Congregation Ale House

Store front brewpub on the main drag downtown. Small straight bar perpendicular to the entrance on the right seats about 10 with a few tables about, and a separate dining room. A dozen beers on tap, nothing to write home about. Friendly bartender. Pizza crust was too doughy...

 

 

 

A very nice brewpub/taproom with close to 30 taps, usually including about 5 of their own beers. The atmosphere is relaxed and cool, as a temple to good beer. The food is outstanding. The only complaint I have is the slow and inefficient ordering process, which requires you to stand in line at the bar for food or beer orders. Growlers are available, but they are 1 liter only and they are fairly expensive.

 

 

 

the Pasadena location has a better environment to it

 

 

 

 

 

The Azusa facility brews its own beer for all three locations. This is a recent new installation and venture by the owner and not a legacy from a previous business.

They have a wonderful selection of quality beers on tap, plus their own. They also tap a cask occasionally on a Thursday night but only lasts until Friday or Saturday at the most. Call to find out if cask is on line. Cask is available at all three facilities, Azusa, Pasadena, and Long Beach but sadly only on certain occasions.

Happy hour which they call "Mass" is on a Monday all day, and 3PM-7PM Tue-Fri. They also have a "Chosen One" selling at $4 per glass during these times. Call to find out which of their ales is the "Chosen One" for the day.

You have to start a tab at the front bar before you seat. You can pay at the front desk when you are ready to leave or you can pay your server.

This is by far the best place to drink quality ale in Azusa. Other quality places are way out of town.

There are no heavy meals here as this is more of a place you'd go to drink than eat, but what meals are available are done very well.

They also have a weekly quiz night.

 

 

 

I stopped in at this chapter of Congregation Ale House yesterday, so now I have officially been to all 3 locations. This location is much different than the others because there is actual brewing equipment in the space that I assume is from a previous brewery that was there. The setup other than that is pretty much the same with tables in the main area and seats at the bar. Unfortunately, this location seems to be the weakest in terms of number of beers on tap. They had about 10 to 15 when I went in, but their bottle list was similar to the other locations. Service was pretty good even though it was fairly busy. Prices are reasonable for beer and food. I am not sure I would come back to this location solely based on how out of the way it is for me, but I would recommend a stop in here if you are in the area.

I've been to this place over a dozen times in the last few months, starting with the first week the location opened, and my last visit was two weekends ago.

I love this place. There are very few good bars in this area, and this is the best of them. The atmosphere is nice, there's a smallish bar, and a decent number of tables-both with benches and stools. The bar has chilldiscs set in it, which is quite nice. There's a jukebox, which I've never played with, but it seems to have a decent selection of stuff from what I've heard. Music is never too loud for me.

Their beer selection is quite good. They always have ~30 things on tap plus a decent bottle selection. The taps rotate fairly regularly-every week there's at least something new, and on an event night they usually have 5-10 taps dedicated to whatever they're promoting. Their website lists what beers are on tap, but it often is a few days behind reality, call if you want to verify what is actually on tap. Their bottle list is quite nice also, but not available online last time I looked. It doesn't change much, and cost is higher than retail (of course) but not overly high. They almost always have one cider on tap also.

Their food is surprisingly good. Fries, chips, burgers, flatbread pizza. I've had and loved all of it. They're also great at special orders-a pizza with this addition and that removed? No problem and no extra cost. They lost our order once and delayed it significantly once. Drinks were comped when they lost it, and the pizza was free when it took an hour.

Service is always good, though of course there can be some delays when it's packed (fortunately, not too common most of the time I'm there). Their bartenders are fun and generally knowledgeable about the beers, they do samples on request.

Happy hour knocks a dollar of tap pours, and a couple off some of the appetizer type dishes. (Large basket of fries with dipping sauce goes from $4 to $2, etc). Happy hour all day Monday, after midnight T-TH, and 3-7 weekdays.

Anyways, that's all that comes to mind for now. I'll be back there this weekend, that's the kind of place it is.