When you really like beer, you walk two and a half hours for it. The song "500 Miles" by the Proclaimers is about me and beer. Living in a hippie area for the summer, I believed there would be more breweries nearby. There are plenty of places to get a good pint, but it is no Bozeman, Montana. I checked off Santa Monica Brew Works, the newest, early on, and followed with a bit of a walk to Firestone Walker in Venice. But from there, the closest brewery is 2 hours and 45 minutes away, walking, since I didn't have a car with me in L.A. One Saturday when I was off work I decided to have the day to myself. After a coffee on Abbott Kinney, I trekked to El Segundo Brewing Company. El Segundo is a little town South of Santa Monica and Venice. The brewery is on Main Street, a cute area with lots of cafes, bars and restaurants. I stopped at Rock and Brew, located across the street and grabbed some food to start. To get inside El Segundo, you walk down some stairs, turn the corner corner and pass the big barrels. It is a bit of a maze. Once the route opens up you find yourself in their lovely, lively taproom. The place started with a desire to add good beer to the area, comparable to what you'd find in San Diego breweries. It started with home brewing. They have always had a focus on hop forward beers, IPAs and DIPAs, as an importance in brewing FRESH beer. I took a seat at the bar and started out with one of their IPAs. I had tried their White Dog, a strong IPA, and a favorite among many at the Venice Ale House (where I worked at the time), as well as their Mayberry IPA. This was a perfect IPA in my opinion. It seemed similar to Lot 3 from Evo, my go to college IPA. Next, I ordered my flight! Five, four ounce beers were now in front of me. The L.A. Gold, the Beginner's Luck, the Beach Day, the Vanilla Stout and the Smoky Hollow. One cool thing is over half of my beers were collaborations. The beer list on the wall had other breweries listed under many of the brews. I worried they had few options of their own. I was informed that they were all brewed here but with some feedback and help from others. I like that breweries are like that. Business is competitive but a community. The L.A. Gold, a West Coast Keller and collaboration with Highland Park, had light hop and a refreshing body. The Beginner's Luck was my comparative IPA of choice. A collaboration with Green Cheek it was fuller and hoppier. The Beach Day was fantastic. An orange wheat it is different than my favorite wheats out there: notably the blueberry from Duclaw and the Tangerine Wheat from Lost Coast, found at the Venice Ale House. This beer is restrained. The orange is light in flavor but outward in scent and aftertaste. There is a little citra hint to it and it is less wheaty than usual but with a grainy smell mixed in. The Vanilla Stout was a lot darker and roasted than I expected. The vanilla to it, minimal. It was clean, smooth and creamy but I would have liked a tiny bit more vanilla infusion. The Smoky Hollow, a scotch ale was an interesting one. It had a familiar aroma. Yes there was the scotchy-ness to it but it was not overwhelming. The bartenders were very nice and I loved the space. The taproom extends out into a small lot for extra seating where you can enjoy that California sun.
Would you walk two and a half hours for beer?
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