I’ll be honest. Some assignments are more fun than others. When the job calls for you to spend the day shooting in the newest Golden Road brewery in Anaheim and the afternoon culminates in a private tasting by master brewer Victor Novak, eager to share some of his latest creations, it ranks right up there. The shoot was for Georg Fischer’s in-house magazine, Globe, which was running an article on how the cooling market segment of their piping division is serving the ever-growing craft brewing industry. I was to meet the featured GF employee, Dan Strömberg, the lucky man who makes the sales calls to this particular segment, at the brewery & tap room and spend the afternoon shooting the brewing process, portraits of him and Victor, and the piping that makes it all possible. The brewery, which has yet to fully open, is only the second brewing location for the immensely successful LA company, which opened its flagship brewery and restaurant in a stretch of warehouses in Atwater Village in 2011 and was acquired by InBev only 4 years later in 2015. The building is a massive warehouse situated directly across from Angels Stadium, which will eventually house a full restaurant that I imagine will be the place to be before and after baseball games in coming years. For now though, it sits mostly empty, with some space used for two rows of 50-barrel tanks and the rest dedicated to housing pallets of beer cans and a few rows of oak barrels aging various ales. The small Taproom, however, is open to the public. Despite the acquisition this they seem to have kept their character, something that was once feared lost upon being swallowed up by a major conglomerate. In fact, the Anaheim branch will be dedicated to smaller batch, experimental brews, such as the robust ginger bread stout and a refreshingly light mango berliner weisse we got to try following the shoot. These and others were served up by Victor, accompanied by explanations of what we were drinking and insights into thought process behind each experiment. My favorites are still their line of IPA’s, including Point the Way and Heal the Bay, but nothing on the menu disappointed. Were every shoot to end this way, well frankly, I wouldn’t get much else done. But a guy can dream. If you’re in the area I recommend dropping in for a pint. And if you get to take a brewery tour, check out those pipes!
