Video produced by Denise Toledo

The beer scene in Los Angeles is fairly young. Some of LA's veteran breweries only date back to 2011. However, in that short span of time, LA has churned out some of the coolest, most diverse brews created from some of the coolest, most diverse brewers. On this episode of "Beer Artisan," we see how LA’s young breweries have fostered a tightly-knit community with brewers who are not afraid to push the envelope.

Frances Lopez is the executive director of the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild. Formally founded in 2013, the LABG is a federally recognized nonprofit organization that works to promote and protect local independently-owned craft breweries. In order to properly advocate for the community, Lopez has built strong relationships with breweries across LA such as Smog City.

Smog City began brewing in October 2011 using Tustin Brewing’s brewpub to distribute their brews to restaurants and bars throughout Los Angeles County. This allowed head brewmaster Jonathan Porter and the team to establish a presence in the craft beer community.

“We started by renting a warehouse nearby and sort of brewing and selling and delivering on the weekends, and after work, and that paid off in dividends, because by the time we opened the doors here. we already had a reputation,” he said.