The Beer Revolution and Long Beach's Breweries

The Beer Revolution has hit Long Beach and even the Los Angeles area slowly. With Beachwood BBQ and Brewery coming soon and an onslaught of beer bars and gastropubs cropping up, the beer buzz (get it!) is spreading. As a home brewer and beer enthusiast, I often find myself preaching the gospel of great craft beer. Even when I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune, I captivated the other auditioners with sentiments of the downfall of the BMC (Budweiser, Miller Coors) while the selection team deliberated. Bottled beer is diverse and plentiful at many liquor and grocery stores in Long Beach. I can find Pliny the Elder at at least five different stores. Sour beers, barrel aged brew, and other small production craft beers are available at many places. Unfortunately, with the exception of Belmont's Strawberry Blonde, none of these beers come from breweries in Long Beach.

The breweries in Long Beach, Belmont Brewing Company and Rock Bottom Brewing, have been here for well over 10 years and making great beer the entire time. Both head brewers have enjoyed a long tenure at their establishment. Although Hayley Meagher does d abble in barrel fermenting and Double IPAs, I feel the flagship beers of these two brew on premises restaurants are what make them great watering holes.

A quick glance at yelp.com indicates the beer at Rock Bottom Brewery in downtown Long Beach receives rave reviews. In 2010 Rock Bottom's Rocktoberfest, an amber lager, received a gold at the World Beer Cup. A couple of years ago, I spent a day watching head brewer Hayley Meagher in action, bothering her with questions, and helping out where I could. As I "assisted", I sampled beers, the brown and the IPA were both delicious, and Meagher even bought me lunch. It was a great day. I learned (amongst other technical brewing things that I won't bore you with) that Hayley's cleaning system is very thorough. She uses Five Star Products, a company that makes organic cleaners and sanitizers. This allows her to make smooth tasting beers that she can replicate over and over. This is an important quality in a brewery. The standard beers go over well with the Pine Ave./ Convention Center crowd, but they do have different specialty beers at least once a month including a barrel aged stout, a pumpkin/ Halloween beer and a Double IPA sometimes even served on cask. The mainstays include Great White Wheat, Pine Avenue Pale Ale, and Black Seal Stout. Meagher makes great beers and she is friendly to the home brew community. I have since used several of her techniques in my own brewing. On my way home, after the beer we made, an IPA, was in the fermenter, I stopped at a Double IPA tasting at Wine County.

Blackwell, the head brewer at Belmont Brewing Company, invites the Long Beach Homebrewers to brew with him once a year. I have never gone, but I understand it is a good time with food and drinks. At the end, he sends you home with some wort and some yeast. Affectionately called the BBC, Belmont features beautiful views of the ocean from the pier, but the beers are great as well. Long Beach Crude, Full Saill, and Marathon, are just a few. I have not known them to make many "special" beers. In fact, I asked him once if he had anything special on tap and he said, "All of our beers are special." Again, I blame this on the touristy location of the place. He simply has to make beers that the public will enjoy (Sounds funny, duh!). Belmont does bottle its Strawberry Blonde, but I think it is brewed off premises. They have a seasonal rotating beer, a Belgian Wit, a Hefeweizen, but I have never had anything spectacular. Good beer. Friendly Brewer. Perhaps suffering slightly from Long Beach's trepidation of beer with complexity, both breweries produce substantial liquid refreshment.

Tips: If you live in Long Beach, who cares if these places don't bottle. When I moved to Long Beach ten years ago, I started buying bottles of good beer at Trader Joe's, then Wine Country on Redondo (stop by Circle Pet). Now, I usually go to Stearns Liquor or drive out to Whole Foods in Bella Terra to visit friend and beer buyer Josh. California Heights Market is another good one. Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach is a great beer bar. You can check their hop cam because their beers are constantly changing. I have not visited the Factory, a new gastropub, but I have heard good things. There is also a new beer bar down at Shoreline village. Share more in the comments.