CoffeeBeer >> Pint Pleasures >> 2 Long Beach Brewpubs
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Ten Mile Brewing Company, 1128 Willow Street, Signal Hill, California |
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Liberation Brewing Company, 3630 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, California |
Before my trip to Long Beach in September I checked online to see if there were any new breweries that had opened in my home town since my previous visit. And I was surprised to learn about quite a few, most of them highly rated by the Los Angeles microbrewery community. The majority are located up in the northwest part of the city, near the Long Beach Freeway and also around the Bixby Knolls area. I’m not really sure why this is, although perhaps there are more available spaces to rent around there for proper breweries. Or perhaps this is just a subtle scheme by the local residents to develop their own giant pub crawl.
On two separate afternoons Kim, who lives with and takes care of my elderly mother, was able to go sample a couple of these breweries with me. The first one is located in Signal Hill across the street from the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery, which was the setting of a midnight dancing session between me and a couple of Peruvian friends when I was young. As one does, of course.
As Signal Hill’s first brewery, Ten Mile Brewing was opened in 2012 by father and son partners Dan and Jesse when they decided to convert their nine-year-old garage home-brewing into a proper venture. The name comes from Kings Canyon National Park, located in the High Sierras. Dan and Jesse’s family owns a cabin there on Hume Lake to which Ten Mile Creek is a tributary. The large taproom’s long bar and hand-made tables were built with materials gathered from the Kings Canyon area.
After a taste of Hop Exposure Double IPA (8.3%), which was strong with bitter complex hops, I decided to go for a pint of Bitter Fingers West Coast IPA (6.5% ABV), which is just a really good hoppy pale. Kim commented that it tasted as if it were filtered through pine boughs. Kim went for a half pint of Hidden Hollow Kentucky Common (5.2%), which tasted like a traditional bitter brewed with possibly a whisky malt, which definitely made an ordinary bitter much less ordinary. We took our pints to one of the handmade tables near the bar and surveyed our surroundings. There were quite a few people in the place, along with a dog or two. In fact at one point a giant rescue dog entered the pub, not to save anybody but perhaps to make sure its thirsty owner didn't imbibe too much.
For our second round Kim had a pint of Dat Yacht Life Brut IPA (6.8%) after I’d explained to him that the “brut” refers to the champagne yeast used in the brewing process. The beer had a very nice and pleasant hoppiness enhanced by lovely little champagne bubbles, and Kim was very happy with it. I had a pint of Trail Marker IPA (6.75%). My pint came out a bit murky, but the two young barmaids attentively checked it and changed my pint, just like proper cask ale beer staff which impressed me. The Trail Marker was similar to Bitter Fingers but smoother.
The taproom is stocked with a selection of table games, and there is one large-screen TV used for the most popular sporting events. Fortunately it wasn’t on this afternoon, but I suppose it’s fair to say that if one is going to fill the pub needs of the local community one needs to consider the sports fans as well.
The next week, the day before my flight home, we got away again for a couple of hours to visit the Liberation Brewing Company. It was a bit difficult to spot at first, as the brewery is located in an old discount emporium on the front of a shopping centre off Atlantic Avenue, with a giant sign that straddles the pavement sideways announcing “Liberation Brewing Company”, and a mural on the side which is part of the city’s Pow Wow public art project. After leaving the car in the large car park we entered what was once a 99 Cent Store. The Liberation taproom is wonderfully quirky, with a mural by Dave Van Patten on the side wall featuring strange human creatures and one cat, all enjoying pints. For peckish customers the Liberty Brewing Company offers the typical crisps and jerky snacks, but it also encourages bringing your own outside food. (Apparently there is a very good Mexican place next door, which always sounds like a good idea to me.)
In honour of the three-flight trip I had taken from the UK to Long Beach, Kim and I decided to share a three-beer flight. Our first leg, corresponding to my initial long flight from Manchester to San Francisco (which happened to be on a plane named Daydream Believer), was the pale and hoppy Jackrabbit IPA (6.6%). Described on the beer menu as having flavours of pie, strawberry, and mild earth, it more accurately suggested one of the five cats who live with Kim and my mom. Named Jack, Kim calls him "Jackrabbit" because of his skinny bouncy Jack-the-Lad personality. Jack is my special boy among the five cats, all of whom I love, so I was happy to be sipping an easily drinkable and hopping-about brew named after him.
Our next flight leg, equivalent to my scenic flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, was Cyclone Racer Double IPA (8.0%). Described as having a complicated taste consisting of sticky pine sap, dried peaches, and candied pineapple, this beer was hoppy and bitter in abundance. Seeing how it was named after the famous roller coaster that graced Long Beach's Pike for decades, it, too, was named appropriately.
The last of the flight, in concert with my final nighttime flight from Salt Lake City to Long Beach, was Rachel Nelson/Amarillo PA, suggested as tasting like peach, white wine, honey, and graham cracker. Rachel was nice enough, but I think our taste buds were still hyperventilating a bit after having been bombarded by the thrill of the Cyclone Racer. After persisting with Rachel, she began to suggest smooth hops with a subconscious reminiscence of honey.
As these flights were quite small we decided to finish with a round of half pints. Kim went for Boosh and Skadoosh Belgian Saison (6.5% AV), whose name brought to mind one of my favourite quirkily surreal TV programs. The tasting notes suggested grass, floral, pearskin, gingerbread, clay, and mineral earth. I definitely detected the smell of gingerbread before I even sipped it, followed immediately by the explosion of a very earthy ripe pear. I’d compare this to a bit of romance in a glass, if one has ever experienced that. My half pint was Lucy, an Enigma/Nelson Pale Ale (4.7%). The notes suggested melon, lychee, black pepper, and baguette, which seemed a bit too long a description to me. I would describe it as being v I suppose that’s just as long...
The last beer made me wonder if each of Liberty’s brews is meant to simulate a fair ride. Which is not a bad idea at all...
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