. . . .is tomorrow May 10th at noon. I've been waiting all year for this. Finally a brewery in my backyard. Well, down a couple of blocks from the house. Can't call Huntington Beach Beer Co or BrewBakers brewery's. Terrible stuff there. But the city is finally seeing a craft beer scene here. Some great local stores and some new gastropubs/restaurants are in place and now our first brewery.
Yup. My friends live there, so I was following their FB for quite a while now...I'm not sure if I'll make it tomorrow (Sucreversary), but I'm definitely interested in their beer quality
Our offices are moving to Hunington Beach in the next 4-6 months, so this could be a weekly stop for me once we move. Excited!
Just curious, as I don't know anything about this brewery other than what I just read on the front page of their website, what makes you so confident this will be a very good brewery? Apparently the brewer came from Iron Hill in PA.... is that similar to the Societe guys coming from RR and The Bruery? I hope they are really good. In addition to that, what about Barley Forge in Costa Mesa? I was following their progress for a while but haven't in a few months. Any thoughts about them?
I have been following their website (not much info there) & their Facebook/Twitter pages. Yes the Head Brewer is from Iron Hill (east coast style). And I do love my west coast ipa's. So I'll have to see how his ipa's and other style will hold up to my taste. I'm sure the beers will improve as he and his assistant brewer brews more beers and tweeks the recipes. Here's a little review from http://blog.ocbeerblog.com/. Just because it's in HB and close to home doesn't mean I'll be going the brewery all the time if the beers don't live up to my taste. It would be nice to live in Alpine or Kernville. But Beachwood BBQ & Brewing is the next closest outstanding brewery to my house. To be continued.
I see they are brewing a berliner weisse- if it's good/authentic, and not just a pale wheat beer with lactic acid thrown in at kegging, I will expect even greater things from there.
I am here now. Tried everything other than the stout . I am incredibly underwhelmed. The IPA and Pale lack hops ... They hired an East Coast head brewer, he needs to figure out West Cost style in a hurry. Everything else is average at best. I am not hating on them though, it is a nice opening. Not nearly as crowded as Bottle Logic's and they can only get better.
Lots of work to do. Only the pale was decent. Hope they do some fine tuning and turn up the hop profiles. Nice to see a brewery in HB though.....
What was I expecting? Noble Ale Works. . .their 1st year. What was I hoping for? Bottle Logic. What did I get? OOB. That's Old Orange Brewing for those of you who don't know. Of the 6 tasters I had I liked the PCH Pale Ale. Had some hops in it. Where's the hops in Hang Five? MIA. The Sweet Crude Stout was ok. Had like a soy a sauce aroma to it. And what was up with the 2.8abv cruiser? Is that like a session session type of beer. I mean that was below Bud. I see a lot of young peeps coming back with a pint of PCH in their hands. So that was good. Derek. . . .if your reading this. . . . .West Coast IPA/DIPA's. I was kinda hoping the hang five would be more like a 60minute from DogFish. Don't be afraid to use hops. West coast flavor hops. I not knocking you or BCB. I will go back and get a growler of PCH. A little work or rework, tweaking and it'll all come together. I think BCB has some work to do. Homework. 3 out of 5 for me. Only because it's in my hometown Surf City.
I only created this account to respond to the forum here... I think you guys are not thinking hard enough about the new brewery in HB. Think about their target audience here, they are the only brewery in HB besides HB beer co. The craft scene in HB is nothing compared to orange county or Anaheim where you have Bottle Logic, Nobel, etc. I think BCB was trying to focus on a different crowd to gain craft followers, not just please the enthusiasts... I was at their grand opening yesterday and was happy with almost everything. The beers, you say he is a east coast brewer coming from a brewery no one has heard about.. If you take the time to research the brewer at your local brewery you would see how good of a place he(bcbs brewer) came from. Iron hill has been rewarded top brewpub in the world at the world beer cup every year for the past 6 years. Bringing in tons of medals for their beer, it would be shocking to me that our brewer in HB has no idea how to brew a west coast ipa.... Drinking his beers, I didn't pick up on any of the new,very pungent, tropical fruit aroma hops that we so desire out here. Maybe his first year hop contract was weak, leaving him no options except some of the same varieties. I bet we will see some really good ipas coming out down the line from this brewery. Once he has the time to tweak his brews on his new brewery and get a feel for his audience out here. The IPA was not at all what we are used to out here, but its good for HB... Which is who they are focusing on at first. I cant wait for his upcoming stuff to really tell what kind of brewer he is.. Oh and his stout, previous boss, who has 13 medals for stouts in GABF and WBC, I think the stout was outstanding, im sure he picked up some habits from that guy!
Noted. I am not saying that the beers served for the grand opening were terrible (except for 1). And I understand that the hop contract for a start up brewery is minimal for the first year. I know that the more desirable hops will go to the brewery's thats been around first. I am saying that I did not care for the High Five IPA. It was ok. The craft beer scene is really gaining ground all around the nation right now. There are great brewery's that will survive and some that will get by and others that will not make it. Thats all fine. I don't go to the Bruery because its not my taste. And they are doing just great here in OC. If BCB is going in that direction then more power to them. I hope they succeed. I like a brewery that brews different styles and I like my ipa's west coast style. A good stout, porter, pale ale and ipa's is a good start. Once the hop contracts start to come in then experiment more. Golden Road in LA was off to a rip roaring start from the get go. And we had a lot of complaints here on BA about their ipa's and other beers. After a year they brought in a new brewer and now their beers are drinkable. Noble Ale is another example. Some great beers are coming out of Noble these days. Maybe Derek is going to brew east coast style at BCB. Thats fine. And maybe the young HB crowd likes that style. Fine. I think a lot of the first time Golden Road craft beer drinkers had no clue. And thats how I feel about the first timers or those just getting into the craft beer scene today. I know what is good and not so good. I didn't expect BCB to be great on day one. But the PCH Pale Ale tasted more hoppier than the High Five IPA. I've lived in HB for 75% of my life and I would love to support anything HB. I will visit BCB again soon, for the PCH. In the meantime I will drive to LB to Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, ESBC, Smog City, Noble, Bootleggers and Bottle Logic. There are a lot of craft beer drinkers here in the southland that knows what is good beer and what is not. And it is well noted here on BA. I am saying that BCB, in my opinion, needs some work or tweaking. But who am I? I am only one person with one voice. I hope BCB is successful.
I did not have a single beer at the grand opening that I want to drink again. Nothing was even remotely drain pour bad, it was all just very ... average. I will go over again to try the stout and their future offerings, but the current lineup is not worth my beer dollar at this point. I totally wish them the best and want them to succeed, especially since they are so close to me. On the plus side they have very cool tap handles, the location is great, the people seem cool and they obviously put in a lot of hard work. The beer is what ultimately matters though.
I love this summary. Going to agree that this brewery needs a LOT of work. Please learn to brew hoppy beers. Stout has potential but the aroma was very off putting and killed the beer for me. Also nice to see the brewer/owner responding a few posts up saying they'll be brewing a better IPA soon. Hope so.
I am sure the beers will improve as they go. As was said earlier, the bar has been set really high in the area and there are so many great options for outstanding beer that it's hard not to a bit underwhelmed with the initial offerings. I can only imagine the blood sweat and tears that have gone into opening, so let's trust that things will improve quickly.
Hello everyone, Thank you for all of your feedback. We enjoy honesty so that we know what we can improve. Our head brewer is currently making adjustments on the recipes. We feel for a first time brewing these recipes on a brand new system with the resources/hops that we had, we have a lot of potential and are in a great spot. The second batch of IPA will be kegged later next week. He will also be brewing a DIPA once that fermenter is empty. We are also pretty much wiping our current first year contract and buying hops at spot price to give us the style of hops that you guys are looking for. If you are back in the brewery, ask for me and I would like to go through a tasting with you to get your honest opinions as we go. We did get a lot of good feedback on the beers, but we would like to also work on the negative feedback to ensure we make great craft beer that everyone would be willing to compliment. Thanks again, Glenn
That's a great response from a business owner. I live in North County San Diego now, but grew up in Costa Mesa so I'm looking forward to heading back to the old hood' to try your beers. Good luck!
