New Brewery Alert – Brouwerij West

It’s pronounced “brewery”. No need to be fancy and pronounce it in it’s native Dutch pronunciation. Just say “brewery” and be happy. But let’s not get hung up on the pronunciation. Brouwerij West is finally here and we’re terribly excited.

You may have had their beer before. In the “early” days of LA beer, they had a few staples that were in heavy rotation on tap and in bottles – Mor, Mor a Belgian Quad and Dog Ate My Homework a blackberry saison to name two. But those beers were made in the gypsy (or contract) fashion and their brewery lacked a real home. But all that changes at the end of February when the official Brouwerij brewery is set to open in the Ports of Call in San Pedro.

Owner Brian Mercer has tapped head brewer Jeremy Czuleger to make their Belgian-inspired beers in a 72 year old warehouse in the Port of Los Angeles. Czuleger has a background in brewering for Trumer in Berkeley and Barley Forge in Costa Mesa. They’ll be focusing on using local ingredients to make their various saisons and blondes in a Belgian fashion like putting Central Coast citrus in a traditional Belgian Wit. Sounds great.

You’ll find them on our South Bay and Long Beach beer tours coming up in the next few weeks, but if you want to see them sooner than that, you can attend their grand opening on 2/27 at 12pm. Details below or can be found through their website: brouwerijwest.com

San Pedro Brewery & Tasting Room: Grand Opening Saturday February 27th

Brouwerij West
110 E. 22nd St., Warehouse No. 9
San Pedro, CA 90731
(310) 833-9330

Crawl for Nepal

Of course you want to help Nepal, you’re a good person who does good things for people, but you also want to enjoy your Saturday.  So the craft beer community of Los Angeles and Orange County is going to help you help others by hosting “Crawl 4 Nepal” an all-day multi-brewery event with proceeds going to Nepal. Here are the details:

Nick Gingold (of CA Brewmasters) and Kelly Erickson (of Girls Who Like Beer) are organizing a drinking fundraiser on Saturday, May 9th to benefit Nepal. A bunch of breweries (the list is still growing) are going to select one beer and donate 100% of proceeds from that beer all day long. So far here’s the list of breweries:

Tony’s Darts Away
Mohawk Bend
Golden Road Brewing
Eagle Rock Brewing Co
The Rookery Ale House
Ritual Brewing Co
Sunset Beer Co
Bread & Barley
Sanctum Brewing Co.
Three Weavers
Barley Forge
Cismontane Brewing

Check their Facebook Page for updates on more participating breweries. You can bet you’ll see our buses at Three Weavers, Sunset Beer Co, Eagle Rock and Golden Road.

All you have to do is go to any of those breweries on Saturday, May 9th and drink. If you don’t want to do that (which is crazy) you can just go directly to their website and donate there. They will be donating the money to GlobalGiving and here’s their link.

New Brewery Alert!

Get used to it because it’s going to keep happening. And it’s going to be wonderful. A new brewery has opened and you should check it out. It’s called Timeless Pints and it’s in Lakewood (basically Long Beach) and Cindy and I can assure you, the pints they are serving will make you lose time.

Tucked away in an industrial strip, no surprise there, Timeless Pints would be hard to find if it weren’t for the great logos they have adorning their windows and at the front of the parking lot. Parking is ample and if you’re arriving in style the Long Beach is across the street giving it a distinctly “Hangar 24-Feel”. In fact, if you search for Timeless Pints on Google Maps, the marker appears to be inside of the airport.

The interior has an industrial brewery meets Edward Gorey vibe. It’s large, spacious, has an L-shaped bar, about 10 table tops and plenty of room to mill about. A good too because from what I hear, the place has been filled every weekend because, let’s be honest, Long Beach knows how to drink craft beer.

The owners, Merri and Chris Sparacio, were both present when we stopped by and they couldn’t have been more pleasant. Welcoming, chatty, excited about their beer and to be a part of the local beer scene. 

Now, the beers. Wonderful. An 8% IPA with 92 IBU’s, a dry Wit, an Oatmeal Stout with Huckleberry. All fun, delicious and a few of them were slightly ambitious. Chris comes from a homebrewing background, so I expect some of that ingenuity and “brewing for fun” mentality to come through to this brewery.

We will be bringing tours there as often as we can and I will certainly be going there myself as often as I can.

Next up… FEDERAL BREWING.

Cheers to all GABF Winners!

Los Angeles and the surrounding area (basically anything that isn’t San Diego) is really coming into its own in terms of delicious craft beer. We’re making good beer, creating great drinking environments, and fostering a culture that will be built to last. All of this was evidenced at the preeminent beer competition in all of America held in Denver, CO last week – the Great American Beer Fest. Here’s a list of winners from the competition this year. It includes Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, who won the award for “Best Midsize Brewpub and Brewer in America”. They have two locations, one in Long Beach and the other, smaller (original) outpost in Seal Beach. If you can’t make it out there, look alive for their bottled beer in your local shop.

Beachwood BBQ & Brewing – Long Beach, CA
Gold: Kilgore Stout – American-Style Stout
Gold: Foam Top – Golden or Blonde Ale
Silver: Udder Love – Sweet Stout or Cream Stout
Bronze: System of a Stout – Coffee Beer
Bronze: Barrel-Aged Full Malted Jacket – Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer

TAPs Fish House & Brewery – Brea, CA
Bronze: Helles – Munich-Style Helles
Bronze: Schwarzbier – German-Style Schwarzbier

Kinetic Brewing – Lancaster, CA
Bronze: Potential Blonde – German-Style Kölsch
Bronze: Torque – Session Beer

Hangar 24 – Redlands, CA
Gold: Warmer – Specialty Beer

Other notable winners in our general area were Figueroa Mountain who took five medals with their two locations in Santa Barbara and Buellton, Firestone Brewery up in Paso Robles took home 4 medals and the award for “Best Midsize Brewery and Brewer in America” (different from Beachwood’s “Brewpub” award), and Telegraph Brewing Co. in Santa Barbara nabbed one bronze medal.

Best Beer Patios in LA

Want to soak up some rays along with your local craft suds? In honor of the arrival of summer, here’s a short list of the best beer drinking patios in Los Angeles.

The Pub at Golden Road

Besides having a lengthy list of beers brewed onsite, The Pub at Golden Road has a large, and very dog friendly, patio. Located in Glendale, right in the South-East corner of where the 134 and the 5 meet, the entire Golden Road Complex takes up three brightly colored warehouses, one of which is The Pub. Inside, you’ll find a delicious rotating lunch menu (keep your eyes peeled for the Tuna Melt) as well as a rotating guest tap, both of which are curated perfectly. They’ve got a Berliner Weisse on tap right now that pairs perfectly with sunshine.

Click here for map

Verdugo

Nestled in a residential neighborhood in Glassel Park, Verdugo is a beer bar held to the highest standards. The beer list is expertly crafted with options for every taste and a constant list of kegs on deck that will keep you coming back. Pass through the dark booth-lined interior and you’ll enter a spacious patio lined with benches, tables, and merriment. Verdugo is constantly hosting events, food trucks, and live music, for instance “Glassware Mondays” where you get a beer and you keep the glass it comes in. Check their event page for more info.

Click here for map

Red Lion Tavern

The Eastside is full of chic patios to nibble and sip at while watching a parade of pretty people discuss the merits of Animal Collective, for something of a completely different pace, check out the biergarten at the Red Lion Tavern. Here you’ll find sausages, cheeses, big beers and waitresses in lederhosen. Beer selection is entirely German, as is the food, but it’s all good and plentiful. There are two dim interior levels suited for more intimate discussions, but head to the patio to talk advantage of the revelry and the beer garden menu.

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Cat and Fiddle

Hollywood is filled with crowds or short skirts, camera toting tourists, “free personality & stress tests”, and other things that are generally necessary to avoid. However, in the middle of all this madness sits the Cat and Fiddle, a british pub with a patio that serves as a welcome respite from the throngs of the entertainment capital of the world. Their beer selection is meager, but they have recently adopted a rotating local tap. Other than that, they have standard pub fare, including Shepherd’s Pie and a surprisingly dynamite Mac and Cheese. Their patio is laden with charm-inducing bistro lights making it an almost date-friendly evening spot.

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Beachwood BBQ & Brewing 

Long Beach, understanding the value of a table in the sun, is filled with patios and outdoor seating options (including boats), but for fun in the sun on land you should head down to Beachwood BBQ & Brewing. Not to be confused with their location in Seal Beach, the Long Beach extension of Beachwood has ample patio space and is Metro Blue Line adjacent (a perk that is taken advantage of few, let’s be honest). Beachwood has their own, delicious list of beers as well as a curated beer list with items on tap, on cask, and ultimately on point. Want to do the shortest patio beer hop of all time? Walk down to Congregation Ale House after chowing down on some delicious BBQ at Beachwood. It’s worth the 30 second walk.

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Renee’s

For one thing, this Westside institution has 2 for 1 drink deals on Tuesday’s, combine that with a patio and it makes Renee’s a sweet deal. The interior? Odd, to say the least. Maze-like with aspects of haunted doll-house, is one way to describe it. Dive bar is another way. Renne’s is a great place to people watch and generally hang out. Beer options aren’t great, but the atmosphere are food make up for it.

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Father’s Office Culver City

They don’t take reservations, it’s often a fight to the teeth for seating, and it gets crowded early, but damn it if Father’s Office in Culver City isn’t one of the best pub’s in the city. This decades old establishment has two locations (the original is in Santa Monica) but only the Culver spot has a long corridor of benches and tables that lets you enjoy your burger, beer and sweet potato fries in the sun. If you happen to arrive during a rush hour (which you likely will) go to the bar, get a beer, and stake out a table. And when one opens up, hold your ground cause open seats get swooped up faster than a miniskirt at a frat party.

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Prince of Whales / The Shack

Am I a sucker for these divey Playa Del Rey beachside bars? Absolutely. Prince of Whales and The Shack have greasy bar food, cheery bartenders, dedicated locals, college kids, karaoke (POWs: Tue, Thur, & Sun – The Shack: Wed & Fri), trivia, and are walking distance to the beach, and I saw George Wendt from Cheers there. They’re both all-around great places with patios and beers for everyone. While they aren’t heavy on craft beer, you can get your fix at The Tripel, which is conveniently located between the two seaside establishments.

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Rock & Brews

Most things in El Segundo are a stone’s throw from the beach, but none have a patio and taplist equal to that of Rock and Brews. Tons of space and community style seating makes this watering hole a perfect place for groups looking for burgers and beers. The atmosphere is… rockin’ with loud music and people laughing away the fact that they’re all the way in El Segundo.

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