Road Trip - LAX --> SFO

For transit options in SF check out www.beerbybart.com

 

Cellador self-distributes quite a few of their beers (mostly 375 mL bottles) to the better bottle shops in SF, LA, OC, and SD. But they have so many different beers, and they rotate and experiment so often, it's hard to say what and how many would be available at any given time and place. They also have a web store with a few bottles available for shipping within CA, and reasonable shipping rates. If you go to the brewery in North Hills, they will likely have 10-20 different offerings available in bottles with many different formats 375 mL, 750 mL, and 1.5 L). Relatively little draft distribution, but they do some.

Alvarado St. distributes cans to the better bottle shops in SF, LA, OC, and SD as well. I'm not sure about their turnover, but I seem to always see like 5-6 different brands at a time in a given store, including a core brand like Mai Tai P.A., a few hazies, and a kettle sour or two. I say the same thing pretty much every time I try a new one... "Pretty good, but it didn't blow me."

Homage has extremely minimal self-distribution. Maybe a handful of stores, and mostly just one or two brands at a time, as far as I know. So you'd be very lucky to find anything at all on the shelves anywhere. And even if you go to their extremely small brewery in Pomona, you would not likely find anything readily available for purchase to-go. They might have 2-4 bottles for on-site consumption, and maybe 8 beers on tap. Very little of their beer gets distributed on draft outside of a handful of accounts. They are extremely small (5 bbl brewhouse), and most of their beer is served over the tasting room counter. That said, they are very much worth your time to seek out, in my IMO, especially for any of their bottled sour or mixed fermentation beers. At their best, they can hold their own with any brewery in the world, I'd say. If you cannot make it out to the brewery tasting room (or even if you can), I would highly recommend you try to reach out to some local fan(s), to see if anyone would be open to arranging a trade/sale/gpiufmb of some sort. Great beer and great people (begets great beer and great people). I'd give you a bottle or two of my own if I had a way to get them to you.

Enjoy your trip!

 

You can find a bunch of Cellador beers in Vendome Beverly Hills. Only 375s, and they might have Magnums of Famille. I think they have: Carrot King, Saison, Gorgeouscity, Berlinerish Rapberry, Cherimoya Saison, Good++, Deux Valles, Famille, Jie... and probably a few more. They also have an excellent selection overall and pretty fair prices.

Homage you won't find anywhere.

Alvarado St cans often land in Southland Beer in koreatown and Select Beer Store, but I don't think they have any right now. I agree with cquiroga that they can be a bit hit or miss (particularly lately), but their staples are top notch: Mai Tai is delicious, Contains no Juice, Vengeful Barbarian...

 

Joining in on this thread since I have a trip planned to Costa Mesa/Pomona in April and will be hitting up Green Cheek and Homage for sure. Any food recs in these areas?

 

Mariscos Jalisco in Pomona. Order 4 crispy shrimp tacos, slather them shits with habanero sauce, and thank me later.

 

Yes. Don’t pass on the food offerings when your at Green CheekToo. Nearby is Karl Strauss. Good food. So so brews with the exception of a few. Also worthy of a visit. If your into the ramen scene theirs a good one inside Mitsuwa store around the corner from GCtoo. And don’t skip out on Gunwhales across from GCtoo. Bait Ball and their oyster stout is very good IMO. Yes still.

 

If you haven't been to SF before, be prepared for some unsightly sights when walking in the City Beer Store/Cellarmaker/Mikkeller/Bartlett Hall area. It is not uncommon to see people openly doing/selling drugs. I've never had any issues, but be aware of your surroundings. Walking and staring down at your phone is probably not recommended.

 

Thanks for the recs, this is a cool looking brewery that I've never heard of. I see they have a place in Orange as well