This is Why Los Angeles Sucks

What’s going on beer fans? I’ve been away for a week with the wife, we took a trip down to Disneyland. The baby was too young to really enjoy it, but we had fun. The biggest problem I had while in the southern half of the state was finding a quality beer. Here’s a little summary of my week in the land of the mouse.

The selection of beer within Downtown Disney is horrible. The only place I found a beer on tap was the ESPN Zone and a cart in California Adventure featuring Karl Strauss beers. Karl Strauss is as micro as beer gets within the realm of Disney. ESPN Zone offered the typical selection of widely distributed beers, of which I settled on the Guinness. For some reason I had a real urge to drink a Guinness of tap for the last few months. It was OK, and I’ll leave it at that. I also followed that with a bomber of the Extra Stout on New Years Eve, also just OK, but I digress. ESPN Zone also had your selection of Bass, Newcastle, Sierra Nevada, Fat Tire, Red Hook, etc but nothing that drew me to it. Typically, the restaurants offered bottled beers with Sam Adams being the best choice and usually costing $6. The House of Blues had Karl Strauss’ Red Trolley in the bottle as well but these were your options everywhere you went.

When we ventured off of Disney property I was able to find Stone Pale Ale at Joe’s Crab Shack as well as a Winter Cask Ale. Do not be fooled, Winter Cask Ale, despite it’s micro-esque tap, is a winter release by Anheiser-Busch. They call it a special ale, aged in bourbon barrels with imported vanilla beans, but it tastes like a boilermaker made with Budweiser. I sent it back and had the Stone Pale Ale. Another bit of trickery was on hand at Joe’s and it is one I do not appreciate, and places that do this should be closed down and the proprietors taken out back and beaten senseless. In the window hung an Anchor Porter neon sign. But there was no Anchor Porter on tap, and I doubt there ever was. Contact your local congressman, make this offense a crime punishable by law.

So in the end, a week in the southern lands left me anxious to get home and have a beer. I understand I spent most of my time among corporate eateries and shouldn’t expect much, but the wine lists at these restaurants were always well stocked. These places could easily have put a tap in their bar and at least one local tap. Another thing that bothers me is Los Angeles in general. Major cities such as Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego, as well as regions like the Willamette Valley and California’s North Coast all feature fine local brewing communities. Los Angeles is the largest city in the West, why does it insist on embracing easily recognizable corporate mediocrity in everything it does?

Not sure if there was much of a point to this blog, other than to vent my frustration after in Southern California. We did make it to the Newport Beach Brewing Company so it wasn’t all a loss. Maybe I’m wrong. If you live in the greater LA area, let me know, I would love to hear about great things being done, but I’m afraid Los Angeles and the surrounding communities are a lost cause when it comes to beer.