Family trip to Mammoth this weekend and hoping to not need to pack a bunch of cans. Any tips on where to score some 4 or 6pks in Mammoth? I see Mammoth brewing and Distant Brewing, which seems very close to where we are staying, perhaps walkable although the forecast highs are below freezing.
Don’t pass on June Lake Brewing. Short enough drive. Lots of good to great hot springs east of 395/Airport area. But, probably closed off due to snow? Have fun. edit… depend on direction from to Mammoth, if you can take a detour ahead up 74 to Kernville (Kern River Brewing Co) and take some Citra & Chuurch with you. Well worth it.
@dcgunman that's a bit further north, since we are driving from San Diego, I doubt we will venture north of Mammoth. I see a few liquor store options looking at the map, just wondering if someone here can suggest which spot may be best. Hoping to find some options I can't get down here (Henhouse, Sara, Moonlight, etc).
Mammoth Liqours and A Frame Liqour are the two places I have the most luck with in terms of craft beer to-go, but check the freshness, and if you can't verify it I wouldn't buy it. Mammoth Brew Co is the main spot in town and personally I think the beer is "fine", but I always enjoy the food. Definitely worth a visit imo. Distant Brew Co is decent, I believe the guy who founded it has SD ties (Pizza Port maybe? Can't recall). Much smaller place and you'll need to bring your own food though. Always wanted to try June Lake Brewing but given the road conditions over the last several weeks and the weather, I doubt you'll want to drive much once you get to town.
I've bought cans at A Frame, June Lake and Revision if I remember correctly. I prefer Distant Brewing over Mammoth, Distant serves decent sandwiches and you can usually get a seat if you arrive by 6 or so. Mammoth cans can be purchased at the Mammoth Vons But neither Distant nor Mammoth is that great and once you've tried June Lake which is better than Distant/Mammoth there's no need to go out of your way to try more June Lake, so this last trip I brought my own cans up to Mammoth + that worked out well
Trip update, we had a great time! Went to Distant twice (it was walkable) and thought the beer was good; they had a collab with Burgeon that was very nice. Sandwiches were good, dog friendly was nice as well. The family liked Mammoth brewing more, because downstairs was empty and we were able to play pool/shuffleboard before it got crowded. Got numerous cans at the A-Frame and a few at Mammoth liquor. Best beer (can) of the trip was a Revision IPA called Tahoe 330; bought all of it I could find, drinking one now. Also got June Lake XPA (ok), and Almanac Kolsh (ok) and a terrible 4pk from Great Basin called Ichthyosor IPA, nasty as malt ball mess. We went tubing, snowmobiling and the gondola ride. Had to shovel out 3 feet of fresh snow the morning of departure and my back won't forgive me for it! I hadn't shoveled snow since I was a teenager, it sucked! All in all a fabulous family trip!
I was going to recommend Black Doubt, but wanted to verify their existence first. Turns out they changed names to Distant. Been a while since I was up there.
