LA Beer Week – Open Invitation to Aspiring Brewers
The landscape of the craft beer scene has never been more promising. All over the country, small craft breweries are popping up left and right, trying to bring beer lovers of all degrees fresh, local, tasty beer.
Cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, and Portland have rapidly risen to great beer city status. It would take you probably two to three weeks to try all the amazing beers they make and to visit all the beer bars serving these fresh local treats.
So while the craft beer revolution is in full swing, I want to point out that the second most populated city in the country desperately needs to catch up, and start brewing amazing, fresh local beer for this enormous population of beer lovers. We do get some pretty fresh amazing beer from San Diego, it just seems crazy that in such a big market, we can’t have our own Alesmith or our own Stone or our own Green Flash or our own Lost Abbey.
This is TheFullPint.com’s plea with all aspiring commercial craft brewers. Please, come to Los Angeles, make amazing beer, make the beer that people care about, make beer that’s innovative, put LA on the map as another destination for not only us locals, but for travelers to seek out stellar craft beer. It’s embarrassing that we don’t already have this. I’m telling you, based on how well the craft beer bar scene is doing, as well as the large beer business at retailers like BevMo and Whole Foods, great beer is something us Angelinos want to buy.
I will say whole heartedly that Eagle Rock Brewery is a brewery to be proud of. They aren’t even a year old, and they are winning GABF gold medals, and they understand that making a boring ass Amber of watery American Hefe is not going to cut it these days. With that said, they have a long way to go, as they haven’t even started bottle production. With Los Angeles being the size of some small states, how could anyone justify driving more than 15-20 minutes to fetch said great beer? Even when Eagle Rock gets to a size where they can spread their joy around a bit more, that won’t be enough to fill this gigantic void.
If I haven’t mentioned you, and you brew in Los Angeles, it’s because this rant isn’t about pointing out that you aren’t cutting it , it’s about me asking anyone who’s up for the task to step the fuck up and make amazing beer that we can easily obtain.
October 12, 2011 @ 8:20 am
Hey Dan,
Having lived in LA for the last 4 years before recently moving out of the country I have to agree with you, there are not many breweries in LA. But I am surprised that you failed to mention Craftsman Brewing, which has been in business since 1995. Founder and brewmaster Mark Jilg is a bit of an eccentric and a social recluse. He doesn’t like publicity(check out his website that hasn’t been updated in 10 years) and I don’t think he even bothers to enter the GABF. He has kept the brewery small, distributing just locally and only on draft, but the man is a perfectionist and makes really good beer. Plus you will find several of his beers on tap at all the major beer bars in the region. Beer drinkers in LA know Craftsman. Give credit where credit is due. To everyone else, the rest of what Dan said is true. Commercial aspiring brewers, please keep LA great and blow up the brewing scene in the city.
October 13, 2010 @ 10:59 am
That’s a helluva last sentence–I mean, paragraph, I mean, sentence. I love bloGs…and not having ediTors. Good luck with your cry to arms, Dan. My belief is that you have to have “weather” to make/sell/enjoy craft beer. I agree with your list of cities but I think you forgot Seattle, Denver, and–my favorite shameless plug–Anchorage. We came to Anchorage from Phoenix 20 years ago. We go back to AZ to visit but when it’s HoT, you just wanna cool down with Coors Light on ice. Yeah, I said iT. My opinion? A thriving craft beer market really needs seasonal changes: misty mornings, cool evenings, gloomy Sunday afternoons and windswept Wednesdays mixed in with some hot summer deck days. The constant is change…and our beer line-up aLways offers a lil sump’n sump’n for the changing of seasons, temperatures, moods. LA, Phoenix, Dallas, Miami. Hmmm…I see a weather pattern.