Still Got It: These Eight Breweries Have Been Open For More Than a Decade and Helped Put Greater L.A. On the Craft Beer Map

Welcome back to L.A. TACO's column, “Dr. Beer Butch,” where Professor Hidalgo examines L.A.’s craft beer scene using her background in academia, LGBTQ, and [real] L.A. culture.

This year, more than 75 local breweries will pour their suds at the L.A. County Brewers Guild’s 14th annual Los Angeles Independent Beer Fest on June 10th, returning after a three-year hiatus to showcase the present and future of L.A.’s growing craft beer scene. It’s exciting to see so many options for fresh craft beer around town, which wasn’t always the case. 

L.A.’s craft brewery scene began in earnest in the post-2008 Great Recession period. For context, this is decades behind Northern California, often hailed as the “birthplace” of U.S. craft brewing (San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing was founded in 1965), and ten years or so behind San Diego, which bills itself as the “Capital of Craft” and the home of foundational beermakers like Karl Strauss (1989), Pizza Port (1992), AleSmith (1995), and Stone Brewing (1996).

Currently, California has over 1,100 breweries and, counting, the most in the country. The L.A. County Brewers Guild counts nearly 90 members or about 8% of the state’s breweries. Though smaller and younger than California’s more established craft brewing regions, greater L.A.’s mighty beer presence began with a handful of breweries that held their own with—even won medals alongside—their storied cohorts to the north and south. 

Here are eight great “OG” breweries founded in greater Los Angeles at least a decade ago that helped put our city on Cali’s craft beer map. These first-generation L.A. brewers are still the ones to seek out for their consistently reliable quality beers and signature styles—L.A. originals who opened the doors for the growth of local craft beer we see today.