It might be a little past Oktoberfest season but we can easily look past that minor faux pas as ever creative Long Beach Beer Lab is combining the fest atmosphere with their 7th anniversary, making October 20th a two-fer.
Seven & Fest
Firkenstein 2024
One of the most unique beer festivals out there is Firkenstein, the ghoulish themed cask ale festival from Greg Nagel.
It has a great location in the park area between the Anaheim Packing House and Monkish Brewing. It always has a great roster of brewery attendees and is always a well run event.
Two of Two
Even the most optimistic of Sean’s looked askance when not one but two breweries opened next door to each other on Maple Drive in Monrovia.
Unfortunately, first Wingwalker Brewing called it quits and now Over Town Brewing is pouring its last beers on October 5th. So, if you want to make a last visit, make it soon.
I was able to visit both and they were fine but they never seemed to break out further and were behind the more established Pacific Plate in Monrovia and even they are sadly no longer with us. With those three losses comes an opportunity for a brewery since that city is no clear.
Spa Day
There is always room for a first in the craft beer game and I have heard about one that is in the start-up phase in North Carolina that I would have thought would be way more of a stereotypical California thing, a craft brewery and wellness center combined.
BrewWell will have beer for your liver and a variety of mindful services for the rest of your body. As you can tell from that last sentence, I am a bit dubious about this concept. But maybe it is something where you have a group of people that split up into, team beer and team spa.
8 Frogs in Town
Frogtown is an area of Los Angeles that I would not have pegged for a brewery. Tiny streets, near the L.A. River, hemmed in by freeways. But Frogtown Brewery has made it work for eight years now and have a weekend party scheduled for the first weekend in October.
Okto Boy
If you need more than one day to properly fest, well Benny Boy Brewing has a whole weekend planned for you and whomever holds your stein for you….
Okto Merchants
On the 21st, if you are looking to get fest-bier-ive, head to North Hollywood and Hop Merchants ( maybe they should re-brand ad Fest Merchants that day ) for their Oktoberfest celebrations.
You will get the usual pretzels and stein holding but they will also have great Okto drafts too.
28 Stone
Stone Brewing has two options for you if you want to got to their 28th Anniversary party in November. One, you can get Main Festival tickets and sample dozens of amazing beers from Stone and our friends in the industry. Or two, get the Rare Beer ticket so that you can access your own special private festival area on the Stone campus in Escondido.
Head HERE to choose.
A Graveyard Smash
Each year the Orange County Brewers Guild scare up the Brewers Mash in October for local beers and frights.
The frightful fest is on October 26th this year at the Heritage Museum of Orange County. So get your costumes ready for some trick-or-treating and maybe some spooky special releases.
San Pedro Day – Hess at the Harbor
San Pedro has some big waterfront plans in the pipeline in what is called the West Harbor Development ( see one of the proposed renderings below ) and some possible tenants are either onboard or linked to it at this point.
From the craft beer perspective, San Diego based Mike Hess Brewing is one of these tenants which means that you might be able to hit up both Brouwerij West and Mike Hess in a day down by ocean.