Category: L.A. Beer Week

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One Week to LABW11

With only a week to go until LABW11 fires up the full list of events is not yet around, I thought I should toss a little curated list of events that pass my worthy test and also fall on odd days:

June 17th – Invitational Hazy IPA Fest at The Glendale Tap

then toddle a short distance to Walt’s in Eagle Rock for a brewers Pinball Tournament.

June 19th – Beer Made Me Do It – Beer Comedy at Common Space Brewery.

June 21st – Women-Brewed Beer Night at Sunset Beer.

June 23rd – Wait Wait…. Just Beer Me at Eagle Rock. NPR game show meets brewery tall tales.

Many more events to be talked about as details get clearer and clearer. In the meantime, get them Kick-Off tickets!

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Super Sour Friends

The L.A. County Brewers Guild teamed up with Eagle Rock for their Session Fest and now the Guild is working with Cellador Ales on their LA Beer Week sour spectacular on June 22nd. Tickets can be purchased HERE.

With just a few cool breweries tucked into the Cellador space…

Beachwood Blendery
Brouwerij West
Casa Agria
Cellador Ales
Craftsman
Dionysus
Highland Park Brewery
Horus Aged Ales
Homage Brewing
Long Beach Beer Lab
Mikkeller SD
Modern Times
Pure Project
Sour Cellars

The Bruery
+one Northern CA honorary guest, The Rare Barrel

& newly added, Central Coast honorary guest, Firestone Walker Barrelworks!

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MacLeod Day – 5th Anniversary

The math is a little wonky but don’t tell MacLeod’s. For their 5th anniversary they will be pouring $3 pints all day.

Food and live screen printing of the MacLeod logo will be going on as well so head over to Van Nuys for some cask and non-cask English styled beers.

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Unity 2019 Brew Day

Here are some photos and notes from Claremont Craft Ales on the LABW11 brew day….

Might Unity 2019 be an IPA? Yes with both regular and Cryo hops
Brian and Simon from Claremont Craft Ales
Dueling Guitars for LABW11
Hop additions from Frogtown, Long Beach Beer Lab and Pacific Plate
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L.A. Beer Week – # 11

The Grand Announcement has been made! XI is coming to brighten up the June Gloom. Here are the details….

“

The 11th Annual L.A. Beer Week is here! Join us for our big Kickoff Festival on Saturday, June 15th at the Los Angeles Center Studios in the heart of Downtown L.A.! We are bringing the heat this summer with an awesome festival featuring 90 independent craft breweries, live music, great local food, games, and more. Produced by the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild, #LABW11 will feature the largest number of Los Angeles County-based craft breweries — more than any other festival in town! We’ll also have some very special guest breweries! Join us and support your local brewers and the nonprofit organization that strives to foster craft beer culture in L.A. County. Admission includes a keepsake glass and unlimited tastes of over 250 beers from 90 breweries. This is surely a not-to-miss summer festival!

VIP Tickets include a premium keepsake glass, early entry at 12pm, and a VIP lounge area. Participating Breweries & Vendors to be announced soon!

EARLY BIRD PRICES April 15- May 15th
General Admission: $45
VIP Admission: $65
Designated Driver: $25 

Regular pricing kicks in on May 16th: 
General Admission: $50
VIP Admission: $70

(*2018 & 2019 Enthusiast members receive 20% off up to 4 tickets – use your member number on your Enthusiast ID)

**Day of ticket sales are NOT guaranteed. Should we have any tickets available on June 15th at the door, prices will be $55 General Admission, $75 VIP, and $25 Designated Driver**”

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#LABW10 – Extra Photos

I didn’t take nearly as many photos this year for LABW10 and combined with posting on Instagram and Facebook and not wanting to double up, there are only a couple more shots that I want to share.

Coedo samples and Japanese seasonings at Harajuku Taproom

Art and beer at the Craft Beer Cellar in Eagle Rock.

Tomm Carroll expounding on Japanese beer.

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#LABW10 – Week+ Recap Part 2


It just so happened that the Beer Belly – Koreatown One Night Stand landed in LABW and so ONS had a local bent with Mumford as the headliner with taps from Homage Brewing and State Brewing as well. This was originally billed as Mumford and East Coast Brewers like Interboro. The winning beer of the night in my (hop)inion was a Watermelon Agua Fresca lager from State that balanced the fruit and the malt very well. The two hazy options that I also tasted were fine. But didn’t pop for me.

I quickly popped down to the nearby Southland Beer to try the Unity IPA on cask. On cask, the hop notes are softer, with a little more citrus. The beer poured a clear orange though I detected a trace of a little buttery character. It was Unity simple and stripped down..

I took a night off to watch the NBA Draft (thanks for nothing Portland) and then on Friday, I headed to DTLA and Mikkeller for a Fonta Flora Brewing night. I immediately picked a sampler tray consisting of…

Beets, Rhymes and Life – beet saison – pretty pink color. Dusky, earthy. Salad like.
Southern Saison – black tea and lemon – bit of spice kick here. Pretty light underneath.
Whippoorwill Wheat – orange, coriander, earl grey tea – EG comes through. Spice again
Wolf Spit – Baltic Porter with hickory bark

I also tasted a Brut IPA from Alvarado Street Champagne Hopi that was really good, but the beet beer was my winner. Even though I detest actual beets.

Finally on Saturday, I headed to Craft Beer Cellar for a local taplist and for Dope & Dank who hosted the party with a DJ on site. I tried a new Arrow Lodge beer Arrow Sol and tasted my local Brewyard’s well-named Loch Ness Maltster.

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#LABW10 – Week+ Recap Part 1


I took a day break from LABW festivities on Sunday after the Kick-Off Festival but was back at it on Monday in Eagle Rock at the Brewers in the Hot Seat. Held at the Eagle Rock Brewery Public House, this event was one of many competitions. Be it Sumo wrestling, pinball or whose keg kicked first. This night entailed hot wings and beer industry talk.

Both Bob Kunz from Highland Park and Peter Mumford from Mumford Brewing showed the obvious signs of discomfort but that didn’t stop them or Alex Nowell from Three Weavers or Lee Bakofsky from ERB talking about various points related to creating craft beer.

Here are some of my jotted notes that struck me. One from each brewery.
HPB – Less beer geeks at Chinatown. Refresh, the house beer is a big seller.
MB – Not trend driven but on top of trends. Have been close on the heels of hazy and brut.
ERB – sending more beer to Bay Area where Manifesto Wit is more popular for instance
TW – wants large variety. Wants different colors. A Rainbow.


The next night, I drove out to Culver City for Japanese beer at Harajuku. A snug little spot with access to a pipeline of Baird beer. Not even their core beers are widely seen around town and this spot has all levels of tap choices.

Even better, a rep from Coedo beer was also on hand pouring out samples from their range which included a Pilsner and an amber sweet potato beer. Since it is World Cup time, I also had the New Belgium / Baird Bicycle Kick Kolsch too.
Coedo Pilsner

Owner Adam Gutentag fell in love with Japan loved izakaya and pub culture and also befriended Brian Baird the brewer behind his eponymous brewery that started out as the Fish Market taproom. Japan is starting to move out of what has been called the “souvenir” brewery phase to bigger and better things. How that plays out will be quite interesting. But pairing beer and skewers works really well.

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Finish #LABW10 Strong

It’s Friday, and you only have 3 days left of L.A. Beer Week.

Make the most of it, maybe in my hood of Glendale….

the Glendale Tap tonight as they BBQ and have a few beers on tap: “We’ll be in full Backyard Boogie mode w/ Bart’s BBQ smokin’ brisket, and Burnt Ends all-day. We’ll be pouring a ridiculous lineup of treats from the homies at Beachwood, Bottle Logic, Cellador, El Segundo, Highland Park Brewery, Homage, Moonraker, Pure Project, State and Unsung.”

tomorrow, Brewyard will mix art and beer: “The 2nd Annual Brewyard Art Festival is a craft brewery/beer themed art show with local artists, vendors, photographers, musicians, live painting, face painting, live auction, and more. The purpose of this event is to highlight local artists. Last year, we had over 400 attendees and this time around we’re doubling the outdoor space for artists. This year will be even bigger and better!”

and/or you could head to nearby Eagle Rock and Dope & Dank team up with the Craft Beer Cellar for “This is L.A.merica”

Finish strong!