San Diego County is home to so much: 70 miles of coastline; the San Diego Zoo; the Gaslamp Quarter; summer concerts at Embarcadero Park. And, of course, the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference. The conference represents the convergence of the beer blogging community, traditional media, breweries, and beer businesses for 3 days of learning, networking, and sipping on beers from the host location and from our sponsors! Sip, learn, meet someone new and then repeat. Many times over…
The Beer Bloggers Conference also gives participants an additional learning benefit every year: the Pre-Conference Excursion. These excursions take beer blogging guests for, typically, a full day through another beer region. The 2014 Pre-Conference Excursion happens this Thursday, August 21 and investigates the beer scene of Los Angeles.
We have partnered with several LA breweries to make this Excursion happen:
- 1:45 p.m Pickup at LAX. Transportation for the afternoon/evening, starting in LA and including drop off at the BBC14 hotel in San Diego at the end of the night, is included.
- 3-5:00 p.m Tour and tasting at Golden Road Brewery 5:30-7:30 p.m. Dinner at Angel City Brewing
- 8:15-9:15 p.m Tour and tasting at The Bruery
- 9:45-11:15 p.m Evening Pub Crawl to Smog City Brewing and Monkish Brewing
- 1:15 a.m Arrive at the Marriott Mission Valley Hotel in San Diego
Golden Road Brewery believes “in great beer, which is an extension of our commitment to family, sustainability, good food, and the arts.” We have chosen to visit Golden Road, first, on the pre-con because they are self-described facilitators of “fun and self-expression” – two values the Beer Bloggers Conference is a big fan of. The Burning Bush IPA, a German style Rauchbier with the hops of a west coast IPA, is scheduled to be on tap during the pre-con. Meg Gill and Tony Yanow founded Golden Road Brewing to bring fresh beer to the local market in the most sustainable way possible and we look forward to visiting with them!
Angel City Brewing, located in the Arts District of Los Angeles, aims to bring “the art of craft brewing to downtown Los Angeles.” The brewery just hosted their second annual Heritage Music & Arts Festival, which featured a live painting, photo tank, an urban beer picnic featuring their fav food trucks, and, of course, special beer releases. Bringing small-batch, old-world brewing techniques to the beer renaissance of downtown L.A., Angel City will be an awesome pre-con dinner and beer stop with Head Brewer Dieter Foersnter as our fearless beer leader.
Fueled by a passion for creating beers with character and depth using the simplest and purest of means, Bruery owner/brewmaster, Patrick Rue, has created an awesome name for himself in the craft beer world. The Bruery, located in Placentia, CA, is home to Rue’s experimental, barrel-aged beers, most of which gain carbonation through bottle conditioning, allowing carbonation to naturally occur through a secondary bottle fermentation. Bloggers will be treated to a rare, evening visit to The Bruery’s oak cellar where nearly 200,000 gallons of beer lay resting within barrels collected from California’s Central Coast, Bourbon County, Kentucky, and beyond. Our flight, here, will include sour ales and bourbon barrel aged rarities.
Pub-Crawl: We visit Smog City Brewing and Monkish Brewing, both located in the L.A. hamlet of Torrance, for the evening Pub Crawl. Smog City Owner, Laurie Porter, and Chris Walowski, second in command of brewery operations, will be on hand to share the awesome Smog City Brewing story of their overnight success. Just a short walk around the corner from Smog City is Monkish Brewing, where Owner/Brewer, Henry Nguyen, will greet us for a special, private tasting and discourse on his Belgian style beers. Bonus at Monkish – one of Henry’s fav food trucks will be there for any late night snacks before hopping on the bus back to the hotel.
A big shout out to our friends at West Coaster SoCal for hosting the transportation for this exciting BBC14 pre-conference excursion. The West Coaster SoCal offers a quarterly, beer-oriented print publication + regularly updated blog posts and digital versions of the magazine to beer lovers in Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire, Temecula, and surrounding areas. Without West Coaster’s support, we wouldn’t make it very far on our pre-con beer extravaganza!
The Excursion has a pick-up at LAX at 1:45 pm and guests are also welcome to join us at our first stop at Golden Road Brewery and board the bus after our tour, there. The trip ends at the host hotel in San Diego.
We very much look forward to investigating the vibrant breweries in Los Angeles on August 21st!
