American Craft Beer Week: 1321 Taproom and Hudson House

Day three of the 7th Annual American Craft Beer Week found us at 1321 Downtown Taproom in Torrance and Hudson House in Redondo Beach. It has been a year since my first visit to 1321 Taproom and my first visit to Hudson House. Actually, I never heard of Hudson House prior to yesterday, so this search for different craft beers is definitely introducing me to new places in the South Bay.

We started off at 1321 Downtown Taproom because they serve flights and we were not planning on dining. It turns out that was a good plan since they apparently had a power outage earlier and the food menu was rather limited. The first time I went to 1321 they offered three different pre-defined flights; today they let you chose the four brews you want to try. If you ask, your server should be able to create one for you. Yesterday, Christine helped us and came up with a great flight of American craft brews that I had yet to try: Scrimshaw, Dale’s Pale Ale, Rose’s Hips and Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti. Tanya, being a dark beer fan opted for the Old Chub. It was a great start to day three.

We then moved on to Hudson House in Redondo Beach. I had not heard of Hudson House before and when I arrived I recognized the building, but not the name as it is fairly new under that name. Hudson House was described as a “gastropub with more than 50 beers.” I guess gastropub is the hipster name for a brewpub; a restaurant that serves upscale beer. Before deciding that we would visit Hudson House I visited their website and discovered that while they serve 50 different beers, only four of them are draught and they do not serve flights. I called ahead and was told that they would give a sample of each to try, that was good enough for me. Luckily, the four draught beers they serve are good, because I was misinformed as to what I was drinking. Our server brought the four samples and said they were in order of what was shown on the blackboard on the opposite end of the room. Since the four beers were also listed on the menu in front of me, I asked if it was the same order as the menu. Our server looked at the menu and assured me it was. When I got home and looked at my photos, I realized only one of the beers was labeled correctly. The brews we tried were Deviant Dales IPA, Uinta Organic Black Lager, Hudson Pale Ale and Brouwerij West Saison Extra.

1321 Downtown Taproom and Hudson House Photos