Visiting Los Angeles

Inspired by @Xul 's recent 'Visiting San Diego guide threads I figured LA/Orange County/Inland Empire could use one as well. The LA/OC/IE beer scene isn't as hopping (See what I did there!?!? I'm sorry... I promise not to do it anymore) as San Diego but if you are here on vacation, for work, passing through or just plain stuck we have plenty of good beer. So feel free to ask any questions you may have and someone should be able to help you out.

This guide is meant to give you a general overview of the beer in the area, please feel free to ask any questions here you may have. When asking questions there are two very important things you need to mention; where are you staying and do you have access to a car. LA is a big place. LA/OC/IE is even bigger.

The city of LA has an area of 503 square miles, about 33% the size of Rhode Island. The LA metro area (as defined by the census, including cities such as Irvine, Anaheim, Glendale, Pasadena, Long Beach among others) has an area of 4,850 square miles, or larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. When you start throwing San Bernadino, Riverside and Thousand Oaks in the mix you're up to 33,954 square miles, if it was its own state would be the 40th largest state in the union... an area larger than South Carolina. So where you are actually going to be staying is very important, our public transportation is... well, its best if you just say if you have access to a car or not.

So where are the breweries?

Here; https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msi...1.758184,2.845459&iwloc=0004dd66db5bddf7f5e10


The map is far from all encompassing. I have not been to all of them, so the only thing I can guarantee is that there is a brewery at said location or has been one there in recent history. Its probably also missing a lot. Catch any key ones missing and I'll get them added. Some I have left off the list (Like Craftsman) because they don't actually have a tap room.


Notable Breweries:
The Bruery
Well known, and easily accessible (just off the 57, north of the 91), its a great place to go if you like sours, stouts/strong ales and barrel aged beers with every know fruit/spice/cooking ingredient thrown into the mix. If you have never been, you should probably go. No food, but nearby restaurants will deliver and food trucks on weekends. Weekends can be a bit crowded. Conveniently located near Mr. K's which can be a good stop for bottles and breweries such as Noble and Bottle Logic.

Beachwood BBQ
With two locations, one in Long Beach the other in Seal Beach, you cant go wrong wither either but the general consensus is Long Beach is better. Amazing beers and good BBQ. Some of the best IPAs and hoppy beers in the country, their other beers aint bad either. Long Beach Location is also just a couple hundred feet away from the Long Beach chapter of Congregation Ale House.

Noble Ale Works
Located near Angels Stadium, and Bottle Logic and The Bruery, they are fairly new to scene they have produced some fantastic beers in the Showers series of single hop beers and Naughty Sauce.

Bottle Logic
Located in Anaheim, they produce some really solid beers and their proximity to The Bruery and Noble means you can hit them all up fairly easy in a single day.

Hanger 24
Their core line up is decent, nothing will blow you away though. Their Barrel Roll series is usually pretty good but limited release.

Golden Road Brewery
Much malingered in the past, they are a good brewery despite it all. They make some good solid IPAs. They only can and can be found pretty ubiquitous throughout the area. El Burro cans found in Trader Joes are brewed at Golden Road.

Eagle Rock Brewery
Are you a hipster? If so, Eagle Rock and the neighborhood are for you! They brew some pleasant beers, but their core line up, while not bad, wont blow you away.

Smog City
Recently started bottling, their Nothing and Coffee Porter are excellent beers. Good hoppy beer lineup too. When in the area, you can also visit Strand, Monkish and El Segundo. Relatively convenient if you are staying near LAX.

El Segundo
Their Hyperion line of stouts are good (personal love for vanilla Hyperion). Hop tanker is excellent and the rest of their lineup, hop oriented, is really good. Doesn't get a lot of press but is a great brewery.

Bottle Shops (My weak point, I know. This list is incomplete)
*You want Pliny? Tough luck. Its a relative pain to get even for locals. That said, if you really really really really want bottles of Pliny, they usually get delivered at set times once a week, once every other week or once a month to where ever they get distributed to and usually sell out in hours. Your BEST bet, do an IP trade. If you don't want bottles, great news many bars usually have it on tap. Even better news, California has more IPAs than Pliny, and many of them are... gasp... better than Pliny (Personal opinion)!!!

Sunset Beer Company
Located on Sunset not far from downtown LA, this place has a great selection, knowledgeable staff, and usually some good beers on tap to boot.

Vendome
Beverly Hills (Is it open? Yes? No?), Pasadena and Toluca Lake, usually has a good selection. While most beers are priced fine, beware of unusually high priced singles.

Ramirez Liquor
South of downtown near I-10, great selection. Knowledgeable.

Mr Ks
Right next to The Bruery, if you want to go to the Bruery and a bottle shop then look no further.

Stone Company Store Pasadena
Bar? Bottle shop? Both. Stone beers only. Almost always has at least one special beer on tap and/or in bottles. Love Stone but cant get to Escondido or San Diego? Go here. Located in Old Town Pasadena, lots of good food available at nearby restaurants. Easy access from Metro Gold Line. Luggage Room pizza joint next door will “deliver” to Stone and you can take Stone growlers to the Luggage room (possible corkage fee?).

Whole Foods
All over the place, usually have good selections.

Bars and Beer Focused Restaurants
Congregation Ale Houses
Three locations; Pasadena (close to Stone), Azusa (Brews beer) and Long Beach (Next to Beachwood BBQ). Good number of rotating taps. Good food.


Fathers Office
Located in Santa Monica, a smallish tap list but usually good. Getting a seat is annoying, its seat yourself so lots of vultures/predators/people standing over your table waiting to pounce. Tasty burgers.

Library Ale House
Heard good things, honestly never been there. In Santa Monica.

38 Degrees
Located in Alhambra, not really close to much... but has an awesome tap list and really good food.

Beer Belly
Small but good tap list, awesome and creative food. Northeast of Downtown LA.

Tonys Darts Away
Located in Burbank, good long tap list.

Mohawk Bend
Great taps, great food (vegan and vegetarian options too). Located on Sunset not far from downtown LA

Slaters 50/50
Old Town Pasadena, great place to die from calories.

 

I updated the map with the Angel City, Macleod and Highland Park, as enough times passes, thread gets too long or out of date ill create a new one with the additional bars listed. In the mean time, I'll try to understand google's "new" map system and transfer the current map to the new system and add bars and bottle shops to it.

Angel City exists... its a great location. Pie hole, ummami and wursttheke all nearby... great architecture and ambiance.

 

I would love to have some other descriptions, I dont want this to be my view of LA/OC/IE. Definitely an evolving guide, this region is really too big for just one person to be able to cover.

Edit: Added The Dudes, Ohana and Absolution

 

I'll try and incorporate all the suggestions later tonight. Please keep ideas of bars, breweries and bottle ships coming. I'll probably get rid of beer descriptions from the breweries and just do location descriptions and any applicable notes (such as MacLeod focusing on cask beers).

I wanted to do a single LA/OC/IE thread because to many people not from socal or not currently living here tend to view it as one metro area. I remember as a <10 year old growing up in New Mexico going to 'LA' to visit Disneyland.

Do to the limited edit window on these forums I'll post an updated version in this thread and eventually use a more refined version for starting anew thread (perhaps visiting ____ 2015).

Thanks. My mistake on the direction. I wanted to avoid using neighborhoods and region names as much as possible but Koreatown is pretty well known. Downtown LA is where afair number of people will probably stay so i was going to thru and use it as a land mark for locating regions to go to.

 

The only two whole foods i ever go to are the two Pasadena ones, anyone else know of some whole foods with good beer selections?