Nearly 170 craft breweries and thousands of brewers, beer geeks, and beverage industry folks will be invading our shores as the Californian Craft Beer Summit and its accompanying beer festival come to Long Beach for the first time.

Historically held in Sacramento and hosted by the California Craft Brewers Association, the move to Long Beach come Sept. 12 through 14 of next year was twofold: For one, the Sacramento convention space the summit typically occupies will be under renovation next year, forcing the summit to find a temporary new home. Secondly, it is befitting to have the summit visit another place in California—especially Long Beach, whose history in independent beer is both rich and lengthy—considering the state and all its various regions have ultimately led the country’s independent beer renaissance.

Add to this two celebrations—the association’s 30th anniversary and the summit’s fifth anniversary—and you have yourself the perfectly hopped event.

“For our anniversary event, we want to showcase the culture and community of craft beer across the state of California,” stated Tom McCormick, Executive Director of the association. “We’re taking the craft beer culture we’ve built over the last 30 years and bringing that culture on tour across the Golden State. What’s more iconic than a road trip to a brewery? How about a road trip to three days of beer education and tastings from 170 breweries?”

If past summits and festivals are any indication, there will be a bit of everything for everyone across the beer spectrum.

For the industry folks, direct conversations with bottlers, distributors and marketers take place.

For the brewers, face-to-face interactions with not only other brewers, but folks who are masters in their own gastronomical fields like chefs and sommeliers.

And for the drinkers, there is a festival that will provide four hours of unlimited pours from a huge portion of the country’s best breweries (including our very own Beachwood Brewing and Beachwood Blendery, which will now have the comfort of moving their product across the street for this event rather than up the coast).

“This is a milestone for the CCBA and the California Craft Beer Summit,” stated Chris Cramer, CEO and co-founder of Karl Strauss Brewing Co. and president of the association’s board of directors. “Going into our fifth year of the event, we want to showcase to the entire state who and what we represent. California has defined craft beer over the years and ours is an iconic industry for the Golden State. Taking the Summit on tour is the best way to share the good news of craft beer throughout California.”

The California Craft Beer Summit will take place Sept. 12 through 14 in 2019 and will take place at the Long Beach Convention Center. More information on specifics will be released in early 2019.

Brian Addison is a columnist and editor for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.