We already told you that LA Beer Week (LABW), the county-wide celebration of America’s favorite sudsy libation, has its hoppy little fingers in the LBC by way of The Factory. And we shall continue our efforts in bringing you, live and on the scene, the most malty of events occurring in Long Beach for LABW.
Have we mentioned Brewers Karaoke at Alex’s Bar?
Oh yes, the shamelessness of untrained singing paired with the brilliance of unadulterated beer, all accompanied by the masters of the local brewing trade. Created by Long Beach beer-a-holic Cambria Griffith last year (who also founded the spectacular goodness that is the Echo Park Musical Beer Crawl), her inspiration came after the many beer launch parties she attended all too often ended at karaoke joints.
After an inaugural stint at the Melody Lounge in Chinatown last year, Griffith began to learn that craft beer industry folk had either a hidden talent or a level of brazen DGAF that bordered Amanda Bynes. She learned something else as well: her theory that beer people love music events and music people love beer events proved to be true.
Add in her hoppy connections given her work at Placentia’s The Bruery and Griffith was able to wrangle up a list of incredible brewers from equally incredible breweries. This year is no exception. We’re talkin’ Beachwood, Eagle Rock, Noble Ale Works, Monkish, Craftsman, El Segundo, Three Weavers—newbies, baby!—Golden Road… The list is a brewski bomb of awesomeness.
“Awesome is certainly applied appropriately here,” Griffith said. “I know all these folks because I’ve been working professionally in the industry for three years now but before the real beer jobs happened, I really got to know everyone while I was working at Warner Bros. in web design during the day and writing about beer at night. Few writers were telling the stories of LA beer at that time, and it turned out people thought I was doing a pretty great job so it became easy to get to know everyone.”
That writing proved beyond fruitful given she now sits as a board member for LABW. Tack that onto her serendipitous meeting of Alex’s co-owner Paige Hernandez at a Reserve Society barrel party and we have ourselves Brewers Karaoke now in the LBC.
For Griffith, the list of participating brewers is still building.
“I’m crossing my fingers that the guys from TAPS and Bottle Logic will be able to attend,” Griffith said. “But since one of those gents was waiting on a baby, it is making committing difficult (and for the record, it’s a boy—congrats Kyle!). The folks at Angel City are hoping to make it as well if their schedule allows. Last year there were some surprise last minute guests, so it’ll be funny to see what happens this year.”
Beyond bellowing brewers bringing surprises, expect some fantastic beers. Confirmed taps include two special Bruery kegs: the Berazzled, the brewery’s phenomenal sour blonde with raspberries that rarely (if ever) escapes their tasting room and the Atomic Kangarue, the Bruery’s collaborative beer with Smog City. This brew is not for the light-hearted: at a beefy 9.5% ABV, this Belgian strong ale is seeing a very limited distribution.
“It is made with Semillon & Viognier grape must plus three types of hops, then fermented with Brettanomyces Trois and own house yeast, then blended with our sour blonde and dry hopped with Amarillo hops,” Griffith said. “This beer really shows off the creativity and technical prowess of both our breweries; it has an insane amount of weird stuff going on and it’s such a delicious beer that will do some really fun things with age.”
Just as important as what is getting is tapped is the overall philosophy behind the event: to let those within the industry let off steam through an event. As Griffith pointed out, beer folk go to myriad events throughout the year—often to the point of irritation or fatigue. This allows these masters of beer to engage with fans in a way that isn’t as draining as a festival or more formal gathering, particularly during LABW.
“We love getting to share our wares with new and old fans but it’s no secret there are so many festivals and only so many hours in the day—leaving little, if any, ‘free’ time to unwind,” Griffith said. “It can get exhausting. Quickly. This event is a chance to do something with our fans that is totally different from festivals, tap takeovers, and meet’n’greets. Beyond that, I want to see more places like Alex’s Bar step up their craft beer handles and get to know their local breweries. Alex’s Bar walks a great line of being an awesome musical venue/divey hip bar/solid beer spot that’s very aware of their local beer and music culture.”
We couldn’t agree more, Cambria. In fact, we’ll rock out to the karaoke gold that is the Spotify list you created for the event.
Alex’s Bar is located at 2913 E Anaheim St.
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