Must Try California Beers

Hey OP I was in a similar situation to you earlier this year when I was in LA and where visiting breweries really wasn't an option. Someone recommended downloading the Tap Hunter app. It was the best advice I got. It will show you all the beer bars near you, directions to the location (including address, phone number, hours, etc.) and best yet, what they have on draft and in bottles. The more full the beer mug is for a particular location the more current the draft/bottles list is. It allowed me to find a place that had, Pliny, Sculpin and a ton more great CA brews. It allows you to be efficient if you don't have time to hit a lot of places. Have fun!

 

TapHunter is good for bar locations, but don't trust the "what's on draft" feature, which is rarely updated (except for a few places). There are several bars that keep tap lists updated on their Web site: Mohawk, Tony's, Surly Goat, Blue Palms, 38 Degrees. As mentioned before, Glendale Tap is awesome; unfortunately, they do a shit job of keeping their tap list current anywhere.

Also, as has been said, Anaheim is not the Valley, and most of the breweries mentioned don't open until 3 or 4pm on weekdays. If you have a Sunday available, though, Noble at the very least is worth checking out.

 

Orange County and Los Angeles are different cities. people who live here also consider them as different cities. it's fine to suggest going to Orange County, but it's incorrect to say that those places are in LA. also, the drive from the Valley to Noble is a hefty one, especially in traffic

i've never heard someone say "i live in the LA Metro area". you either live in OC or LA

 

"Technically" not City of LA? It's not LA, nor even in the same county, and nobody local thinks of it as "LA".

 

On the other hand, when San Diegans are ranting about people from LA or OC, they use the single phrase "LA Douchebags". LOL

 

Anything north of the 78 is too far north for me and I consider it all northern california (despite having at least another 4 hours of a drive until I am even close to the middle where we can separate north from south).

 

And nobody outside of southern CA thinks there's any difference... Nor cares. It's close enough if you are visiting... As the OP is

And as I said above... Apparently the Angels have no problem with calling it LA

 

Maybe it is because no one outside of CA knows where Anaheim is, unless they are like a Ducks fan or frequent Disneyland a lot. =P

 

Everybody that comes to these types of threads cares about where a brewery is actually located because that's why they ask. When somebody chimes in with bad information, we do our best to correct it. This visitor will be staying in the Valley and Noble is an hour away without traffic and that just climbs and climbs from there - not a short distance for somebody coming in for a wedding and unable to "go crazy". It is bad information to think a brewery located over an hour away in Orange County is located in LA. Sorry, deal with it.

The Angels statement that you continue to make and pat yourself on the back for is asinine and irrelevant.

 

are you from San Diego?

 

so, Angles naming their team that makes OC LA?

wouldn't you be more interested in what people who actually live here have to say then people who don't? most people outside of Texas think you are all racists. are you cool with that perception? or would you rather people from Texas tell people how it is there?

 

You people in Southern California are really confusing.

 

Whoa..whoa....what do you mean by "you people"?

 

Lol. It was stated that "nobody local thinks of it as LA" which, is obviously not the case.

I'm glad you have your finger on the pulse of what "most" people think.

I actually lived in LA (proper) before Texas

 

i was born and raised here. i have never once in my life met someone from here who doesn't know the difference between Orange County and Los Angeles. it's not that hard

 

Just because a sports team carries the name due to marketing, that doesn't change what most people think.

Nobody ever thinks of Orange County as LA.

 

How can you not trust it? It says when the tap list was last updated. If it hasn't been updated in 5-6 days, then you're taking a bit of a gamble. However, if it's been updated in the past 48 hours, then you have a reasonably good idea of what will be on tap. The app itself can be trusted, it's just a shame that more bars don't update with the requisite frequency.

 

My point is that those breweries aren't out of the general reach of someone visiting LA (unlike some of the other suggestions ..RR, Bear Republic, etc) An hour drive isn't a big deal to me, especially when on vacation. I can't judge of how much time someone has, but I can make suggestions as to good places to hit. Hell I drive 90 minutes to Jester King on Fridays after work just to buy one bottle, drink a few and drive home.

 

My point is (and I didn't state it very well), TapHunter is rarely updated by the bars themselves. You can't plan a trip to bars when more than half of them haven't updated in 5-6 days. Also, many of the best bars aren't even on TapHunter.

 

Gotcha. One thing that can be helpful is going on Untappd and seeing what people in your area are drinking. One can search nearby bars/breweries and get a bit of an idea of what's available. This is by no means 100% reliable, but it can be a useful tool.