{"id":79121,"date":"2023-10-28T18:36:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T01:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=79121"},"modified":"2023-10-28T18:36:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T01:36:22","slug":"downtowns-beachwood-brewing-celebrates-its-last-day-with-lots-of-beer-and-reminiscing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/downtowns-beachwood-brewing-celebrates-its-last-day-with-lots-of-beer-and-reminiscing","title":{"rendered":"Downtown’s Beachwood Brewing celebrates its last day with lots of beer and reminiscing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirsty customers flocked to Beachwood Brewing in Downtown Long Beach on Saturday to sip one last pint of award-winning brews while they still could. The 12-year-old establishment officially closed today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bittersweet,\u201d said Beachwood founder and co-owner Gabe Gordon, who was helping serve drinks behind the counter, \u201cBut this location has launched an amazing company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beachwood had announced its decision to sell its Downtown location earlier this month, saying the move was to expand and diversify its operations. Gordon also noted that the location never fully recovered after COVID, though there were other factors outside of the pandemic that went into the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have four brewing facilities and this one is our least efficient,\u201d he said. \u201cJust from a business standpoint, this one just kind of stopped making sense for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But fans of the popular drinking establishment won\u2019t have to wait long for a new brewery to emerge. Beachwood’s location has been sold to master brewer Ian McCall of ISM Brewing, whose ties to Beachwood go back years<\/a> as one of the original brewers at the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIan coming in here is rad,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cWe\u2019ve grown up in this industry together and now it\u2019s his time. And the bonus is that Long Beach is about to get a world-class brewery. I can guarantee that, and I think it\u2019s a win for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the bright future, Gordon said he and many others see the closing with some sentimentality and recognize the value Beachwood brought to the nearby community and the beer scene at large. When Beachwood opened its Downtown location almost 13 years ago, Gordon said, it was the first brewery to open in Long Beach in 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to think we helped revitalize this area,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Customers drank indoors and on the patio at Beachwood Brewing’s Downtown Long Beach location before the business officially closed for business on Saturday, Oct. 28. Photo by Cheantay Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s more, Beachwood set the standard for what it meant to support craft brewing, with tap lineups featuring beers from their own production and other California brewers. Eventually, Beachwood would expand enough to supply its entire 30+ tap menu in-house.<\/p>\n

Throughout the week, Gordon said, customers have been reminiscing about their memories with Beachwood. One couple who met at the Downtown location are now married. Another man said that he decided to become a brewer himself after tasting Beachwood\u2019s Amalgamator, a West Coast-style IPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s crazy we\u2019ve been doing this long enough and well enough that people made life decisions based on something we created,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Beachwood founder and co-owner Gabe Gordon chats with customers at the brewery’s Downtown location, which officially closed Saturday, Oct. 28. Photo by Cheantay Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gordon made clear that Beachwood\u2019s closing doesn\u2019t mean the company is going anywhere. Downtown still has Beachwood\u2019s Blendery, a tasting room and brewing facility that focuses on Beachwood\u2019s sour ales. Beachwood also has a taproom and distillery in Bixby Knolls, and they just opened a new taproom at the outdoor shopping center 2nd & PCH.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll miss the community that we have here, but only to the extent that the community doesn\u2019t just walk next door. It\u2019s kind of like we\u2019re just moving down the street,\u201d he added with a laugh.<\/p>\n

For now, locals will have to wait a few weeks while ISM Brewing works to open its business at the Downtown locale. In an interview with the Long Beach Post, McCall said he hopes to reopen the space for a soft launch in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bittersweet,\u201d said Beachwood founder and co-owner Gabe Gordon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":79123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[379],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[8767],"class_list":["post-79121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-beachwood-brewing","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79121"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79133,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79121\/revisions\/79133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79121"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=79121"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=79121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}