Headed to Anaheim next month for a convention. I ever been to SoCal, so I have no idea what's good around there. I'll have a car, so I can travel. Are there any good Breweries or beer stores around? Wouldn't mind finding some West Coast hopiness. I'm a big fan of Pliny and Enjoy By.
Bruery tasting room Bootlegger's tasting room Noble Aleworks tasting room Valiant Brewing company Beachwood BBQ seal beach/Long Beach You have north SD just an hour south for Pizza Port Carlsbad (Attached bottleshop) Lost Abbey Stone As for shops. There's; Total Wines and more in Tustin Whole Foods Irvine Hi-times liquor store
For bottles Mr K's in Placentia - Basically same parking lot as The Bruery Vendome Fullerton - They get just about everything other than Cantillon, I mean EVERYTHING! Total Brea -'Best prices on 6ps hands down Hacienda Brea - Same as Vendome + Cantillon - Russian River. At this point with Enjoy By, Sucks, Sculpin, Simtra and fresh Double Jack and Union Jack, who needs to hunt down bottles and overpay for Pliny.
Its worth noting that Bruery, Bootleggers, Noble, and Valiant are all very close to the Anaheim Convention Center, whereas both beachwood locations are going to be at best a 30 minute drive assuming there's no traffic (you've never been to california, so try to avoid driving anywhere any appreciable distance between 4 and 6/7pm if its going to involve freeways, or add 50-100% minimum to your travel times). Noble and Valiant are both very close to each other and you could easily hit both in the same evening if you were so inclined. Mr K's Liquor is on the corner of the street you turn into to hit the Bruery's tasting room and has a very reasonable/nice selection of craft beer bottles. Hacienda Beverage in Brea also has an excellent selection of harder to find beers, and if you decide to visit the Total Wine in Brea (I'd actually recommend that over Tustin, as the freeways involved are usually more managable) you're only heading another couple miles away. If you do hit those two places and are into seafood, there's Taps Fishhouse and Brewery almost midpoint between the two. The beers can vary from average to spectacular, and i've never been too impressed with the guest beers they pour, but I've also never had a bad or even lackluster meal there. If you're craving a BBQ fix, there's Smoqued in the Orange Circle, which I would recommend over Haven Gastropub based on my last several trips. The taplist is less likely to have something truly spectacular, but the food is better (IMO) and cheaper than what you'll find at Haven. Both of these establishments are less than a 5 minute walk apart, so feel free to make your own choice if you decide to visit. Both are rather close to Valiant and Noble, which provides a good opportunity to get a solid meal in. Depending on when you visit, the new Provisions bottleshop may be open in the neighborhood, and Rod's Liquor (also less than 5 minutes walk) gets some RR stuff every once in a while that lingers longer than it should given its proximity to Chapman College. If you do make the trip into Tustin, make sure to check out Tustin Brewing company and Bradley's Fine Wine's across the street as they have been starting to stock some of the more sought after releases. Just make sure to ask what they have in the back. Hope that helps?
Go to Noble! They're the brewery that teds to be ignored here in Orange County, and doing some great stuff recently.
A couple years ago I would have said to ignore Noble, but I went there a couple months ago and was really pleasantly surprised not only by the improvement of their beers, but the fact that they also have like 15 of them on at a time.
Damn, y'all read my mind on food, especially BBQ. Being born and raised in the south, BBQ is a staple of my diet, along with grits and beer of course. I plan on hitting up these spots and taking back a nice haul with me. Last year on tuus trip, we were out in Utah, I brought back around 10 beers. I'm pretty good at packing. Thanks for all the help!
I work in the industry so I don't pay $11 for Simtra like everyone else does. Guess I forgot that for a second. Although Liquor Warehouse in HB had Simtra for $8.99 last time I was in there before Christmas.
I'm not sure which to address: the cool story bro or the fact that $1 off the running price of simtra is still higher priced than pliny.
Never heard of Simtra, but it looks pretty good, may have to get a bottle. My wife's family lives in NorCal, so last time I was out there I got some Pliny, thought it was excellent and relatively cheap. I was getting bottles for $5, is that a good price or is that normal?
That's normal. Assuming you like DIPAs, and assuming you like simcoe, Simtra's worth a try, although Knee Deep (the brewery that makes it) has some quality control problems, IMO, and it's not super consistent from batch to batch. If you're in OC, I would definitely visit the Bruery, assuming you like sours. And since you've been to California before, you know what bottles to look for in shops.
