In another sign that Torrance’s craft brewing industry is still exploding in popularity, the city’s first production brewery has moved to a new warehouse-style site that’s 10 times larger than its former home.
When Strand Brewing opened six years ago, it operated in a “broom closet” of a space — 3,500 square feet — in a relatively isolated industrial park on Telo Avenue.
At the time, little in the way of a craft beer culture existed in the South Bay or Los Angeles County.
But today, the South Bay — especially Torrance — is regarded as the epicenter of the county’s craft beer industry, where the number of breweries has doubled since January 2014, according to a recently released study.
•Photos: Take a look at some of Torrance’s craft breweries
So Strand has abandoned its tight quarters in favor of a vast beer hall-like, 35,000-square-foot warehouse in Old Torrance across from the Honda campus.
Its Dominguez Street location is less than a mile from the “Beermuda Triangle’ of Smog City Brewing, Monkish Brewing and Dude’s Brewing, which are clustered just off Western Avenue within spitting distance of the 405 Freeway. Strand marked its grand opening last weekend.
“We’re all going to help each other,” said Strand co-owner Rich Marcello. “It almost seems like a different crowd at each brewery, with some carryover in between. Just being able to promote a central area will help people find us.”
That was a challenge on Telo Avenue, where the Strand could accommodate no more than about 35 people. In contrast, Smog and Monkish are often packed on weekends and customarily attract larger crowds of out-of-towners because of their accessibility. In contrast, Strand’s new location had about 200 people for a recent private event and there was still plenty of elbow room, Marcello said.
With beer tourism on the upswing, Strand’s new location is expected to bolster Torrance’s profile as a brewery destination.
Hal Mooney — co-owner of Beer Hop, one of three Southern California bus companies that conduct craft brewery tours — is looking forward to bringing groups to Strand’s cavernous new space and its new neighbors.
“It’s just amazing to show the strength of what Torrance is becoming,” he said. “It works in everybody’s favor to work together. The (closer) distance makes a difference. We’re definitely trying to do more tours in Torrance, particularly opening up walking tours or finding other things that can accommodate this massive group of breweries that are very close together.”
Smog is less than three-fourths of a mile from Strand now, an easy walk — or quick Uber ride — up Van Ness Avenue and Del Amo Boulevard. Dude’s is just over a mile away from Smog. Dude’s is just a third of a mile from Monkish. And Monkish is less than a half-mile from Smog’s front door, a short stroll down Del Amo Boulevard.
“We didn’t ever expect this area to catch on as a destination,” said Monkish co-owner Henry Nguyen. “It kind of trips me out when I see people walking on the street on a weekend going to brewery to brewery to brewery because nobody walks in this area.”
Each brewery has its own personality:
• Strand is known for its immediately recognizable labels that feature a silhouette of an iconic Southern California lifeguard tower and its approachable, low-alcohol 24th Street Pale Ale.
• Smog — nicknamed smug by some — has a perfectionist reputation for making a wide range of eclectic small-batch beers under the guidance of rock star brewmaster Porter, who goes by only one name.
• Monkish, helmed by Gardena High School graduate Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American who became interested in brewing while studying as a doctoral theology student in Scotland, specializes in well-regarded Belgian ales, an acquired taste for many.
• Laid-back Dude’s has one of the sleeker tasting rooms — one of the few equipped with big-screen televisions that show NFL games — and its signature Double Trunk Imperial IPA with its 10.8 percent alcohol by volume that packs a mighty wallop.
“This place has a really friendly atmosphere,” San Pedro resident Joe Pace said as he sipped a cold brew at Dude’s, which is around the corner from Honda, where he works.
“It has tables and it’s quieter,” he added. “If I want more variety in styles, I usually go over to Smog City, but if I want a really well-done IPA or that spectrum I come here. If I’m in the mood for Belgians or Trappist-style beer, I go over to Monkish.”
The close proximity is expected to engender a friendly rivalry between breweries.
“It kind of keeps us on our toes,” said Dude’s tap room manager Zhanine Becerra. “It’s a healthy, friendly competition. The more the merrier. It forces us to come up with new things.”
Which is why Dude’s has a new brewmaster who is overhauling its offerings, including a focus on smaller, more experimental batch beers a la Smog. The brewery also plans to open tasting rooms in Thousand Oaks and Newport Beach before the end of the year in an effort to tap new markets.
Stand, too, is planning pilot batches it was unable to produce at its space-deprived former location. It will have popular food trucks more often and begin canning its beers in 12-ounce six-packs now that it has the room.
Next year, Strand expects to produce about 16,000 kegs of beer, double the amount it made last year. In six years, it has grown from zero employees to 11 and now plans to add even more staff.
That kind of growth is why Assemblyman David Hadley, who handled the ribbon-cutting duties Thursday at Strand, named the brewery as his district’s Small Business of the Year.
“It’s a great product, it’s a social product, it’s a growing business, it’s been great for enterprise and jobs,” he said. “Torrance and the South Bay have really become the Los Angeles metropolitan capital of the craft brewing industry and, in no small part, that’s due to the efforts of Strand.”
Indeed, Torrance’s growth as a brewery destination — the city now boasts five, in addition to the venerable Red Car Brewery & Restaurant in Old Torrance — shows no sign of abating.
Newcomer Scholb Brewing is expected to open in a matter of weeks in the same industrial park near City Hall as Absolution Brewing, which opened in February 2014. And Cosmic Brewing plans to open in an industrial park between Smog and Monkish.
Nguyen, who welcomes Strand to the neighborhood, is one of the few local industry voices urging caution at the potential over-saturation of breweries, however, fearing quality could suffer.
He also frets about the “Sideways” effect that plagued Central Coast wineries after that 2004 movie came out, with rented limos full of booze-chugging partiers. These drinkers, with their preoccupation with high-alcohol India Pale Ales, are not the type attracted to complex Belgian ales and a brewery that just doesn’t make that popular style.
“Our flavor profile doesn’t fit their drinking profile,” Nguyen said. “For me, it does a disservice to our brewery.
“We don’t have room for more breweries, “ he added, “but we always have room for good breweries.”
There appears no halting the explosive growth, however, as illustrated by the recent study of the county craft beer industry by San Diego-based think tank National University System Institute for Policy Research.
That study put the countywide economic impact of the industry at $66 million this year, growing to $91.5 million in 2016.
That will translate into about $11 million in sales tax revenues next year. And the industry supports more than 1,300 jobs.
“What an amazing explosion we’ve had,” Marcello said. “Where we live, people tend to gravitate to things that are quality. The South Bay is a place where people have choices and they care about what they put into their bodies and that’s why we have amazing farmers markets, it’s why we have amazing restaurants and it’s why we can have amazing breweries.”
