November 9, 2022
The Brewers Association and CraftBeer.com are proud to support content that fosters a more diverse and inclusive craft beer community. This post was selected by the North American Guild of Beer Writers as part of its Diversity in Beer Writing Grant series. It receives additional support through a grant from the Brewers Association’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and Allagash Brewing Company.
The Los Angeles County Brewers Guild counts 95 breweries around greater Los Angeles. Seventy-two of them opened in 2015 or after, most notably in neighborhoods and parts of L.A. historically and culturally associated with blue collar workers, immigrants, and people of color. This includes new businesses in the San Gabriel Valley (44.7% Latino, 25.7% Asian) and in the Inland Empire counties of Riverside (51.6% Latino, 8% Asian-Pacific Islander, 7.5% Black) and San Bernardino (55.8% Latino, 9.4% Black, 9% Asian-Pacific Islander), where the growth of breweries reflects their potential as community-builders and creative centers.
Boomtown Brewery in Downtown L.A., Brewyard Beer Company in Glendale, and Dragon’s Tale Brewery in Montclair are three greater Los Angeles breweries that represent this post-2015 craft beer surge. Open for less than a decade and with strong local followings, each brewery has established itself as a part of their respective neighborhood and the diverse communities they represent and serve. Together, these breweries unlock new ways of understanding the diversity found in local histories, cultures, ingredients, and values that influence craft beer production in greater Los Angeles.
Boomtown Brewing: Creating Space for Beer, Art, and History in Downtown L.A.
Every Wednesday night, Boomtown Brewery hosts Vegan Playground, a street-style food and craft festival that draws Boomtown’s largest weekly crowds. And during L.A.’s professional baseball, soccer, and football seasons, Boomtown becomes a supporters’ heaven, complete with fan camaraderie and games.
“We get the downtown city and federal workers stopping in for a post-work beer, Eastsiders hanging out, and that big vegan crowd on Wednesdays,” says Samuel “Chewy” Chawinga, Boomtown’s co-owner and head brewer. “Our Wednesday night is like a good Friday night. We regularly get 450 to 600 people throughout the evening.”
But the big parties happen when Boomtown drops a new can in its popular Artist Series. Every other month, Chawinga and staff brew between 30 and 60 barrels of a unique hazy double IPA inspired by a featured artist whose work decorates the collectible cans. One beer, Brighter Days Hazy DIPA, was made in collaboration with Russian-Polish artist Bunnie Reiss and featured fruity and herbaceous flavors to reflect the bold, colorful nature of her installation work and paintings. The release parties come alive with music, dancing, and beer flowing in the name of art by local and international street artists, DJs, tattooists, and muralists.
Another “Graffiti” series beer, featuring DJ Neff, remains Boomtown’s bestselling Artist Series can, and the most-attended party…
