If your mind can picture it despite the drought that looms large, Los Angeles used to be flooded by the LA River. Then the flow was boxed up and channeled into a concrete canyon. DWP and Mullholland and Chinatown with Jack Nicholson later, it became a bit of a joke. You could say the same about the L.A. craft beer scene. It was tidied up into bottles and cans of German lager early on and that was pretty much it until Craftsman came onto the scene.
Even then the river of beer was still tame, 1903 lager was fancy back then and really in demand. But now, the craft beer is booming like LA riverfront property and the flood of beer is enormous almost like the Mississippi.
L.A. has become a year-round beer town. I should know, I collate the Food GPS Beer Blast and I see the events that happen each and every week. Tap-takeovers happen with regularity. New beer releases are happening almost every week too. The growth of beer happenings has had the deleterious effect of making the recently concluded L.A. Beer Week just a super-sized version of what occurs the other 357 days of the year. (in a good way!)
Which meant that I missed quite a few events. Granted, I had other reasons not to attend some events. My day job keeps me in Burbank until 6pm, so getting to the South Bay or even Van Nuys for a weekday event is a traffic fight. Also my wine loving Mom was in town for ½ the week which blocked off a chunk of the schedule.
That meant not attending the Battle of the Guilds but the idea of SF-SD-LA in one venue sounds better than it plays out. Last year at Mohawk Bend the place was just jam packed and Naja’s Place is no better capacity wise which makes for lots of standing and waiting and less opportunity to really compare the three cities beer output. Next door King Harbor and their satellite taproom held more appeal to me.
Other “misses” for me were comparing and contrasting the Cascade collaborations with El Segundo and Phantom Carriage. Walker’s Wild Ride is always fun and the Metro Red Line idea was a nice touch. MacLeod’s cask event would have been nice to attend but I expect the crowd was healthy enough even without my presence.
This is no indictment of those creating events, the breweries or the L.A. Beer Week organizers. To the contrary. Taking Smog City as an example, I did not attend the many tap-takeovers they were featured in nor did I go to their Rarities and Barrel Aged party. Not due to any anitpathy towards them but primarily because I had driven to Torrance twice in May for their Anniversary and the bottle release of Cuddlebug. And they were pouring in Exposition Park so I got my fix. And I wanted to try a wide-ranging assortment of beers.
We have had invasions from Bell’s, Boulevard, Ninkasi and the like plus new local breweries ready to pop at any moment now. We don’t need a week to drum up support or beer, that support is here. The question that remains for me is what is next for beer in LA and how do we celebrate the origin story while moving forward.
Does that make me a tired old grump or someone who has already had his fill is up for your interpretation. Personally, I think it is a great problem to have a full river of beers fed by streams of L.A. interpretations of cask, Belgian and wild ales running through my backyard.