September Business & Beer at Smog City – Great turnout

Thursday, September 12, Business & Beer returned to Smog City Brewing Company, the newest microbrewery in Torrance that has a tasting room. This was our second visit to Smog City and it is very obvious that they are getting into the swing of things as evidenced by the growth of their tap list. When we were there in May they had a very respectable eight different beers available. On this evening they had 12; that is a lot of growth, but they have even more than that in the wings.

We had about 25 people show up and more than half of them were first time attendees. It is nice to see the attendance numbers going back up to those we had when we first started; changing from weekly to monthly meetings was a good idea. Smog City Brewing Company co-owner Laurie Porter gave a short talk to our group discussing everything from how they chose their name and logo design to how her husband, head brewer [Jon] Porter, comes up with some of his beer ideas and what should be expected in the future. She then turned the group over to assistant brewer Chris Walowski who took us on a tour of their brewing operation. All in all, it was a very nice evening with lots of networking going on as well as an opportunity to get up close and personal with a brewing operation.

If you live or work in the South Bay area, or are willing to drive here the second Thursday of every month, you are invited to join the Business & Beer networking group as we meet at the various microbreweries and brewpubs in the South Bay area. Our boundaries are El Segundo to the north and Torrance to the south and there are a lot of places to explore with more coming within the next few months. Our October meeting, October 10, will be held at Monkish Brewing Company in Torrance; literally right around the corner from Smog City. Monkish Brewing specializes in Belgian style ales, and they have a lot to choose from with usually 10-12 available at any one time. Business & Beer is a networking group with no rules and no dues; just come on down when you can make it and bring a friend or business associate. You will have a good time. You can find our schedule and sign up to our mailing list on the front page of BusinessNBeer.com. You can find all the photos from our Business & Beer gathering at Smog City Brewing on CraftBeerGuy.com

Just a final note; our friends at Alpine Village are holding their 46th Annual Oktoberfest. This year’s Oktoberfest will be held every Friday and Saturday night through October 26 and on Sunday afternoons through October 27. Those of you that went last year know what a good time it is, so if looking for something different to do, consider Alpine Village’s Oktoberfest.