Thursday was day four, or hump day, of American Craft Beer Week. These photos were taken at Brewco and Simmzy’s; both gastropubs located in Manhattan Beach, CA. While I thought I had planned out where we would end up trying craft brews for each day, I discovered that the brewery I had planned on visiting Thursday was closed, so I had to start looking again. I had heard the name Brewco mentioned a time or two, and they offer flights of craft beers, so we headed over to Manhattan Beach.
Brewco was formerly known as Manhattan Beach Brewing Company, but they stopped brewing beer about three years ago and decided to concentrate on serving food and craft beers brewed by others; this is what makes them a gastropub as opposed to a brewpub. And who says drinking beer will not make you smarter? Brewco offers a couple predefined flights, a Hop Flight featuring Sierra Nevada’s Hoptimum Double IPA, Pitch A Tent Double IPA, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA and a Hangar 24 DIPA. As you might have guessed, that is what I opted for. Tanya got the Cismontane Black’s Dawn and I finished with a Wookey Jack Black for dessert.
As it turns out, I happened to park right in front of Simmzy’s which was extremely crowded when we first arrived. I saw that they had a board behind their taps announcing it was American Craft Beer Week, so when we returned I decided to see if there was room for the two of us yet. We lucked out and there was room at the bar for us. We met Peter, the General Manager and explained our adventure to him. He immediately was able to find a brew to appease both Tanya and me. Tanya tried the Firestone Parabola, which was just released this month and may have caused my first beer envy of the week. I had a Pliny the Elder, which was delicious. Peter also gave me a taste of a brand new beer from Brewery West, but I have been unable to find much about them online; too new I guess. As I recall it was a Belgian Quad; it was quite tasty whatever it was. Simmzy’s offers flights that you can create, or they will create one for you. They had some excellent brews, so I will be coming up with an excuse to return as soon as possible.
You can see Tanya’s perspective of American Craft Beer Week on GeekGoodGirl.com.
Pliny the Elder and me
The watermarks on the photos have been donated to the Rheumatoid Patient Foundation to help bring awareness to this fine organization.