Tag: brewery closing

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Angel Share

News came over the wire (from Brewbound) yesterday that Boston Beer Co. is in the process of either selling or closing Angel City Brewing in the heart of the Arts District here in L.A.  when their lease term ends.  This also goes for their strange Truly Hard Seltzer lounge.

The shopping and dining neighborhood will still have a good craft beer presence with Arrow Lodge and Arts District close by and Boomtown a short walk away as well but Angel City was a bridge brewery from the dark times with no breweries where there was no good beer to be had minus a couple small oasis’s dotted here and there.

It went from a small operation run by home brewer Michael Bowe to the gentrifying starting point for the Arts District business area.  Then it became part of the consolidation and mergers trend and finally, now falling victim, like so many other breweries in town to the whammy of Covid, Taco Trump and Hollywood’s economic decline.  Angel City has seen a lot.

It is a great space that houses a cool, faded art deco vibe and is super tied to the city and it’s art scene but it is a whale of a building that needs a lot of money love and a new brewing kit too.

I cannot picture the space being sold for anything short of even more condos though a car park might also be the ultimate fate for a grand and historical Los Angeles property that once made the cables for the Golden Gate Bridge way back when.  Maybe, there is a billionaire out there who can save the space and not give it a Chobani like false hope that Anchor Brewing fans are feeling now.

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R.I.P. – Trustworthy Brewing

Add another casualty to the brewery list as Burbank’s Trustworthy Brewing Co. will arrive at their 8th anniversary and then close up for good at the end of January.

So on Saturday, January 25th, it will be a bittersweet party from 12 PM to 10 PM.  Below are the details….

“We will have our VIP section from 12-2pm. Tickets will be $39 and will include:

Unlimited drinking for the entire 2 hours 

2-4pks of your choosing

Bottle of a sour or barleywine

Logo Pint Glass

Starting at 2pm doors will be open to everyone and we’ve got some exciting things planned including free raffles and discounts on everything!

After the party we will be open every day until Friday the 31st which will be our final day. We’ll be doing special promos from now until our final day so keep checking back to see what each week’s deals will be.”

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Bleak San Pedro MidWinter

In the run up to Christmas, Brouwerij West posted on social media that, barring a miracle, they would be shutting down early in 2025.

That “so there’s a chance” led me to check their feed more regularly and the news is still up in the air as of the end of the year. There is a GoFundMe that you can access HERE.

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Ladyface Down

The last of the pioneering Los Angeles breweries and the second this year has called it quits.  Ladyface Ale Companie which changed over to Tavern Tomoko + Ladyface Brewery will be closing just before Christmas on 12/22.

Ladyface Ale Companie & Brasserie was established in late 2009 by Cyrena Nouzile.  That year brought us Strand Brewing and Eagle Rock Brewery as well.  Brewmaster Dave Griffiths was at the controls of award-winning Belgian, French and American style ales. La Blonde, La Grisette, Blind Ambition Abbey Ale, Trois Filles Tripel, and seasonal ales such as La Trappistine Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Blue-Belly Barleywine and Dérailleur Bière-de-Garde which was a favorite of mine.

Nouzile and Ladyface Ale Companie were proudly independently owned and operated and an active member of the Brewers Association, California Craft Brewers Association and especially the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild.

Pete Lee, turned from a Ladyface customer to owner when he bought the brewery and restaurant from Nouzile and channged the Brasserie to Tavern Tomoko while still keeping the beers under the Ladyface banner which I thought was a confusing choice.  

Later beers such as Animé, a Japanese pale ale brewed with jasmine rice and Sorachi hops and Atlas Shrugged, a barrel-aged dark strong anniversary ale did not get wide distribution and much like the other ’09ers, they could not re-create the buzz they had in early years.

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ERB – RIP

When a brewery in Los Angeles calls it a day, it is sad. But when a real path breaker does it, it is doubly sad. If not quadruply sad with it happening smack in the middle of L.A. Beer Week. Such is the case though as Eagle Rock Brewery has decided to end its run at the end of June.

Founded back in 2009 by two really great people, Ting and Jeremy. They have run government gauntlets, brewed many a Unity beer, were there at every early beer festival and so much more.

Who knew that a tiny little brewery in a weird corner side street off a freeway exit with a mild ale as a torch bearer would have such an outsized impact on the direction of craft beer in Los Angeles.

Now only Ladyface Ale Companie stands from the trio of early L.A. breweries. How this will affect The Landing in Burbank or Party Beer Co. who was using the facilities is unknown at this point but this is a real dent and one that I will be processing for a while.

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Upshift to Sugar Monkey

After five years in a crowded El Segundo beer scene, Upshift Brewing Company will be closing its doors on March 31st.  But that is not the end of the brewing story on Indiana Street.

Sugar Monkey Brewing will be taking over the indoor / outdoor space.  One assumes the racing theme will be changed over in the taproom and that new beers will be made.  

It is very interesting that two El Segundo breweries have closed and then opened again under new management.

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Telco Down

Looks like there is a brewery casualty up in Santa Clarita.  Telco Brewing posted this to social media…

I had made one visit north to Telco.  The beers were fine but there was not much reach into L.A. so it was a case of out of sight, out of mind for me. From the outside it looked like they had a great name and brand, decent industrial space and a large enough market but sometimes you can do things right and still not make it.

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Last 4 Monks

With another Trappist brewery closing, this time Stift Engelszell in Austria, it may be that craft beer fans will see both the high and low water marks of the protected trademark associated with brewing in a monastery.

At Stift Engelszell, the last four monks made the move to another monastery.  It is probably both a victim of changing tastes in not only beer but also in religion.  Second sons are not forced into a career path in theology as in the ye’ olde days and even the term primogeniture isn’t used outside of the odd coronation, here or there.  It is actually surprising that monasticism has lasted as long as it has.

Hopefully the Trappist organization can find a way to save these recipes and maybe revive the brands under a less stringent set of productions.

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Another R.I.P. – Strand Brewing

December and now January have not been kind to Los Angeles breweries. Today comes word via Instagram that Strand Brewing in Torrance is now done for good.

If you were here for the heady early L.A. brewing days, the sight of Rich Marcello in his crisp white shirt talking about 24th Street Pale for a moment before he had to get behind the wheel again was a common one. The little brewery tucked into a tiny spot was must stop by one as Torrance beer blew up.

When they moved to the huge space close to Yorkshire Square, that magic was dimmed a bit. The space was huge and Strand could only fill so much of it even when they started distilling. For me, the brightness of the beers seemed to dim as well. The pale was still solid but the IPAs started to fall behind nearby Smog City.

Here is to someone or some group finding a way to make that location viable again maybe by having one or two co-tenants that could draw more crowds combined.

And here’s to Rich and all the others who made Strand Brewing great.

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Profits and Losses

There has been moving and shaking in the Los Angeles beer world as the clock runs out on 2022.  

First was news that the original owners of Yorkshire Square Brewing in Torrance were leaving and that the brewery is in the hands of the Copley Family who are also involved with Project Barley. 

Then the day after Christmas brought the news that King Harbor Brewing was closing up shop in its three locations after eight years in business.

Will there be a dip on top of three years of pivoting?  The economic situation doesn’t look great for cost of goods plus a labor market that requires more pay with higher turnover.  It is enough to make one look long and hard at opening and operating a brewery.  And I do expect more new in Q1 of 2023.

Obviously, not a rosy picture but I was never under the impression that each and every Los Angeles brewery was going to last forever.  Change is the only constant and maybe turnkey breweries or brewing equipment for sale or rents coming down as landlords choose lower rent over pie in the sky valuations will create a new surge next year or in 2024.