Angel City Brewing (Los Angeles, CA)

Angle City Brewing's new location in downtown LA

12/18/11

One my favorite parts of beer hunting is that it often brings us into neighborhoods that a normal tourist wouldn't have a reason to go.  Hunting has resulted in many of our best beer adventures.  Angel City Brewing was one such quest.

Interpretation of Guernica by street artist.  Love this pic.    

We lived in LA for six years after I graduated from Purdue, but never really spent much time in the actual downtown area, except for going to the central office of Los Angeles Unified School District, "The Hill," and for a few shows.  After being touristy downtown, we walked to Angel City through a series of street shops, accidentally interrupting a valley yuppie in a SUV buying drugs on a side street.  Our big city senses must be slipping.  Heading over to the east side Arts District, the brewery is in a massive structure that was a former industrial building.  They should have no problem expanding in their space.  Walk around to the back for the entrance.

Street art.  

Street art.  

Industrial chute from top floor of warehouse. And, no,
there are no rides on the chute.  

Samples of Angel City at the 2005 Great American Beer Festival were less than impressive.  Since LA lacks some depth, we decided to take the scenic walk across downtown to give them another try.  From the samples we tried, Angel City has significantly improved both quality and consistency.  Very nice time sampling their brews, especially with the street artist display from a recent local event.  Looking at their website, they only recently re-opened to the public for an on-site sampling.  Not sure what happened in between my visit and now, but evidently the brewery is on the verge of bringing in the public on a more regular basis.  While not a meteoric rise, Angel City seems to be working hard to provide some beer options in the LA area.  If I get the opportunity, I would like to check out their progress again.