The City of Los Angeles would probably have a much higher number of breweries if the government knew how to handle permitting a brewery. In my 8 years of blogging about beer in L.A., that has yet to happen. There is either no political will to do so or the inertia is just too much.
To counter that indifference that borders on hostility, breweries have been liberal about pulling temporary permits. It is a loophole that has been used in DTLA but apparently somewhere in the bowels of the city, someone noticed a spike in these permits and grew wise to what was being done.
That is my best guess. The optics for a municipal government to drop the hammer and appear pro-active rather than letting things slide by are obvious. Especially when it comes to alcohol. I had a bad feeling that if it was done too much that this would happen, but perhaps this can be the impetus for change because both Cellador and Hand Brewed are in craft beer areas that are underserved and they deserve better for their hard work.
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