Big Bear Mountain Brewery

Brewery, Bar, Eatery

40260 Big Bear Blvd.
Big Bear Lake, California, 92315
United States

(909) 866-BEER | map
mountainbrewery.com
BEER STATS
Average:
3.34
Beers:
13
Ratings:
40
PLACE STATS
Average:
2.68
Reviews:
16
Ratings:
18
pDev:
25.75%
View: Beers | Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Photo of johnInLA
Reviewed by johnInLA from California

3.1/5  rDev +15.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3 | service: 4 | selection: 2 | food: 3
A nice pub with a friendly local feel to it. The service was very good.

The food was good, but nothing that really stands out.

The beer was middle of the road.

Worth a stop if you are looking for a small, local, friendly pub. If you are looking for great beer, not so much.
Dec 30, 2015
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Rated by BeerSD from California

3.65/5  rDev +36.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 3 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 3
Cool little mountain brewery. The beer is nothing special but it's a very suiting atmosphere for the town.
Sep 02, 2015
Photo of Loldong
Reviewed by Loldong from California

1/5  rDev -62.7%
Went to Bear Mountain Brewery not expecting a whole lot. When I get there I ordered a flight, and none of the beers stood out to me at all. Every single beer tasted watered down, you could actually taste the 'flavor' of the beer separate from the alcohol. The Tangerine Wheat I had tasted like someone let some tangerines sit in a cup of water then mixed in some vodka. The staff was nice enough, but that's about all the place had going for it.
Oct 31, 2014
 
Rated: 2 by Sicem99 from North Carolina

Dec 28, 2013
Photo of FosterJM
Reviewed by FosterJM from California

3.1/5  rDev +15.7%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 2.5 | food: 4
Visited on May 12th, 2012

Atm- A very small quaint place in the back 1/2 of Big Bear. About 1/2 mile-1 mile from downtown. Like a few others have said, very small, a little dark. Had some nice empty bottles on the walls. I looked up and saw a Bling Pig label and realized it was an empty Blind Pig from when North Coast brewed for Vinny in Temecula.

Quality- Just average beers. Nothing to shocking. The highlight was Green Flash IPA on tap but didnt get it, just got the flight. Best beer was the Grizzly Chocolate Porter.

Service- Our server was attentive and polite. Did a nice job.

Selection- From the simple BMC to their beers wasnt much to choose from. A little pricey on the flight as well.

Food- I had the Rimforest sandwhich and my wife had the patty melt. Pretty damn good.

Value- I would say its reasonable besides the 8.95 flight for 6-5oz beers. Which actually isnt that bad. Growler fills are $15 and if you have a glass then $12
May 14, 2012
Photo of Catchy_Name
Reviewed by Catchy_Name from California

2.95/5  rDev +10.1%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 2.5
My girlfriend and I visited this place on 1/7/12.

The atmosphere was pretty homey. Exactly what I expected of a place that prides itself on its woodsy environment/surroundings. The place is tiny and that hurts the overall atmosphere because if you're in there on a weekend as I was, it may take you awhile to find seating. There are only a handful of tables and a couch so if you have a big party you may not find seating right away.

The service was fairly decent. We sat at the bar and got a fair amount of attention. Towards the end of our stay I had to remind the bartender we were ready to pay. Nice guys for the most part but they need to pay just little more attention to their customers.

Food was fair. I had a Philly cheesesteak sandwich which was lacking. I hate to say it but Subway's Philly is tastier. My girlfriend had a chili dog and she loved it. They have a pretty decent selection of their own brews. I had the Grizzly which is their Chocolate Porter. I enjoyed it. It wasn't the best but I'd have it again. They have a pretty good selection of craft and macro brews in bottles as well.

Overall, next time I'm in Big Bear I'll probably stop by again since the town is a barren wasteland for craft beer. Food wasn't too pricey and the environment was pretty casual. Fun for me since I usually travel in small parties.
Jan 09, 2012
Photo of wajacobs
Reviewed by wajacobs from California

1.9/5  rDev -29.1%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 2 | service: 1 | selection: 2 | food: 2
I had no idea Big Bear had a brewery until we past it on our way to our vacation rental and decided we have lunch there the following day. The food was ok nothing great frozen to fryer pub fair the beer was awful and the service was awful.
It's in a cute old building and for the outside it looks like it'll be really great place but it took nearly 20 minutes for anyone to even acknowledge us and another ten before we received any service. I tried four of their beers and was sadly dissappointed in them all.
I hadn't been to Big Bear in about 25 years and had a great time and I'm looking forward to going back and I really wish they made some amazing beers that I could look forward too.
Sep 06, 2011
Photo of MontanaBeers
Reviewed by MontanaBeers from Montana

2.95/5  rDev +10.1%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 3
Grizzly is the best beer at Big Bear Brewery, and it can be very inconsistent. While living in Big Bear for two years (1 block from the brewery) I had enough of these that the owner of the bar would let me pour my own when I was empty.
Dark, high alcohol content, brewed somewhere else by a contractor. The beer would be a near completely different beer from one week to the next and not because of the cellaring.

My poetic justice. After a grueling day working with tourists who think somehow snow is made by man and is completely controlled by the manager of the hotel they are staying at, going into this quaint little brew pub to watch football, eat a chili dog and have a few brews can't be beat. The local characters on both sides of the bar make you feel welcome and can relate to the days work because, of course, the bartender is also responsible for ensuring there is snow, but not on the road. Fill a growler, fill a pint, then fill a room full of snowy day, mountain lake fishing and boating stories.
Aug 05, 2011
Photo of UCLABrewN84
Reviewed by UCLABrewN84 from California

2.48/5  rDev -7.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 1 | service: 3 | selection: 3
I visited the Big Bear Mountain Brewery on Saturday 3/12/11.

Atmosphere is pretty cool and fits in well with the alpine/mountain area of Big Bear. Lots of knick knacks on the walls, couches, a piano, wood paneling make for a home-like feel. The brewery takes up a small corner of the building and there are glass windows to allow you to see into it.

Quality is sorely lacking at the brewery. All of the beers were first poured into pitchers due to too much head out of the tap, allowed to settle, and then poured into glasses. All of their beers were pretty horrible. The main thing I noticed is that all of their brews were way too watery.

Service was average for a bar. Pretty attentive bartender kept checking in on my wife and I. There weren't too many people in the place so we got a fair amount of attention.

Selection was average in that they had all of their beers on tap along with Budweiser, Shocktop Raspberry Wheat, and Kona Longboard Lager. They had some macro and craft beers in bottles too.

They did have food that looked pretty decent but we didn't eat anything.

Beers were pretty pricey for what you got. Pints were $5 or so and the taster set of their 6 brews was $8.95 for very small Dixie cup sized pours.

I probably wouldn't go back here again. Too pricey for horrible beer.
Mar 14, 2011
Photo of brokensail
Reviewed by brokensail from California

2.83/5  rDev +5.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 2 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3 | food: 2.5
Stopped in here a couple weekends ago during a trip into town to take a break from sweating in the wilderness.

The place is small, very small, inside with a few tables out on the patio area. They have their six house beers on tap along with some bottled beers and your typical macros on tap as well.

The staff was nice enough, but they seemed a little pushy/overly attentive. When I'm at a restaurant/brewpub, I want to be taken care of, certainly, but I don't need the waiter or waitress coming to the table every 10 minutes.

I wasn't expecting much from the beers and that was a good thing because most of them are horrendous. The one exception being the Grizzly Bear Doppelbock (which really isn't much of a Doppelbock, but still pretty decent).

I just split a basket of fries with a friend as I wasn't too hungry. A couple of the other guys did order food and were less than impressed. The fries weren't that great and were expensive for what you got.

The prices were definitely on the high side, which was amplified when examining the quality and quantity of the food. The beers weren't terribly priced, but considering how bad they were, I guess you could make an argument that they're too expensive.

This is a nice spot to stop if you're a diehard ticker like myself, but otherwise just go to the liquor store or pizza place and get yourself a good beer.
Sep 18, 2010
Photo of tjensen3618
Reviewed by tjensen3618 from California

2.8/5  rDev +4.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 2 | service: 3 | selection: 3
I stopped into this place at the start of a relaxing weekend up in Big Bear. A pretty nice place, kinda rustic on the inside and the decor fits well in the mountains. The outside of the place is now Yellow, not Blue as the picture in the BA profile shows.

We started off with a Pilsner and the DIPA, both were really bland and extremely watery in the mouth, it almost felt like we were drinking flavored water rather than hand crafted beer. No worries, the place was a nice place to spend a little time and we had nothing but time. We ordered another round, their Amber and a Orange Fruit beer. The Amber was again watery and pretty bland, the Orange Blossom Ale tasted like an Orange Soda, it was pretty flavorful although too sweet for me.

No food was ordered but it looked really good. I will come back to get some food or even to grab a couple beers if I'm up here again and have some time to kill, I won't be expecting too much in terms of the quality of beer, but that's ok it was pretty enjoyable place to hang out none the less.
Aug 09, 2010
Photo of microcraftmatt
Reviewed by microcraftmatt from California

1.56/5  rDev -41.8%
vibe: 2 | quality: 1.5 | service: 1.5 | selection: 1.5
Really small place so I guess it didn't help going in when it was busy. There was no place to sit let alone do much moving. Servers seemed really upset that they had to be there and made no atempt to greet my group or make us feel comfortable while we waited.

Had the Red Ant, Lil beaver IPA and the Orange blossom. Wow was I disappointing. The IPA seemed like it had potential and probably would be decent if it didn't seem like half of it was water. It was so weak I found it very hard to believe it was 8.6 abv. The Red ale didn't leave any impression and was very easily forgotten. The Amber ale just tasted like orange soda and bud light.... not cool. The beers were like 4.50 or something around that. Not bad for good beers. These weren't so I was a little upset.

Would have tried the food but there was no where to sit and after trying the beer was a little discouraged.

Needless to say I'm gonna pass on this place next time I'm up in Big Bear.
Dec 28, 2009
Photo of Mnemosyne
Reviewed by Mnemosyne from California

2.3/5  rDev -14.2%
vibe: 2 | quality: 2.5 | service: 3 | selection: 2 | food: 1
I went to this brewery last week. I just wanted to try some different brews. I got the sampler set which came with 6 big samples. Of the samples, the Doppel Bock was the best. Orange Ale was good if your into sweet beer. However, this beer did not mix well with food. After having a bite of food and then trying this food, it reminded me of those morning when I would have have some orange juice after brushing my teeth. The other beers from the brewery such as the Pale Ale and the Red Ale were quite boring tasting.

The brewery had a good list of sandwiches. I ordered a teriyaki chicken sandwich. Big mistake! It looked and tasted awful. I left disappointed.
May 25, 2008
Photo of Floydster
Reviewed by Floydster from California

2.58/5  rDev -3.7%
vibe: 2 | quality: 2.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3
Stopped here on the way through town and was surprised at how small this place was, on the left hand side of Big Bear Blvd. a couple minutes after crossing over the bridge

Walked in and saw eight or nine taps, five of their own beers, which had a stout, porter, india pale ale, bock, some kind of fruit beeer, and some pretty impressive microbrew guest taps

The others included Kona Longboard Lager and Pipeline Porter, Orange Blossom Ale, and something else they were out of at the moment

Asked the bartender to get some beer to go and she informed me that it is $4.50 per 12 ounce bottle and my jaw dropped, what a joke, it is not like it was a barrel aged beer or something, it was an amber ale

Growlers were sixteen dollars a peice for their beers only, but they looked smaller than 64 ounces, so I passed on those as well, very pricy for beer I have never really heard anything about

Did not try any of their food, but saw that they had burgers, french fries, soup, chili, etc., typcial beer bar food

Atmosphere was a little weird and very congested due to its small size, there was not much room in there and the bar was tucke away in a corner with like half a dozen tables total, served beer in jars, an odd place overall

Main problem with this place is that is so ridiculously expensive, pints of pipeline were seven I believe, and I can buy a six pack right now at BevMo for that
Jan 12, 2008
Photo of rxdrewthejew
Reviewed by rxdrewthejew from California

3.23/5  rDev +20.5%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2 | service: 4 | selection: 4
A little microbrew that bottles and sells one of their 6 beers. I've spent a lot of time in Big Bear but never stopped by here so figured I'd give it a look. It's a bit cold up here this weekend but nice and warm inside. When we got there, nobody else was around so the service was great. Just stopped to get some beer, but they seemed to have a decent selection of food. I wasn't sure what to get, so just picked up the beer sample. I'm not a big fan of samplers but just wanted to see what the brewery was all about. The 6 beers in the sample were a pilsner, fruit ale (orange), english pale ale, india pale ale, amber ale and doppelbock. Overall the beer isn't anything special. I did like the orange ale, a bit of a unique flavor, and the amber ale wasn't bad. The pilsner had a bit of a sour aftertaste that was kinda unpleasant. The IPA had no real hop flavor, nor did the english pale, and the doppelbock was very weak. All the beers were very smooth, but just lacking in flavor. I'd go back to get some food and maybe a pint of the red, but in all honesty, probably not worth the trip.
Nov 24, 2007
Photo of Dukeofearl
Reviewed by Dukeofearl from California

3.1/5  rDev +15.7%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3 | food: 3
My wife and I had lunch here yesterday after a nice hike on the norht side of the lake. I really wanted to like this place, and in some ways, I did, and I hate to say it, but it also lacked some things for a high quality beer establishment.

Located a mile or so west of "The Village" of Big Bear, it's not real centrally located but easy enough to find. A 2-story blue structure (picture submitted for approval) with a "For Sale" sign makes me wonder about the future.

Atmosphere- as described, it's like a converted big old mountain home- a big bar with lots of stools and kitchen behind commands most of the space. Several tables for 2, 4, and 6 are squeezed in as well as a sofa by the fireplace. Cozy, I kind of liked as being very different from your typical spot.

Food was burgers/polish sausage/sandwiches and the like. The soup tasted homemade and was very tasty.

Selection was 6 local brews and a small selection of bottles. The local brews are:

Old Miner's Gold (Pilsener)- 4.0%
Orange Blossom Amber- 4.5%
Mountain Pub Ale (English Pale Ale)- 6.8%!!!
Lil Beaver IPA- 8.6%
Red Ant Hill Red Ale- 5.0%
Grizzley Bear Doppel Bock- 10.8%

I tried 2- the English Pale Ale and the IPA. The Pale Ale was somewhat watery (especially considering its ABV), but it was overall very drinkable. At the end of the glass I had decided I liked it. However, the IPA was sorely lacking in the the hops department. It was maybe an OK American Pale, but it was a pale imitation of an IPA. I tried to think of it as an English IPA, but that didn't work either. I was very disappointed.

Service was very good- it appears most of the guests are locals, and the servers were very friendly and helpful.

Overall, this place is OK, especially the atmosphere and the people, but don't rush right out.
Sep 26, 2006
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Reviewed by KingSlender from California

2.8/5  rDev +4.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 2 | service: 4 | selection: 2 | food: 3
I visited Big Bear Mountain Brewery about a year ago and unfortunetly was not very impressed with their beer. Every beer tasted very weak and watered down and lacked any strong characteristics. After talking to the owners wife she stated the beers were changed due to the local taste. I had no idea that the folks up in Big Bear enjoyed watered down beer! My expectations are always high, but this really upset me. On a good note, the atmoshpere and service was great. The eating area is small but very cozy and they have a nice little area with couches and cushy chairs to kick back, have a drink, and chat with friends or read a book. The server went out of her way to make us feel at home, and apologized for us not liking the beers. The food was decent. I had a chile size that was pretty good and my wife had a burger that was not bad either. All in all, not a bad place to stop by for a bite to eat. I hope they turn their beer quality around though.
Feb 20, 2004
Photo of mickeymac
Reviewed by mickeymac from California

3.84/5  rDev +43.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4
This is a small pub run by a nice couple. Before going to Big Bear for a few days, I found that this place was listed as closed on Beerfly. It's definitely not closed. The owner suspects that the pub's former web page designer sabotaged them by posting the place as closed. The inside of the place looks like an old house, with one big table, several smaller tables, and a sofa and love seat near the fireplace. It's also loaded with board games, books, and coloring books, giving it a real family feel. When we were there, a group of older folks were sitting around the antique piano singing old songs and inviting everyone to join in. Five Moutain Brewery beers were on-tap: a Pilsner, Orange Blossom Amber Ale (flavored with orange peel), Red Ale, and a Dopplebock. I tried the Orange Ale (not my style) and the Red (not bad). They've also got other brews on-tap, including Stone IPA, and a very nice selection of bottled beer. This would be a nice place to stop in after a day on the ski slopes or a day of mountain biking at nearby Snow Summit. It's not worth a drive up to Big Bear just to visit, but it's definitely worth a stop if you're already up the mountain.
Aug 30, 2003
Big Bear Mountain Brewery in Big Bear Lake, CA
Brewery rating: 3.34 out of 5 with 40 ratings