Craft Beer Fest L.A. debuts: by and for local beer geeks

The newly created Los Angeles Craft and Artisanal Beer Appreciation League (LA Cabal) has announced the first annual Craft Beer Fest L.A. on May 9 at the Echoplex.

The Craft Beer Fest will be an all-day benefit for 826LA, the groovy tutoring organization founded by writer Dave Eggers. It's a locally-organized, grassroots-style event with an emphasis on quality craft brews and food to go with it. Highlights include:

• Vegan food from Pure Luck
• beer cupcakes
• beer gelato from Scoops
• burritos from the Burrito Project
• Beer and cheese pairings from Hot Knives
  
• and beer strictly from California craft brewers such as The Bruery, Craftsman, Firestone Walker, Hangar 24, Port Brewing, Lost Abbey, Sierra Nevada, Telegraph and more.
  

Tickets are an extremely reasonable $30, with all beer and food included as well as four bands. Hot Knives' Evan George says the event is meant to foster a craft beer community in L.A. and geared to beer connoisseurs, and will be the first of many events. "It's a bunch of beer geeks forming a non-profit," he explains.
LA Cabal sounds like an awesome idea, and was founded by Ben at Pure Luck, Alex Macy, formerly of Red Carpet now of Bottle Rock Downtown, Bob Kunz of Father's Office, Hot Knives and Kevin at Artisanal Ales.

Yes, there's another beer fest coming up:
Don't get confused: There also Drink.Eat.Play's L.A. Beer Fest going on April 4 and 5 in Culver City -- but the more beer the better, right?