Craft beer crisis: LA County’s zigzagging regulations threaten to kill the South Bay brewery industry
King Harbor Brewing founder Tom Dunbabin at his 182nd street brewery in Redondo Beach. Photo by JP Cordero On June 29, when Governor Gavin Newsom announced that many businesses that had previously been allowed to reopen would once again face restrictions or closures due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, he likened the process of reopening California to a dimmer switch. The idea was meant to convey that the reopening process would not move in one direction, but instead be subject to changes in both directions in different industries and areas of the state depending on COVID-19 numbers. “The approach is a dimmer switch, and that approach is different in each county,” Newsom said. “We don’t like the trend line.” Newsom issued a watchlist of 19 counties that would face new partial closures. Seven of those counties, including LA County, were ordered to shut down indoor restaurants and bars. When the California Department of Public Health issued its order specific to businesses on July 1, it said all breweries would be shut down for on-site sales. It was a shocking reversal. Throughout the pandemic, breweries had not been closed outright but had been able to sell beer to go. Three weeks…
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