Skip to Content
Drink

You All Drank 45 Gallons of Our L.A. TACO Beer In Five Hours

Our first-ever beer collaboration with ISM Brewing was a huge success, as was our three-way food collaboration with Sonoratown and ISM.

4:26 PM PDT on September 29, 2025

About one-half of the full L.A. Taco crew showing off the official L.A. Taco x ISM Brewing collaboration t-shirt!

|Ivan Fernandez

Thank you to all of you who came out in support of our first-ever beer collaboration with ISM Brewing, the L.A. TACO Deadliner West Coast Pilsner, this past Saturday, September 27.

The event and the beer were both a huge success. We raised money to continue bringing you our independent daily food and news stories that you all love, and we had fun while doing it!

We were told that people showed up during the week to get their hands on four packs of Deadliner, so thank you to our loyal fans and members for supporting us before we even formally announced it was out! Please let us know what you think of the beer in the comments or in an email! We’d love to hear from you as we consider another possible batch and or collaboration in the future.

Our beer release party was amazing. El Keamo brought the neo-cumbias all night while we got to meet and talk to many of our readers, supporters, and paying members. We are all incredibly grateful for all of your support.

El Keamo. Photo by Ivan Fernandez for L.A. TACO.

We want to thank Sonoratown for donating all the carne asada, tripas, and cabeza for our one-of-a-kind collaboration, including a cabeza burger and costilla fries, prepared by ISM's chef Bobby Gill. It was a huge hit and you all sold out all the burgers for the night, and almost the fries too. We also want to thank Taquería Frontera, who showed up to support us and help us drink all the beer.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone at ISM Brewing for making this craft beer dream a reality. Thank you, Ian McCall, founder of ISM, and brewers Gene Wagoner and Jose "Chepe" Perez, for creating our first official beer and upholding it to your award-winning standards. Independent game recognize game! Thank you to their lead beertender, Ivan Rodriguez, for planting the seed and making the beer possible. Lastly, thanks to their day-one supporter Jesse "Cozmic Sound" Martinez for introducing L.A. TACO to ISM in the first week they opened.

It was "beer destiny."

It was a pleasure working with the entire crew! Cheers to another collaboration project soon!

About one-half of the full L.A. TACO crew is showing off the official L.A. TACO x ISM Brewing collaboration t-shirt!Ivan Fernandez
Deadliner is still available at ISM. Ivan Fernandez

L.A. TACO is happy to report that there are still 180 four-packs left of Deadliner! Available at ISM or online anywhere in California. Reminder that L.A. TACO members get $1.50 off! Claim your discount by scanning the QR code sent via our member newsletter on Monday, September 22. There is also enough of it on draft at the brewery to last about two more weeks, so if you missed out this Saturday, you're in luck.

See you all at the next member meetup!

More Stories

L.A.’s 12 Best Panaderías For Pan De Muerto During Dia De Los Muertos

Los Angeles has the best pan de muerto scene in the country, from sourdough and vegan variations, to recipes that have been passed down through generations. Here are 12 panaderías around L.A. where you can find the fluffy, gently spiced, sugar-dusted pan dulce that is as delicious as it is crucial to the Dia de Muertos Mexican tradition.

October 21, 2026

Why Would Anyone Spend $200 on This Single Cup of Coffee?

Each ticket to the tasting cost $250 and included coffee and water—no food. Plus, a guided tasting by leading coffee expert, creator, and SEY staffer Lance Hendrick.

October 20, 2026

A Woody Guthrie Guitar, a 1776 Print of the Declaration of Independence, and Much More Are Now On View at The Huntington

You'll breathe in the scent of 15 oak tree species, manzanita, native Toyon, and more than 5,000 plants as you walk the grounds to arrive, too.

October 20, 2026

L.A. TACO’s 2026 Voter Guide

If you’re one of the million Californians who depend on federal funding for healthcare and not one of the roughly 250 billionaires living here, you’ve got a hell of a lot more to gain from reading all the way through. You’ll find someone or something that you agree with, or at the very least, someone to vote against. (Today, Monday, October 19, is the last day to register to vote.)

October 19, 2026

Sunday Taquitos #35: The A.I. Bubble Bursts

Sunday Taquitos! Art by Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ivan Ehlers.

October 18, 2026

Why Are So Many Restaurants Using A.I. for Menus Now?

I already miss the era of gloriously sticky menus, coated with years of grease and who knows what else, and a menu behind the counter with pixelated photos, overexposed plates, low-quality clipart, and typos galore.

October 16, 2026