Spencer Chambers has opened Honest Abe Cidery which features hard ciders and meads. The tasting room has more of a lounge feel to it with mood lighting and leather couches.
Thursday, August 04, 2016, Carson, CA.
Photo by Steve McCrank/Staff Photographer
Long Beach has lagged behind the rest of the county when it comes to production craft breweries (the city has none), but makes up for it when you consider that Beachwood BBQ was named the world’s best brewpub and the community will now get the first restaurant specializing in cider and mead.
El Segundo Brewing arguably has the best lineup of IPA’s in the county.
Inglewood-based Three Weavers Brewing, chosen to make this year’s official LA Beer Week brew, is catching eyes for its quality lineup of beers and is regarded as an up and coming brewery to watch.
But it is Torrance’s Smog City Brewing that was selected as the best brewery in the South Bay as part of this year’s Daily Breeze Readers Choice Awards.
It is the first time the South Bay’s rapidly increasing number of production breweries was included in the annual poll conducted by the newspaper’s advertising department.
Smog, owned by husband and wife team Laurie and Jonathan Porter (who goes by his apt last name), has a reputation as one of the most experimental and innovative breweries in the county as the shot of the beer lineup taken earlier this week below lineup suggests.
You may notice the list is without a single IPA even though Smog makes Hoptonic IPA year round (it’s the biggest seller at the brewery, although it sells more Little Bo Pils to bars and restaurants than any other), a new Steelcraft IPA (named after the Long Beach tasting room that will open soon) or any of its seasonals such as Grape Ape IPA. I suspect they are so popular, Smog has problems keeping them available.
Smog is among the busiest local breweries, not only because of its excellent product, but because of its freeway-close location on Del Amo boulevard just east of Western Avenue.
Still, its tasting room is among the best with standing-friendly steel tables, stacked oak barrels aging beer and a brooding black and white picture of rock star brewmaster Porter overlooking the space.
Parking has improved markedly in recent months with the departure of its doggy day care neighbor opening up spaces and Smog is always trying new brews in relatively small batches, which pushes locals to become regulars so they don’t miss a thing.
If you haven’t tried Smog yet, make a visit and tell ’em readers of the Torrance-based Breeze sent you.
The event starts at noon and $20 buys you all the piggie you can eat.
ESB, which already has the best lineup of IPA’s in the county, will also introduce yet another new IPA Saturday dubbed Wayward and a thirst quenching session 4.5 percent ABV IPA called Late to the Party (it is excellent, BTW).
Finally, before brewer Andy Black slips out the door to the new the Yorkshire Square brewery and restaurant in Torrance that is aiming to open next month, he brewed an ESB on Nitro that will also be available Saturday.
Saturday is a good day for session beers:
Potential heat risk areas for #SoCal highlighted in RED/MAGENTA today & Sat. Use caution during a #heatwave. pic.twitter.com/Sm5wfOe5xv
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) July 22, 2016
A view of Long Beach Harbor greets guests at the new Ballast Point Tasting Room and Kitchen that opened Friday in time for the long holiday weekend. (Photo by Staff Photographer Stephen Carr).
Read the Long Beach Press-Telegram story here.
First look at the new #ballastpoint Long Beach pic.twitter.com/kXHF2cimGp
— Stephen Carr (@Carrphotos) June 30, 2016
Read more about the brewery planned for Signal Hill here, Hawthorne here and Gardena and El Segundo here.
New brewpub, new brewmaster: Forthcoming Torrance brewpub Yorkshire Square Brewing has hired dashing brewmaster Andy Black to oversee its craft beer production (Photo courtesy Yorkshire Square Brewing).
Brewmaster Andy Black, who spent three years at San Fernando Valley-based McLeod Ales, has landed at Yorkshire Square Brewing, which plans to open in Old Torrance in August.
Black, who reportedly interned at a brewery in Yorkshire, England guided production at Mcleod Ales for three years before joining El Segundo Brewing Co.
Yorkshire Square Brewing will focus on traditional cask ales and intends to install a traditional Yorkshire Square Brewing system on site “soon.”
A press release issued by the brewpub Tuesday said that the goal is to “push the boundaries of cask ale well beyound
