Serendoggity
Smog City Celebrates 5 Years in Torrance
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the Smog City Brewing Company’s 2018 Anniversary Celebration. The event included a two-hour long ticketed VIP session, followed by a free general admission session that began at 1:00 PM and ran until closing time.
The celebration featured close to 30 Smog City brews as well as a half dozen beer cocktails, music by DJ Mood Maestros, and a few food trucks; including Mad Pambazos, Serendoggity, and CONED Ice Cream. There were games, as well as local artwork that was created specifically for Smog City Brewing. The event also gave Smog City the opportunity to debut their new outside patio as well as their anniversary beer, Awkward Teenager.
About 100 VIP ticket holders were able to tour Smog City’s Sour Production Facility; it gave us some insight to the magic behind their sour ales. All VIP ticket holders received early access to limited beers and beer cocktails, one bottle of their Awkward Teenager with a carrier bag, and a pretty fun commemorative Smog City photo album. Continue reading
A Craft Beer Valentine’s Day in the South Bay
As I sat down to write this, I asked Tanya what we did last year for Valentine’s Day. Neither of us could recall off hand but after a little research we discovered that we may be becoming creatures of habit with traditions we did not realize we had.
Anyway, this year Smog City Brewing re-released their Death By Hops DIPA so we decided to start the day off there. They had a brisk business going on with many beerlebrity sightings as hop heads from near and far came to check out the latest release; they would not be disappointed. Regular readers of Craft Beer Guy have probably noticed that I do not do beer reviews on this site (you can visit my Untappd account if you want those) but I will say that this batch is amazing. If you enjoy a good in-your-face hop bomb you will want to get over there before it is all gone. One thing that came to mind as I enjoyed it was just how lucky we are to live in an area that turns out so many great brews and the double IPAs. When you stop to think about Smog City’s Death By Hops, Strand Brewing’s White Sand, El Segundo Brewing’s Hammerland, and The Brewery at Abigaile’s Beetlejuice, to name but a few, the South Bay is turning out some of the best brews around.
After enjoying a beer at Smog City and speaking with a few people we headed down Western to Mulligan Family Fun Center to race go-karts. They have gas powered karts and governors equipped to prevent them from going very fast but it was still a lot of fun. No photos of this part of the day are available because I have yet to figure out how to race and work the camera at the same time. Continue reading
Battle of the Casks at Smog City Brewing
These photos were taken Saturday, December 28 at Smog City Brewing Company’s Battle of the Casks. This was a very fun event which featured five beers on cask, each created by the five Smog City team members; Jonathan and Laurie Porter, Chris Walowski, Mike Freeman and Ryan Trousdale. The contest was pretty cool; using their Bloody Knuckle Porter as the base beer, which is the base beer for their award winning Groundwork Coffee Porter, the five came up with their own recipes which were served on cask; with the attendees voting for their favorite. The options included a Fruit and Maple Cask, containing dried orange, cranberries and maple syrup; a Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cask, containing dried peanut butter, chocolate powder and cocoa nibs; and a Mint Chocolate Cask, containing chocolate powder, cocoa nibs, mint oil and vanilla beans. There was also a Toasted Coconut Cask which contained toasted coconut and vanilla beans; and rounding it off with a Raspberry Chocolate Sticks Porter Cask which contained raspberry puree, freeze dried raspberries, coco powder, cocoa nibs and vanilla beans.
It was a pretty tight competition but in the end, after all the votes were tallied, Porter’s Fruit and Maple Cask took third place, Ryan’s Toasted Coconut Cask was the first runner up with Chris’ Raspberry Chocolate Sticks Porter Cask getting the most votes; thus entitling him to the coveted Budweiser Belt and bragging rights until the next time.
In addition to the Battle of the Casks competition they raffled off lots of Smog City Brewing swag including shirts, caps, growlers and growler fills. For those seeking food, Serendoggity was there with their organic hotdogs. All in all, it was another great event at Smog City Brewing Company.
For those interested, Smog City will be open this Monday and Tuesday (December 30 and 31) from 2:00 – 5:00 PM for growler fills if you want to bring a growler or two to your New Years Eve party. Growlers are $2 off those two days. Cheers! Continue reading