The outdoor patio of the El Centro Del Pueblo Community Center in Echo Park was the setting for a craft beer fundraiser last week. The DJ was mixing old-school funk, the taquero was dishing out the asada, and the desserts were all made to be paired with the IPA’s, saisons, stouts and ciders poured that night. But this wasn’t your typical beer fest. What made this an important event was that all the brewers were Latino, Chicano or mexicano and this was their first organized event as the SoCal Cerveceros Homebrew Club.
Founded in 2015, the group includes beginners to more experienced seasoned brewers. And they’re not all hombres, either: Zaneta Santana, a brewer at South Central Brewing Company, won the evening’s best brew trophy for their Stout Central stout—chocolate up front, with guajillo and pasilla chiles to spice up the back end. But they weren’t the only impressive cervezas for the evening. Brewjeria Company had two for tasting. Californio (6.5% ABV) is a California Common style amber, crisp and malty, and very enjoyable—pair it with some taco dorados! Even better was the Muscat Tripel (9.2% ABV) Belgian Tripel with Muscat grapes. POW! Look for Adrian Gonzalez ,Augustin Ruelas, Adrian Ruelas and the rest of the chavos to open in Montebello in the near future.
Inquisitors Brewing Co. Albert Ramirez and Sergio Ruiz are coming to Anaheim to brew their suds after homebrewing for 10 years. Their Open SaisonMe (7% ABV) was on point, and their Session IPA was hoppy and had no aftertaste— a sure sign of experienced brewmasters.
Preston Brewing’s Luis and Beth Martinez are looking to open their cervezeria in Long Beach. They had three beers to taste, and my favorite was their HOG Juice Hazy IPA (5.2%) a collaboration with HOG Brewing. It was also my choice for best brew of the evening—lately, I’ve had my share of Vermont style IPAs, and their HOG Juice was as good as it gets.
Ricky Ray Rivera owner of Norwalk Brewhouse, would love to open in his city of Norwalk. He has his brews all named for city streets such as Studebaker Stout and Bloomfield Blonde. For the SoCal Cerveceros Homebrew Club event, he poured a Saison that was fruity and spicy, with coriander on the back end.
A big shout out to Robert Hernandez of Monrovia HomeBrew Shop and Hub City, Jaime Cardenas and on Instagram is Daniel Moreno @BRUITURSELF, Daniel is on IG to help anyone interested in home brewing and will answer any questions. Hit him up!
It was a great evening of beer tasting and all money raised went to El Centro Del Pueblo. Follow SoCal Cerveceros Homebrew Club on Facebook for future events or if you’re interested in joining. They really make the point to help each other—the essence of a true homebrew club. SoCal Cerveceros’ future is bright and hoppy with no bitter aftertaste—AJUA!!!
