Life Is Brew-tiful at the 4th Annual Taste of Brews Long Beach, Featuring 50 Craft Breweries, Local Bands and Gourmet Food Trucks on Sat, Aug 23 in Long Beach, CA

Taste of Brews features many popular craft beers like Stone, Golden Road, Karl Strauss and Firestone. Area breweries include Rock Bottom, Beachwood, Belmont, San Pedro and Strand Brewing Co. Notable to the festival this year are several breweries from San Diego, the craft beer capital of California: Ballast Point, Pizza Port and Coronado Brewing.

Gourmet food trucks include Viking Truck, Porko Rico, Urban Pie, Dogzilla, Slammin' Sliders and Bacon Mania, along with restaurant samples from Stonefire Grill, Slaters 50/50 and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

"We're coming back bigger and better for our Fourth Annual Taste of Brews," said event director Jennifer Hernandez. "We like to think of ourselves as the original and traditional Long Beach beer festival, and promise to deliver dozens of local and out-of-area breweries for our attendees to enjoy."

New this year, Taste of Brews introduces their Craft Beer Chase: a social media-powered scavenger hunt that drives traffic to participating breweries. Aimed to be a "thank you" for the breweries that provide beer to the event, Taste of Brews will issue a weekly photo challenge via Facebook and Twitter, along with choosing random winners all week long. Prizes include brewery products, growlers, Taste of Brews' tickets and event credit, and custom Taste of Brews' products. The Craft Beer Chase runs July 21 to August 17. For details, visit http://www.tasteofbrews.com/tobcbc.html.

Taste of Brews is a charity event that benefits the Long Beach Marine Institute and the 1st Marine Division. Pricing currently starts at $32.50 for the 3-hour session (1pm to 4pm) and $42.50 for the 4-hour session (noon to 4pm) which includes beer "tastes," drinking water, food samples (while available), access to food trucks (separate fee) and live entertainment. Attendees must be 21 or older. A limited number of designated driver tickets are available at the door for $20.

Lighthouse Park is located at 200 Aquarium Way in Long Beach; parking is $7 at the Pike Parking Structure. For information or to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.tasteofbrews.com.