Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
bottle shops, pubs and breweries
Eagle Rock Brewery has beer in quite a few fine bottle shops as well as the Disney Concert Hall, where you will find their L.A. Phil Pilsner, so you can support the arts and drink good too. So grab tickets to a concert of your choice in the remaining 23-24 season.
Ales for ALS has been chugging along with special beers across the U.S. and now a RV will ply the highways and byways to spread the word even further and visit participating breweries along the way.
You can read more HERE.
The mini Lucky Baldwins empire annually pours Christmas beers at is pubs and you still have time to hit up one and see what winter warmer leftovers you can find.
Last year, my wife and I spent Christmas at the wonderful Inn at the Mission in San Juan Capistrano. This year, I went back for a beer and cocktail trip just before the big holiday with my beer buddy Richard to see a different side and visit new places.
Starting in Oceanside where within a ten minute drive you can find SouthO, Heritage, and two or three others that I didn’t note but my stop was Bagby Beer Co. which was great on two counts.
First, the beer list is long and super diverse and as would be expected from multiple medal wins, supremely solid across the board. (plus they had a cool list of holiday cocktails and slushies). I had Apres Surf, a super low ABV coastal ale that had fragrant pear notes, Brugges Cruise an OK wintry Belgian Strong, Worker Bee a reliable honey ale and my winner, WEYEsbeer a hefe collaboration with Bierstadt Lagerhaus.
The second count is that there is only an alleyway separating you from the Oceanside Bottlecraft location with cans and bottles to go and an impressive beer list. If there was a hotel next door, it would be a trifecta.
Despite a pair of false starts due to out of date, straight up false hours of operation info, we also hit up Delahunt Brewing in Dana Point and another D brewery, Docent Brewing in south San Juan Capistrano.
I am partial to the latter because of their grilled cheese and tomato soup combo and excellent barrel-aged beers but the two half pours of IPAs that I got at Delahunt were quite good.
Praise the traffic gods who cleared the path and thanks to Pizza Port – San Clemente for being an excellent Plan B of pizza goodness.
Wingwalker Brewing will be shutting down and closing the taps as of 12/30/23 so if you want to raise a glass to the Monrovia brewery, you had better get going.
I have to hand it to Arts District Brewing for having the temerity to hold beer competitions for styles that just are not on tap at most breweries. And they are back at it again with the 2023 Schwarz-mas.
On December 10th they will put on their annual Dark Lager celebration.
Here is the info: “We’ve gathered a ton of our favorite breweries and each will submit a craft Schwarzbier. We have an amazing panel of judges come through and we crown the best one. The best part is, YOU can come and try them all and vote for your favorite. Schwarzbier tends to be malty with chocolate and coffee notes, it averages around 5% ABV —so you can try a few! We’re so excited for all the amazing breweries joining us, and more to be announced soon. May the Schwarziest win!”
Pine Street is both a prime and not so much prime location in Long Beach. A city that has a few micro cool neighborhoods outside the downtown core which has some not so nice spots.
Which makes Altar Society so needed and different. It is not just a brewery but a coffee shop and an event space. An all day one stop shop. And it was hopping. I grabbed a two top near the front after getting my first beer which was the All Seeing IPA. It was not bad. Mid pack which is not a bad start. You can tell a lot by an IPA from a new-ish brewery.
The space is large. And there are some great seats that overlook the fermenters on the floor below. They have a nice selection of styles including seltzers so it makes a good spot for a wide group range.
My second beer was the one that I had my eye on. A stout made with the coffee from their sister coffee shop. I did like that and appreciated that it was a low ABV version as well.
Brewyard Beer Co. has reached their 8th Anniversary under the overpass in Glendale. These guys throw a good party too. So in addition to new beer and new collaborations there will be music and food and you might find a seat next to the Brewyard truck to sip your beer.
Trustworthy Brewing is the meeting place for the newly formed Burbank Books & Brews bookclub. It was organized by a Trustworthy bartender too.
The second Thursday of every month out on the back patio will be the reserved space and the books have been Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q, Sutanto in November and on Thursday, December 14th the book is The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara A. Davis. If those choices interest you, check it out.
With the loss of Sunset Beer Co. years ago, I have had to expand my beer shopping radius and one of the places that I have added is Altadena Beverage.
It fits into that boutique food store niche which generally tilts to the alcohol and N/A beverages. But this place has a nice mix of beers. Homage, Highland Park and just oddity beers that you don’t see elsewhere which makes a fun hunt. Plus some neat food options as well. And boy howdy do they schedule pop-ups. Coffee, free tastings, sandwiches. Worth a follow to see the vendors.
Just look at what I recently got…
This is a great store to find out if the ordinary beer and other fun beverage gifts.