Catalina Island Brew House

Stopped in for a beer after we checked into our room, very nice bartender/​server. Explained all of the in house brewed beers for us so we could pick for our taster flight. Tasty in house made complimentary pretzels too!

I would give this place a 3 ½ star on the mainland, that being said it is by far the best place I have been for breakfast, coffee, beer, lunch, dinner and customer service on the entire island. Most of the menu is pre made earlier in the day so they may be out of what you are craving if you arrive too late. They do make flat bread pizza to order that is pretty good and certainly a fantastic value for the island. Their on tap and wine options are fantastic and have a wide range to tantalize everyone’s taste buds. Don’t be shy about asking an employee about the spirits they offer, you will be pleasantly surprised to find a well educated and honest answer to help guide you in your decision. The pretzel balls that came complimentary with the beer were to die for and I will be going back before my return trip to the mainland to stock up!

As a total beer nut, I can’t help but stop by a brewery when I see one. This place did not disappoint. Ordered a flight of beer at the bar: 3 of their own brews and one Monkish Feminist. All were delicious of course and what made it even more enjoyable was their complimentary pretzel buns! The staff was awesome as well! If you’re visiting Avalon, make sure you stop by here!

Umm those pretzel rolls/​buns are possibly one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten!!! Oh, and the beers are good too. :-) Cute little tasting room with a view. Craft beer, amazing buns and an ocean view, it doesn’t get much better than this!

I was excited to try this… Wait what is it? A coffee shop slash… ???
That’s what I felt the two times I came in and bought a rather disappointing cup of joe. Sure, this is no Starbucks, but that’s not what I was looking for. As a coffee fiend in the mainland, my taste buds have become very persnickety with my caffeine sources and this place just didn’t do it for me. Not to say their coffee won’t taste delicious to you! I was also expecting to see delicious sandwiches, but all I saw were muffins and bread in the glass case. As you’re reading this you’re probably thinking to yourself, «Uh, dumb-​o, just ask them to make you one.» Well gee I sure would have if the staff looked at least half-​interested in what I had to say. I saw that this place also has several beers on tap, (hence the name, BREW house), but I couldn’t really see the menu and I didn’t feel like walking all the way to the other end just to read a chalk board. The vibe was just so off for me that I wasn’t interested in trying their beer flights later in the afternoon. It would have made one heck of a difference if there was a staff member who was very enthusiastic to help make us feel comfortable.

I must say that my reaction may have bordered on glee upon finding a craft brewery on Catalina island during a recent vacation. Now, this is not a full on craft brewery, yet. But they are making in house beers and they are indeed tasty. What they are also doing, and doing well, is offering a selection of other great craft brews as well as top notch coffee’s and baked goods. I particularly liked the small «pretzel rolls» that came with the beer flight we ordered. I truly hope that the Catalina Brew house is able to weather the slow winter season and is still brewing strong come my next visit.
Pull up a seat on the open patio seating area and enjoy a local craft beer while you take in Catalina Island!

So glad I got to visit this place. The beer wasn’t the best thing I’ve tasted but it was pretty solid. Order the flight when you get a chance. I had some flatbread on the side. I don’t remember which one but it had jalapenos and pineapple I think. All I remember is that I thought they would use roasted or pickled jalapenos but I believe they used fresh ones. My mouth was literally screaming in pain and my bf, who can handle spiciness very well, ended up with watery eyes. I ended up picking off the jalapenos :(but anyway, besides the flatbread disappointment, the beer was good so definitely worth a try if you’re 21+.

The pretzels came with beer are the best I have ever had! Do not miss it! Very nice little store with high quality food. Love this place. The latte is amazing too. The flatbread are also top choice!

So far, the only legit, five star, I’d-totally-go-here-often place we’ve encountered. Quick decoder ring for the name: This is a café with coffee (brewed), beer (brewed), and café type foods like flatbread, scones, and pie.
Coffee: they don’t know what a cortado is but the genuine cappuccino with wet foam, not quite 8oz description yielded a drink that was impressive.
Beer: local SD, OC, and a few brews of their own. Flights for good prices and happy hour is often.
Flatbread: we picked up a margarita. Noting happily that it didn’t taste frozen. We found out why. Score on the snack.
Pastries: «all homemade, including the bread!» I’m assuming this is how you get around dumb delivery schedules for the island for perishables. You just don’t need them. The pumpkin pie and oatmeal chocolate chip cookie were both delicious.
It’s sorta small but it’s oceanfront. It’s a beautiful concept a few doors down from a Starbucks reseller. Worth it if you’re into that house made thing, or the non-​burnt coffee thing.

Fun atmosphere! Enjoyed a yummy Hawaiian pizza, cooked perfectly and delicious beer for lunch. I would definitely be back.

We came here on our tour de Catalina. We wanted to try as many places as we could. We weren’t sure what we wanted for dinner so we decided to think about it over a flight of beer. It was pretty empty when we went but the bartenders seemed really nice. They offered plenty of suggestions. I can’t remember all of the ones I tried but I did try a fruity beer and a winter lager style. The winter lager wasn’t my favorite but they warned me against it. The fruity one was good, not too sweet. But the best part of it was that you get fresh pretzel rolls with your beer. They were very good. And they have a great happy hour!

A little confused, but a reasonably good café, brew house. This business is not sure what it is, a craft beer shop, a wine shop, a café, a coffee house, it’s a little of all of these and unfortunately the whole is not always the sum of the parts.
We walked in here to have an afternoon brew on a hot day on Catalina, and maybe a sandwich as well. The deli case had mostly sweets, it was hard to figure out what the sandwiches were and it had this suspended between worlds feel. Frankly, we walked out without ordering this first time (we noticed this later when we came back that evening, people come in, look around, are confused and walk out).
The order spot is halfway in to the narrow place, well past the chalkboard menu at the entrance. There is no overall menu that is obvious. There is a very brew pub field, but the first half of the place is given to coffee brewing equipment. The window says they have wine, and later that evening, after we had ordered dinner, we did see the wine, way way back.
In the evening we went out searching dinner and stopped here again. It was basically the same, but we wanted something light, and they had artisan handcrafted flat breads on the menu at the front so we ordered on with two Pebbly Beach Pale Ales. I found out later they had a very nice flight system, but again, this place suffers from a lack of identity. You need to find things out before you order, not from observation. This is a fast casual style, so you order and pay and then get a number to set on your table.
The beers were good. We found menus on the table, great place for them. Would have been nice to have them on the counter too. The pizza came out about 10 minutes later, which was fine with us, sitting and enjoying the beer. It was a nicely done item, very tasty, we had the Maragita Flatbread. The usual thin crust, nice garlic taste. They add the cheese in such a way that it burns at the edge, a nice caramelized treat. One was enough for us.
As we sat there in the front of the restaurant, we noticed 5 groups or couples come in, try to figure it out and just leave. I felt really sorry for the owners. They have a nice product, they just don’t have it well thought out. The place is long and narrow, and you have to be 50% in before anything makes sense. They are trying to be a little bit of everything, but the whole thing is just too jumbled to make sense. This is a town where people are not familiar with every offering on the strip. You have a few minutes to grab the passerby, then they have passed you by. This place needs to get their act together. It’s good stuff, it is just not accessible.
We came back the next morning to try the very evident coffee and pastry shop that is part of this and found it a great place for a light breakfast. The coffee and pastry is at the front of the offering and much easier to figure out.
I do this for a living, figure out restaurants and food. This place has a potential. I hope they have the depth to get to it. It is worth your time to go here, the food and beer and the coffee and the scones are really very good. I just can’t rate the food alone. If I did this would be a solid 4 stars.

Amazing beer, I had sampled each and every beer. Only ones that I wasn’t to crazy about where the IPA’S, they were good but just not my preference.
They also give you complimentary home made pretzels, oh sweet baby jeebus I have never ever had such goodness.
Definitely recommend it, it’s a must.

I walked in at 10:30 and asked if it was too early to drink beer and the guy behind the counter said, no! He was drinking a beer himself! Did a flight and they were all really great beers. That guy really knows what great tasting beer is. Will definitely come here every time I come to Catalina.

Cool place. The name truly embodies everything they have — coffee, beer and wine. Plus, the food and desserts looked amazing. I got a mocha. Solid place for a cup of coffee.
If you like beer flights, they offer a neat happy hour.

Very cozy and nice spot. However, the real superstar was Eric! He was extremely nice and answered all of our questions, and even bought the food out to the porch. We ended up getting 2 pizzas (BBQ and Margherita) and a Turkey Sandwich. The sandwich was fresh and delicious with perfect proportions. Margherita was light and refreshing as well :)
Also, the pretzel bites are the bomb! Only $ 1 and super fluffy, slightly salty, and all good ;)

This a cute little spot in Avalon on Catalina Island. It has pastries, flatbreads, and paninis, as well as coffee. In the afternoon and evening, they also have beer. There’s a happy hour deal (which changes depending on the time of day) all day long. There are two indistinguishable lines — one for coffee and pastries (by the pastry case and register) and one for beer on the other side. So if you’re just here for beer, move on down to the other side/​line. You can get a flight of four for $ 6.50. They brew several beers in-​house (about 4 when we were there) and then they have several more guest taps. You also get complimentary pretzel bread with your beer sampler. The beers were alright, but nothing remarkable or particularly unique. But it’s a cute little spot with friendly staff. And the pretzel bread was really yummy.

Great place to have breakfast as well as happy hour! Spent the 4^th of July on the Island and this was our go to spot!
Friendly staff, nice beach front patio and delicious food! And free pretzels with your beer! Highly recommended!

6 bucks beer flight for 4 different flavors! Need I say more？
And they gave us a free bakery, not sure it’s for my hubby’s bday, and it has sea salt on top, pretty good tasting!
Too bad they don’t have bar food there, but bakery mostly. But still, a relaxing stop by, have some beer with some sunshine. Love it.

Catalina island is a beautiful place. We went parasailing, rented beach cruisers to ride around and finally decided to grab a drink to relax at this place which is right by the water. This place is a café and microbrewery all in one, what a wonderful concept! They have a beer sampler for $ 6.00 and you get 4 samplers of 2 ounces each. I must say I didn’t care too much for their own brewed beers but the denogginizer IPA by Drake’s was awesome as expected. J loves sharing beer with me because I usually just taste a sip or two and the rest is his, haha.
They also make all their own pastries and we got a soft pretzel to go with the beer. So hot, fresh and delicious, a must order for only $ 1!
Someday, I’d love to open a bar that serves coffee, beer, wine and fresh juices with a spin/​barre studio next door. But until then, if you are in Catalina, stop by here!