I need some must have west coast beers

[rs4life]

Title above but not Sierra Nevada as its available in MA. Someone is flying home from LA for the holidays and I need some ideas

 

[AndrewD]

There are a ton of great craft beers from the great state of Northern California all the way to Alaska. LA? I'm sure there's a few down there too. Actually there are quite a few great SoCal breweries. I think my favorite from down there is Lost Abbey. Their Avant Garde ale is probably in my Top 5. It's kind of a Biere de Garde. The label is a painting of a fresh loaf of bread and a goblet of ale sitting on a country window sill. I've always been fascinated by beers with bready characteristics, and this is one of the best. I've liked every Lost Abbey beer I've tried, and they tend to focus on Belgian/French styles with a twist.

 

[Brulosopher]

Lost Abbey is San Diego, which is a beer Mecca. LA is coming up, but still in it's infancy.

 

[rs4life]

Im talking available at a major LA liquor store, and specific names of beers not just the brewery

 

[AndrewD]

Lost Abbey is San Diego, which is a beer Mecca. LA is coming up, but still in it's infancy.

I didn't mean to insinuate that Lost Abbey was in LA; I would never insult a great brewery like that. I'm just guessing that Lost Abbey ales should be pretty available in LA. I can get them up here in BevMo.

 

[AndrewD]

Im talking available at a major LA liquor store, and specific names of beers not just the brewery

Lost Abbey Avant Garde.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Brother David's Belgian Double.

 

[Mongrel]

Deschutes: Black Butte XXIV and/or The Abyss
Firestone Walker: Double Jack, Union Jack, Wookey Jack
Ninkasi: Believer, Tricerahops, Oatis, Sleigher
Elysian: Dragonstooth Oatmeal Stout
North Coast: Old Rasputin RIS
Rogue Double Mocha Porter
Hopworks: Secession, Abominable
Caldera: anything available
Lagunitas: A Little Sumpin' Sumpin', A Little Sumpin' Wild, Censored Copper Ale, Brown Shugga', Lucky 13

OK, so how much space does he have?

 

[rs4life]

Deschutes: Black Butte XXIV and/or The Abyss
Firestone Walker: Double Jack, Union Jack, Wookey Jack
Ninkasi: Believer, Tricerahops, Oatis, Sleigher
Elysian: Dragonstooth Oatmeal Stout
North Coast: Old Rasputin RIS
Rogue Double Mocha Porter
Hopworks: Secession, Abominable
Caldera: anything available
Lagunitas: A Little Sumpin' Sumpin', A Little Sumpin' Wild, Censored Copper Ale, Brown Shugga', Lucky 13

OK, so how much space does he have?

Ha i am not sure but when i find out i am probably getting one of each

 

[theblaster]

Green flash Cal IPA and Imperial IPA. Firestone walker Union Jack and DBA. All four should be easy to find in LA.

 

[jperry]

Ballast Point Sculpin. Stone Sublimely Self Righteous. Green Flash Le Freak, or Hamilton's Ale. Alpine/New Belgium Super IPA.

 

[humann_brewing]

Lost Abbey is San Diego, which is a beer Mecca. LA is coming up, but still in it's infancy.

Good to see another Fresnite here and while I agree LA doesn't have a good beer culture in comparison to San diego "county" the requester did say the west coast and while LA doesn't have a good beer culture, they can get just about any beer especially on the Left coast.

All this to say, don't forget about the PNW there are a crap load of existing and up and comping breweries up there including cascade if you like sours "house of sours" who else would label themselves as that even the big boys like Deschutes make some darn good stuff especially their specialty and Raven our of redmend, puts our some fantastic stuff. These are just a couple of dozens of course.

Not sure where you can shop in LA but search beermapping.com for the best bottle shop you can find and pick their heads or better yet, spend some time there and fine a customer that is a beer geek.

 

[static]

Add North Coast Brother Thelonius to the list.

 

[helibrewer]

You should be able to find Heretic down there, the Heretic website gives all the locations. If so, Evil Twin and Evil Cousin are great and it's the brewery of homebrewing legend Jamil Zainasheff.

 

[odinsgift]

DBA isn't worth suitcase space, IMO. Knee Deep Simtra just hit shelves here with a new batch, I'm sure there's some still around in LA. K&L Wine in Hollywood is a good stop for me, I can find Jester King, Haandbryggeriet, Mikkeller, Nøgne Ø there which are hard for me to find. Sometimes Russian River sours.

 

[Hamsterbite]

Russian River Pliny the Elder
21st Ammendment Brew Free or Die
Drakes IPA, Denogginizer, Aroma Coma
Deschuttes Black Butte Porter and Hop in the Dark CDA
Bear Republic Racer 5
Speakeasy Double Daddy IPA
Dustbowl Hops of Wrath

 

[dinnerstick]

i was in mass a few months ago, and i could get a lot of the more popular beers mentioned, between a few bigger liquor stores and a few bars in boston (one bar/restaurant forgot the name near fenway with hundreds of taps) green flash, lagunitas, 21a, rogue, etc., so i would definitely ask for the smaller / more obscure / not distributed in mass. while there i did a trade with an hbt-er in n.california for fresh pliny and heretic and was very pleased

 

[rs4life]

i was in mass a few months ago, and i could get a lot of the more popular beers mentioned, between a few bigger liquor stores and a few bars in boston (one bar/restaurant forgot the name near fenway with hundreds of taps) green flash, lagunitas, 21a, rogue, etc., so i would definitely ask for the smaller / more obscure / not distributed in mass. while there i did a trade with an hbt-er in n.california for fresh pliny and heretic and was very pleased

Its mainly for at home consumption so bars are out, especially boston bars. I will definitely be getting rarer beers like pliny, heretic, firestone, etc

 

[odinsgift]

Make sure they check dates. Firestone Double Jack and Union Jack are best very fresh, the same goes for the hoppy Heretic beers. And just because the brewery is close, doesn't mean the beer is fresh. We still find year old Hop Stoopid on the shelf here.

 

[Pratzie]

I gotta say my fav and prob easiest to find west coast beers are anything Rogue, Stone and Lost Abbey

 

[Albadia]

Readin through here almost thought someone was gonna forget Pliny!

Russian River: Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig
Firestone Walker: Union Jack, Double Jack
Lagunitas: IPA, Hop Stoopid, Little Sumpin
Speakeasy: Double Daddy IPA
21st Amendment Brewing: Watermelon Wheat (if thats your style)

All delicious beers on my regular sampling list =D

 

[harrydrez]

Many of these beers can be had in MA- go for something like Russian River. It would be a shame to waste suitcase space on something you can get here.