Long Beach’s Craft Brewery Scene Keeps Expanding With Newcomer Trademark Brewing

There’s a husband and wife team opening a brewery in Long Beach this year called Trademark Brewing. This new business will open near Cambodia Town on Anaheim near Long Beach Boulevard, and is part of the wave of craft breweries in the LBC.

LA residents Ilana and Sterling Steffen secured the 20,000 square foot space last year, and just received building permits yesterday. Trademark Brewing looks ambitious, with a storefront facade and a 3,000 square feet tasting room that overlooks the manufacturing area of the brewery. There are also two mezzanines that will eventually be used for private events, an extra tasting room, or potentially an arcade with a bar.

Trademark Brewing’s beer program is broken into thirds: the first dedicated to hoppy palates; the second mostly German, Belgian, and French; and the last to sour and barrel aged beers.

Instead of running a full kitchen, the couple plan to fill their outdoor patio area with food trucks. The patio can easily fit a group of trucks, allowing patrons to order food with a beer in hand. Trademark will be implementing a no-plastics policy which includes vendors. All utensils and serving ware must be compostable or easily recycled like glass or aluminum.

Sterling’s background is in photography, and Ilana worked for the Ritz Carlton before the pair chose to open a brewery after meeting in 2013. Sterling had a serious home beer operation going before making things official. “I had a $150 home brewing kit, and was making beer in my bathtub,” he says. “The transition was when I bought an AC unit to keep the fermenting process more stable. I also had three computer-controlled refrigerators, and kept at it as much as possible so all of my recipes could be refined.”

Long Beach is on track to having a high per capita brewery rate, with the Long Beach Beer Lab opening in 2017, which announced a second location coming to North Long Beach in 2019. The process is moving along quickly, and the Sterling cites Long Beach’s business-friendly approach and friendly landlord.

Trademark Brewing
233 East Anaheim
Long Beach, CA

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