El Segundo Brewing

One of my favorite breweries in all of LA.
First, I’m a man that loves strong beer, specifically IPAs. So when I heard about this place, and the fact that they brew many beers of the sort, I was instantly intrigued.
I can’t say enough about their Mayberry, White Dog, and Broken Skull IPAs. They’re all beyond delicious (and the White Dog is an excellent intro to IPAs if you’re new to the beer type).
As mentioned above, the Broken Skull IPA is pretty amazing. I actually attended the release party with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and had the best time.
The party was in their new (ish) tap house, which is one of the best in LA. It’s located right on beautiful Main Street, and if you come early enough you can pair a nice beer tasting with dinner at a nearby restaurant. They’ll also allow you to order food from a nearby pizza shop and eat it right in the brewery. How cool is that?!
So to summarize, this place is just an absolute gem. Not just of the South Bay, but all of LA county. So skip the light beer some night, and expand your palate with some of the best IPAs and DOUBLE IPAs in the business.

Great beer, great music and great service. Nobody can ask for much more. I’ll be back again for sure.

For a pretty small brewery, this place was packed! The beer selection was massive, it’s been awhile since I’ve been to a brewery with SOOOO many IPA choices! The bar staff was really helpful with all our first time questions. And the atmosphere was really cool with all the wooden barrels and beer décor! I will definable have to come back here again!

I love ESBC! Their beers are amazing! The atmosphere is awesome, and there is room for large groups. A few of my favorites are Citra Pale Ale, Power Plant, and Hop Tanker! But they all are delicious. If you have never been I recommend doing a flight! The staff is friendly and attentive! Great beer and great people :) Don’t forget to check out the merchandise, they have some cool stuff!

Meh. Everything tasted super carbonated and nothing memorable. Between the 3 of
us, all of us didn’t think much of their beers trying about 10 different ones in our flights. Usually at breweries after the flight we order pints then growlers of what we sampled, but nothing tasted good enough between all 3 of us.
Try another place.

Nice place to hang out, cozier than most breweries– they wrap the seating area with fermentation tanks as opposed to a more spread-​out layout.
Beers themselves aren’t bad.
Keep a DD around tho, local PD is extremely aggressive in the area.

We are so blessed in LA to have a wide selection of breweries. I’ve been to a lot of our breweries and will assert that El Segundo Brewing Company delivers the brews and a nice space to consume them. I tried a 2015 ribbon winner at the San Diego beer festival — The Tar Pine Incident which is a resinous black IPA. There’s no kitchen but I saw people had brought on food (consider Postmates). Check it out!

This is pretty cool little spot right in the heart of downtown El Segundo. They have good beers, a friendly staff, and a lively crowd.

Best thing to come from El Segundo since George Brett… I think that’s a pretty damn fine review, but apperently was «Tip» material and who wants that?
So I’ll say it again, BEST THING TO COME FROM EL SEGUNDO SINCE GEORGE BRETT

This brewery has a cool entrance. Down some steps, walk around through a hall way, then it opens up. Although they types of beer brewed here (mostly ipa’s) aren’t my cup of tea (I mostly like wheat style) the limited options I had were pretty good. The service was great, very attentive. Even with the limited options, I would recommend checking this place out.

If you are a fan of IPAs, then this is the place for you. I’m not as big of an IPA fan, but their stuff was still good. At one point for me, everything began to taste the same. From my understanding their tasting room expanded from a room to the actual area where the beer is brewed.
A flight of 5 will run you about $ 11. If you’re ordering a flight they have you write down your choices on a piece of paper. I was not aware of that, so I was ordering the lady serving me rudely walked away from me to go fetch the paper I needed to fill out. She did not seem happy to be there and it showed with her body language, it demonstrated poor customer service as a whole.
There are not a lot of places to sit, and when I went everyone seemed to be locals. I don’t mean locals like the South Bay area, but I mean the city of El Segundo. While most breweries have games and other things to do as you sip on your beer, this place does not.

Hey guys — sweet news! Travis, a manager at El Segundo Brewing, sent me a message explaining that they agreed with my previous review. Now all those beers you purchase for your friends that are unclaimed after 2 months don’t just get erased from the board. Those beers now get transferred onto a list for service men and women (military, fire department, et. al) and don’t expire. This is sweet because one might argue these groups of people deserve a drink all year round. Next time we go in, I may add «moms» and «nurse practitioners» to the list but I hope someone can beat me to it.
Thanks Travis and El Segundo Brewing for bringing that local vibe to LA, for striving to make improvements, and for having a giver mentality in the world. Clearly, it’s not just about beer here but for the love of the craft and for the love of people.

We had a team building event at this tasting room, and it was such a pleasant surprise. El Segundo Brewing has handles in the best bars in So CA, is sold at certain retailers, and offers a 64 oz refillable growler: So you can look like a redneck — jk — LOL! ESB is on Main, after you make a right off ES Blvd in El Segundo.
We met the owners, and they suggested we try flights to see which beer we liked the best. Flights are generally small pours, but not here. I was buzzing after the 3^rd taste. I settled on their Mayberry, that is a middle of the road, hoppy ale. BTW, ESB’s Hammerland Double IPA won Best in Class at the Bistro Double IPA Festival in SF last year. We enjoyed our beer with some pizza & wings delivered from Andiamo next door.
Before you harp on ES, it is home to Mattel, the big Chevron plant, aerospace companies, airlines, et al. All dem employees need a watering hole! ESB offers a very casual environment which to do so (most peeps were in Ts). However, everyone is chill because the place is basically a warehouse, with a roll up garage door in the back, and all the equipment on the inside to brew the beer. One of our colleagues brought her baby, and everyone was being cool to her baby girl. Regarding the service, it was stellar. Our bartender Brandon was super nice, informative, and on top of it. The remainder of the staff was the same. No wonder this place was packed @ 5 pm on a Thu night.
I would have no qualms about meeting up w/​some friends here again. Its a hike from the 405 (near the beach), but the drive is well worth it.

4.5 stars.
My party of 2 sampled our way through 10 El Segundo beers (2 flights):
White Dog IPA — citrusy, light, and crisp.
Hop Tanker DIPA — I don’t understand how or why, but this beer had an unpleasant slightly smelly taste — like the taste of LA tap water?!
Mayberry, Blue House, and Hammerland DIPAs — not noteworthy. Odd, because El Segundo is supposedly known for their IPAs but I didn’t enjoy a single one.
Smoky Hollow Scotch Ale — OK, as most scotch ales are in my opinion. It wasn’t smoky like name might suggest.
Perfect Strangers Sour — hands down the best sour I’ve ever had! I typically don’t enjoys sour beers, but this one was not overly sour and had strong notes of strawberry/​raspberry & basil. It was my favorite beer of the evening!
Vanilla Hyperion’s Double Stout — think bitter dark roast coffee. I normally enjoy bitter flavors but this was so bitter it was actually difficult for me to finish the whole 4 oz of this taster.
Standard Crude American Imperial Stout — More well balanced than the Vanilla Hyperion, this was a good imperial stout.
Barrel Aged Standard Crude — The Standard Crude is already 10.2% ABV, so what does that make the barrel aged version?! It was clearly very alcoholic based on taste, and you get a lot more sweetness from the barrel aging. It was very cool to try the barrel aged and the control stout side by side — it’s rare that you get to do that!
The portions were all quite large for a tasting. They are supposed to be 4oz pours, but it sure seemed like more… Most tastings cost $ 2-​$ 3 (generally higher %ABV is pricier), with the exception of the Perfect Strangers, which is $ 5 for 4 oz.
The ambiance is super laid back and reminds me of Speakeasy in SF, where you drink amongst barrels. The only difference was that, at least on the night we went, El Segundo was packed with Dodgers fans whereas I’m used to seeing baseball fans dressed in orange and black…
There are also free Snyder’s sweet and salty cinnamon sugar pretzels at end of bar! The perfect snack after you’ve had too many strong beers :)
Lastly, as others have mentioned — when we went July 4^th weekend the women’s restroom door still could not lock. So ladies, bring a buddy and have them stand watch outside. Or hopefully it’s been fixed by now.

Reason #1 El Segundo deserves 5 stars: make-​your-​own-​flights. Choose any 5 beers on the tap list for your flight — yes, ANY beer! High ABV beer lovers like me, worry no more, because you will not be limited to tastes of low ABV beers anymore! Plus, they give you very large pours as far as flights are concerned, at least 4 – 6 oz. You’re charged per beer; each ranges from $ 2-​$ 5 (most are in the 2 – 2.50 range, specialty beers, like the sour we had were $ 5 — see receipt
) so you can easily get a flight for around $ 13.
Reason #2 El Segundo deserves 5 stars: The Perfect Stranger. This isn’t a standard beer that they offer; it was a sour. But this wasn’t just any sour — it was the most drinkable sour I’ve ever had, with unique herbal notes to it. I usually don’t want more than 2 oz of a sour but I could’ve easily drank a whole pint of this one! And this is why I love microbreweries… you never know what goodies you’ll find.
Reason #3 El Segundo deserves 5 stars: The Barrel Crude. This, again, isn’t a standard beer (it was listed as a picture of a barrel with question marks next to it when we went — we of course had to try!). It is the Standard Crude (an imperial stout) aged in bourbon barrels. Umm, yes please! If you love bourbon and beer, do yourself a favor and get over to El Segundo and try this beer. Please. (Tip: it’s fun to get the Standard Crude as well as this one in a flight, just for comparison).
Reason #4 El Segundo deserves 5 stars: free mini bags of pretzels! I always appreciate a business that responsibly takes care of its drinking customers.
Other notes: I wasn’t as impressed with their IPAs (they lack a freshness); the darker beers and unique offerings steal the show. Also, don’t be surprised if you see babies and children because apparently the brewery doesn’t care if kids are there. I guess I’m cool with that.
Parking is super easy in the area, which is a nice change from most of LA.
Have I convinced you that El Segundo deserves 5 stars yet?

I am fortunate enough to have a friend who’s way into visiting local breweries and have interest in home brewing. That means I can tag along and gain some knowledge. Though I can’t honestly say that that knowledge is retained during our brewery visits after a few tastings.
El Segundo Brewing is located in old town El Segundo. I’ve never been to the old tap room. From what I heard the new room is awesome, more spacious and the tanks are now on displayed. I came here during LA beer week and the place was pumping. Great crowd, service, and the Dodgers playing on the big screen. Perf.
They mostly specialize in IPAs, so if you’re a lover of IPAs you’re in for a treat. Being a lightweight, I’ve had their tasting flight. Which was great because I wasn’t able to try the Passionate Dog IPA otherwise. Delish. One of their limited beers. So good, that I ended up purchasing a growler to take home.

If you like your beer hoppy and love IPAs then this place is for you. Nearly everything is an IPA variety with subtle taste variations. There was a vanilla stout and two reds but otherwise we tried six different IPAs and there were still more!
The flight tasters are an outstanding four (yes, four) ounce pours, and Served in an equally massive tray of five at only $ 2 – 2.50 a pour. I’ve never seen flight pours this big!
Vibe of the tasting room is cool — young but not too young, cool but not hipster. There are TVs tuned to sports but they don’t make it a sports bar atmo.
I like how this brewery is located in the walkable el segundo downtown district so you can get a quick bite nearby easily.
Tip: the women’s bathroom does NOT LOCK. I got walked in on twice! Hope they fix this soon!

In this small all American town, it would not be complete w/​out it’s own brewery. And it’s small, tight, not much seating since it was still crowded for closing time & very very loud… pretty much all the local youth & some old timers hang out here (which is why we felt we fit in, being the other set of old timers there, lol). I read that it’s going to expand the tap room, so that will be nice!!!
Of course when we finally got a chance to check it out, showing up at 10:00 pm when they close :(Well…the nice server who told us it was «Last call» graciously took our order and served us our first and last beer for night. I believe it was a Blue House Citra ale. It was GOOD! And you can not beat the prices, hell, it’s worth being cramped in a small space to have quality beer.
We saw people drinking in the actual brewery — the larger area behind the tasting room where the beer grain silos were; We felt like we were sneaking in a barn back east!!! Didn’t mind one bit, because the beer is so worth it!!!
(So if you don’t mind going in the brewery, it can be an experience:)
I hear the IPA’s are really smooth, we will have to try them out, along w/​a sampler next time, we live within walking distance to it, that can be very dangerous! (lol).
Parking– it’s all street, and there are some parking lots down the street and across the street adjacent to Rock & Brews, it just depends if someone leaves or you just might have a little bitty walk. But keep out of the Chevron employee parking lots, you’ll get a ticket, I can imagine.
And like most breweries, they don’t serve food, but I saw snacks behind the counter.
Can’t wait to go back and try the other beers.

I love beer. Check that. I love good beer. Good hoppy, bitter, palate coating beer. El Segundo is all of these things.
We’d had the Mayberry & blue house IPA elsewhere, but there’s something about drinking it from the source that makes it taste that much better. The citra pale, two 5 left double, hop tanker double, and my favorite of them all, the power plant triple IPA were all amazing. Wish I could have taken a couple pints of the triple to go, but at 11.2%, I’d probably be hammered.
The tasting room is pretty small. As you can imagine, the place is busy full of locals and beer affecianados. Get ready to get comfy. If you’re claustrophobic, try to pick a time when no one’s drinking beer. Oh wait, that time doesn’t exist. You’re screwed. We, however, don’t mind getting cozy with strangers if beer like they serve is in our hands!
Only thing they could do to make it legendary is to serve colder pints. Warm beer only works in England. Wait, that sucked.

No parking lot, so you will have to find street parking. It’s a pretty crowded area, so you might have to look for a little while to find one. The place is pretty small, with only a couple of tables for seating and some seats at the bar.
The have a great selection of IPAs available. We tasted 8 different types of beer and that wasn’t even all of the ones they offer. They have a great selection. You can have tasters, pints, or even take a growler home with you (they take other breweries’ growlers as long as the logo is covered). Prices are very reasonable, between $ 6 – 8 for a pint. Growler fills vary by the type of beer.
Overall, great place to go if you like IPAs. Beers are very good.