Stubby brown bottles clatter down a conveyor at Smog City Brewing Co. in Torrance, California. They’re labeled, date-coded, rinsed, and purged before some of L.A.’s favorite brews are injected by a new Italian-built GAI 3031 FE BIER bottling line. After Smog City’s seven years in business, these bottles are the first 6-packs of Smog City beer, and they represent a new chapter in the brand’s story.
“Each next step is making a huge leap,” says Cofounder Laurie Porter. Smog City has grown steadily but organically in the Golden State, establishing a large following in its Torrance taproom, expanding to Long Beach with a satellite tasting room, and feeding a steady stream of kegs to Stone Distribution for draft accounts across Los Angeles. Production increased slowly year-over-year, reaching 5,000 barrels in 2017, and the facility neared capacity. To reach their goal of brewing 12,000 barrels per year by 2023, the wife and husband team behind the brewery embarked on a marathon’s worth of next steps.
“The goal is to get our beer into more people’s hands,” says Cofounder and Brewmaster Jonathan Porter. “I don’t want our beer to be precious,” Laurie Porter adds; she wants it to be “fridge beer”—everyday bottles to enjoy on any day. While Smog City has packaged most of their core brands and many specialty releases in 500 ml bottles since 2014, they’ve never bottled their flagship IPA or their most popular beer: the crisp Little Bo Pils.