Tag: 1st visit

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1st Visit – Ambitious Ales

Feel like I am close to knocking out all the new Long Beach breweries as I visited Ambitious Ales recently.

Ambitious Ales is located in the former home of Tuttle Cameras. The concrete floor is offset by the wood striped chairs and bar and the beams high above in the ceiling. Good use of a cool splash of primary colors opposite the taps. There are quirky signage touches and the requisite barrel display.

The beer menu signs are classy and simple if a skosh too small. Would have been good to have some paper menus around to use. I like the bright white backdrop for the unadorned taps and the wordless logo on the glassware as well.

Fleurs
Heavy on the chamomile but real nice. The lavender pokes through but not so much the strawberry. Mocktail adjacent

I Like Tuttles
Simple Saison with California grown wheat. Has the Belgian character right. Clove and tiny banana note.

Hopped on Phonics
Big grapefruit notes. Real nice aroma. Quite hoppy for a session IPA

I have 1st visited a few new breweries this year but this is the first one that has really impressed me. All three beers were excellent, the staff were helpful and they had cold brew coffee and a soda option as well.

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1st Visit – Over Town Brewing

I jumped over to my valley town to another (Glendale to Monrovia) to check out yet another new brewery, Over Town Brewing. Here are my thoughts….

I had high hopes upon entering Over Town Brewing for the first time. The outside had the logo high and proud. Nice color scheme. Inside the space is filled with little and big signs of beach and road culture of Los Angeles. Highlighted by a big wooden Hermosa Beach sign that is a prime selfie spot.

Smartly, they were not doing flights or other odd sized pours. Just half’s and fulls. So I went down the list and selected what I thought would be easy hits. Pale Ale, West Coast IPA and a white ale. I skipped over the overly fruity and since it was hot, I also skipped the bigger beers. The plan was sound but the beers were all below mediocre. The Pale Ale had a tangerine puree quality to it. The White Ale needed extra spice push and the IPA tasted young to my palate.

Hopefully, the recipes will be honed with time and feedback.

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1st Visit – Border X

Mark visiting a brewery in the City of Bell off my list as last weekend, I made my 1st visit to Border X Brewing.

Right across the street from the Bell House is the expansive corner space of San Diego born, Border X Brewing. The brewery opened this weekend with a slate of festivities from political speakers, a blessing ceremony, some serious drumming skills and big crowds.

The big space has a large balcony a long bar stacked with branded merchandise and lots of great art on the wall.  There is actual parking in back too as well as some unfinished sections of the space.

There were 13 taps flowing at the start and only one was an IPA.  But there was Horchata, hibiscus, pepino, agave and a laundry list of ingredients that you don’t normally see in beer and certainly not in one space outside of say, Pacific Plate.

I should have ordered the taster tray of four.  The tray was well constructed and gave a bridge effect.  I went straight for the Biere de Garde since I so rarely see that style then went back and waited in the slow moving opening day line for the Horchata Golden Stout.  Below are my little capsule reviews:

Biere de Bohrder

pours orange, Big sweet agave notes, Caramel, notes of nuttiness, ABV kicks in with each sip

Horchata Golden Stout

Cinnamon, spice, Big ABV tasting, Not as sweet as expected, A bit silky. 

I look forward to seeing their beers on tap around town and to sampling a wider range of their beers.

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1st Visit – Burnin Daylight

I made my first official visit to Lomita recently.  Traveling for beer does indeed force one to parts of Los Angeles that you may see only on freeway exit signs.  This time I am drinking my first beers from Burnin’ Daylight which occupies a new development block on Narbonne Street.

Right off the bat I notice two things: One, they have a kitchen with a short food menu which is nice and second, the place was damn cold.  So cold that blankets were being passed out.  The A/C must have decided to work extra overtime.  There is a nice amount of outdoor over a barrel seating and upcycled malt bag pillows inside that make the place homey.

There was a good spectrum of beer styles on offer from the civic named Lomita Light Lager to a Bourbon-Barrel aged stout and IPA’s in-between. I enjoyed the Wheat Mas wheat driven IPA.  It had a bright hoppy flavor and a bit of strength behind it too.  The Gold Days Coffee Milt Stout was a little green coffee bean tasting for the style but coffee lovers like myself are bound to find it tasty nonetheless.  The Small Town Feel DIPA was on track doubling up Citra and Simcoe though it was a little too tongue scrapey old school West Coast (or I have gotten soft).  The least favorite was the Appian Amber.  This is a style that should be easily executed, clean and crisp but this had a weird aftertaste going on that was not my thing.

Overall, I like the feel of the place and for a new brewery, they seemed to be on track with the beers. They are also not too far from the other South Bay breweries so it is easy to add this to the beginning or end of a trip or to make a specific choice to come.

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1st Visit – Liberation Brewing

I like to sneak in an end of the year brewery visit and this year I took advantage of the holiday light traffic and pointed towards Liberation Brewing in Long Beach for a 1st visit.

The taproom was pretty quiet when I entered so I had my pick of seats at the bar.  There was weird mural-type art around the edges with Star Wars characters the ones that I recognized. Then in another seating area were hung B&W prints on one wall presumably of early Long Beach.

Good music was playing and the staff was quick and attentive in getting my order and my two flights to me.  Each flight was 3 for $8. The beer descriptors were clever with at least on in-joke spotted amongst the 12 beers on tap. I thought the bomb shaped flight paddle was a good touch as well.

On to the beers that I sampled:

Diane – Hallertau Blanc always catches my eye. Pale with a nice light bitterness, light lemon and malt comes through
Roy G Biv – Strata Hop is becoming a go-to as well. Hazy IPA really with a great aroma aroma. Bright and lightly bitter. Little cat pee to it Concord grape
Father’s Shout – milk stout well done. Solid. Creaminess was good
Simon Saison Peach – not much rye. Peach was a little too candy for me. My least favorite of the group
Red Rose Dunkel – good to see a dunkelweizen on the menu. this version was sweet smelling but flavor is sharp and bright. Could be a skosh heavier malt wise
Maddy– new hazy pale nice. A little sharp. Fruit punch. Not sold on the aroma.

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1st Visit – Imperial Western Beer Co. at Union Station


I chose a rare wet and windy day to Gold Line myself to Union Station to make my first visit to the new-ish Imperial Western Beer Co. Part of the 213 Hospitality Group and sister brewery to Arts District Brewing a few blocks away. I had super high hopes for ADBC which is fine but hasn’t really super impressed me. That left me wondering how the beer would be here. On the flip side, the photos from various websites were fantastic looking Well, expectations are just that. The space is smaller and less grand than the shiny photos made it look. Don’t get me wrong, the space looks really nice. There is a good amount and different seating set-ups and you can’t go wrong with the look and architecture of the space. There is a weird little front bar that is part (not working yet) coffee bar and host/hostess stand that I think would be better utilized for more seating. At the rectangle bar near the kitchen there is a businessman with ear piece, travelers coming in for a quick beer and local workers. The oyster special seems a big draw, saw three sixers of the slimy things go by. (Not a oyster fancier am I)

And while the surroundings were fine the four beers from the quite large selection sampled were good to above average. I would pick IWBC or ADBC based on this initial taster tray. Below are my quick takes on the beers…

Table Manners Patersbier
Nice Belgian character. A little sharp. Banana prominent. A bit viscous on the palate

Calliope Hazy IPA
Bright fruit character. Haze has left. Concord grape. Nice medium hop hit.

Union Station Pale Lager
Lots of grain and corn. Smooth and easy to drink. Really light yellow.

Fred Harvey Hefe
Not super hefe’y. The Table Manners has more banana. Might have gotten the beers flipped? Couldn’t quite tell from the color.

Lastly, I tried the new…
Some S’mores Stout
Arts District will do the More version. A serviceable Stout. Some chocolate notes. Expecting more flavor components to it.

Next time I go, I will test out the Streamliner bar which wasn’t quite open when I visited.

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1st Visit – Hand-Brewed Beer

Inexorably, I am catching up to the goal of visiting all of the Los Angeles area breweries. Still have a few in Long Beach and one up Newhall way, but first is Hand-Brewed Beer in Chatsworth.

A long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away: I sampled some Hand-Brewed beers but the road to a taproom has been long for this brewery. Three months in, I headed to De Soto Avenue to see the space.

It is a nice set-up. A good amount of seating, warm with wood fencing on the wall and the HB logo emblazoned on it. The beer list is on a TV and is easily read with a good amount of information on it. A good solid space with attentive and easy to talk to staff.

Of the four beers I sampled and another that I sipped, the quality is still on the way. The Santa Susanna Saison was my favorite but even it was an overall mid-ranker. The Nitro Latte Brown was fine but thin with very little coffee taste. Of the two IPAs, the Brumeux was the better. A DIPA by name, it didn’t taste very strong and the hop quality faded quickly. The 4th Anniversary beer was all over the map. Made with honey, it was a little sweet, a little bitter and a little astringent and honestly smelled a little funny.

If I was to rank, I would slot the 8one8 brewery higher in terms of beer and atmosphere. Hand-Brewed has worked hard to get to this day and I hope that the beer continues to grow.

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1st Visit – 8one8 Brewing

On a recent warm Sunday afternoon, I took a little drive on the Reagan freeway to check out the recently opened 8one8 Brewing taproom which just recently opened.

I ordered up a flight and had it delivered to me at my table along with a water! Here are my quick hit reviews:
Bodie’z Pale Ale – rye and mosaic. More rye than hops to me little bit green too
1st Stage IPA – smells light. More session. Grain forward to me.
Good Day DIPA – bronze color. Way too much caramel. No hops at all. Not great.
Gravity Hill Belgian – big banana esters. Little overboard on it. Doesn’t grow on me.

There is a lot in front and I like part of the decor. It has a flight freight Indiana Jones decor going on but then that is a bit diminished by a Staples open sign, some “art” 2 and two TVs tuned to the Dodgers.

There is a nice amount of space inside with 22oz bottles to go. I was given a shade more than the taster fill line which was probably the opening week hospitality in effect.

They have some room to grow but a decent start for this brewery.

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1st Visit – Common Space Brewing


While visiting State Brewing earlier this month, I drove west on El Segundo to make a first visit to Common Space. I had only tried one of this new brewery’s beers so I was interested in tasting a flight and getting a better handle on how they are doing, early in the run. SO early that the version numbers are still in use and a whiteboard (better suited for a corporations meeting room) were still in effect.

The space is huge with a nice amount of seating inside and a large patio outside that buts right up to a dedicated food truck spot (which shows some forward thinking). There is a large brewing area and to the right seems just empty space punctuated by a few bags of grain.

For the beers, I tried the Pils, Jasmine Saison, Strong Saison and the new version of the IPA. All were very strong with my winner of the group being the Pils. I skipped over the Light Beer and Coffee Stout. Saving those for a future visit. The color palette was really nice and it is an overall strong start quality wise.

I am not a fan of the name or the interlocking circle motif. Both seem, well, common and don’t really scream Hawthorne or Los Angeles to me. Though you can argue that Space and Space X are matching but that seems a reach to me. Maybe the locked down versions of the beers will bear names that tie into the community.

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1st Visit – State Brewing


Only a few days into the new year and I have notched another brewery to my tally. I hadn’t expected to visit so early, but a window of time opened and without hesitation I drove down to Gardena to visit State Brewing.

The brewery seems to be in a residential section of town at first but it the area turns industrial as I see the roll-up door that opens up to the space. First thing I see are the rows of empty crowlers behind the bar waiting for to-go orders. There is a nice amount of seating and a TV menu board between two sports tuned TV’s. Said menu board is in a bad place in relation to the bar, forcing the person to swivel to the left and backward to see what is on tap. They probably need to add paper menus at the bar (which they might have, I didn’t see them though)

State is playing both sides and the fence with their beers as they do West Coast, Hazy and hybrid IPA’s as well as pils and many stouts.

Here are my notes on what I sampled:
Baby Merman– Hoppy Pils
Mosaic and Saaz – lemony and malt mix, a bit thin

Super Smoove Move– NE IPA
Fuzzy on the roof of the mouth pineapple. Quite bitter. Unbalanced

New Toy– Project Vanilla with mint and cocoa nibs
Very vanilla, followed by a lot of mint. Like leaves.

Project Nicaragua– RIS with coffee
Very bitter burnt beans. Silky texture. Not super balanced either.

Elbows Off– Table Saison
Very thin. Has the Belgian character though. Little bit of clove

Nice Chucks– NE IPA
Best of the bunch. Very fruity with minimal bitterness.