What are your favorite current Orange County beers?

For me, it's still Bruery and then no other brewery even close. LA and SD on the other hand...completely different story. I just tried a few beers from Phantom Carriage and two of them were fantastic.

 

Noble. I think Naughty Sauce is on right now. Along with Mosaic Showers.

 

In specific order Bruery --> Bottle Logic --> Noble --> Valiant

All 4 make great beers but there is quite the jump between the bruery and the rest. The creativity that goes into some of their beers is just amazing...not to mention that make some of the best sours on the planet IMO.

 

That Naughty Naughty Saucy Sauce

 

I'm in full agreement with you here. If you haven't done Bootlegger's they're still up there too, but have really disappeared from everyone's radar from lack of innovation and (from my understanding) degrading their flagship product. I'll also toss in, although not in OC, very adjacent, Beachwood. Beachwood I think easily has one of the best environments and some of the best seasonals and IPAs in the region.

 

Can't say I've had much of their "core" lineup, but the 18th Anniversary Flanders I had from Tustin Brewing was stellar. And they usually have solid guest taps to boot. [sorry, that 18th Anny was months ago though]

 

And best beer right now on tap, Wineification II if you can get it. If we're talking about regular beers, I've been really digging The Patsy from barley forge brewing. Its a Coconut Rye Stout.

They also just tapped Sucre New American Oak (and some other variants) for non-society members. If you have never had those, I highly recommend them.

 

Thx. Gonna try to sample that soon.

 

Are we talking favorite OC brewery? Or beer? Current beer I would have to say Mosaic Showers, because it's still on at NobleAle. But I enjoyed "I Less Than Three It" more than Mosaic. But that is gone now. Nobles Citra Yum Yum (also gone) was equally as good as 3 it. When Tangerine Dream (Bottle Logic) was pouring that was another winner.
OC brewery? Again NobleAle. But I will drink 20-30% of what they have on tap. Naughty Sauce, Shower series and their special IPA releases are spot on. The rest is a miss for me. Beach City Brewery I would put #2 behind NobleAle. Why? I think Derek is doing some great things these days with the brewing. His IPA's have come a long way since last May. His barrel aged Ruski Noir is one of the better imp Russian Stouts out there. And if you haven't tried the Pierside Pils in cans then your missing out. NobleAle's first year was terrible. When Evan came along and gave us Naughty Sauce the rest is history. Bottle Logic came on with their guns a blazing and they are putting out some good stuff too. But again most of their beers is not for me. All's it take is that 1 beer that will put them on the radar. I think it will happen this year for Derek (and Harrison) over at BCB.
And whatever happened to Bootleggers? Knuckle Sandwich was an instant hit. Then what happened?
The Bruery will always be OC's map. Just not for me.

 

I believe Vlady Sauce is still on as well. That's another solid beer from Noble.

 

Does Beachwood count? Seal Beach = OC Similar to @JoshBeerNow , but just a slight tweak:

Bruery -> Beachwood -> Noble -> Bottle Logic -> Valiant ... then the rest of the OC bunch.

 

Negative on BW. It's in LB, which is part of LA county. Close. But no cigar. If this included LA county then we are on a whole ne ball game. BeachwoodBrewing would be LA's/SoCal choice.

 

Holy coconut that was good when I had it a couple weeks ago

 

Definitely one of the best in OC right now. Mosaic Showers, Naughty Sauce and Recursion 4.0 would round out my list.

 

Guess which opened first?
http://www.yelp.com/biz/beachwood-bbq-seal-beach
http://www.yelp.com/biz/beachwood-brewing-and-bbq-long-beach

 

True and I've been going to SB for 7 1/2 years now. But Beachwood beers are brewed and bottled in Long Beach, CA. Seal Beach is not a brewery. Just a restaurant that serves food and has some outstanding guest beers and BWs beers. We can always say that Orange County is part of Los Angeles. The Anaheim Angeles of Los Angeles. But if you want to include BW in this OC thread then go ahead. Or we can do another thread on LA county's best beers/brewery. Or California's favorite beer/brewery. Is Alpine Beer Co considered San Diego? I wild have to say yes. It's in the county.

 

I killed a 64 oz growler to myself of it over the weekend. I don't even like coconut and something about that beer is just amazing.

 

Here is my list of OC breweries rated in order...

1. Noble Ale Works
2. Bottle Logic
3. Bruery
4. Valiant
5. Bootleggers

I have Bruery under Noble and Bottle Logic because I like to have a full pint in my hand while drinking beers. Noble and BL tend to have more "sessionable" beers that are served in full pints. I'm not a fan of sours either. If Valiant would make "cleaner" beer and Bootleggers would try more things, then I'd put them above Bruery too. Don't get me wrong, I think The Bruery easily makes the most complex beers on my list, but I really dislike drinking everything in snifters (blatant exaggeration, i know.).

 

As a Seal Beach resident, LongBeachwood is 7.5 miles away, the Bruery is 22miles away and Pizza Port San Clemente is 44 miles away. I'd say that Beachwood's sphere of influence is right along the Orange County/LA County border and I think it makes sense to consider it as either/both.

(FWIW, this conversation seems to come up every 6 months. Another curious thing to note is that Pizza Port San Clemente always gets left out until someone mentions it and everyone goes, "oh yeah, that's way the fuck out of the way for me but it's technically Orange County").