1st visit – Page 6 – Beer Search Party

October 3, 2017August 28, 2018

1st Visit – Ten Mile Brewing

Being on the Westside for a bit, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to check out the new brewery in Signal Hill amongst the oil pumps off the 405, Ten Mile Brewing.

I was pleasantly surprised from start to finish. Tucked into the corner of an unassuming building, the brewery has been well outfitted with wood and metal. Especially impressive is the menu board. Really well done.

Extended descriptions of the beers are on sheet handed over with your taster tray and are helpful for both those new to beer and those who have visited many a brewery. I tried all but the milk stout, and found all to be clean and well done. The Kentucky Common even grew on me after my initial thought was that it was too watery and light.

There is a NE IPA coming as well as Direct TV for those that want to watch the new NFL team in town. I would suggest the Pale Ale Citrallenial and the well named Segway to Munich Helles Lager.

Plus, if you choose your seat carefully, you get a view of the really old city cemetery across the road. Not your usual brewery scenery.

January 14, 2017August 28, 2018

1st Visit – Verdugo West

Verdugo West threw open their doors on the 11th for a soft opening and I was there to check out the new Burbank brewery tucked up against the 5 freeway.

My favorite beer from brewer Chris Walowski was the Jack Roller pale ale. Nice and crisp without being a heavy-handed hop bomb that some so-called pales can be.

The Wax Wing blonde was my second choice. Solid and clean with good carbonation. What Plane? was the third of the core beers on tap and it was a solid entry in the porter/stout category.

They also were pouring variants of those three. Dry Hopped pale, ginger Wax Wing and a coffee What Plane? None of which were markedly improved by the additions. All seemed a little out of balance. Sometimes adding to an existing beer without allowing for room for both to breath can be hard.

The thin space was crowded with people from Burbank who had been coming in a stream since the opening at 4pm. There are still some kinks to work out which is what a soft open is supposed to reveal. The menu board needs work. Only the core beers were up and could use more description in the manner that say, Chapman Crafted has done. Payment was a little slow and the limited space combined with that to make the bar area a bit traffic jammy. Again, once people learn the system, the people will be served quicker and be out of the way.

You can also order food from sister company Market City, which is a plus.

A solid start for the newest brewery in Burbank.

January 3, 2017August 29, 2018

1st Visit – Mt. Lowe Brewing

Less, than a week ago, I had heard about and then posted the news that a new brewery had sprung up in Arcadia, unbeknownst to me. And before, Christmas, I snuck in a visit as a gift to myself. Here is the 1st Visit report of Mt. Lowe Brewing.

I ordered up the usual 1st Visit fare, a taster tray of “everything you got”. In this case it meant six beers which is a pretty good start for a new brewery.

Of the group the Inspiration Porter was the clear winner. Working with coconut is barely done well but there version was restrained with a touch of sweetness and a hearty base of malts. Maybe it was the slightly cold L.A. snap but the beer was a nice warm up. Second place went to the Rubio Red which had a buoyant spice profile and a dash of hop bitterness to make the beer come alive.

Mid-pack was the Incline Ale which I guess was a pale or pale amber. It was fine. Not much of a hop profile to it which leads me to the amber descriptor. The Bungalow Blonde wins points for the name which nods to both the architecture and history of the San Gabriel Valley but the beer itself falls into the fine category as well.

The Hef was lacking in both the clove and banana department. I wanted more punch from it. Too restrained and more tilted to just a wheat beer. But it was much better than the Hills Have IPA. Another great name but the beer was no where near hoppy and was more muddy and closer to a light barleywine.

The location is close by Santa Anita Avenue so if you can catch the 210 at one of the rare slack times, you can be there in a jiff. Inside is sectioned off so you can have friends get together and not have to yell. You can choose booths or the bar. I appreciate that they have filled the space without sacrificing free roaming space.

As far as starts go, they have a good base of beers to evolve from but nothing really made the leap of marking Mt. Lowe as one to watch closely. Keep it in mind and check in a few months to see how the beers have grown since opening.

October 4, 2016August 29, 2018

First Visit – Santa Monica Brew Works

Looks like my beer buddy Rich has a brewery within walking distance, and for the rest of us, we can use the new Expo Line and be dropped off nearby.

The brewery is Santa Monica Brew Works and I made my first visit last week.

Here are some of the photos:

The menu board. Core to the left, Seasonal on the right.

April 28, 2016August 30, 2018

1st Visit – Scholb Premium Ales

I e-mail corresponded with Scholb Premium Ales which you can read over on Food GPS. Now I actually visited. (After a side trip to Smog City and before a short jaunt to King Harbor)

Scholb is in the same complex as Absolution Brewing but at the latter I was unimpressed whereas Scholb is off to a good, strong start. The Columbia Street Pale Ale was bright and fruity and better than most in this crowded category. My second favorite was the Cherry Wood Smoked Brown which at first seemed thin but filled in nicely with a different smoke note that I found pleasing. Dad’s IPA was a strong third. My only clinker was the Bat Ray Red IPA. It seemed a little dimmer compared to the other hoppy offerings.

It’s s nice big space. Big logo on the wall and super cool taster trays made out of plastic piping. There are Wisconsin ties to the four part ownership group and maybe they can bring a Midwestern beer or three into the line-up for the out-of-state expats. As it stands, it is worth a visit to try the new kid in Torrance.

November 9, 2009August 27, 2018

My first visit to Toronado

I did not know what to expect of Toronado SF. I had purposefully not looked at any photos. All I had done was check the beer list and made advance selections (that I didn’t follow). I have been to enough beer sellers to know that this was A) a serious beer place B) a familiar beer hall style.

Toronado is like Horse Brass in Portland or Lucky Baldwin’s in Pasadena or Tied House in Denver. Old taps are attached to the wall everywhere. (They had a great year by year tap progression of the Anchor Christmas beers) Old signed bottles are on shelves and every bar stool is taken. Oh and the lighting was dim.

Don’t take this as a slam against the place. Toronado is authentic. The taps on the wall tell a history. There was a large grouping of historic Full Sail taps. You can’t fake this. Plus, I love that they had a large board that was easy to read of the current rotation. With prices! Why some places eschew that touch is beyond me.

My wife scored us a table by some sort of magic and I settled on a new Anchor Steam. Hey, we were in the home of Anchor. Huming Ale is made with Nelson Sauvin hops, supposedly. It was almost like two different beers fighting each other. A steam beer with layers of hops but I could not locate the grape-y Nelson in there.

I could easily have stayed for hours and tried all new (to me) beers. That is the mark of a great beer bar.