BeachWood BBQ

Their food is great. Their beers are not.

Alpine has amazing food and amazing beers. And their prices are very respectable. As much as I love Beachwood, I cannot say the same thing about them.

And they're not strictly LA either. If LBC/Seal Beach became LA County at some point, I wasn't informed.

 

Which brings me to my next point, kids - don't do crack.

Beachwood hasn't hit Alpine's highs yet, but Alpine has also been coasting on their legacy for the past year or so. Their consistency is not what it used to be, and while Duet/Nelson/Bad Boy are still formidable, Julian is churning out high quality beers across a variety of styles.

 

You are wrong. The brewery is in downtown Long Beach which is Los Angeles County. The Seal beach location is a restaurant only with guest taps, and their own as well as a bottle list.

Cheers,

 

So true, however I will put Melrose and Citraholic ahead of anything maybe outside Nelson, when made properly, that Alpine does. Duet is a shadow of it's former self, my last drain pour actually.

Cheers,

 

Go inform yourself by looking at a map.

 

I like Beachwood--a lot. No one else in the LA area really comes close to what they do as a restaurant and brewery. They have great guest taps, proper BBQ, and some pretty good beer that I do enjoy drinking very much. That said, it's a bit much to say they can go toe to toe with Alpine. Sure Alpine's had some QC problems as of late, but it's no fluke that they've put together some off-the-charts beer and continue to do so. Let's not forget their prices are more than reasonable for both on-site consumption as well as bottles and growlers. I hate to always bring price up but when I look at the shelf and see a bomber of single IPA (Thrillseeker) for 8.99 I can't help but shake my head and pick up something more reasonably priced. Are you guys really buying multiples of this stuff? Wasn't Tovarish $16 (down from an original price of $20)? Maybe wax-dipping should be reserved for the barrel-aged releases to cut down on costs.

 

IPAs aren't the only thing on the earth. Look at the rest of Beachwood's lineup and it pretty handily begins to dominate. Of course, I still don't know why we are comparing two brewpubs that are 130 miles away from each other...

And yeah Tovarish was expensive for something not barrel aged, but it also has the most good coffee that was probably ever crammed into a bottle of beer. Also it wasn't horribly infected, which is a big plus vs. Alpine.

 

That's the thing with coffee beers--I don't necessarily need the coffee added to be of the highest quality. It shouldn't be shit like Folgers but it also doesn't need to be single origin organic fair trade peaberry either. Since you're essentially blending pre-brewed (cold steeped, v60, etc) with beer, all those subtleties that you would pick up from a freshly brewed cup will no longer be evident to the average person. In a blind taste test, I doubt you'd be able to identify between two beers made with the same base but with different coffees added to each (let's say a Costa Rican from Portola added to one and a Guatemalan from Jones added to the other).

 

Anyone try the Jean Quad Van Damme? I was pretty impressed!

Hush puppies!

 

Just like if I said San Clemente/Oceanside wasn't SD county. I too, would be a moron.

 

Beachwood BBQ & Brewery is the ABC (drink alpine ale or go to bed) in the LA/OC area. At least north of San Diego. the Bruery & Bootleggers is what got the brewery scene going in the LA/OC area. But Beachwood to us to the next level in the brewery scene here. We now have El Segundo, Smog City in the LA scene. Valiant looks like a strong contender in the OC area. What did we have before Gabe and Julian brought Beachwood BBQ & Brewery into the LA scene. Angel City, Rock Bottom, BJ's, Red Car? WTF is that? And San Diego had what? Yes some of the worlds best brewery's. So I would say that we here in the LA/OC area have a few great brewery's. I always drive 2 hours south to Alpine or 4 hours north to Kern to get my beer fix. And worth every mile! I can now drive 20 minutes to Beachwood LB to get my IPA's. I will still drive to the other two locations to get some world class beers but not as often now. Beachwood Brewery is my go to place know. Some amazing stuff is coming out of LB these days. And more to come.

 

every trip to beachwood has resulted in a full belly & great beer to be had. julian makes delicious brew & it's diverse appealing to hop heads & stout drinkers alike. we've never left there feeling anything but satisfied. with excellent service, food & beer how could you otherwise??

 

kicking myself for never making the trip when I lived in anaheim for a year

 

There seems like a lot of peeps who live in the LA area have not made it to Beachwood LB yet. Or maybe they are scared of the area. When more Beachwood bottles hit the stores they will know what they are missing. And then maybe decide to make the drive to LB. I know of several craft beer drinkers at work who haven't been to Beachwood yet. Funny. But true. LA is huge and so far spread out. And the traffic doesn't help either. I will always try and make the effort to hit the other brewpubs and brewery's in the LA area. But none are better than the Wood. If I were to have one complaint about Beachwood it would be the prices on the bottles when released. But a minor complaint.

 

Uh...the gentrification of downtown LB is amazing. The location of BWLB is on the promenade,with very high rent eatery's and expensive single family lofts above all of them.But wait....,yea, it's in a real bad area, now I get it !

Cheers,

 

Speedway Stout and Victory at Sea say "Hello."

 

The area never bothered me, my finace's guinea pig vet was in a not so good area of long beach but the doctor there was very good. I just never heard enough about it other than a pty release with raffle, and those raffles always turn me off to places. Didn't realize they did their own beer at all.

 

Why would a charity raffle turn you off?

 

Speedway is aight, but not sure if it is a true Calistout-stlye ale. Not enough coffee. Victory at Sea hardly has any coffee at all. Calistouts are a very distinct style emanating from OC.