The Ten Best Beers at the 2019 LA Beer Fest

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LA Beer Fest is an annual tradition at our household. We go to beer festivals all over the country, but there are few better settings for a beer festival than outside in early April in Southern California. The food trucks are terrific, and the selection is varied, with over 75 breweries of beer, cider, hard seltzer, and more serving up drinks to the grateful pretzel-necklace-sporting Angelenos. The sun was shining, the DJs and bands covered the festival in music— even the Planters NUTmobile was there. (It’s not a party without the Planters nutmobile.)

The majority of the beer options are from California breweries, with one international section sporting a number of fairly standard overseas lagers and stouts. My one complaint: there were a number of booths for corporate-owned breweries, including some AB InBev properties— and there are so many terrific breweries in the greater LA area alone that could’ve been represented here to exemplify LA’s local craft beer scene. Still, those corporate booths are easily avoided, as there’s plenty to enjoy elsewhere at the festival.

With the help of our friends and neighbors Jake and Katrina, Russell managed to try more than 65 different beverages over the course of three hours at LA Beer Fest (and a couple of hot sauces!). While this doesn’t cover everything that was available— some booths ran out well before the session was over, and others had to be sacrificed for liver-conservation purposes— we’d still like to share the best beers we enjoyed at LA Beer Fest. So now, in alphabetical order… the Top Ten!

Brewery Draconum: Abobo

This double IPA from Santa Clarita is more malt-forward than hop-forward, but it still gives you some of the danker, more citrusy flavors you would likely expect. It’s also almost astonishingly light in its finish, which is a welcome surprise at a festival where the sun is hitting the back of your neck for three hours.

Captain Fatty’s Brewery: Calypso

Rarely do I ever recommend a Kettle Sour, as the majority of them taste… ungood. That said, this particular cucumber-flavored Berliner Weisse is light, tart, salty, and appropriately cucumber-y. It has a bit of a pickle juice vibe, but far smoother than that description would suggest. It’s clean and cool. You know. Like a cucumber.

Drake’s Brewing Company: Flyway Pils

If you want high-gravity stouts, triple IPAs, and barrel-aged sours, go to Extreme Beer Fest. LA Beer Fest is the perfect place for lighter, more crushable beers. Plenty of the more sessionable fare doesn’t stand out at festivals like these, but Drake’s Flyway Pils is a beverage that is low-ABV without being low in flavor. It’s crisp with a subtle spiced finish, the way a good pilsner should be.

Frogtown Brewery: Painkiller

Painkiller is a tiki-inspired milkshake IPA with pineapple and coconut. I usually find the amount of lactose in most milkshake IPAs to be a turnoff, but this one uses just enough of a splash of lactose to keep it creamy without making it tooth-rottingly sweet. It should also go without saying that having a beer that exudes pina colada flavor is especially well-suited for an outdoor California festival.

Indie Brewing: Pacific Kölsch Highway

Similar notes here that I gave to the Flyway Pils above. My friend Jake enjoys cans of lager, so I was encouraging him to find some local craft equivalents for our next pool party. Indie’s Pacific Kölsch Highway would definitely fit the bill— clean and delicate without ever becoming “watery.” Easily could’ve gone back for thirds, fourths, and fifths of this.

Inland Wharf Brewing Company: March On ST-2

When I asked the folks at the Inland Wharf Brewing booth for a recommendation, they insisted I try the March On, because “it’s reminiscent of a Three Musketeers.” Sure enough, this collaboration with Inland Empire musician Lee Koch has a smooth chocolate flavor with creamy vanilla at the finish to give it a softer texture. The Three Musketeers say “All for one,” but when it comes to this beer, I’d like to have it all for me.

New Holland Brewing: Dragon’s Milk

Okay, including Dragon’s Milk is a bit of a cop-out. A certified American classic, it’s been around since before I could drink. However, I hadn’t had one in over a year, and sometimes, when you’re trying a bunch of new beer at a festival, it’s comforting to encounter something so familiar. They also had Dragon’s Milk Reserve: Orange Chocolate— God bless them for coming to California on a warm day and busting out multiple bourbon barrel-aged stouts.

Santa Monica Brew Works: There Will Be Juice

Those who follow my personal Instagram know I frequent Santa Monica Brew Works– it’s the closest brewery in LA to where we live— and while the There Will Be Juice isn’t new to me, it stood out as the best hazy IPA of the festival. Boasting high citrus juice levels without ever losing that bitter beer quality, it’s tremendously refreshing. Bonus note: my friend Jake found the 10 West Saison to be the highlight of the festival— so both selections were winners in our group.

Sour Cellars: Darkle

Regular Beer Travel Guide readers know my affinity for sour beers, so it should come as no surprise that this whiskey barrel-aged dark sour is quite possibly the highlight of the festival. It’s perhaps the most sour beer of the afternoon, yet it sports an array of rich flavors: chocolate, cherry, caramel, whiskey (obviously), perhaps a hint of leather. On a day when lighter beer dominated, a dark beer outshone nearly everyone.

Three Marm Brewing: Robusto Horchata Porter

This was my first encounter with Three Marm Brewing, and I was highly impressed with both options. The Trugger Logger Lager was a wildly fresh, very spruce-forward lager, good for a warm day— but the Horchata Porter, a milky, cinnamony, roasty concoction, was somehow even better. These brewers from San Bernandino County definitely grabbed my attention, and I eagerly anticipate whatever they brew up next.

And because I can’t just leave it there, here are some bonus awards!

BEST INTERNATIONAL CRAFT BEER: Einstok Beer Company: Icelandic Wee Heavy

The LA Beer Fest has an impressive selection of international beers on hand— although not as many of them could be considered “craft”— but Einstok, which first got my attention with its Arctic Berry Ale at Wolf Creek’s Buy a Dog a Beer Festival in 2017, wins the international craft crown with its Wee Heavy, a smoky, malt-forward Scotch Ale that smokes the competition. No pun intended. (Okay, maybe pun a little intended.)

BEST OFF-THE-MENU OPTION: Point Dume Beer Company: “Blue Express”

Major shout out to the man behind the counter at Point Dume Beer Company. They were serving two beers: the Blue Dream Blonde and the Pineapple Express IPA. Since I’d never had any of the company’s beer before, I asked for a recommendation… and he told me to *combine the two,* forming “The Blue Express.” The mix was big on fruit juice but still rather dank. I don’t know much about Point Dume Beer Company, but I admire the chutzpah of recommending a blend to a first-timer.

BEST HARD SELTZER: White Claw Hard Seltzer: Black Cherry

Hard seltzers are delightful, dangerous delicacies. Most are almost impossibly light and effervescent, making them eminently consumable for even the most diet-conscious drinker around. White Claw is running the hard seltzer game, as their seltzers tend to be more rich in flavor than the other brands I’ve encountered. As a man who loves cherry-flavored *anything,* the Black Cherry is, for me, the peak hard seltzer experience I’ve had.

BEST KOMBUCHA: Flying Embers: Ancient Berry Kombucha

I’m far from a kombucha expert, but I must give love to the folks at Flying Embers making organic hard kombucha, an option for the vegan, gluten-free set who want to get their booze on *and* their probiotic on simultaneously. Their Ancient Berry kombucha is made with raspberries, elderberries, and goji— it’s bright, sweet, tart, and, at 4.5%, very sessionable.

BEST HOT SAUCES: (tie) Nam Prik Chili Sauce and Red Beards Habanero Hot Sauce

Look, call me a crazy person, but there are few things that lure me in more effectively than a hot sauce tent at a beer festival. I love spicy food, I’ve already got beer to wash down the sauce, I’ve already got pretzels to help cleanse the palate– conditions are perfect. Both Nam Prik and Red Beards, two companies making hand crafted hot sauces in Los Angeles’s South Bay area, made my tongue tingle and my eyes water. Heat lovers in Southern California should seek these companies out.

What were your favorite beers at LA Beer Fest? Which festival are you looking forward to hitting this summer? (Our next stop: the Firestone Walker Invitational!) Are you as drawn in by hot sauces at beer festivals as I am? Have you ever driven the Planters NUTmobile? Please leave us your thoughts in the comments below!