Los Angeles

I am going to go to Los Angeles end of January with my wife and a small child in tow. In any case was wondering if anyone had any current intel on what is good, worth going to in that city. I presume we will hit the heavy hitters like Monkish, Highland Park and the like. We are probably going to go to Cerveceria Del Pueblo in Pasadena, as we will stay in that city for a bit. I definitely want to go to Beechwood in Long Beach and might visit Brouwerij West if down there as well. Also, wondering if anyone knows the best spots of Latin American craft down there. I know some Mexican brewers are sending more stuff across the border, but was wondering if anyone knew of any other brewers.

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This is a decent start for planning ‘stuff’. I know Fred Waltman and he’s a good bloke.

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I was there couple of years ago and this comes purely from my one “visit from finland”-perspective.

  • Bruery/Bruery Terreaux/Bottle Logic definitely MUST and 3 great places near each other. Bruery sites had tasters but all beers very strong so hard for your liver. Excellent beers.

  • Beachwood was more like noisy food restaurant and blendery is closed (?) so I would skip these.

Janne

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Will peruse (actually already have for a bit).

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I was also going to say that Beachwood Seal Beach was excellent but looks like it is permanently closed because of corona
 so sad.

Janne

It looks like the Beachwood Tap Room in Long Beach has a bunch of the blendery beers available plus about 20 of their own as well, but the blendery being open would have definitely been nice.

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What styles are you looking for beyond “Latin American” craft beer? This may help with additional suggestions. Sorry I’m not sure I can help you on that front.

I try to get to So Cal each year, but skipped this year due to all the mask mandates.

My first piece of advise is plan for the infamous traffic, don’t be too ambitious in terms of trying to cover many disparate places in a single day. Pick one area each day and try to hit a few within the area.

I definitely recommend Beachwood if you are looking for solid WCIPAs (Melrose, Amalgamator) and other styles. It’s my favorite LA area brewery.

Monkish and Highland Park are solid choices for what they brew. Homage is near Pasadena and worth visiting. Firestone Walker Venice is near LAX for a stop heading toward the airport if you like what they brew.

Monkish’s second location in Anaheim just opened if you’re headed that way. Bottle Logic, Green Cheek and The Bruery are recommended locations for what they brew in that area if you are headed to Anaheim.

Hope this helps, will reply with alternatives if I catch a response with different styles beyond the usual suspects (WCIPA, NEIPA, BA Stouts) you may be looking to enjoy.

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And my LA beer journey comes off to a strong start with me spilling the below beer on my passport and daughter’s baby books.

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Somehow on my third day I have so far drank only Stone and Russian River. Apparently, in Pasadena, there is a Shell gas station with a great beer selection:

https://www.instagram.com/arroyoshell/?ig_mid=C901A066-4398-445D-8F74-4B3B807C4D29&utm_source=igweb&fall_back_to_web=false&launch_app_store=true

Picked up four random craft cans for the cost of 4-pack in NYC. They also had a big selection of Bottle Logic and Fremont stouts, which might not be impressive, but is impressive for a gas station.

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So here is a brief recap:

The LA beer scene is so different from NYC. Here are a bunch of ways:

  1. Big regional brewer outposts. I went to Firestone Walker, Stone and Modern Times tap rooms in LA. I do not think NYC has any none NYC breweries anymore (used to have Paulaner and Svendale).

  2. West Coast IPAs are everywhere. A number of
    Breweries actually have more IPAs on tap than hazies.

  3. Fruited Sours. I saw a delightful lack of fruited and smoothie sours.

  4. Lack of 4 ounce pours. While a number of breweries did offer these. I noticed that plenty of places only did halfs or fulls (and at least one only fulls).

A few comments on places:

Beachwood BBQ and Brewing: I will have to disagree with @VastActiv as this place was great. Tons of Blendery beers available and a huge to-go selection on top of their normal beers.

Monkish: they have a backyard now. Vastly improved. Going there is a real treat because all their Belgians that hazeboiz don’t care about are there.

Firestone Walker - Propagator: not even on RB yet, but was a pleasant surprise visit.

All Season Brewing Company: also a new place. Not great beer, but fills a niche in a neighborhood that was bereft of beer.

There were a lot of places I had on my list but did not end up going. Hopefully LA will be there when I get back.

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