HomeCity NewsCrowd Pours Into Montrose for Beer Festival

Crowd Pours Into Montrose for Beer Festival

First published in the July 30 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.

The day was hot and the beer was cold.
More than 920 attendees filled a portion of Honolulu Avenue on Sunday for the Montrose Craft Beer Festival, the seventh such event by the Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce. Nearly 20 brewers and other vendors filled the closed-off street as beer aficionados and rookies alike enjoyed a summer afternoon sampling the wide variety of beverage.
The chamber raised more than $36,000 from the event, an improvement over the festival held in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
“We’re very happy. We were able to fundraise our goal and there were actually no real hiccups,” said Mavil Aghadjanian, executive director of the chamber. “Everyone had positive things to say. The only complaint we got was that it was really, really hot.”
For the event, Honolulu Avenue was essentially transformed into one long brewery. Attendees waited in short lines to sample each brewers’ offerings, while other booths offered wine, snacks or treats and seltzer water. There were standing tables positioned throughout the path, a DJ played music and, at one end, there were games of cornhole that ran all afternoon.

  • A Brewyard Beer Company host pours a sample glass.
  • More than 900 attended the seventh annual Montrose Craft Beer Festival on Sunday. The event raised more than $36,000 for the Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce.

A wide variety of brewers made the festival on Sunday. Glendale’s own Brewyard Beer Company and Paperback Brewing Company each turned out, fresh off of a pair of gold medal wins at the California State Fair. They were joined by others from throughout the region, including El Segundo Brewing Company, San Diego-based Modern Times Beer, Common Space Brewery in Hawthorne, Long Beach’s Beachwood Brewing Company, HiDef Brewing in Los Angeles, both Radiant Beer Company and Bottle Logic Brewing from Anaheim, Riip Beer in Huntington Beach, Tarantula Hill Brewing Company in Thousand Oaks, San Gabriel’s Ogopogo Brewing, Cellador Ales in North Hills, Lawless Brewing Company in North Hollywood and San Fernando Brewing Company.
Eateries like New Moon, Gina Feeds, Nothing Bundt Cakes and Chop Stop had snacks available for everyone, while Good Idea and Aqua Hydrate distributed seltzer and bottled water, respectively.
“We’re all about showcasing our local businesses, so we’re showcasing the local independent breweries we have around us, as well as the restaurants, and that’s really our goal,” Aghadjanian said. “Not only is it for craft beer fans, but for those who aren’t fans, we bring it to them and maybe they become one.”
Rosso Wine Shop, located on Verdugo Road, also had a stand offering both sandwiches and wine pours.
“Even though we’re wine, it makes a lot of sense for us to be here,” said Jeff Zimmitti, owner of Rosso Wine. “There’s a lot of high-quality booths. We always try to be a part of this.”
Zimmitti, who launched his store in 2006, said that events like this help bring small businesses together and fosters community spirit. In this case, everyone came with a shared love of the adult beverage, with the purveyors able to share their own takes on it with each other.
“A lot of what wine retail is that community, finding those like-minded people,” he added. “Word of mouth is the best way for us to spread word.”
Mayor Ardy Kassakhian was among the local officials who stopped by for a drink on Sunday and hailed it as a way of bringing people out to share community and support local business.
“An event like a craft beer fest brings people not just from Glendale but from all over,” he said. “Some people might be visiting Glendale for the first time and we hope after coming out and enjoying the Montrose Shopping Park, it won’t be their last time.”
Kassakhian added that sharing a beer with a friend is “almost a universal way of relationship-building and coming together.”
“To be able to do that in Montrose, with all those great craft breweries, was very special,” he said, “and given how hot it was that day, having a cold beer hit the spot.”

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