From a tiny outpost in the Hermosillo bar to a massive buildout in a Chinatown warehouse, Highland Park Brewery’s grown from an L.A. underdog to one of the city’s most adventurous, innovative and collaborative breweries. While you can still pull up a seat in the Hermosillo for a handful of HLP Brewery beers, the kid- and dog-friendly Chinatown location is a stunner, and it’s where nearly all of the releases, parties and events take place. (Note: It gets crowded, especially on release days.) The newer, larger digs provide a full kitchen for some of the best drinking snacks in town, plus double the tanks, allowing the team to crank out more experimental, funky and collaborative new beers. The menu board swaps out brews frequently but we’re partial to their barrel-aged sour ale, and the rotation of hazy IPAs often packing the brightening punch of pineapple, citrus or mango.
If it seems like a new brewery pops up in a Torrance warehouse or a garage in Highland Park every few months, it’s because it does. Despite L.A.’s impressive selection of beer bars, we’re also a city full of artisans who like taking matters into our own hands—including brewing beer.
In fact, there’s so much fantastic craft beer in this city that compiling a list of the best breweries had to come with restrictions: Here, we focused on the breweries that have a taproom you can actually visit (hence why Craftsman, a veritable Pasadena brewery with a devoted following but no actual public space, is not on here), and those that actually brew in Los Angeles.
So put down your Miller Lite and check out our list, then raise a pint to L.A.’s growing craft beer scene.
RECOMMENDED: Guide to craft beer in L.A.
All of the spots below are open for indoor or outdoor dine-in service, unless otherwise noted. We’ve marked which places are still temporarily closed or to-go only. Some services mentioned may be temporarily unavailable. Hours and opening status can change quickly, so we suggest checking in with each individual brewery before you go.