Erika Bolden

Nothing says summer in Southern California like unlimited beer outside on a sunny day. If you're new to craft beer, attending a festival is the perfect way to access many different breweries and styles in one place. Plus food to keep you grounded and music to keep you occupied.  Every......

51 breweries attended the third Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival (FWIBF) last Saturday, May 31. The Paso Robles event has quickly garnered a prestigious reputation because the breweries represented are meticulously selected from all over the world by Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson. Last year was unbearably hot and high gravity beers idled......

A three day weekend is swiftly approaching - and plenty of beer drinking with it. Lucky for you, this is one of the most exciting weeks we've seen for beer releases, and every selection we've featured is unique and large-format. If you're looking for beers you can take generous pulls......

Saturday, May 17, was the perfect day for a cold beer. The 5th Los Angeles Vegan Beer Festival saw the close of American Craft Beer Week and a scorching heat wave, with crisp, low-alcohol beers that were more popular than ever. Lagers and fruity beers were highly appreciated, but it was a salty gose......

Quality is the most talked-about issue in craft beer right now. Many homebrewers are starting commercial breweries. There is no compulsory quality control to open business, so brewers have to take the initiative to educate themselves. As the number of U.S. breweries multiplies, speculation rises about whether a bubble burst......

Last week 9,000 beer industry professionals gathered in Denver for the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) and BrewExpo America. Attendance reached a new high for the 31st edition of the CBC, organized by the Brewers Association (BA), with 1,100 U.S. breweries represented. Paul Gatza, director of the BA, advised a happily captive audience Wed., April 9, on the......

The World Beer Cup is the Olympics of beer. There is no better way to describe one of the biggest and most prestigious commercial beer competitions open to breweries from around the world. Held in Denver on Fri., April 11, at the end of the Craft Brewers Conference, the World Beer Cup awards ceremony......

Until recently your devotion to Dungeons and Dragons might have been a fetish you concealed from coworkers, family, even judgmental friends. But the days of hiding experience points from anyone who isn't a fellow player are gone. Stephen Colbert is a proud former D&Der, and Wil Wheaton has rejuvenated the Los Angeles......

On Saturday, March 22, 31 California breweries hauled casks of beer to FirkFest, at Farmers Park in Anaheim. These "real ale" one-off brews and specialty selections were unlimited and generously poured, without wait, on an idyllic Southern California day - much to the delight of 500 festival-goers. Especially for an inaugural event,......

The new California beers being released this year are so promising that our heads are spinning as fast as our notions of Lenten sobriety are dissolving. Small breweries are rising to big occasions - barrel-aging and releasing bottles - while larger craft breweries are curbing their most ambitious styles for......