It is October but it feels a heckuva lot like Groundhog’s Day because here we go again with the City of Los Angeles.  Yet again, Eagle Rock Brewery is being hauled into another public hearing just so they can continue to operate.  For the third time in five years!  I wouldn’t wish that kind of meddling on ANY business let alone ERB which has been such a positive force in the Los Angeles craft beer community.

Though I would love to lob a few choice swear words at the bureaucracy of the city, instead I will focus on how this can bring the fans of local beer together.  And how we can help so that future breweries won’t have to go through this nonsense in the future.

If you can, show up at the hearing at the Office of Zoning Administration on Thursday, November 6 at 9 AM inside Los Angeles City Hall, Room 1020.  I would love to see case number ZA 2008-3392(CUB)(PA2) go down in the history books as the highest attended hearing.  If you cannot make it out that day, then click HERE for more information on how to add your two cents to the hearing.

The craft beer community needs to loudly and proudly (and hopefully for the last time) declare that Los Angeles could be the home of even more great brewing companies like Eagle Rock if they would simply just get out of the way and let them brew beer (which they are great at) and stop forcing them to argue their case like lawyers.

You can voice your support either in person, on the phone, or write in and let the city know what Eagle Rock Brewery means to you. (Just forgo the strong language).

Your Beer for the Week is from Quebec, Canada, and it made it south but is missing a key item: gluten. Glutenberg brews four beers in distinctively colored cans to make life easier. They wrap Blonde ale in yellow, and the IPA in hoppy green, but my picks are the two red tinted cans. The American Pale ale in the lighter red can because it won a silver medal in the 2012 World Beer Cup. Or the Red ale in the darker red which won Gold that same year.

The Homework this week is to head over to Kickstarter. Now! The documentary Blood, Sweat and Beer has two days to fully fund and this is your chance to snag either a streaming copy or actual physical DVD. This movie follows the fortunes and hard work of two East Coast breweries. And it covers how hard it can be to bring the dream of a small craft brewery to life.  You will see familiar L.A. faces popping up and talking about their personal craft beer stories. Including Eagle Rock Brewery.

Find more of Sean Inman’s writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.