tasting room
March Madness at King Harbor Brewing
These photos were taken Saturday evening at King Harbor Brewing Company, in Redondo Beach, where King Harbor regulars Diego and Michael Chavez gathered with dozens of friends and family to celebrate their birthdays and the birthdays of a couple other family members that have birthdays at this same time of year.
The Chavez family originally had a casino night planned, but when the original venue cancelled on them due to COVID-19 concerns, they reached out to King Harbor Brewing and were able to put together a nice, last minute party. Continue reading
Photos from the Boomtown Brewery 5th Anniversary
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Boomtown Brewery, a production brewery in the arts district area of Los Angeles, where they celebrated their fifth anniversary. The event featured 24 Boomtown brews, including their Anniversary Ale, a very nice west coast IPA, and several barrel aged brews.
Entertainment was provided throughout the day by a host of DJs, as well as Boomtown’s standard entertainment of pool, darts, pinball, video games, and cornhole. Food, while I was there, was available from Highland Hickory BBQ (Buddy loved their pork shoulder) and Tripp Burgers, as well as a churro popup. Continue reading
The Sun Sets on an Era at Smog City
These photos were taken Friday evening at Smog City Brewing’s tasting room at their production brewery in Torrance, where several dozen friends, regular customers, and co-workers of Smog City’s taproom manager Jason “Breezy” Briseño gathered to say farewell as Friday was his last day.
Briseño started working as a beertender at Smog in 2014; since then he went on to become their Retail Director and taproom manager of all three Smog City locations. He will be spending the next few months doing consulting jobs and some mixology while he waits on the processing of his visa to move to Australia with his wife, Lauren, who just happens to be from Australia. Apparently Lauren has family in Australia that are involved in the wine and restaurant business, with one of her relatives getting ready to open a brewery; Briseño seems to be looking forward to the opportunity to help them get it off the ground. Continue reading
Photos of the Absolution Brewing Company Christmas Party 2019
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon, December 14, at Absolution Brewing Company in Torrance, where they held their annual Christmas Party. The event featured live music from Nasty Bad Habit, Montero Y Murillo, and The Noir. They had the Yuyo Bros food truck there for people seeking solid nourishment, and I guess Santa made an appearance after I left; we seem to always miss each other.
I am sorry for the delay in getting these photos up, but I have been under the weather (it took two days to write this!). Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2019: Winters, CA
These photos were taken Sunday, October 20, day 21 of Craft Beer Tour 2019; my annual craft beercation taken before and after the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver. These photos were taken at Berryessa Brewing and Hooby’s Brewing in Winters, California.
When I arrived in Chico for the Hop Harvest Festival at Sierra Nevada, I had some decisions to make; primarily, where would I go from here? Do I hang out in Northern California, or head home? I sent out some messages to friends in the general area, and then I headed to Sierra Nevada. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2019: Eugene, OR
These photos were taken Friday, October 18, day 19 of Craft Beer Tour 2019; my annual craft beercation taken before and after the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver. These photos were taken at Falling Sky Brewing House and ColdFire Brewing Company, both of which are located in Eugene, Oregon.
I bid farewell to Matt and Dom on Friday morning and began my drive south to Chico where I would be attending Sierra Nevada’s Hop Harvest Festival on Saturday. After a couple hours of driving I realized I would be going through Eugene. I visited Eugene last year when I went to Ninkasi. I knew I was arriving in Eugene too early to return to Ninkasi, so I pulled over at the next rest stop to see if Eugene had additional breweries, and whether or not they would be open. As luck would have it, they had two that were open and not too far from each other. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2019: Nampa and Meridian, ID
These photos were taken Friday, October 11, day 12 of Craft Beer Tour 2019; my annual craft beercation taken before and after the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver. The photos were taken at Crescent Brewery and 2C Family Brewing in Nampa, and Ram Restaurant and Brewery, in Meridian, Idaho.
As this was going to be my last day in Idaho, my friend Catherine and I decided to head out to the Nampa area. This is my second year in the Boise area, and I have always wanted to check out Mother Earth in Nampa, but they are only open three days a week and they don’t open until 4:00 PM. I figured there had to be something else there, and sure enough I found two; within a five minute walk of each other. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2019: Boise and Garden City, ID
These photos were taken Thursday, October 10, day 11 of Craft Beer Tour 2019; my annual craft beercation taken before and after the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver. The photos were taken at Edge Brewing and Woodland Empire in Boise, and Bella Brewing in Garden City, Idaho.
As I am spending three days in the Boise area, I wanted to split my time up evenly; and have new places to visit the next time I come here. Edge Brewing had been mentioned by a friend or two; and Woodland Empire was recommended by Charlie; the guy I had met at Square State Brewing; his recommendation of Western Collective was enough for me to trust his recommendation of Woodland Empire. Continue reading
Upshift Brewing – El Segundo’s Newest Craft Brewery Opens
I remember the day well, July 19, the day I began to experience self doubt as to how in touch with the local craft beer scene I really was. I was enjoying a beer at Burnin’ Daylight when I received a text from Dave Holop of Brouwerij West asking me what I knew about three potential new breweries opening in El Segundo; like he said, I always seemed to be in the know for the latest brewery openings. I began to have my doubts.
I immediately started doing some research and reached out to the ones I could; the first to respond to me was Upshift Brewing. A week later I made my first visit to Upshift; the first six photos are from that visit. To be honest, they were so close to completion that we spoke about the possibility of Upshift being featured at my 5th Annual South Bay Tap Takeover. Within a couple weeks it became clear that this wasn’t going to happen, so I put them on the back burner and waited to hear from them regarding their opening date. Continue reading
Barktoberfest 2019 at Absolution Brewing Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at Absolution Brewing Company, in Torrance, where they held Barktoberfest 2019; an afternoon where the dogs literally took over the production brewery’s tasting room, with a portion of the proceeds from the beer sold going to benefit spcaLA.
After leaving the Craft Beer LB Fest I headed home to get Buddy, one of the South Bay’s well known brewery dogs to join me at Barktoberfest. He was in doggy heaven.
The extremely dog friendly event featured live music from Nasty Bad Habit, a food popup, and lots of dogs that all seemed to enjoy each other’s company. It is not unusual for there to be a dog or two that is not as ecstatic to hang out with other dogs, but everyone seemed to happy to be there; there were dog smiles everywhere. Continue reading