The 9th LA Beer Week (#LABW9 for all the social media) starts on Saturday, June 17th. And as to be expected, it’s chock-o-block full of events aimed to pack you more full of beer than an Arizona State frat party. The full event list is posted here at the LA Beer Week website, but here’s a cheat sheet to some of the events that we’re most excited for… including two that we’re a part of!
And there are many, many other events featuring sour beers, tap takeovers, food and beer pairings so check out the full list here at the LA Beer Week Calendar.
Have you fulfilled your New Years’ Resolution to drink more beer this year? If not, there’s still enough time to cram it in at one of the many Los Angeles breweries before the end of the year. And if you didn’t make that resolution… then what’s wrong with you? There is an insane amount of good beer in Los Angeles right now and you should be drinking it. With friends. At the breweries where they make it.
Here’s a list of all of the new Los Angeles breweries. If you want a full list of all of the LA breweries, please check out our page here: labeerhop.com/breweries.
Located in Boyle Heights, this shabby industrial taproom serves finely-tuned beers on the weekends and in 16oz cans. If you want to visit, they’re hosting a cheese and beer event with Vagabond cheese this Saturday (12/17) at their taproom.
They were contract brewing for quite a while before opening their brewery in Torrance a stones throw from Monkish, Smog City and The Dudes (I think you could literally hit Monkish with a stone from Cosmic if you were really good at throwing stones). Also, you pour your own beer here, no bartenders.
They’ve been brewing for a while, but their rather large Santa Monica taproom officially opened this year making them the only taproom in Santa Monica out of all of the Los Angeles Breweries. Go to check out a wide range of beers brewed onsite and grab some food from their rotating schedule of foodtrucks.
Formerly part of the contract brewing club, Brouwerij West had a much-anticipated opening this year at an enormous location in the Ports’o’Call in San Pedro. They make a bunch of experimental (and good) Belgian and French-style beers in a taproom that could fit a fleet of elephants.
Alright, it’s out in Pomona, but it’s worth the trip. It’s the first brewery to really adopt the white walled, green plants, clean atmosphere of a coffee shop (I’m looking at you Dinosaur coffee). You might say that this brewery is “on trend”. And boy are they doing things right. Innovative beers, trendy styles done well, well adorned taproom, good music, and incredibly warm people. Do yourself a favor and head out to Pomona.
The only combination brewery and distillery in LA (although we definitely smell more coming), Rob Rubens opened his speakeasy-style tasting room and brewery/distillery in El Segundo this year. So far, they’ve made some pretty tasty beers and a small collection of spirits: vodka, gin and a white whiskey.
Maybe one of the most anticipated breweries, certainly one of the quietest, this small brewery is operating all the way up in North Hills slowly turning out some really innovative oak aged beers. They don’t have a tasting room yet, but you can find their liquid in small format bottles around LA (they’ll be in large bottles soon). Look out for Firegold – A funky farmhouse ale brewed with Mosaic and El Dorado aged with oranges & orange peel in a French Oak Puncheon.
They just put beer out in the marketplace but their taproom isn’t open yet, so they JUST made the cut to be part of the class of 2017. This Gardena brewery also just got Robert Sanchez from Kinetic Brewing to come and serve as their Brewmaster. Be on the look out for lots of fun beers in 2017.
Started by Patrick Schulz and Jason Kolb (blend their two last names together and you get…. “Scholb”… Ta-da!) this two-family brewery opened up about 50 yards away from Absolution in Torrance and instantly became a fan favorite. It’s a one of the friendliest taprooms you’ll find anywhere, filled with well made beers, smiling bartenders and locals.
Does this mean the LA Beer scene has come full circle? Zymurgy Brew Works, located in Torrance (of course) is a DIY Brewery and taproom. You can now brew your very own beer alongside professional brewers who assist you in every aspect of production.
Beer tours are great for bachelor parties. Make sure to pair the beer with these ridiculous bachelor party supplies: https://samevaginaforever.com/
Brouwerij West in San Pedro
Indie Brew Co in Boyle Heights
Homage Brewing in Pomona
Santa Monica Brew Works
Zymurgy Brew Works in Torrance
Rob Rubens distilling and brewing
Frogtown Brewery in LA
Cosmic Brewery in Torrance
Firegold from Cellador in North Hills
*Breweries with a “*” have brewed before this year, but they opened their taprooms full time in 2016.
It’s that time of the year again: Oktoberfest 2016. The leaves are starting to turn the same golden hue as a delicious German Lager giving you a craving to head to a beer hall to consume as much beer as possible with a bunch of strangers while you claim you can speak German because you studied it for one year in high school. Men, grab your lederhosen. Ladies, grab your dirndl. Here’s your 2016 guide to the best places to celebrate Oktoberfest around Los Angeles:
Old World Oktoberfest Date: September 11th – October 30th
Place: Old World German Village – 7561 Center Ave. Huntington Beach, 92647
Link: oldworld.ws/oktoberfest-orange-county
The Phoenix Club Oktoberfest Date: Every Weekend until October 30th
Place:1340 S. Sanderson Avenue Anaheim, 92806
Link: thephoenixclub.com/oktoberfest/
Or you can pickup a bunch of Firestone Oaktoberfest, Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest, a growler of Iron Triangle Brewing’s Oktoberfest or Eagle Rock Brewery’s Anton (it’s a Vienna Lager, which is very similar) and make your own party. Just make sure to include pretzels.
It’s pronounced “brewery”. No need to be fancy and pronounce it in it’s native Dutch pronunciation. Just say “brewery” and be happy. But let’s not get hung up on the pronunciation. Brouwerij West is finally here and we’re terribly excited.
You may have had their beer before. In the “early” days of LA beer, they had a few staples that were in heavy rotation on tap and in bottles – Mor, Mor a Belgian Quad and Dog Ate My Homework a blackberry saison to name two. But those beers were made in the gypsy (or contract) fashion and their brewery lacked a real home. But all that changes at the end of February when the official Brouwerij brewery is set to open in the Ports of Call in San Pedro.
Owner Brian Mercer has tapped head brewer Jeremy Czuleger to make their Belgian-inspired beers in a 72 year old warehouse in the Port of Los Angeles. Czuleger has a background in brewering for Trumer in Berkeley and Barley Forge in Costa Mesa. They’ll be focusing on using local ingredients to make their various saisons and blondes in a Belgian fashion like putting Central Coast citrus in a traditional Belgian Wit. Sounds great.
You’ll find them on our South Bay and Long Beach beer tours coming up in the next few weeks, but if you want to see them sooner than that, you can attend their grand opening on 2/27 at 12pm. Details below or can be found through their website: brouwerijwest.com
San Pedro Brewery & Tasting Room: Grand Opening Saturday February 27th
Brouwerij West
110 E. 22nd St., Warehouse No. 9
San Pedro, CA 90731
(310) 833-9330
We’ve added Friday public tours to our calendar! We’ve added Friday public tours to our calendar! South Bay, East & Central and Long Beach all starting at 6:00pm. That gives you just long enough for you to get off of work and come join us at one of our meeting locations – El Segundo Metro, Union Station or Downtown Long Beach on 3rd.
Thirsty? All beer tasters are included at the three locations we visit.
Hungry? At least one of the locations we’ll be visiting will be serving food.
Traffic? Don’t sweat it. Our itinerary avoids traffic, we promise. And you’re not driving anyway.
Come join us to make new friends, meet new beers, and have a great time on our Friday evening tours.
This Father’s Day treat your old man to something you can enjoy together – A Beer Hop. All he wants to do is spend time with you. All you want to do is give him a gift to try and repay him for all of the horrible things you did as a child that caused all of his hair to turn gray (or fall out entirely). We’ve got Gift Certificates that never expire or you can purchase tickets for any of our Public Tours. But if that’s not enough, here are 20 other things you can get him…
This is a mobile wood fire that can be used as a grill, which doesn’t make sense but it does make a great gift: Burnie Grill
Also in the portable fire department, my dad flipped over this: BlazingBlock
Take him on your favorite hike and go at his pace
There ya go, 20 Things (and 1 more for good measure)! Happy Father’s Day.
PS. Just brought to our attention is a real hole in one gift idea for the beer-loving golfer (which I imagine is every single golfer): Father’s Day Gift Set from Enegren Brewing
Of course you want to help Nepal, you’re a good person who does good things for people, but you also want to enjoy your Saturday. So the craft beer community of Los Angeles and Orange County is going to help you help others by hosting “Crawl 4 Nepal” an all-day multi-brewery event with proceeds going to Nepal. Here are the details:
Nick Gingold (of CA Brewmasters) and Kelly Erickson (of Girls Who Like Beer) are organizing a drinking fundraiser on Saturday, May 9th to benefit Nepal. A bunch of breweries (the list is still growing) are going to select one beer and donate 100% of proceeds from that beer all day long. So far here’s the list of breweries:
Tony’s Darts Away
Mohawk Bend
Golden Road Brewing
Eagle Rock Brewing Co
The Rookery Ale House
Ritual Brewing Co
Sunset Beer Co
Bread & Barley
Sanctum Brewing Co.
Three Weavers
Barley Forge
Cismontane Brewing
Check their Facebook Page for updates on more participating breweries. You can bet you’ll see our buses at Three Weavers, Sunset Beer Co, Eagle Rock and Golden Road.
All you have to do is go to any of those breweries on Saturday, May 9th and drink. If you don’t want to do that (which is crazy) you can just go directly to their website and donate there. They will be donating the money to GlobalGiving and here’s their link.
Beer & Cheese share an incredible amount of similarities. They both have flavor profiles like tangy, funky, musty, nutty and earthy. They’re both made using historic methods employing microflora to do a lot of the heavy lifting. And most notably, there is a massive gap between what’s readily available to the public and “The Good Stuff”. On October 5th we’re going to take you on a special Food & Beer Hop where we’re going to examine exactly what the good stuff is in both cheese and beer and how they can work together to make mind-blowing pairings.
There is a cheese made by Chimay (those Beer & Cheese making Monks have the best job) and a Hereford Hop cheese that’s encrusted in toasted hops and those will pair incredibly naturally with beers. But how about a Humboldt Fog with a Saison Dupont to complement both the creamy nature of the cheese and the light spice, fruit and grass notes of the beer.
Or some local fresh burrata paired with the amazingly tart and crisp Hottenroth from The Bruery to bring out it’s natural fruit flavors of green apple and lemon? Maybe we’ll bring out Smog City’s Coffee Porter with notes of rich espresso, dark chocolate and coffee to pair with a Bleu Cheese. Or get really funky and pair Mimolette, a cheese that achieves its flavor from aging with “cheese-mites” with a St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition which gets it’s flavors from aging with equally strange wild yeast and bacteria. It’s gonna get weird folks, so come prepared to dive into the deep end with us and learn something along with way.
The Cheese & Beer Pairing is hosted by Hal Mooney of the LA Beer Hop and John Verive, a cheese enthusiast, beer writer for the LA Times and Beer Paper LA, a Certified Cicerone and a general man about town. The tour is on Sunday, October 5th and will include beer and cheese along the way. We’ll be visiting Sunset Beer Company, Surly Goat and finishing off at Beer Belly where you’ll be able to purchase a cheese inspired dinner if all of the cheese, bread and beer that we give you isn’t enough. Tickets are available on our website on our SCHEDULE.
See you soon!
PS. If you’re a woman and this kind of thing interests you, check out the Women’s Beer Forum at Eagle Rock Brewery on September 17th. They’re doing a class on Cheese & Beer pairing and it’ll be great. I’d be there, except I’m not a woman, but you’ll probably see Cindy Mooney there.
PPS. Due to Cindy and my ability to consume cheese rapidly, the cover photo of the Lucerne Mexican Cheese was the only cheese I had in my fridge at the time of posting.
A lot can happen between Thursday and Saturday… Friday. Our new $50 Friday Night Beer Hop has all of the same beer of our Sunday tours but with all of the fun of falling on Pay Day.
How do they work?
Good Question. We meet you at a given location and head off for 3 different craft breweries where you will meet people, talk beer, and drink delicious craft beer.
What’s included?
Even better question. A brewery walkthrough of at least one of the locations, bottled water, personal beer guide, and a flight of fresh beer at each location.
Why shouldn’t I do this?
There is no earthly reason not to grab a few buddies and come out on a Friday night to enjoy craft beer and some new people.
Why is it less expensive?
Why are you worrying about that? It’s less expensive than our other tours because it is – simple as that.
Los Angeles and the surrounding area (basically anything that isn’t San Diego) is really coming into its own in terms of delicious craft beer. We’re making good beer, creating great drinking environments, and fostering a culture that will be built to last. All of this was evidenced at the preeminent beer competition in all of America held in Denver, CO last week – the Great American Beer Fest. Here’s a list of winners from the competition this year. It includes Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, who won the award for “Best Midsize Brewpub and Brewer in America”. They have two locations, one in Long Beach and the other, smaller (original) outpost in Seal Beach. If you can’t make it out there, look alive for their bottled beer in your local shop.
Beachwood BBQ & Brewing – Long Beach, CA Gold: Kilgore Stout – American-Style Stout
Gold: Foam Top – Golden or Blonde Ale
Silver: Udder Love – Sweet Stout or Cream Stout
Bronze: System of a Stout – Coffee Beer
Bronze: Barrel-Aged Full Malted Jacket – Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer
TAPs Fish House & Brewery – Brea, CA Bronze: Helles – Munich-Style Helles
Bronze: Schwarzbier – German-Style Schwarzbier
Hangar 24 – Redlands, CA Gold: Warmer – Specialty Beer
Other notable winners in our general area were Figueroa Mountain who took five medals with their two locations in Santa Barbara and Buellton, Firestone Brewery up in Paso Robles took home 4 medals and the award for “Best Midsize Brewery and Brewer in America” (different from Beachwood’s “Brewpub” award), and Telegraph Brewing Co. in Santa Barbara nabbed one bronze medal.
