Beverage Manufacturing

American Craft Beer Week is Here: A List of Important Beer Events

American Craft Beer Week is underway and picking up speed. The Brewers Association-- a non-profit group recognized as the central foundation for craft beer in America -- designates a week in May to the celebration of small and independent craft breweries. This year, May 13-19 serves as opportunity t ... More >>

New Wine Region to Watch: China

In less than two decades, wine has gone from sideshow to main attraction at dinner parties in China. According to a The Wall Street Journal article, "China as a Vast Wine Market," wine sales grew by 20% between 2011 and 2012 -- to about $41 billion. Meanwhile, as highlighted by PRI's The World, a ... More >>

What Does Climate Change Mean For CA's Wine Industry?

A new study out this week looks at the wine industry through the lens of climate change. The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that many of the current wine producing regions in the world will be less suitable for wine production, and that at le ... More >>

New Faces of Targeted Beer Drinkers: Joe College and Hipsters

From Joe Six-Pack to Joe College, the face of the desired beer drinker has changed in the past few years with growing sales of craft beer brands and fruit flavors. Joe College, unlike his older and more blue-collar counterpart Joe Six-Pack, is a "lot more experimental than [he] used to be, sampling ... More >>

Budweiser Allegedly Watered Down Beer 5 California Craft Alternatives

Anheuser-Busch InBev is being sued by consumers in Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey with companion suits coming from Ohio and Colorado, Bloomberg reports. The complaint filed in Philadelphia alleges that the alcohol content in a variety of Anheuser-Busch products is overstated, which would vi ... More >>

The Corona Compromise: Budweiser Making Expansion Deal

We warned you of the attempted word domination bid by Budweiser by way of beer earlier this month. The Justice Department had filed a lawsuit to block a merger between AB InBev and Grupo Modelo SAB by way of the former's purchase of the latter to the tune of $20.1 billion. It seems this had some e ... More >>

Q & A with Sam Adams Founder Jim Koch: Loan Program for Food & Beverage Business, Advice on Opening a Brewery Beer in a Can

It's a familiar story in the beer world: well-educated guy leaves stable or lucrative job to make his homebrewing hobby a profession. Jim Koch's history set the precedent for that narrative. Koch, who comes from a long line of brewers, founded The Boston Beer Company in 1984 with two friends he met ... More >>

Budweiser Attempting World Domination, Justice Department Says 'Hell Naw'

Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser, has been looking to buy Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo for $20.1 billion, giving them ownership of brands like Corona, Pacifico and Negro Modelo. But yesterday, the Justice Department sued to stop the merger, saying it would lead to an unfair market share for Anheus ... More >>

Naked Wines: Invest In A Winemaker (And Drink The Benefits)

If your resolutions include expanding your wine fridge offerings beyond Trader Joe's corporate specials, UK-based Naked Wines opened a Napa outpost last year with a wine program that, in theory at least, makes small-batch bottles straight from winemakers more affordable. The California winemaker's ... More >>

Q & A With Shafer Vineyards' Elias Fernandez: Summer Wines, Cycling The Upside of High School Band Practice

Elias Fernandez has been the winemaker at Shafer Vineyards in Napa for 28 years -- a lifetime in winemaking terms. While some winemakers hop from winery to winery over their careers, Fernandez says he prefers "the community, the quality" of working for the same vineyard that snatched him fresh out o ... More >>

Natural Wine: An Explanation Where to Find It

What's in a glass of wine? The answer might be surprising. Wine is basically spoiled grape juice. (Whoever first ingested it millennia ago: hat tip.) But these days wine's ingredients can also contain a laundry list of adds in's: sulfur dioxide, egg whites, oak chips, water and numerous chemical ad ... More >>

5 Dog-Friendly Winery Tasting Rooms

A love for wine and dogs can co-exist. People take their pets everywhere these days--dining and drinking out, no exception. Although Los Angeles has approved pets on restaurant patios (per the recent Squid Ink post), rules prohibit them inside. Nor are they welcome at bars or in the tasting rooms at ... More >>

Dom Perignon's Chef de Cave Richard Geoffroy: Champagne, Rainstorms Brutality

Making a prestige cuvee in Champagne is a process so exacting that a Champagne winemaker's title isn't 'winemaker,' it's Chef de Cave, a title that conveys the fact that, despite being subject to the whims of vintage, Champagne is an assemblage, the product of the cellar, and a chef. Indeed great Ch ... More >>

10 California Summer Wine Events

Summer is a wine-drinking marathon in California, and up and down the coast, each weekend brings pleasant opportunities to imbibe outside. The diversity of events reflects the state's varied wine-growing regions. Those on hotel grounds come with a room night package -- a smart way to go. Because i ... More >>

Wine Cellar: Master Sommelier Richard Betts on "Feral" Chardonnay

We've long been keen on winemaker Greg La Follette's Pinot Noir style, his bagpipe back story and the Friday night Bingo shirts he sports at wine tasting events. He's also weathered the wine business long enough that he doesn't worry about telling the whole wine truth, and nothing but the truth (so ... More >>

Thanks for Drinking: Craft Beer Sales Rise Despite Sluggish Overall Market

The Brewers Association has just released this year's numbers on U.S. beer sales. If you prefer Manifesto Eagle Rock Wit to Blue Moon (which is owned by MillerCoors) the news is good. Beer sales slowed overall, slipping 1.3% by volume. Within the craft beer industry numbers continued to rise with a ... More >>

L.A.'s Craft Beer Revolution Has Golden State's Jason Bernstein Raising His Pint Glass

Colorado Wine Company Celebrates 7 Years

There is no seven-year itch for the Colorado Wine Company. The Eagle Rock wine shop is more popular than ever with customers who are drawn to owner Jen Morgan and John Nugent's all-inclusive approach to selling wine and the unpretentious vibe of their weekly wine tastings. "I would say it's our rel ... More >>

Pinot Days Is Back: How To Fit 80 Wine Producers Into An Airport Hangar A Special Discount

JGarbeeThe Pinot Days Aftermath At Barker Hanger​With so many wine festivals and tastings out there these days, forking over $60 ($54 with the 10% discount code for LA Weekly readers below) seems somewhat excessive for your everyday Chardonnay and Merlot pours. But this is Pinot Days, the ann ... More >>

Top Hops: Best 5 New Craft Beer Bars of 2011

Over the past few years, sales of mass-produced beer (Bud, Miller, Coors and the like) are down along with housing, investments and other barometers of economic growth. Guess what is not down? Craft breweries. Craft beer bars. Craft beer sales. According to the Brewers Association, which represents ... More >>

Q & A with David Larsen of Haven Gastropub Brewery: Beer Geeks in Pasadena, Adventures in Dry Pork Your Brewmaster as Ukekele Player

Orange County's Haven Gastropub has a reputation for rather maniacally obtaining their mercurial selection of craft brews. On one occasion, Beverage Director Wil Dee took a Smokey and the Bandit-style run up to San Francisco to bootleg a vanload from 21st Amendment Brewery, which has no wholesale d ... More >>

Interactive Sausage Rare Beer at The Yard

jamesjustinSausages await consumption ​ If you've been to Hot Doug's in Chicago, then you already know the adage. "There are no two finer words in the English language than 'encased meats', my friend." True. And if there's anything in this world that could possibly trump a fresh, handmade saus ... More >>

Sunset Beer Company Opens in Echo Park Tomorrow

Steven ArmstrongThe sun sets behind Sunset Beer Company​ In April, Squid Ink introduced Sunset Beer Company, a new craft beer bottle shop and tasting bar that was slated to debut in May. Today, the fledgling beer store, nestled in the southeast corner of an Echo Park strip mall, remains dark. ... More >>

Q & A With Amavi's Jean-Francois Pellet: On Wine Life, Tequila (Why Not?) Coors Light

pepperbridge.comPellet And Friends At Pepperbridge, with Champagne​When Washington winemakers like Jean-François Pellet of Pepper Bridge and Amavi Cellars swoop into town, there is usually one thing on the tasting agenda: Serious wine talk. About their own wines, of course. But during our rec ... More >>

Urban Wine Making: Rock Wall Wine, Or How To Share That Bottle Opportunity

www.alamedamagazine.comUrban Winemaker Shauna Rosenblum​Back in the early days of pre-Prohibition winemaking, setting up a winery adjacent to a vineyard was hardly a winemaking prerequisite. A warehouse or garage worked just fine for turning those purchased grapes into wine, particularly in Ca ... More >>

The Chardonnay Symposium: Wine, Santa Maria BBQ Chardonnay Clones (Yes, Clones)

Bob DickeyChardonnay Symposium's Grand Tasting Byron Vineyard​America's favorite wine is getting the star treatment. This weekend, July 22-23, the second Chardonnay Symposium in the scenic Santa Maria Valley puts the spotlight on all aspects of the wine varietal: where it comes from (clones!), ... More >>

Lompoc Wine Ghetto: Get Your Wine On Alternative

Jeff KirshbaumWinemaker Sashi Moorman of Piedrasassi New Vineland at work in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto.​ Substance outshines style at Santa Barbara County's low-key Lompoc Wine Ghetto. A semi-industrial office park that's in the heart of land-that-time-forgot Lompoc, California, Lompoc Wine Ghett ... More >>

L.A. joins the Craft Beer Revolution: ColLAboration Rock & Brews

Daniel DrennonRob Croxall, El Segundo Brewing, with Jennifer Greenhalgh, Rock and Brews​ This past weekend, legions of L.A. beer fans descended upon two beer "events" -- ColLAboration 2 in Hollywood on Saturday and the Rock and Brews Festival in El Segundo on Sunday. The huge turnout and joyo ... More >>

Viva Vino LA: Italian Wines Flood Los Angeles

Lisa MattsonChianti, Italy's Castello de Volpaia is one of 130 wineries pouring at Viva Vino LA​There's much more to Italian wine than Pinot Grigio. The number one U.S. import is only one of the 3,000 kinds of grape varieties that grow on the Italian peninsula. Learn about the many others this ... More >>

Q & A With Municipal Winemakers' Dave Potter: On Surfing, Sourcing Grape Stigmas His New Tasting Room

JGarbee Potter In The Former Scuba Shop That Will Become His Tasting Room​If you need an excuse to for a coastal drive, winemaker Dave Potter is your man. He is the face behind Santa Barbara-based Municipal Winemakers, a small but mighty 600 cases per year operation that he tends to between ba ... More >>

Sunset Beer Company Retail Beer Shop And Tasting Bar Opening Soon In Echo Park

JGarbeeAlex Macy And Beer Consultant Christina Perozzi With That Westy 12​If you know Alex Macy, co-founder of the LA Craft Beer Crawl and a beer consultant for several local bars over the years, you will appreciate the irony of a recent e-newsletter from Eagle Rock's Colorado Wine Company ann ... More >>

Book Review: Eataly L.A. May Still Be Iffy But Joe Bastianich's Grandi Vini Is Solid

​With all the rumors about Joe Bastianich and Eataly L.A. last week, we thought it a fine time to check in on Bastianich's latest book, Grandi Vini: An Opinionated Tour of Italy's 89 Finest Wines. Bastianich is, as the book's press release reminds us, "co-owner of twenty [mostly Italian] rest ... More >>

Q & A With Winemaker Rolando Herrera Of Mi Sueño: Vineyards, Baseball The Teenage Career Plan

Mi Sueño WineryRolando Herrera​Five minutes into a conversation with Rolando Herrera, the owner-winemaker at Mi Sueño in Napa, it's clear that what first comes across as shyness is really more of a quiet conviction for winemaking. He didn't come from a longstanding winemaking pedigree. He di ... More >>

Q & A With Winemaker Greg LaFollette: On Bagpipes, Mouth Feel And Pinot Noir Love

Lafollettewines.comGreg La Follette And Assistant Winemaker Simone Sequeira​In the winemaking scene, "getting around" is all part of the gig. The best winemakers handle the grapes at various wineries throughout their career, and often more than one winery at a time, before they find "the one." ... More >>

Q & A With Winemaker Greg La Follette, Part 2: What 6 Kids Will Do To Your Pinot Noir

lafollettewines.comGreg LaFollette's True Love​When we first spoke with Greg La Follette, winemaker at his namesake La Follette Wines, he was telling us how making wine isn't all that different from playing the bagpipes. And why getting to know Pinot Noir isn't all that different from taking o ... More >>

Thanksgiving Wine Pairings: You Could Ask Your Sommelier, Or Go Straight To The Source

Flickr user nevadadanThanksgiving With A Vineyard View​We spend a lot of time figuring out what to serve for Thanksgiving dinner, but how about what to serve with all of those competing homemade flavors? Asking sommeliers their pairing opinion is laudable, but can be like querying star chefs f ... More >>

Meet The Winemaker: Niner's Amanda Cramer, Calculus Teacher Turned Master Vine Reader

NinerDo We Detect A Splash Of Former Math Teacher?​Earlier this week, Niner winemaker Amanda Cramer was among those whom we chatted with about the current state of the 2010 California grape harvest. For better or worse. In an industry currently swimming in public relations laced glasses of kee ... More >>

2010 Grape Harvest: California Winemakers On Why Tricky Doesn't Always Mean Tragic

J. GarbeeThe Last Drops Of Harvest​To those of us who live in L.A. sans air conditioning, the mild California summer of 2010 was an unseasonably pleasant, food-truck friendly three months notably devoid of sweat-free nights other than the brief late-breaking heat wave. To the California wineri ... More >>

Meet Your Winemaker: Lynmar's Bibiana González Rave on Gut Feelings, Crushed Grapes and The 100 Degree Heat

Lynmar EstateBibiana González Rave​If you've been lucky enough to try a bottle of Lynmar Pinot Noir (or Chardonnay and Rosé), or hang out on their tasting room patio -- where $10 gets you a Robb Report-worthy luxury retreat and tastings, perhaps the best deal in the Russian River Valley -- y ... More >>

Slate's Mike Steinberger on "Natural" Wines

Neal1960/FlickrPinot Gris grapes​ A natural chicken still spends the entirety of its short life in a factory--stacked with its brethren in a feathery, disease-ridden pile. A natural soda still rots your teeth. As applied to food, the word "natural" is a marketing construct designed to make c ... More >>

Beer Lobby Gives $10,000 To 'No' On Proposition 19 Pot Legalization

Beer​Update: We got an email from Tom McCormick of the California Small Brewers Association -- they're the ones who make good beers. He says, whoa, we got nothing to do with this effort to beat Prop. 19. Text of the email appear at the end, after the jump. A political action committee of the ... More >>

Meet Your Grape Grower: Charlie Barra, The 84-Year-Old Owner of Barra and Girasole

Evan JohnsonCharlie Barra​Should you be fortunate enough to reach your 65th grape harvest -- as a grower, not simply an imbiber -- you know when it's time to put those Sangiovese and Pinot Grigio grapes to work. And when to step back and let them enjoy a few more weeks on the vine. Squid Ink w ... More >>

Alsatian White Wines, Which to Choose? Winemaker Anne-Laure Helfrich's Favorites

Helfrich WinesAnne-Laure Helfrich​If you're contemplating which specific Alsatian Riesling or Pinot Gris -- or screw it, Gewürztraminer -- to bring to LudoBites, or if like us, you simply think it's entirely too hot to even consider the word "buttery" and white wine in the same sentence (CA C ... More >>

Municipal Winemakers: Bike Your Way To Free Wine Delivery, Or Just Join Club Awesome

Municipal WinemakersWill Bike For Wine​Before you commit to a lifetime of padded bike shorts after watching Alberto Contador win the Tour de France on Sunday, we suggest you start with a leisurely ride to Municipal Winemakers' Santa Barbara tasting room (only 100 miles, versus this year's 2,26 ... More >>

American Craft Beer Week: Declare Your Parabola Independence

drinkwiththewench.comBehold: Craft Beer​ Welcome to American Craft Beer Week, the "We Are The World" of good beer. Today through Sunday, we have an official excuse to celebrate this country's sudsy best by indulging in craft beer specials around town, signing the Declaration of Beer Independe ... More >>

Wine & Dine: Sonoma in the City Arrives this Week

Flickr/tibchris​ Sonoma wineries will strut their stuff during a Sonoma in the City: Los Angeles promotion this Tuesday through Thursday, May 4th through 6th, that will offer tastes at every level, from free for the cash-strapped to a $150 wine dinner. The $150 dinner at Melisse on Wednesda ... More >>

Mount Etna: Great Wine From Europe's Largest Active Volcano

Think of Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe, and you likely do not think of flowing wine. Flowing lava maybe. But some of the best red wines in Europe are being produced in that most unusual and extreme of locales. To the ancient Greeks, eastern Sicily's Mount Etna was home of the one ... More >>

Chardonnay or Chantilly? Cupcake Vineyards vs. Layer Cake Wine = A Hungry Jury

Cupcake VineyardsChardonnay and cupcake pairingA cabernet frosted cupcake is bad enough. But cupcake-inspired wine? Despite the name, Cupcake Vineyards, a division of global producer The Wine Group's Underdog Wine Merchants, produces no dessert wines. Last fall, Cupcake introduced a selection of $ ... More >>

Road Trip Agenda: California Weekend Wine Fests

If you're willing to spend a long day on the road and splurge for a food-and-slosh fest, then the second-annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine gathering held April 16-19 merits the effort. Consider: 250 wineries. 50 major chefs. Tastings. Demos. Meals. Names on the roster that are near and dear to Angele ... More >>

The Grapes of L.A.

Winemaking can once again be local