Category: Where to go…

bottle shops, pubs and breweries

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Review – NoHo Hop Merchants

Last week, I gave you the heads-up about Hop Merchants, well here are some photos and a quick review….

Just past the big street-wide NoHo banner on Lankershim is the rectangular space that Hop merchants calls home. With a brick wall on one side and nicely framed beer art / beer education posters on the walls, it is a nice space to drink in. There is an L shaped bar with a medium amount of seating and table seating closer to the sunshiney front window.

There are 16 taps and on opening day it was straight up LA beer only, the cooler and the “dry” storage were only partially full but even if stocked up would not be as much beer to-go as Craft Beer Cellar in Eagle Rock or Sunset Beer Co. The stocking is still “in progress” and my guess is that more coolers will need to be added at the expense of some seating.

The beer pricing is good and the selection was wide-ranging without being too IPA tilted. You can even order up 10oz pours which I appreciate. I had the Trustworthy IPA and a Vienna lager from Pocock Brewing which were served up well.

Next time I am in the neighborhood, I will check them out.

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First Draft

I am usually wary of self-pour beer bars. Minus Brewport in El Segundo, they are generally way too infested with big beer.

I am also wary of out of state chains heading to DTLA because I have been waiting for the Alamo Drafthouse to open since forever and it still isn’t.

Did my visit during a media night preview of First Draft. A taproom and kitchen change my mind?

It did. I knew it was a good place by the tap choices spread over their multitude of tap handles. They were primarily local. Old Stump, Sanctum, L.A.A.W., Phantom Carriage, Green Cheek, Eagle Rock plus a few taps for cider, wine and the kombucha for those who like vinegar. Even their cooler held a small selection of good choices.

The pouring system is pretty simple. Get set-up with a card, swipe in front of the First Draft logo, you see the green means go light and you pour. A little or a lot. The taps are arrayed on either side of this cooler…

…with a few taps upstairs as well. There is outdoor seating and a nice food menu.

I sampled this wide ranging set of beers to give you an idea of the choices available…
Brewery Rex Study in Subtly table beer, Wiretap Supernet Saison, Maine Beer Woods & Waters IPA and Knee Deep Breaking Bud.

The location below on Olive and 13th is away enough from the DTLA core to make parking a shade easier but still pretty close to Staples and the Mayan and the Ace Hotel if you are heading to events there.

I will check it out again to see what beers have rotated in.

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Renovations Day – Cellador seating

Imagine my surprise to wander into one of my favorite L.A. beer makers, Cellador to find that they have a lovely new-ish seating arena…

…the entry has new signage on the window, groovy wallpaper is up to set the mood, there are really comfortable chairs and prints on the wall that take parts of their well-designed labels and blown up sections of them into abstract art.

The beer menus have been redesigned and the order desk, while still mobile, looks more updated and professional than before.

The space is now matching the excellence of the wild and tart Beers being poured.

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Renovations Day – Patio of Angels


Los Angeles kind of demands outdoor patios but liquor laws tend to push beer inside. So many signs say “No beer past this point”. Now Angel City is finally constructing an outdoor drinking space to augment their Public House in the Arts District.

All of the paperwork took a year to get to this point so the outdoor space will open in January (it will probably be sunny). There will be “picnic tables, green space, more room for art, and a brand new fire pit created by Arts District-based sculptor David Hollen.”

And since they were in build mode anyway, Angel City decided to add a brand new grain silo. With a 200,000 pounds of grain capacity.

You can have a beer and see the construction phase, then return next year for the unveiling.

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North Hollywood Hop Merchants

I am a fan of the bottle shop tap room, nothing I like more than browsing the bottles and cans with a pint in hand. And the SoCal area is getting a new one, this time in North Hollywood…5013 Lankershim Boulevard to be precise.

Hop Merchants will have 16 rotating taps of local beer as well as 300+ bottles and cans to choose from.

Expect a review sometime after they open on October 20th.

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2nd Visit – Enegren Brewing

Sunday is the best time to beer travel in Los Angeles. There is still traffic but I plan my longer trips for this day. I also like leftovers days, those days after a big event. You might not get the “it” beer but you almost always find a chill vibe.

That is all preamble to my trip to Moorpark and Enegren Brewing for what is either my 2nd or 3rd visit. I have had their beers in between visits of course, especially now that they can (with their very own machine no less) and I can pick up their German inspired beers closer to home.

This Sunday was the day after Oktoberfest and the tents and chairs and signs were being brought down as I walked in. A few people had beat me there but I saw a nice full tap list and got to talking with Chris Enegren himself which is always fun.

I took to the lighter options more than the darker ones on this visit. Edel-Pils was my favorite with a lovely potpourri aroma and bright clear finish. The Rasenmaher Bier (AKA lanwmower beer) was quite good too. It had a quick lemony hop hit and then finished simpler which is great for our continued hot days. The aptly named The Lightest One is a great Fall sports beer. One of those that you look down and it’s half empty.

The Oktoberfest and Dunkel were nice examples of the style. Simple and direct. Whereas the Blondefire was pure BBQ smoke. If you like that Bambergian Rauchbier, this is a balanced (for a smoke beer) version. All of the beers gave me renewed confidence to pick up their canned offerings when I see them.

Enegren has more plans in the making, including expanding their space on Flinn Avenue as well as other growth as well. Just don’t go looking for hazy, unless you are hankering for a hefeweizen.

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On the Corridor


It isn’t just me that has noticed that driving, biking, bus riding on San Fernando Boulevard can get you to many a great beer and now there is an official Beer Trail Guide for this stretch of LA road.

To launch the guide there will be Craft Beer Corridor Tap Takeover and Beer Trail launch party will be at Empire Tavern in Burbank (on San Fernando of course) on November 3rd @ 6:00pm. You will be able to Meet the Brewers and owners from all 8 featured breweries.

From top to bottom, the route is 17 miles though there will be detours since CalTrans has been working around the Empire Center for what seems a hundred years with no end seemingly in sight. So you will have to jog onto Victory Boulevard a bit but that does put you near a couple Burbank breweries.

Hit up the Hashtag #CraftBeerCorridorLA while on the trail and if you visit all 8 Breweries, you win a special glass. Which you should probably do sooner, rather than later, considering that more breweries might get added.

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A Barn in West Sac

photo by Kelly Huston from the CraftBeer.com website

I have a lot of catch up, brewery wise in the Sacramento area but after seeing the photo above, I may just want to stay in The Barn that Drake’s Brewery is going to open.

“The Barn,” looks both old and space aged and somewhat Gehry-esque and with the open air aspect could be a great place to relax and enjoy a beer and some food.

Per the article on CraftBeer.com there will be indoor areas (pods) that will have pizza or cocktails.

Also there is “30,000 square feet of lawn, an outdoor bar, six fire pits and two stages for shows and concerts. The Barn will also include an in-house food truck called “Yo Lo, Slow and Low” (Yolo as in the county in which West Sac is located) which will feature tri-tip sandwiches. There is also space for six or more visiting food trucks.”

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Sessionable in Portland (how about LAX)


File this post under, What is in Portland but I hope will come to Los Angeles. Sessionable is a pub in the Rose City that serves up, well, the title tells the tale, beers under the 5% ABV.

In a nod to hop culture, there are a few of the 30 taps that are over that mark. Most of the IPA variety with some ciders thrown in brings the total to 17 but that is still not bad.

I personally think that L.A. could support a taphouse with 10 or so under 5.5%.