Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
bottle shops, pubs and breweries
One of my bottle shops stops is Talon Tap & Wine in Eagle Rock. Friendly people, you have a great selection that you can buy single cans of and there is a nice little bar in the back if you want to catch a game.
And this year, they are turning 5! There will be a special day of celebration for it on Saturday, October 5th.
I am a beer traveler. When I go to a destination, part of my prep is a list of breweries to visit. That list will always be too long. Part of the reason why is that there are guides like San Diego Beer News that put a lot onto a plate.
And since fall is a great time to travel with fares down from summer highs until the holidays hit, you should check out the guides again since I have already told you about them before.
There are new ones out though!
You can start HERE with the local San Diego breweries.
Then head HERE for the rest of the U.S.
I have another Instagram handle for L.A. craft beer fans to follow. @laaleworks_hermosa.
Los Angeles Ale Works will debut their 3rd location in Hermosa Beach in 2025. You can check out the announcement video HERE.
It might be a little past Oktoberfest season but we can easily look past that minor faux pas as ever creative Long Beach Beer Lab is combining the fest atmosphere with their 7th anniversary, making October 20th a two-fer.
One of the most unique beer festivals out there is Firkenstein, the ghoulish themed cask ale festival from Greg Nagel.
It has a great location in the park area between the Anaheim Packing House and Monkish Brewing. It always has a great roster of brewery attendees and is always a well run event.
Even the most optimistic of Sean’s looked askance when not one but two breweries opened next door to each other on Maple Drive in Monrovia.
Unfortunately, first Wingwalker Brewing called it quits and now Over Town Brewing is pouring its last beers on October 5th. So, if you want to make a last visit, make it soon.
I was able to visit both and they were fine but they never seemed to break out further and were behind the more established Pacific Plate in Monrovia and even they are sadly no longer with us. With those three losses comes an opportunity for a brewery since that city is no clear.
There is always room for a first in the craft beer game and I have heard about one that is in the start-up phase in North Carolina that I would have thought would be way more of a stereotypical California thing, a craft brewery and wellness center combined.
BrewWell will have beer for your liver and a variety of mindful services for the rest of your body. As you can tell from that last sentence, I am a bit dubious about this concept. But maybe it is something where you have a group of people that split up into, team beer and team spa.
Frogtown is an area of Los Angeles that I would not have pegged for a brewery. Tiny streets, near the L.A. River, hemmed in by freeways. But Frogtown Brewery has made it work for eight years now and have a weekend party scheduled for the first weekend in October.
If you need more than one day to properly fest, well Benny Boy Brewing has a whole weekend planned for you and whomever holds your stein for you….
On the 21st, if you are looking to get fest-bier-ive, head to North Hollywood and Hop Merchants ( maybe they should re-brand ad Fest Merchants that day ) for their Oktoberfest celebrations.
You will get the usual pretzels and stein holding but they will also have great Okto drafts too.