A flight at Angel City Brewery. Photo copyright 2016 by Anna Boudinot.
Downtown Los Angeles breweries are not a new trend: the first brewery in Los Angeles was established by German immigrants in 1874. What is a new trend is the crop of breweries that have popped up in the Downtown Arts District in the past couple years.
I set out with a friend one December night to find out which of these breweries were getting creative and which were sticking to crowd-pleasers like west coast IPAs. (Note: I do not happen to like IPAs. I am amused by IPA names, though, so to amuse myself I will report on the most cleverly named IPA at each location.)
The first brewery we visited was Angel City Brewery, which is not technically a craft brewery but has the charm of one. They have been brewing since 1997 and their taproom opened in 2013. “In a city known more for its glitz than its grit, Angel City Brewery is proud to rough things up a bit and work beneath the surface,” they boast on their website. Viewing the brewery as both a “brewery and a canvas,” their sprawling, art-covered space is the location for events ranging from yoga class to trivia night. They offer at least eight beers on tap at a time, but they had 17 beers available the night we visited them, some of which I recognized as old standards and some that were new and/or seasonal. The menu included basics like a west coast-style IPA, a lager, and a Belgian-style witbier, then branched off into creative and unusual brews like White Nite, a nitrogenated golden stout that drinks like a pilsner, and Quadratic Formula, a bold Belgian quadrupel with notes of blackberry. Their Oktoberfest was crisp and refreshing, but the Citrus Wheat felt like being smacked in the face with a lemon. With three IPAs on the list, the one with the most inventive name was “Zero Flocs Given.”
Just down the street was Arts District Brewing Company, which was jammed with crowds playing skee-ball, cornhole, and darts but also had a quiet area off to the side where we grabbed a booth and enjoyed some wings and tater tots from Fritzi next door. Both the brewery and Fritzi have been in operation since 2015, and both are owned by 213 Hospitality. 213 is a mainstay of the DTLA bar and restaurant scene with establishments including Cole’s and Seven Grand. If you’re not into beer, Arts District Brewing has a full bar. If you are into beer, they have 19 beers on tap, with an emphasis on darker beers. The Velveteen Rabbit oatmeal stout lived up to its description as “inky and brooding,” with flavors of espresso brownie. A Scotch ale called Scotch Scotch Scotch tasted as though it has been aged in scotch barrels, with a chewy texture dominated by molasses and smoke. Another favorite was the Pompoenemmer Pumpkin Spice Belgian-style brown, touted as “pumpkin pie in a glass.” Spices like nutmeg and cinnamon made the beer complex, yet it had a very clean finish. The only lackluster beer we sampled was the Simul in Vita American Wheat. They have five IPAs on their list; the most creatively named one was “Business Casual.”
We left Arts District Brewing and took a 15-minute walk to the opposite end of the neighborhood, burning off some of our beer calories. Iron Triangle Brewing Company, open for less than a year, is on a dark empty street that will probably be bursting with condos within the next five years, but for now remains industrial. The name is an homage to the “iron triangle” of William Mulholland, Fred Eaton, and Joseph Lippincott, the men responsible for the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The taproom has beautiful soaring ceilings and exposed wooden beams, with soft lighting and friendly bartenders wearing black vests and bow ties. The result is elegance and approachability all wrapped into one. They have three beers that they brew year-round – a gold ale, a dark ale, and an IPA – and on the night we visited, they had seven additional beers available, including a barleywine. The gold ale was very tart and a little boring; the dark ale had a nice coffee flavor without being too heavy. The Land of Fire Red IPA is a solid choice: crisp and hoppy, with a caramel aftertaste. The absolute star of the show was the Rusty Rivet Pale Ale, a nitro brew with notes of pineapple and cream. Complex and delicious, it made the gold ale taste like water. In fact, this was the best beer we tasted all night. I have to say, though, that their IPAs didn’t have very clever names… the best one was probably “Our City’s Chief.”
The final stop on our brewery tour was Boomtown Brewery. They were established in 2014 but their taproom has only been open for a few months. In fact, their present taproom is a very small operation that is set up in their large-yet-cozy event space; a formal taproom is set to open in 2017. Their goal is to “bring artisan beer to those artists” who have created an “undying boom that has made this city, and its inhabitants, the mecca of creativity it is today.” I can toast to that! With ten beers on tap, they span the basics including three IPAs, a pilsner, and a stout. I really wanted to try the Aliso, a Belgian dark ale with 9.7% ABV, but after trying thirteen other beers that evening, I had to veer toward something light. The Ingenue Belgian white was easy to drink, smooth, and citrusy, an excellent reward after a full night of drinking. My friend selected the Nose Job west coast IPA, which is called Nose Job because you can smell the hops right at the beginning. The most creative beer name in this case was the “Hopsploitation” IPA with the “Mic Czech” pilsner a runner-up.
And that’s not all the breweries in the Arts District! We still need to visit Indie Brewing Company, Mumford Brewing, and Dry River Brewing.