“At this point, we’re all hanging on by a thread…and we’re doing so in the dark.’”  – Los Angeles County Brewers Guild

If LA restaurants and bars with kitchens are allowed reopen for outdoor service, why can’t breweries? That’s what Los Angeles brewers are asking, and it’s a question that county officials need to address.

After all it’s been 163 days since Los Angeles brewery tasting rooms were “normal,” and they remain “not normal” today. Athough the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors now allows restaurants outdoor dining, it is denying most of the county’s breweries, the same capability, and many of them are hanging on by a thread.

To plead its case, and hopefully affect meaningful change, the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild launched a week-long campaign to reach out to our L.A. County Board of Supervisors as part of its Save LA Brewers campaign.

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Save LA Brewers!

The Los Angeles County Brewers Guild and its 93 brewery members have done everything in our power to comply with every change in local and state health orders for these past 5+ months.

We’ve had to make a hard pivot in our industry to amp up to-go sales, implement shipping, and delivery. We’ve had to lay off employees, apply for loans we don’t know whether we can pay back, and have had to bring our operations into the leanest we can possibly make it to stay in business.

Even our Guild, the nonprofit that exists to support our industry has suffered during this time and has had to run on lean resources from having to cancel every annual fundraiser and partnership on our calendar. It’s been a rough year — for everyone. We understand that this hasn’t been easy for anyone.

That said, we’re disheartened that our Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has put stricter measures in place that prevents our business from being able to operate in the same exact way as breweries in the other 57 counties in California.

We understood the necessity of rolling back the phase 3 re-openings due to a spike in cases, but instead of aligning with the State order (which essentially rolled our industry back to phase 2 conditions), the updated health order released in June explicitly removed our ability to operate outdoors by partnering with a third-party food vendor.

At this point, we’re all hanging on by a thread…and we’re doing so in the dark. The L.A beer industry is all about collaboration and community. What we are asking of the BOS is to be considered in the same way our colleagues all across the state are.

We are asking them to collaborate with us on ways we can operate, stay in business, and keep our communities safe. [/box]

It has been a roller coaster ride for Los Angeles breweries where COVID-19 restrictions have fluctuated wildly as this timeline shows….

• March 14 – All bars, breweries, and wineries were ordered to close for on-site consumption immediately.  LA breweries were allowed to continue to-go and delivery operations only.
• June 1 – After nearly 80 days of closed tasting rooms, Los Angeles County finally allowed breweries to reopen in Phase 2 with specific conditions that we would need to partner with a food vendor to provide meals as a prerequisite for purchasing beer for on-site consumption. *Note – most of California was reopened for phase two in mid-to-late May. 
• June 19 – After only 18 days of “Phase 2 Service,” L.A. County reopened bars and other businesses. This Phase 3 reopening also made it so that breweries were no longer required to serve meals with beer purchases.
• But “Phase 3” only lasted 10 days. 
• June 29 – With zero advanced notice, the county rolled back brewery operations – once again closing all tasting rooms. Furthermore, the county also included specific language in the updated health order that explicitly prohibited us from partnering with third-party food vendors to provide meals.
• It’s been 56 days and counting now and Los Angeles County breweries still have no timelines, guidelines, or relief in sight.

A Call to Arms

As part of its Save LA Breweries effort the guild has posted board member’s emails and is asking brewers, beer lovers and anyone interested in plain old fairness, “to send an email, post a tweet, or re-share an Instagram post”…whatever you can do to help champion their effort.