Field Beer, Crac, Honest Abe, Eureka Brewing, Common Space, LA Ale Works, Tortugo Brewing, Three Weavers, Crowns & Hops, El Segundo Brewing, Upshift Brewing, Burnin’ Daylight, and Project Barley. Continue reading

Photos of the 7th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover

These photos were taken Thursday at Tortilla Cantina in Torrance, where they hosted my 7th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover, featuring 28 of the South Bay’s craft breweries, with more than 50 taps pouring, and a couple brews that came in cans as keg space was becoming an issue.

I do not know what to say other than thank you to everyone that came out to enjoy the liquid gold provided by the participating breweries, cidery, and meadery. And thanks definitely have to be given to the servers who were kept pretty busy from noon until well after 10:00. The star of the day has to go to Rick who literally took things into his own hands when kitchen staff came up short. Continue reading

The Craft Beer Guy Recap of 2020

port-town-brewing

Port Town Brewing – progressing

Well, it is that time of year again. I usually call these articles a “review” of the prior year; but that would be a very short article. I give it two stars out of five, and would not recommend. Instead, this will be a recap of 2020; let’s see what happened.

January 2020

2020 started off mellow enough; little did we know what was in store for us. The highlight of the month, and possibly the year for some, was the Hop Culture Juicy Brews Beach Party Craft Beer Festival held at Brouwerij West. It was a very fun event featuring craft beer from more than 25 of the top breweries in the country.

The month ended with a going away party for Smog City’s taproom manager Jason “Breezy” Briseño as he and his bride prepared to move to Australia; I think COVID put a temporary damper on those plans. Continue reading

Photos of the 6th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover

These photos were taken Wednesday at Tortilla Cantina, where they hosted the 6th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. This annual event took a little more to accomplish this year, but Tortilla Cantina, our local breweries, and hundreds of their fans made this possible “last hurrah” of 2020 a great success.

My first tap takeover was held on the first Thursday of September in 2015, and as the craft beer scene around here grew, there started to be overlaps when it came to craft beer festival dates and brewery anniversaries, and everyone started changing dates of their events to avoid conflicts. The fact of the matter is that there was just too much going on out there, so I set it in stone that all subsequent South Bay Tap Takeovers would be held on the first Thursday of September; that worked out okay until COVID-19 struck and the State of California and the County of Los Angeles decided restaurants, breweries, and bars had to discontinue in-person dining. Continue reading

South Bay Breweries To-Go / Delivery Options Revisited

UPDATE: June 24 – Most local breweries now have some sort of dine in service, however, in my opinion this is still far too fluid for me to spend the hours to update manually, so please follow the links provided to see what the updated hours might be.

Phantom Carriage is now open for limited beer pickup.

It is hard to believe it has been more than two months since I wrote my initial South Bay Breweries To-Go and Delivery Options article; but here we are. The fact of the matter is that my initial article is getting cluttered with updates, and some links have been changed by the breweries. This update should be good through the Memorial Day weekend; I will update this as necessary.

Like the original article, this is solely a reference guide, so all breweries will be listed in alphabetical order for your ease and mine. Hours subject to change, be sure to contact the brewery directly. Continue reading

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