Freshness matters in craft beer, especially with the ever-popular resinous IPAs, and El Segundo Brewing Co. wants you to drink their hoppy brews as fresh as possible, even it that means changing the way you buy their beer.

This week, in addition to unveiling new labels and branding for their core beers (including the now year-round Mayberry IPA, a breakout hit in 2014), the South Bay brewery also announced a new venture to deliver freshly packaged beers directly to their fans. The Freshies Club is a partnership between the brewer and Santa Fe Springs-based Internet beer and wine retailer Inside the Cellar that allows craft beer lovers to pre-order bottles.

The beers available will change depending on the brewery’s production schedule, and the Inside the Cellar team will arrive at the brewery on the day the beers are bottled to pick up their allocation and spirit the cases back to their temperature-controlled warehouse for shipment via FedEx.

Currently two El Segundo brews are available from the retailer: the aforementioned Mayberry IPA and the brewery’s flagship Blue House IPA. Bottles are $9 each, or you can purchase a two-pack that includes one of each brew and an El Segundo Brewing Co. pint glass for $18. Both IPAs were bottled on Friday (Jan. 16), and the first Inside the Cellar orders will ship out on Monday, as the service avoids sending shipments that might sit in trucks or hot warehouses over weekends.


Shipping costs range from around $12 for a couple of bottles to about $20 for a case-worth. Apart from the as-fresh-as-can-be bottles from El Segundo Brewing, Inside the Cellar offers a selection of several dozen other craft brews and even more wines to fill out your order, but the chance to have some of L.A.’s best IPAs delivered to your door within days of being bottled is an exciting development for local beer lovers. El Segundo’s beers will still be available at bars and local bottle shops of course, but if you want to drink the freshest beer possible, it’s hard to beat the Freshies Club.