SoCal Trip Suggestions

i've often stopped off at the Bruery on the way out to the desert hot springs. don't sweat it. it is about when you leave though. and bear in mind their weekday / weekend hours. if you leave on a weekend try to get to Bruery around lunch time

 

You should have just asked me man hahaha !!

 

My thoughts exactly. I don't understand why he's taking this so personally, no one is out to ruin his trip.

 

Let's be honest guys, traffic does suck in the la/ OC area, but it's not as bad as you are making it out to be. He's gonna be driving late morning time which isn't that bad at . I remember driving that route all the time during thanksgiving to Christmas and if it was between the hours of 9am and 2 pm it was fine. In fact that's when I purposely hit up that area for work because it made most sense.

 

Obviously, it's physically possible. It's not entirely outside the realm of feasibility, but I've lived, worked, commuted, and hung out everywhere from Santa Barbara to San Diego for the past 12 years, and more than likely it'll be a tough drive. He may get relatively lucky and end up having time to kill, but you're absolutely underestimating how many more people have moved to the general area and how much construction is going on. Construction makes traffic exponentially worse. Forgive me if the OP mentioned which day he's planning on doing this, but I don't think he did. If it's a Saturday, it shouldn't be a problem, if it's a Friday, it's a problem, even if he leaves the Bruery as early as 1:00 PM. It's taken me 3 and a half hours to get from Hollywood to Pappy and Harriet's on an early Thursday afternoon (leaving around 2:00). I don't think anyone is trying to "dupe" him or "scare him off," as your "let's be honest guys" statement might suggest. I've had too many plans ruined by my not accounting for traffic. If this were me, in another forum, asking about a metro area I'm either unfamiliar with or vaguely familiar with, I'd appreciate the traffic warnings, rather than plug my ears and accuse everyone of being haterz. And like I said, if he's travelling on a Saturday, or even if he doesn't have a hard schedule, this is all moot. Everyone is just trying to give the OP an idea of what he is likely in for.

 

I too have lived in the San Diego/OC/la area the last 12 years and the 57 is probably my least favorite freeway off all time. So unless a huge amount of people have moved into the area in last month or so since I was in that area then you get why I say let's be honest. Construction sucks but the time he is driving is gonna miss the mass traffic time from 6 am till 930 and after 2pm till 7. And honestly it all depends on what way you travel on said freeway. I get appreciating people giving you tips but also say if it's a weekend or you leave at the right time, it shouldn't be a problem if you stick to a timetable.

 

Next time you want to hit a brewery when you're staying in NoHo Highland Park Brewery is just 5 minutes further than ER Brewery and has substantially more interesting beers than ER and GR.

As far as NoHo to Bruery to JT, personally I wouldn't do it but it is certainly doable any time of the day or any day of the week.

 

That is way longer than normal, especially for a Thursday. The longest it's taken me from Burbank to JT was 3:15 in Friday afternoon traffic. The last time it took me 2 hours and 25 minutes on a Saturday afternoon and that was to the Palms way out in Wonder Valley.

 

This dude saying I'm taking things personal. That's laughable. Somehow something I wrote got turned into me calling people haters. Please locate where above i wrote anything that went beyond being incredulous at some of the doomsday words of discouragement.

This right here is all I need to hear. Like I said, I was in LA in December and managed to avoid any bad traffic. Thus why I'm having to question some people's comments.

Anyway, thanks to all, even those who apparently somehow are offended that I don't believe LA traffic is on the level of a natural disaster.

I saw Highland Park on Yelp... worth it, eh? I'll have to see if I can swing by. What's the beer like there?

 

It's easily the best brewery within the City of LA right now. They usually have about 6 of their beers on tap plus 10 other outstanding beers. Their 2nd batch of Hello LA IPA is already on par with the good stuff from Noble and Beachwood.

And this isn't going to help you but they're doing a cask conditioned mosaic dry-hopped version of Beer Spaceship on Wednesday that I'm really looking forward to

Last week they had Throwback pale, another IPA Enter the Future, Refresh house beer, Wake Up coffee black session ale, a funky farmhouse beer with herbs Yard Beer #1, and I think a dry-hopped version of one of the above. The best they have right now are the Wake Up and the Hello LA. They'll be doing a coffee imperial stout soon, too.

And just for transparency sake they use my coffee for their beers. But they're still the best brewery within the city.

Oh, and I don't think anyone has mentioned it in this thread yet but Macleod is in Van Nuys and is focused on English styles. English styles aren't really my thing but Hermosillo/Highland Park Brewery had their The Crisis - New-School English Pale Ale on tap last week and I thought it was outstanding. You should probably check Macleod out since it's so close to North Hollywood.

 

what's your coffee trystero?