Tag: brewpub

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Sister City Brewery Tour # 1 – Tap B Brewpub

Los Angles has a few sister cities all over the world, less than I thought, so this month for L.A. Beer Week, I thought it is time to visit some and our first Sister City to visit is Split, Croatia and the Tap B Brewpub.

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Split, is the second largest city in Croatia and is a seaport/ resort city in southern Croatia. Located on a peninsula in the Adriatic Sea and best known for the ruins of the Palace of Diocletian.

You can start here with Trapula, an American styled Pale Ale and then move on to then dial back to their GAD Pilsner or their Lito Blonde Ale before hitting the hops again with Mirakul IPA.

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1st Visit – Brews Brothers / Burbank

What once was the Burbank Simmzy’s is now the Burbank brewpub for Brews Brothers.

I have visited the original Brews Brothers and liked the space and the beer selection but now they have their own beer. The space is still the same. A bit clunky and cramped and dark with a sound system that sounds better outside than in. The brewing system is shoehorned in with not great access for when the staff had an empty keg that they had to hoist over a little wall.

I went Belgian with my choices a blonde that came in at a whopping 8.5% which seems more a Tripel to me as well as a Belgian IPA, another biggie at 8.25%.

Both were good, not great. The blonde fared better than the IPA which was quite a muddy color in the glass and not exhibiting much of a hop presence. I avoided the beer named Butt Chin since I believe that you should not name a beer with the word butt.

Prices are a bit high. Maybe there is a Burbank surcharge in there. But the place was hopping (pun intended) for a Wednesday. I think I prefer the NoHo branch a bit better.

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Another brewery on Sunset?

A few posts back, I talked about Sunset Strip Brewing in the planning process, now there is a brewpub in the planning phase for Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park.

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Sage operates a mini-chain of restaurants in the Los Angeles area and is looking to expand their Echo Park corner into a brewpub.

Let’s see if this comes to fruition.

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Westwood Brewing Down

I remember the Westwood Brewing Company in both of its incarnations.  But it appears that it will be no more.  And that is a bit sad.

I had a few of the beers that were brewed there even though I had to trek to the Westside from Glendale.  And even though none really lit my fire, I always hoped that with a new brewer or a tweak of recipes that things could change. But between one set of my infrequent visits it changed ownership and the brewing stopped.

After it became a generic bar with brewing equipment as props only and karaoke nights, I returned a couple more times before Bruin basketball or the Festival of Books and they still poured a better than average list of beers.  I would routinely find Full Sail on tap.  But it was clear that they either needed to go all in on craft or cater more to the student crowd.  They seemed to be straddling a middle ground.

Maybe one day, brewing will return to Westwood.  At least, I hope whatever usable brewing equipment is left can find a home where it can be put back into use.

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more Beachwood BBQ

Great news from Beachwood BBQ! On two fronts!

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1)“We are very excited to officially announce that Beachwood BBQ and Brewing will soon be coming to downtown Long Beach. We’re opening our second Beachwood BBQ, but we’re going to be brewing our own beer. We’ve partnered with Julian Shrago, a fantastic brewer, who is going to spearhead our brewing operations. Our Downtown Long Beach location will have 12 house beers plus a rotating guest beer program. We’ll be serving the same menu at both Beachwood locations and we are going to try our hardest to make sure that we create a space where everyone finds a friend, enjoys a good meal and drinks some phenomenal beer. We are so thrilled that this is happening and will keep you all posted as we get closer to opening day.

2) In the next several months, Seal Beach Liquor on Main Street will become Home of Beachwood Bottleshop. We’re working hard to get everything together to make this happen as soon as possible. We think that Beachwood Bottleshop is a great compliment to what we do at Beachwood BBQ, it gives us another opportunity to provide awesome products, educate people and interact with our patrons in another way. More details to come, but expect the bottleshop to represent some of the best craft beer, wine and spirits we can find.”