Alpine Village

Business & Beer at Monkish Brewing

Business & Beer at Monkish Brewing Company in Torrance

On Thursday October 10, Business & Beer held their monthly get-together at Monkish Brewing Company, a Torrance microbrewery that specializes in Belgian style ales. In addition to the 10+ varieties of ales available, Vella Pizza was there with their mobile brick oven to provide their special pizzas for those in attendance. Speaking of attendance, this group was one of the most diversified we have had since we first started Business & Beer. There was a healthy mix of old timers, occasional visitors and first timers. We even had representatives of two new breweries join us, Pac City Brewery from Pacoima and Absolution Brewing Company of Torrance. We will be including Absolution Brewing in our rotation in 2014; after they get set up and get a tasting room in place.

Business & Beer is an informal business networking group that meets on the second Thursday of every month at a different microbrewery or brewpub in the South Bay area. Unlike other business networking groups we have no dues or mandatory meetings. If networking is an important part of your job description and you enjoy craft beers, you should consider joining us. It is a very nice group of people and they want to meet you and learn more about what your business offers. Our next gathering will be November 14 at El Segundo Brewing Company in El Segundo. They have been doing a lot of brewing there lately and have several beers released since our last visit there including the addition of a lager and a saison to accompany the IPAs, stouts and DIPAs. If you have never come to El Segundo Brewing, you are in for a treat. You can find our entire schedule of upcoming events and sign up to our mailing list on the front page of BusinessNBeer.com. You can also Like us on Facebook to be kept abreast of upcoming gatherings and special events. You can find all the photos from our gathering at Monkish Brewing Company on CraftbeerGuy.com.

Business & Beer Attendees

Some of the attendees at Monkish Brewing Business & Beer

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BusinessNBeer at Smog City

Laurie Porter talks about the history and mission of Smog City Brewing

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.

free beer winner

Winning a free beer is icing on the cake.

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 Continue reading

beer tap list

Beer selection at Alpine Inn at Alpine Village

Last Thursday we brought BusinessNBeer back to the Alpine Inn at Alpine Village; a German gastropub located in Torrance. It was day four of American Craft Beer Week and while Alpine Inn was having issues with several of their taps, they still had several award winning breweries represented on their tap list. We had a pretty small turnout, but we had three first timers in the group, so that was a plus. This will be our last association with Meetup as there was no value in continuing. The Meetup group has been officially deleted.

Todd wins a free beer

Good beer is always better when it is free

This week’s gathering is going to be very special as we will be coming to Smog City Brewing, a new microbrewery in Torrance. Smog City is an award winning brewery and just had their grand opening this past weekend. We feel very fortunate to have them open their doors to us on their first Thursday of being open. They will have a food truck there, so food is going to be available. If you have not had an opportunity to visit Smog City yet, you are in for a treat as they brew several different styles of beers including an IPA, a saison, sour, porter, stout, barrel aged and more. They are a great addition to the Business & Beer rotation of breweries we will visit. We hope to see you there.

You can see all the photos from Business & Beer at Alpine Inn on GotBaddog.com.

Please join us for Business & Beer a small business networking event which will be held at Alpine Inn on May 16, 2013 at 6 PM. Alpine Inn is located at 833 West Torrance Blvd Torrance, California. Please RSVP by commenting below that you will be there or let us know on our Business N Beer Facebook page .

Logo for Alpine Inn

Join us at Alpine Inn at 6 PM on May 16, 2013

Business & Beer returned to the Alpine Inn at Alpine Village in Torrance last Thursday, and considering it started to rain shortly before we were scheduled to meet, we had a pretty good turnout. The Alpine Inn is a German themed restaurant that was included in the Business & Beer rotation due to the wide selection of American craft beers they pour in addition to the German and Czech brews that are found there. Over the prior weekend we decided to give Meetup a try, so we set up a page with them and thought that would be that. As it turned out, there was an approval process so they did not really put the word out about Business & Beer until late Tuesday; even so, we had two new visitors as a result, so that is a good thing.

beer list

Alpine Inn beers on tap

This Thursday, March 14 we will be returning to The Rockefeller in Hermosa Beach. If you have never been to The Rockefeller, it is a very nice gastropub in Hermosa Beach, on Pier Avenue. As it is Hermosa Beach, you may need to search for parking, but it will be worth it. They have about 25 craft beers on tap and have a quality food menu, with many specials available when we are there. In addition to the regular Business & Beer attendees, the last I looked we had close to 10 RSVP’s from Meetup; so we have the potential for a pretty large group. I hope you can join us.

Meetup joins Business & Beer

Business & Beer joins Meetup

In the way of announcements, we have a couple. This week, our friends at Sophie’s Place are dedicating their eight taps to four of the South Bay’s own brewers; Strand Brewing, Monkish Brewing, El Segundo Brewing and Smog City. The taps will be dedicated as South Bay Beer Week at Sophie’s Place and runs through Saturday.

Sunday, March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day and Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach will host the 1st Annual Froth Awards, The Easy Reader Beer Experience and Gastropub Challenge. The Froth Awards will feature the best of the South Bay’s microbreweries, brewpubs and gastropubs who will put together five food and craft beer pairings. The microbreweries participating include, Strand Brewing Company, Monkish Brewing, Smog City, El Segundo Brewing Company and the Brewery at Abigaile. Food will be provided by The Rockefeller, Hudson House, Hot’s Kitchen, Simmzy’s and others. This sounds like it will be a great time. Tickets at $29 at the door, or you can purchase them online on the Saint Rocke website. If you buy your tickets online, please be aware there is $6.95 in fees per ticket if you purchase your tickets online (there are no fees if you purchase your tickets at the door), however, they have released a promo code “Frothy” to take $5.00 off each ticket. You will apply this at checkout; look at the top right under Sub Total for the Promo code link. The doors open at noon and the pairings begin at 1:00 PM. You can find more details on GotBaddog.com.