The Hopped beer website has been pumping the gas on this new brewery for months now. None of their canned line has made it over to the Valley so, the first weekend they were open for guests, I headed there with fellow beer fan Richard to scope out the beachy taproom of Malibu Brewing Company.
Here is the 1st Visit report….
Upscale barn meets PCH version of a strip mall. The restaurant and taproom (brewing operations are in Westlake Village) is in a development leaning heavily into the distressed wood look. There is a small bar area and a medium amount of seating inside and out.
There is a two side list of beers which is a quantity not normally seen in a just opened tap list. Granted they have been packaging their core beers for a few months but impressive even if discounting the Zima, sorry, Zuma hard seltzer.
I had a custom flight of a Schwarzbier, plum Porter, IPA and a Hoppy Rice Lager + their hazy DIPA. Pours are not badly priced considering it is near the beach. Look at the ounces key though. All slimmed down. You cannot order a pint!
That said, the quality of my five beers and the consensus of the table was that everything was solid. A new brewery almost always has a clunker or two or a bent to doing one style better than others. This menu had a hatch chile beer and a Rose lager in addition to others and all were good.
Sitting outside was great for people watching and nice after some roasty temperatures. The food was good as well.
If you need an escape from L.A. proper then you will find a lot to like here.