On Wednesday, June 22nd, Angel City mashed in on our 1000th batch of beer. It’s a really special brew, and we’re very excited to finally share it with you (it’s now on tap!). In just over 4 years, we’ve brewed over 620,000 gallons of beer – that’s 4.96 million pints, almost enough to fill an Olympic size swimming pool.
A lot has changed since our first batch on April 4th, 2012, which we called, “Test A,” what eventually turned into our Angel City IPA. A few months later we introduced ourselves to the world at Bloomfest, the Arts District’s annual festival. On that same day we brewed #15, our first crack at the Avocado Ale.
Downtown has changed a lot, too. On February 16th, 2014, 82 million pounds of concrete was poured into the foundation of the Wilshire Grand Center, the largest concrete pour in the world for the tallest building west of the Mississippi, and we brewed a Pilsner for batch #326.
Eric Garcetti got sworn in as mayor on July 1st 2013, when we made batch #439 (IPA). And we celebrated by giving him a case of it.
Ground was broken for the Regional Connector on September 30th, 2014, when we made #507 (an Amber). The Broad Museum opened up on batch #827, (Srirachelada, September 18th, 2015), and the Sixth Street Bridge closed on #901 (a LAger, appropriately enough, on January 27th, 2016). And remember the Wilshire Grand? Well, by the time it topped out on March 10th, 2016, we had brewed more than 600 more batches, and were working on #931 – a Double IPA.
We also hired some people here at the brewery, too. Eric “Leche” Hernandez hired on June 4th, 2013, was #143, Izzy Hernandez (no relation) halfway at #500, Michael Hernandez (also no relation) on #800, Vanessa Hernandez (no relation) on #812, Patrick Hernandez (Mike’s cousin) at #853, and Chris Hernandez (Pat’s brother) was just a few weeks before the beer was brewed, on June 20th, making him #998.
Andrea Behm got hired on #422, so she’s an IPA. She adopted her dog Kermit on #655 – he’s also an IPA. Keith McEly (#79, Vanilla Porter) adopted Archie on #260 (Imperial Stout), and his daughter Rose was born on February 8th, 2016 – so she’s #911 (LAger).
Joe Moakley, we like to say, came with the building. Chances are, if there’s something in our brewery, he’s built it, fixed it, or made it better. He’s been here long before any official batch, so technically he’s some negative number we can’t figure out. But we’ll be nice and just give him #1. And our most recent hire is named Jack Blizzard, when we brewed batch #1115. Conveniently enough, that’s our Red Ned, a Flanders Red that won’t be out for another year – who knows what batch we’ll be on by then?
We’re very excited for you to try #1000. It’s a big Belgian-style quad to celebrate four great years of Angel City. While the beer is available at the Public House, we’re going to have a guestbook which will have every single one of our batches in it, and we want you to sign it on the date that you first experienced Angel City. So come down to the brewery, give the beer a taste, and let us know when you first fell in love.
Here’s to 1000 beers, and to 1000 more!
