Three Chiefs Brewing - Los Angeles

Are we doing rankings? Because I have some rankings.

Good to Great (In no particular order): Highland Park, Mumford, Monkish, Smog City, Beachwood/Blendery, Verdugo West, Eagle Rock, Brouwerij West, El Segundo, Three Weavers

Meh to OK (INPO): Karl Strauss, Boomtown, Ohana, Congregation, Arts District, Frogtown, Sanctum, Phantom Carriage, King Harbor, Long Beach Beer Lab*, MacLeod, Indie

No thank you: Angel City, The Dudes, Strand

For "Playas" Only: Iron Triangle

*Their bread is legit great, tho.

 

What’s up with the dudes brewing? They just opened a new location up here in Santa Clarita and I’ve never had their beers. Are they that bad?

 

What's wrong with making a thread for them? It doesn't hurt. Nobody is pleased with the great Offshoot Brewing Company's releases but their thread is 30 plus pages and counting. They sure as hell don't deserve a thread if this is going to be the guild-lines around here

 

Yep.. also HPB, Firestone Walker-Venice, and Mumford.. El Segundo and Smog City have their moments as well. I think State Brewing in Gardena are on tract to becoming something special by the end of the year.

 

HPB, Cellador, Monkish, Brouwerij West, Modern Times, Beachwood, and to a lesser extent Mumford are my picks for top tier breweries.

And Homage and Green Cheek, if they count as LA.

I also liked Ladyface when I visited but I haven’t been there in quite awhile.

 

Actually, Dry River has been making some really great beer, too.

 

Some of the Dudes can have been showing up in the .99 cent stores. But it ain’t .99 cents.

 

One thing about the Arts and Angels when we visited them. Both were packed. WTF! I don’t get it? Shit for beers and they were packed. Maybe those people have it right and we don’t?

 

Cellador.

 

They also have a beer pong setup from what I heard

 

Before the acquisition, they made decent (is just above or just below par "decent"?) beer. They also made a tamarind ale experiment that made it to Xlyxe Pizza (now closed) that I thoroughly enjoyed. Also had a really cool art space. But, really, it's location. And exposure. Lots of it.

Arts District, I think, gets enormously packed because they're also in a decent spot. But, mostly, because there's food, skee ball, and liquor. Mostly the liquor. That way, everyone has something, rather than just beer dudes and dudettes hanging out, you also get more of a club and date scene, IMHO. I feel the same way you do. I try to get my friends to go to Mumford instead, if only for delicious burgers at the Escondite (which also has liquor), so everyone's still happy.

 

I miss Xlyxe Pizza

 

Both Angel and Arts are nice place and good location but their beers were terrible. I tried Angel ipa out of a bottle before. Never cared for it. I can say I’ve visited both places now. Don’t think I’ll ever go back. Looking forward to HPB Chinatown opening this year. It’ll be be Mumford, Dojo and HpB run. Mikkeller is nice with real meat there. Their beers are alright. I prefer the guest taps. And they have real ketchup. But I still prefer eating someplace in Ktown.

 

We definitely don't disagree on the quality of Angel City and Arts District.

 

The few times I went to Angel City (before they were bought out) I had some of the grossest goddamn beers I’ve ever tried. I believe two of them were a white stout and some cola beer bullshit. Curiosity got the better of me.

Also had a hellish experience wading through bodies and elbows at Arts District but at least the beer I had from there was all right.

 

that sounds like after they were taken over by A&S

 

For the record my intent wasn't to do rankings. I just wanted add to the growing number of people stating that LA has a lot of breweries above the "shit ones and mediocre ones".

The brewing scene in LA is the best it has ever been.

There is a lot of great beer being brewed in LA.

 

Lets face facts.. these two places have the ultimate-glorious locations and setups. The beer itself is another story but their location and facilities are a home run.

 

Personally, I like the brewery specific threads. It means I can follow the breweries I am interested in and ignore the rest.

 

...and I concur with above^^^....but we are so oversaturated with crap brewery's also. I just don't see how some of them survive. We do have a lot of newbie's getting into this craft scene. And these days everything is label craft. Maybe they should be labeled crap. Some of those newbies have no freakin clue about whats good and whats not. Good thing @HopHead89 has a clue (I think). This is one of the reasons why I did a thread on your (BA's) nearest local brewery versus what you visit more often. To see what good brewery you live close by and to see if you visit them often or not. Or do you go to the better brewery's that's out of your way? In HB we have the 4 Kids, Dudes, Riip and Beachwood. I guess I'm lucky I have a decent place(s) to stop in to chat or have a beer. But I do drive out of my way if I want a change of taste. But to hit up every new crap brewery is out of the question. Why did we stop in at Arts and Angel? Because it's was there and we heard good things about the place. Not their beers. I knew going into I probably wasn't going to like the beers. But it was worse than what I had expected. I usually don't drain pour but I had no choice at Arts.