Strand celebrates anniversary, introduces new line of cans

One of the oldest craft breweries in the Los Angeles area is celebrating a few major accomplishments this weekend in Torrance, including its Seventh Anniversary. Strand Brewing Co., which opened in the South Bay in 2009, is one of the early pioneers of the craft beer movement in the area. A year ago it moved from a 1,000 square feet brewery into a 36,000 square foot facility in northern Torrance and nearly doubling its capacity to 8,000 barrels a year.

The tasting room itself is 5,000 feet, and there are a few plans to further develop the space, including offering private events, a barrel program and expanded cold storage. In the larger space they are also capable of adding more tanks, which could (if they maxed out the space) bring them up to 50 or 60,000 barrels in the future. Now, compared to the 850 barrels they produced in 2010, this is a nicely sized expansion.

For now, the brewery’s growth has improved the quality of beer, said co-owner Rich Marcello during a recent brewery tour. “I feel like the consistency has gotten better batch to batch,” he said.

This weekend’s Seven Year Anniversary celebration will also introduce a new line of cans, which is produced in-house on a shiny new canning line.

“I love cans for the light [weight], for the quality, for the shipping aspects. I think that our logo, who we are, where we live… cans just make perfect sense,” said Marcello.

The three can releases include core beers 24th Street Pale Ale, Beach House Amber Ale and Atticus IPA, and are the brewery’s top sellers. While Strand will continue to bottle, cans will replace a large chunk of the packaged beer.

Check out the new canning line and some of the brewery’s specialty releases (including an anniversary beer) this weekend, Friday through Sunday, November 11 through 13.