Ritual Brewing Co.

 

 

 

Nice big tasting room. Tons of space to sit, and it's cool seeing the barrels on the wall. The outside area is cool and equipped with games. When I visited they had a band playing, which provided a nice ambience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hangar 24 is no longer the only player in the Redlands beer scene. With two of their newest breweries hit (the other being Wild Donkey) on the same day, I preferred Ritual. From the streetview, it was very difficult to locate because the addresses aren't well posted and there isn't an obvious sign which points to the brewery.

The interior is very large and wide open. A few longs tables near the bar make the seating of the tasting room. A few games are set up opposite of the tasting room, which at the time was marked off by chain. With such a large room, you could comfortably invite 50 of your closest friends and still have room to walk around. But on a Sunday afternoon, it was clean and quiet.

Pouring behind the bar were 6 of Ritual's own beers. I spotted a cask as well. Pouring among the beers were the witbier, IPA, strong golden ale, and barleywine. I was given a brief overview of the beers by the friendly bartender, who put me in the mood to start with the witbier. Sampler flights can also be purchased, but I prefer to get to know a given beer with a larger helping.

There was some irony how the beer was served. Small snifters are used in the sampler flight. Branded shaker pints are available for sale. And the two beers I had were quite good, but why the low quality rating? Plastic cups for full pours! I'm not asking for each style to have its own special glass (a la Belgian style), though plastic cups at a brewery gives off a cheap impression. Anyhow, most full pours hit the $5 mark.

Good beers with the potential of the brewery becoming a place to hit in Redlands. Here's hoping the plasticware is ditched.

(I did receive a message from brewery personnel regarding the plastic cups. They were looking to transition to real glassware sometime, so at least the issue is being addressed.)

I visited Ritual Brewing recently since I was staying in the area for business. They have an absolutely gigantic warehouse space with the brewing equipment on one side and a fairly large tasting area on the other. There is still a lot of unused space that was roped off to the public. One cool thing is that their extra long tasting tables are reclaimed bowling lanes from a closed bowling alley. When I went they had around 8 beers on tap and a special cask. They offer full pours of beers as well as flights. Prices were reasonable for both formats. Service was good and they answered my questions about the brewery and the barrels they currently have beer aging in. The quality of all the beers I tried was good but they do their pours into plastic cups which is always a slight disappointment. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.